The news boy., 1896-05-30
ABOUT OUR MONEY.


what is meant by the money ques-
tion. While we do not doubt that
the people Of Scott county are as we'll
posted as the people of any other
county, yet we find farmers who do
not understand the fundamental prin-
ciples involved. For this reason we
shall attempt to explain in an A. B.
c. manner, the history of our finan-
cial trouble.
Every country has. in all ages, had
medium of exchange-a measure
of values-something by which to
measure the price Of something else.
This measure of values may be cop
per, coonskins, tobacco, corn, or any
thing the custom Of the country may
adopt. 1t is termed money. 1t is
used to measure values just the same
as the bushel measure is used to
measure quantity.
In 1892 the fathers of the revolu-
tion-the men who freed this coun-
try-the men to whom we owe our
so-called liberty of to-day-the men
who fought for eight long years to
free this country from British rule
these men. in Congress assembled,
declared that 371} grains of pure sill
yer should constitute the unit, dollar,
or measure of values, and provided
for certain amount of alloy, or
harder metal, to be mixed with it to
give it greater hardness and dura-
bility. That was the dollar of our
daddies, and dimes. quarters and
half-dollars were coined in exact
fractional parts of the dollar so fixed.
Gold was made money, or meas
ure of values also, but its rolm was
counted or measured from these sill
yer dollars or units containing 311t
grains of pure silver. Remember,
silver was the unit-Ne dcllar.
While that was the law it was i'm
possible for anyone to talk about
"fifty-cent dollars - and say that the
silver in a silver dollar was only
worth fifty cents, for it mos itself the
dollar Or amt of roluc. But 24.7
grains of pure gold was equal to it.
Bear in mind, silver was not meas
ured by gold, but gold was measured
by silver, and 24.7 grains of pure gold
was declared to be equal to 371f
grains of pure silver-a ratio of
Is to1.
At this ratio the two metals were
coined until 1884. England had
adopted gold standard which slight
ly increased the value of gold. This
caused the gold to leave this country
and Congress found it necessary to
change the ratio from Is to / to IL
to !. Mind you. there was no change
in the silver dollar-nor is there
until to-day. The silver dollar, the
unit, remained the same, but the
gold dollar was changed and cut down
from 24.7 to 23.2 grains of pure gold
making the ratio 16 to l.
In this Congress rather overdid the
thing and made the silver dollar the
more valuable, as 15l to l was the
recognized ratio all over the world
and is to-day the ratio in France.
This caused our silver to flow to
the silver using countries of the
globe. England being the only gold
standard country, there was an un.
limited demand for our silver dollars
because other nations did not con.
slider %. grains of gold equal to 37li
grains of silver. 1t will be remem.
bered by many of our older citizens
that between 1865 and 1873 silver
was as scarce as hens teeth. How
we'll we remember that, on Christ
mas day, 1870, our mother presented
us witha silver quarter, and we were
as proud of the curiosity as if some
one had presented us with a pair OF
Siamese twins. Silver had left the
country, and q silver dollar was
quoted at s1.03. Remember this,
s1.03! Silver had risen, as measured
by gold!
This condition of affairs did not
suit gold standard England. They
wanted gold at a premium, and moi
silver. They had adopted gold as a
standard, while all other nations
were using silver. They wanted tbeil
money to become more valuable
They wanted to say to the world what
should be money. They wanted every
thing measured by their peck meas
ure. Although they had adopted a
gold basis as early as 1918, they
failed to materially advance the
price of gold.
Along about 1870 Senator John
Sherman went to Europe to take in
the Paris exposition. Baron Roths'
child and other English noblemeu
and pawnbrokers invited the Ameri-
can Senator to pay them y visit. The
American Senator thought IL quite