Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-01-18
DEIUDED FARMERS.
THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IN
TEREST is PAID FOR.

ny Aeitating For nc to They Are Sink
ing Deeper Into the Nire Increasing
Their Risk-No Benefit Can Come From
Change In the Medium of Exchange.
The Silver league OF Nebraska is one
Of the latest schemes Of Bryan and his
friends. It's object is TO sprcad free sill
yer literature and to support no candi-
date for the presidency in 1896 who is
not a free silver man. The league is
nonpartisan. its control being in the
hands Of four trustees, one from each OF
the four great parties
It is pity that the honest farmers
and laborers who will be drawn into this
league-and the bulk Of them are sin
cere-could not devote their energies TO
something likely to improve rather than
to a cause that will surely make worse
their present condition. They are howl
ing against high rates Of interest, but
are unnecessarily increasing those rates
by threatening to repudiate half Of their
debts, thereby increasing the risk of
loaning money in their state. They have
but to look across into Mexico or to
glance at any Of the other free silver
countries of the world to make certain
that free coinage is not a panacea and
that farmers and laborers are usually
worse off i'll those countries than in gold
standard countries.
Our farmers and workingmen are
barking up the wrong tree when they
are looking for their oppressors in the
branches Of tho money tree. The injus-
tice, if any, due to slight depreciation
or appreciation Of gold is infnitesimal
as compared with the injustice from
other causes That this is true is evident
from the very nature of things Money
is bat a medium or tool of exchange.
Exchange implies production, transpor-
tation, distribution. 1t is in the proc
esses of production, transportation and
distribution that farmers and laborers
should lock for improvement and not in
the medium of exchange, which is al
ready SO nearly perfect that in most
civilized countries it does its work with
out friction and practically without
cost. As well hope for great reductions
in the cost of transportation through
better lubricants as for an appreciate
benefit through any change in the medi-
um of exchange. The money of today is
as good as the grease of today.
Any one who has something to ex-
change has no trouble in making the ex-
change at market prices or ratios. If he
wishes to employ more capital, he can
always hire it at market rates of inter-
est, providing he has anything to use as
collateral or security. Without collateral
he could not, under any system of cur
rency, obtain the required capital The
whole question hinges ON the collateral,
not on the money, which is but mere
incident to the exchange. A farmer who
mortgages his farm to obtain capital
does not really pay interest on the
money (which is but one form of CAPT
tall which lie obtains, and which he
probably possesses but a few days or
weeks, but ON the capital, implements,
buildings, fences. ETC., which he hires
in this way. No possible monetary
change can materially lower the hire of
capital-that is the percentage of value
which one man is willing to pay for the
use of another mans product 1t is the
relative demand for and supply of capt
tai, not of money, that largely deter
mines rates Of interest under a stable
monetary system. If the monetary sys-
tenn be unstable, then the borrower must
not only pay a rate of interest CORE
spending TO the normal hire of capital,
but he must pay for the risk incurred
by the lender because of a possible
change of standard. BY agitating for
free coinage at 1G to 1 the farmers are
increasing this risk. They pay the I'D
dler, but somebody else (mine owner
perhaps) does the dancing
1t is pitiful sight to see honest
farmers thus wasting their time and
ammunition, but it is a solace to believe,
as did Abraham Lincoln, that "you
can t fool all of the people all of the
time"