Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1896-10-08
What 10 an Honest Dollar Z

pay money, an honest dollar 10 the
dollar Of the contract. In gene.
raj, that is an honest dollar which
maintains "parity" with the things
it measures in daily transactions,
or that preserves stable relations to
commodities. That, too, is mani
festly the best dollar and the best
kind of money.
The term "honest money" how
ever. Is usnalls hypacriticall1 used
% mean gold, or the dearest money.
By "honest" money is usually
meant that which will buy the
most, and, of course, in that view
Of it the dearer it becomes the hon
ester it gets. The "honest" way
to increase the value Of money
would be to increase the weight of
the coins, then all could understand
how it was done, and what it real
ly meant. There are two ways to
double the value of metallic money;
one is to double the weight of coins;
the other to destroy, or demonetize,
half the metal out of which money
can be made. The latter is the way
taken to make money "horest" in
1878; by destroying half the worlds
money they doubled the value of
the other half.
The effect of this may be illus
trated by a single fact.
1t is now everywhere admitted
that the price-level of things gen.
orally has fallen fully so per cent.
since the demonstration of silver
in 1873, which is the same thing
as an increase of 100 per cent. in
the value of money; for when a
a dollar will buy in general twice
what it would formerly buy, it has
doubled in value or increased in
purchasing power 100 per cent.
The total debts of the people of the
United States of every kind aggre-
gate not much under s25, 200, ,OOO,- :
600. 1t takes the same number of
dollars to pay the annual interest
on this debt that it took ten or if
teen years ago; but with a scale of
prices indicated by wheat at a dol
lar a bushel, wool at 25 cents and
cotton ten cents a pound, and 9TH
er things in proportion, which
would be the bimetallic scale, it
would take some $500, 600 men
working every day to pay this in
terest; but by scale of prices in
dicated by wheat at so cents bush
el, wool at Is cents and cotton at 5
cents q pound, on the single gold
standard scale, it would take at
least 5000, 5000 men, working eve-
ry day in the year to pay the inter
est, on this debt; and if bushel
of wheat or ten pounds of cotton
on the average equals days labor,
it will take much more labor if ex.
pended in raising wheat and cotton
to meet the interest on this i'm.
mense debt. And, generally, q
money that is itself constantly in.
creasing in value must necessarily
produce widespread injustice. Nc
one would undertake to justify the
scaling down" of the dollar; but
common honesty ought to prompt
the equal condemnation of a stand
ard Of value that by constantly in.
creasing, v rks always to the ad
vantage of e creditor and non.
producing class and against tn,
debtor and the producer. Sucf
money is not honest, and NJ
amount of pious cant about it car
make it so.
Besides the infinite injustic,
caused indirectly by a money stan
dard that is constantly increasing
in value, as the gold standard is
the indirect effect upon trade anc
industry is benumbing and dead
ening. AS money rises in valu,
prices fall, trade becomes hazard
Gus, production is checked, and la
Dor is forced into idleness. Henct
the truth of the observation mad,
by Hume long ago, that an increas
ing volume of money is always at
tended by activity of business ant
increase of wealth, while a contract
ing volume Of money is attended
always by stagnant trade and re
stricted production. 1t is, there
fore, perfectly safe to conclude wher
one is heard prating about ''hones
money" that he is either not sin
cere or does not understand wha
he is talking about.