Marble Hill press. (Marbel [sic] Hill, Mo.) 1881-1923, 1896-02-13
SOUND MONEY" BOT.
EVEN WILLIAM K. VANDERBILT
IS DISGUISED.
He las Sense Enough to Know that
il All the Gold in America Went
Abroad We Would Still Have the
,Coant-y.

William K Vanderbilt inadVertant- |
ly exploded the gold standard sound |
money" idea the other day. When
speaking of possibility of war with
England he stated that the strength OF
a country is in its natural resources,
and that we could not be coerced by
the breaking OF the stock market ana
a withdrawal of our gold. That IS
equivalent to saying that our strength
in war does not depend upon the main
tenance of the gold standard, and 1t IS
true. The Southern Confederacy was
overthrown by the wearing away Oh
it's armies, not by the depreciation Oh
its paper The greatest wars OF history
have been fought with paper alone
The Napoleonic wars covered nearly
quarter of a century of time, and Eng
| lands money during those years was
exclusively paper. The idea that ma
ton can fight desperate and long
drawn-out war with nothing but pa
per, and go to ruin in a. time OF pro-
found peace the moment the gold stand
ard fails, is too absurd for serious con-
sideration. So far from our prosper
ity depending upon the preservation
of the gold standard, the policy lnau-
! rgurated ir'1S73 of forcing the business
of the Western world to the slender ba-
sis of gold is the very thing that peo-
pie are complaining of. The business
of Europe and America had through
centuries of time been adjusted to the
broad base of gold and silver in COM
bination. Suddenly one OF them was
taken away. Down went prices ane
I'D went the burden of debt. The cred
itor was enriched and the debtor Wa'
impoverished. The non-producer
basking in idleness and luxury, wa
enabled to buy what he wanted VIII
less money. The producer-the back
bone of our national life and strengt
was compelled to work twice as man
hours and give up twice as much OF Tn
product of his toll to get the same mum
Der of dollars. The prosperity OF
country depends upon the maintenance
of a fair range Of prices. No matte
whether the money in use consists
gold, silver or paper-any or all-lt I'd
quantity be such as to preserve IA
and healthy price level, business pro'
uerity will be assured in the absent
of unnatural disturbances. The demon
etization of silver lowered the prl'
1level, subverted equities and destroys
prosperity. Suppose one-half OF II
gold now in the world were to
thrown into the deepest F2rs OF II
sea. Would it not have some effe
upon business? Certainly-but how
Simply by making money scarce ar
hard to get. That is, prices would ia
greatly. Those in debt would find
impossible to procure money wi
which to meet their obligations. II
decentralization of silver operated
precisely the same way, except that
the silver was not entirely destroy
the process was slower. The true stan
ard of value is that which will mai
tain steady average price level, b
cause all business is done on the bias
by of price" When the people Of t
Id United States come to realize this sill
eG pie truth the money question will
or speedily settled and it will be settl
It. right. A monetary standard und
which prices are constantly falling
as far from being sound as anythi
in finance can be-.