Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-08-31
THE SILVER QUESTION IN
ARKANSAS.


The silver craze has struck this
state to some extent, and a few lines
in regard to it as illustrated here may
be of interest to MONITOR readers: A
custom prevails in some parts of this
state that one bushel of corn pays for
one day of ordinary labor. The price
of corn has nothing to do with the
matter. 1t is sort of arbitrary ar
rangement without reference to the
actual value of the corn. 1t is not
always fair equivalent for the days
labor. A second man hired a days
labor and pays bushel of wheat for
it, the wheat being worth uniformly
so cents. Hence the man who takes
his pay in corn, although he receives
bushel in measure, only gets half as
much in value as the man who takes
his pay in wheat This example as
illustrated here shows that there
must be uniform value. Bushels in
commercial transactions are sold at
values representing their worth in
the market.
If the bushel of corn which by Gus
tom here always sold at given sum,
then it would become just standard
of payment; but the price goes up
and down with the market and the
laborer does not know whether he is
to receive 25 cents or one dollar for
his corn until it is put on the market.
/ There must be some fixed and steady
value in the medium of exchange,
whether it is corn, silver or gold.
If the market value of the two is IS
1 to 1, then the man with the silver has
/ just as good chance in the market
as the man with the gold. A big crop
/ if silver is mined and gold ''appre
ciates' in value, or properly, silver
/ becomes cheaper. What then? Sup
pose that an ounce of gold will now
i buy 80 ounces of silver, the silver
man only gets one-half as much for
his days work as the man who gets
his gold, but yet he gets 16 to 1.
1t is to be remembered that the
4 coming of gold or silver does not add
+ to it's intrinsic value.
The coming of gold or silver simply
/ puts it in convenient shape for its use
as medium of exchange, and as a
guarantee that there is a certain
intrinsic value in paper money, it is
simply credit value; the value is in
the dollars-gold or silver-which it
represents and which the govern
ment promises to ''pay to bearer"
If by any means the ability of the
government to pay the dollars be-
comes impaired, then that paper
promises to pay it at discount,
although it has Uncle Sans promise
to pay upon it.
Witness the relation between the
gold dollar and the paper promise to
pay, in 1864, when it took two and
one half paper dollars to buy gold
one; in other words, the paper dollar
was worth 40 cents.
All the flats that the U. S. could
raise would not make the man with a
gold dollar exchange it freely for a
paper one unless u. S. credit was
worth 100 cents on a dollar
Does the stamp of the U. S. on So
cents worth of silver add anything to
its actual value? Certainly not.
Then the man who has a gold dollar
would not want to exchange even for
a silver one. Why? Because it is
only worth 50 cents in the market,
and his gold dollar would nearly buy
two of them.
1t is law of exchange that, when
there are two kinds of money in the
market, the cheaper one will drive
the other out of circulation. Just
now the cheap silver dollar has driv-
en- gold out of circulation.
AS ia as the result is concerned
it does not matter whether gold has
appreciated" in value or silver de-
preciated.
The fact remains that the ratio 10
to 1 that was once fact, is fact no
longer, it must be written 30 to 1, or
near that. And no fiat of the U. S.
for free silver at 16 to can make
that kind of silver dollar worth
gold one.
Neither could a fat of government
make 25 cent corn equal to 90 cent
wheat in the market, or make people
willingly exchange one for the other
as though the value was the same.
See? GEO. w. PAGE.
Heller, Ark., July 81, '66.
Many days work is lost by sick headache,
/ caused nv indigestion and stomach trou bles