People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-07-02

all statesmen and economists down to re-
cent years as 10 the limited ability OF coin
to discharge commercial functions have
been abrogated and oyerthrown by mod
ern inventions that have facilitated ex-
change, as checks, clearing house certif-
Gates, book credits and such things. Is
that what the gentleman referred TO In bis
questions
Mr.. Walker OF Massachusetts, made 1t
as clear as could. Give your own answer.
Mr.. Hardy-Wlll the gentleman pardon
me q moment?
Moder1 Hocus Pocus.
Mr.. Towne-I must decline to yield Just
now, Mr. Chairman, TO the gentleman
from Indiana. To the question of the
gentleman from Massachusetts have only
to say this-thati it implies one of the great.
est fallacies with which the case tor the
single gold standard fairly teens, although
never heard this particular weakness so
strongly stated as by the gentleman from
Massachusetts. The idea is that by reason
Of some modern hocus pocus you can com.
pei limited amount Of real money to &c
on forever doing an unlimited amount OF
work. They say sit does not make any
difference how much ultimate money you
have II you only have confidence" No
word in their whole armory is so sadly
oyerworked as this poor confidence.
Confidence in what9 l take 1t these
gentlemen cannot mean that childlike and
bland and innocent reliance upon the es-
tablished moral order Of the universe
which Is sometimes implied In the word
confidence. No, sir; these gentlemen
use it as business word, in a practical
sense, and so used 1t has reference entirely
to the confidence which you must feel In
the ability Of man or an institution that
Is making unlimited and multiplying
promises at some time to redeem those
promises. That Is what Ii means and
how such confidence operates is illustrated
from time to time when, under the spur
and whip of this pernicious doctrine,
credits are expanded on the basis of few
gold dollars, the gold itself constantly
growing relatively les and the various
forms Of Its credit representatives becom-
ing constantly and absolutely greater IN
til finally you have a huge, distorted,
swaying, inflated fabric Of credit upon an
ever narrowing base OF gold. and while
you stand there making your boast In the
very face ard eyes Of the world Of what q
tremendous amount Of business you are
able to do upon an infnitesimal amount
of gold you ask men to have confidence"
In the operation. All, sir, let not gentle
men deceive themselves. The world has
not outgrown either the obligations or the
limitations OF honesty. All these instru-
ments Of credit Mr.. Chairman, are them.
selves but the expression Of the gold meas
ure. II you extend credit to man, you
extend so many dollars of credit and II
the stuff out Of which the dollar Is made
is growing scarCer the credit is CORE
spondingly growing bigger, eating up
more and more commodities, Just as the
gold dollar does that measures the credit.
Says the great English economist
Jevons:
Prices temporarily may rise or fall In.
dependently Of the quantity Of gold In the
country. Credit gives a certain latitude
without rendering prices ultimately indie.
pendent of gold" C'InyeStigations In
Currency" page S9.)
And Huskisson, the famous British
statesman and financier. In his pamphlet
on the depreciation Of the currency, sus.
tains the propositions:
Price, therefore, Is the value Of any
given article In the currency with refer.
ence to which that article Is measured,
and must, of course, be varied by any vari.
alton in the quality Of gold and silver con.
tanned In such currency"
An acute writer, Dr.. ". II. Smith, In O
recent work, says:
The volume Of basic money fixes the
volume Of representative money. paper
money issued by the government). In
turn, the volume Of both representative
money and basic money controls the vol.
ume Of credits that act as money, and the
quantity Of all these, with the exchanges
to be made and payments to be met, fix
prices. Thus indirectly the prices Of COM
modities In q country are fIed and con-
trolled by the volume Of basic money"
Sir, under the stress and impulse Of
commercial development the worlds need
Of money has overtaken and passed the
supply Of metal for the purpose long ago
and has for many years explored all the
avenues Of invention for substitutes and
economies 10 exc out the inadequate
amount Of ultimate money. The limit
was long since reached. I cannot now
take the time 10 prove but assert with
no dread Of contradiction, that the actual
proportionate use Of money among the
people today Is very much greater than Il
was 40 years ago. Says great authority,
Professor Kinley journal Of Political
Economy, March, 1880:
After a certain point Of development
In the use Of credit instruments there Is
no further relative increase, bot rather,
possibly, slight decrease"
The True Flatist.
The true fatist, Mr.. Chairman, II your
modern American gold standard advocate.
The logic Of his argument leads 10 q mon
ey base so small and credit top 30 large
that confidence" is 10 take the place Of
redemption, and confidence never realized
Is only another name for irredeemability.
For "populism" that out Populists your
Populist commend me 10 your gold stand.
ard extremist.
Sir, think I have heard the gentleman
from Massachusetts speak Of increasing
the resources Of the banks DO as 10 permit
them to enlarge their accommodations TO
customers. We are to assume, then, from
these arguments that the extent Of accom-
mediation Is limited TO the present rate OF
expansion, and that there must be some
way Of increasing the reserves In order to
permit the piliDg ON Of additional credits
at the rate Of a or IS for 81. Increasing
the reserves means increasing the ultimate
substance that must In the end make good
Z