The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-09-02

erang. w hen properly UNDERSTOOD II
is one Of the strongest arguments
against existing conditions.
The Times proceeds: The restora-
ton of bimetallism (says Bryan) in the
United States will take away from
| gold just so much of his purchasing
power as was added toit by the demo
netization OF silver. That sentence
will kin Mr.. Bryan as 2 candidate.
There is not oratorical wind enough
in all Nebraska to convince the Amer
lean people of the truth Of the absurd
proposition that the characterization Of
silver enhanced the power Of gold !"
Really the Times is the first reputable
authority that has ever denied the
truth that the characterization of silver
ceteris paribus, enhanced the value Of
gold. Bismarck once said that the
struggle of the nations for a single
gold standard was like the struggle of
two men in a bed 10 cover with sim
gle blanket. There was not enough
blanket to 90 round. Bismarck is not
generally regarded as Socialist, An
archist or thief.
| Possibly the Times may grasp the
following simple illustration. At a
certain boarding house there are reg
ularly biscuits and watll7s for brea k
fast. For some reason the watties
cease to appear while the number of
biscuits IS unchanged. There will ne
cessarily be a greater demand for bis
cults, followed by a struggle in which
the sharpest will win and the weaker
60 ahungered. Then comes the cry,
Give us back our watfies." A wise
landlady will heed the cry, and in re-
storing the waffies will diminish the
enhanced demand for the biscuits. A
stupid laudlady of Wall street, low
ever, may say, You are set of ras-
Gals. You have just as many biscuits
as ever. The demand for biscuits can
not therefore increase Watfies are
bad for the stomach. Be content with
half as many biscuits apiece as before.
How long would such a landlady re
main in business
| The Times disposes of Bryan as fol-
lows: ''All that is leftof Mr.. Bryan's
assertion is the demand that the dollar
shall be split in two, and that is repu-
diaticn, naked and ugly"
( In one respect the Times is right. II
the silver movement means anything
it means that many persons in the
United States believe that the value of
the dollar has increased beyond al
reason and is devouring all products
in its capacious NAV. That value
must be reduced. When the people
of the United States borrowed money
the dollar bore a certain proportion to
the values OF commodities. Now its
proportion is much greater. As Bryan
said, no one would dare to enact a law
that debtors shall pay more dollars
than they bargained to pay. No more
shall they declare that the debt shall
be paid in a bigger dollar. Is this re-
pudiation?
The bcndholders bought bonds for
deprecated greenbacks worth at one
time not more than 35 cents on the
dollar. These bonds were payable in
gold and silver. Here was profit of
more than 200 per cent. The bond
holder split the specie dollar in half
by means Of greenbacks and thus got
two bonds for one. This was the same
"repudiation, nakel and ugly" that
the Times now denounces. Did the
Times raise its voice then in protest2
If the bondholder gave the Govern.
ment the very cheapest money ne
could find what right has he to raise
howl when the Government pays him
back in the cheapest money denoml-
mated In the bond2 Where is the re
pudiation, naked and ugly" heres
The Times not only wants all the en-
hanced value of the bond represented
by silver, but twice as much. No one
isafraid of this bugaboo of reputation.
For thirty-six years the legislation of
the Government has been constantly
favorable to certain clique of capi-
talists, and the people who have been
iswindled by them propose to restore
equity by giving them just what the
law demands and no more.
Little space is left 10 notice the alb
surd criticisms of the other papers.
| But here is lucubration of the
Morning. Advertiser: Was ever a
more deliberate statement more pre-
posterouly false? The whole span of
history, from the beginning of the
world, does not furnish one solitary
instances of the creation of value by
legislation. On the contrary, every
attempt at this form of legislation has
proved a signal failure"
| Mr.. Bryan must have produced a
virulent form of hydropnobia among
his critics. Let US examine this state
| lment of the Advertiser.
| The Latin Union today by legisla-
tticn causes g vast amount of silver to
pass current at the ratio Of 155 to /.
| During the Franco Prussian war the
French Government hoated large
sum Of irredeemable paper money
Grredeemable paper money remember }
and kept it at par with gold. This was
! fat money, pure and simple, and the
!device of the French Government has
been commended by economists. Dur
Iiog the late war the United States
| Government issueG about $3.50. 900, 600
in greenbacks and made them legal
Etender for all debts. They had no
value in themselves, but the fat of the
/ Government that they should be legal
tender for past as we'll as future debts
caused them to pass current and to af-
ford the means of defeating the South.
| The Advertiser knows nothing about
history from the beginning of the
world" as IS evident from the above
quotation. The best economists, Mill
among the number, concur IN the be-
| Lief that g government can, within
certain limits, give fictitious value to
money and, by limiting the issue, as
| France did, can even make irredeem-
Iable paper money pass current at par.
1t is not the best money, OF course,
but if the Government declares that 1t
sboil howe roUar to 6icpharoa dent