Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-11-19
Lac cAsE sTATEn.



lists and BImeenllIsesL
The act of 1873. demonetizing silver.
substitutes as a measure Of property
values the single gold standard for the
double standard of gold and silver; orr
in other words, substitutes gold mono3
metaIlism for gold and silver bimetaIl
ism. Whether this condition shall con-
tinue is the paramount economic quen-
ton of the day.
The monometallists contend that gold
is the only reliable standard of values;l
that bimetallism, Is a double standard
of value, is as Impossible as the Coz
equal measurement of length by two
yardsticks OF different extent; that the
cost of transporting given amount
of gold coin given distance is less than
the cost of transporting the same
amount of silver coin the same distance;
that gold may be more conveniently
used in large business transactions than
silver; that the worlds output is now
and probably win be equal TO the prop
er needs of the worlds business; and
that, under these circumstances, the re-
turn to the bimetailic standard would
be reactionary, and, in that, revolution
ary and disastrous. This, curtailed Of
depression and dilation, is the substan-
tial argument of the monometallist.
On the other hand, the bimetallist
contends that the argument of his adj
versary is not only speculative and as
sumptive, but is contrary to the evil
dence of experience. He cites the
pregnant fact that the use of gold and
silver as a double standard is of inn
memorial date; that the prescriptive
or statutory law of ages validated it;
that it marked the transaction from
the exchange of commodities in kind
to their exchange through the agency
of money; that, comparably, while the
neither limbs of the man reciprocally
help each other to move and balance
their common burden, so the double
metallic standard has concurred in adj
justing and accelerating the progress
of mankind from the night of savagery
to the light of civilization. He insists
that while gold is rather the money
of the few and the rich, silver is the
more accustomed money of the COM
mon people. Silver was the current
money among the merchants of antiqui-
ty. jeremiah, the prophet, one of
Gods chosen people, bought the field
of Hanaameel from his uncle's son
that was in Anathotto, and weighed
him the money, IL shekels of silver, and
subscribed the evidence and sealed it.
Daniel Webster, an acknowledged
statesman and expounder of the con-
stitution of the United States, denied
the power of congress, under that in
strument, to discard or discredit either
gold or silver as a money metal.
The bimetallist admits that the
worlds output of gold has much in
creased since 1s4s, and that it has
been supplemented, in part, by checks,
drafts and other paper devices for the
liquidation of debts; but he denies that
all this Is sufficient to satisfy the
proper needs of the vastly increased
business of the world. And he points
to such insufficiency as the real cause
of the great appreciation of gold Ws
money and the consequent decline OK
the prices of every kind of property,
particularly the prices of the products
and wages of labor.
In short, he imputes to the deficient
supply of gold as money the present
worldwide paralysis of human af-
fairs, with its attendant distress and
discomfort of the industrial and toiling
masses. He denies that this condition
would have happened but for the law
of 1873 and kindred laws which, by
Gripping the use of silver as money,
arrested it's full use as such through
cut the world; and to prove this he
contrasts the monetary conditions be-
fore and after the passage of those
laws-prosperity before; want, with
renacing famine, after.
The bimetallist denies that the cost
of transporting equal amounts of gold
and silver is unequal, because, in point
of fact, the cost of transporting each
is rated by it's value, not by its weight:
and, in this connection, he insists that
the Inconvenience of using silver in
large transactions is practically obvi-
ated by the common use of drafts,
checks and other paper accessories OF
money instead of money itself, which,
in such transactions. is usually re-
served for the final redemption OF
snch accessories.
The bimetallist insists that gold
tends TO concentrate
Jne power OF money III bne nanuS OF u
few, and to constitute them a mon
eyed aristocracy, and cites, as proof
of the fact, that already has compare
lively few of the population of this
country amassed the bulk of its
wealth, and are using il covertly, IL
not openly, to control the suffrages of
the masses and the policies of the
government. Succeeding, a govern
ment in form republican will lapse
into greedy and Unsuitable oligarchy.
He insists that bimetallism means
more money and more equitable dis
tribution of it among its creators; that
it means a revival of the hopes and
of the masses, in harmony
with individuality and manhood--fn
harmony with popular governments
government of the people, by the peo-
pie and for the people.-IIlinois State
Register.
Gold Expresses Labor.
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