The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-21
FREE COINAGE OF SILVER
A PLAIN AND EASILY UNDERSTOOD
STATEMENT OF THE CASE.
Examination of the Money Question
and the Effect Free Coinage Would
Have on Wages and Prices.

Next November the plain people must de-
| eide by their votes whether the country
shall go upon a silver basis. Many think
| they are "for silver" others think gold
| good enough for them; very many think
they do not quite understand the subject
vet To make it palmer and clearer, the
| following is written, in very simple way,
bv a man who has NJ yer been g. capitalist
and is now so old that he never expects to
be one.
Question-What is money?
AnsWer.It is an lnsoF9n ZEN el n,es1
trade some of it for other things he needs
Suppose money had not been invented: A
shoemaker wants bread, but if the baker
already has all the shoes he can use or dis
pose of the shoemaker must hunt for some
somebody who will give him for the shoes
something the baker does want. rms OLD
some; SO money was invented, and it is a
thing every body takes because he knows
| everybody else Wilt is universal me-
Q.-is money anything else2
AYes it t s vbi 5s 'G are o. wo v3qe;
dollar are worth each other OF course, we
must have a measure for values of things.
just as we must have for weight, number
/ and size Yard, pound, dozen-we reckon
quantity by such terms. saying thus, how
much we have of anything; in exactly
ward Of something SIS worth a dollar; it
and the dollar will swap back and forth for
each other.
Q-Must "a standard be exact and al
ways the same?
A.-Certainly; false weight is swindle
If mile, a pound, Dozen. a yard,
dollar. meant one thing yesterday, another
to-day, and another tomorrow, we should
be in an unbearable snarl; it would be as
if everybody spoke a different language.
els there any standard or measure for
money?
over the commercial world. the standard
has been the metal gold. This is because.
suitable material for money, just as steel
is best for railway rails.
MONEY AND BUSINESS.
Q.-How much money is needed for bust
ness?
A-That depends on several things. If a
dollar passes through ten hands in a day,
$40 of trade is done with one dollar If A
buys $40 worth of shoes of B, and B buys
50 worth of hats of A, it takes only 81 to
square the whole. The great mass of bust
ness is done by bank checks and by what
is called 'offset" a check is order
If gives a check for 500 and B de-
posts it, A then has 500 less credit in
his bank and B has. 800 more in his. In
cities each bank sends, every morning, to
a called a clearing house, all the
checks it received on the day before, drawn
on other banks; each lis credited with the
total of these and is charged with the total
of all drawn on itself. Then the offset
comes in, and each debtor" bank has to
settle for the difference, cash" being
needed for only that much. The checks are
paid and done with Thus where railroads
and mails and telegraphs and banks are
thickeSt money currency is least
needed, because of these substitutes for it.
Therefore the quantity of currency does
ume of trade.
Q.-Are there any other substitutes?
A.-Checks DO not pass from hand to
hand much Paper notes, issued by the
banks or by government, are the common
substitute. These notes are promises that
that they are dollars or money
Q.-Why do you take dollar note for a
dollar if it is not one and does not pretend
to be one?
A;-Because. you know everybody else
will take it of you. Everybody'takes it be-
it could not be- and then it was taken on
faith that some time it would be.
Q.-Why do we never any gold?
A.-Gold is heavy. easily lost. and costly:
besides. gold coins for less than $40 are too
small for common use. The silver dollar
on the contrary. is so big and heavy that
people generally won't have it; paper is
more convenient and when no coins al all
could be had even for small change, people
got used to paper. So people have got into
the way of thinking the note itself 20 be
money; but it is MOTT is only a promise
to pay money, used as handy substitute
for money.
ONE STANDARD ONLY.
Q.-Can there be two Standards" or
measures of money?
A-No Just as there cannot be two yard
sticks pound weights; all yardsticks are
copies of one Gold and silver can be used
together, under what is called the double
standard" but the two must be of equal
value. and the silver ''yardstick' will be
just a copy of the gold one. There will
still be only one standard"
Q.-What do you mean by the two metals
being of equal value" since they never
have been worth the same? And what is
''16 to o.
A.-Simply that they shall be at a
fixed and uniform ratio The ratio of
10 to l. SO much talked about now,
fain th9t sizfT aoi tie shah eon
metal as the gold one; that is, that gold
shall be reckoned worth sixteen times
posed that the law shall say. In fact, gold
is worth at present about thirty times as
worth about SO cents SO the ratio ought
to be 30 to l rather than l6 to /
o:I3Wlh1at Gid you you D., mean Just now, by
Aft all the principal nations should
mon ratio of value in gold, perhaps the
value of silver would remain stationary
that ratio. Some think it would others
ton cannot hold silver up alone.
Q.-What does our government do to
At takes a fixed weight of it and
| stamps it "one dollar" The stamp is just
does not add any value. Hammer the coin
out of all shape or melt il up if you
have saved it all it will sell-in New York,
or San Francisco or London, or Paris
for a dollar just as before. So we may
say that real money is something that
will stand fire. The gold dollar isn't
worth dollar; it is dollar; it is the
only dollar.
silver?
A-,The small coins for change are large
" tsyervalued. Ten dimes, or four quar-
tiers or two halves. are never worth dol
lar but nobody minds that. Government
takes 4121a grains of silver. worth now
about g cents, and stamps it zone dollar
Hammer it or melt it, and II will SELL in
this country. for the SO cents; it won't
stand fire for the pretended value isn't in
it And in it's coined form also. ii Is worth
only 80 cents outside of this country.
O.-Is government treating silver ''un-
fairly?'
A.2Plainly. it is just the contrary; silver
is the favored metal.
GOOD AND BAD MONEY.
Q-When there are dollars of different
value. what happens?
Aust what happens with eggs-you al
ways have the poorest Eggs are sold by
the dozen. large and small alike; SO the
farmer and the grocer keep out the big
gest If you were selling corn and had
two bushel measures OF different sizes, and
if people would let you you would use the
smaller one. If you have ragged note or