The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-10


and wheat. IL an alleged statesman should
propose to establish b5 statute, perma-
stitute inhexible ratio between corn
meal and wheat -four. without regard to
any other appetite. stomach or brain on
earth but his own. even Populists would
doubt his sanity. And yet legislation to
make constant the price of all earth prod
ucts the whole world over would be as
effective as that which proposes to fix per-
manently the value of that one earth prod
uct known as silver in ali markets.
All that lawmakers can do for metallic
money is to provide governmental certifi-
cation of its weight and fneness and then
DeWlIdeflnS quality of legal tender But
TINS legal-tender quality is needed for only
mat money which otherwise would be re-
The power to liquidate debts is con-
ierfed upon money by law. This much Leg
islation do for a currency 1t cannot
however create value any more than #
can create health. 1t cannot eradicate the
PAD PAD and institute the good in human ma
ture. The theory that the dollar is yaIu-
able only because of the law and that a
metal may be doubled in value for none
lary uses by a statute is absurd Value de-
pehds upon demand. Demand depends upon
desire and lawmakers can create value for
SILVER in the arts and for ornaments equal
70 mat OF gold just as easily as they can
create value for silver as money equal to
mat OF gold as money: Unequal desire and
OF goId In the arts and in the currencies.
vrf str 1 geld of the legal-tender quality
, " no . you'd not then take for his dues de-
instead of legal-tender siIvera Rnt # tbe
power power exists in legislation to make two
power can make silver and gold
equal IN the arts and for ieweIry
linus mus a silver watch would become as de-
sired and generally demanded as a gold
one, and silver rings set with bits of brick
bats and anthracite coal might by law be
rubies and diamonds. If the United States
can double the price of the worlds silver
by enactment, why can it not also double
0 ar
any other e%ehangeable thing by the same
necrOmancy?
Why labor, why toll, If wealth. value
ana the substance of things can be- Iegis-
lated into being? Why not pillow fields by
ton, garner them by enactment and sub
slst mankind at large by that creative
an ana now can an international conference
NIX IN gold the price of silver? And if
agreement aa,a between nations can maintain
stable prices for silver, why not for other
commodities?
ALLEGED Discomfort.
But we are told that the farmers are
discontented and distressed And eructa-
tory orators say all this comes from the
unsatisfied demand for more money and
bigger prices for farm products. But these
economic oracles confound terms and make
desire and demand synonymous. Nearly
all men desire more money. But no man
can make a lawful demand for more
exchange therefor. Going over the fruitful
States of the Northwest. one may see
many attractive and productive farms
which he can hardly help desiring, though
his ready money may preclude his demand
ing any of them But are told that
money of the gold standard has too potent
a purchasing power and buys too much of
the products of these farms. Why, then,
do the farms themselves constantly en-
nance in value? And if-as has been
stated by the highest authority of Populs-
ri in
purchasing power is a dishonest dollar
why is not an acre of farm land with which
could thirty years ago buy only So. also
dishonest? And is an acre which i'm New
purchasing $50 and will now buy only $40
an honest acre of land because less dol
l. and therefore poorer people can buy
for the plain people as they diminish in the
purchasing power of land, is not land better
as it declines in the purchasing power of
dollars?
Good money is made only out of com
came money. And if it is dishonest for
money to rise and fall in purchasing power
is it not equally dishonest for any kind of
unmonetized commodity to enhance or de-
cline in its power to buy money? And if
as we are told by the same oral lexicon
have the same purchasing power must
not all exchangeable things stagnate in
value and become interchangeable?
But a gold dollar has never anything
but relative value This day 1000 bushels
of wheat sell f for 500 in gold And . this
wins + S g55, ana Sat he Esld
morning cablegrams report failure of
wheat crops in Russia, India Australia and
wheat sells for a dollar a bushel. Gold has
not deprecated. but the relation of the
worlds supply of wheat to the worlds de-
mains undiminished. supply is lessened,
and, therefore, prices advance. The rela-
lator of value. And neither gold nor the
unlimited and free coinage of silver at Is
to can repeal or mitigate that eternal
truth.
LAS to the law of lower prices in commod-
tiles, it is natural and constant and not
harmful, owing to the superior facilities of
production. through invention, cheaper
transportation, a better knowledge of ag
riculture and more skin all the time to
forces in nature. The price of products
goes down in consequence. But natures
mans efforts. In prices. therefore, now
absolutely reduced. wages tend all the
out of the same lower prices to the CAPT. I
talists. The only onerous elements in pro-
duction are labor and capital Out of the
lower prices wages get larger and larger
proportion, and capital a less and less per
cent. This law perfectly accounts for
steady or rising rates m wages, while
prices are going down. And while prices
are thus perceptibly declining and farmers
and other capitalists are getting less profits
fully compensated by cheaper commodities
to buy and wider markets to sell in?
ATTRACTIVE FALLACIES.
1.-The fallacies of abundant. cheap money
are attractive and innumerable. Never be-
fore in this country have the advocates
and followers of money fallacies been SO
numerous and jealous They tell us that
the free and unlimited coinage of silver at
l6 to 1 will raise not only the price OF sill
ver but of all farm products and all COM
modities. But price is only the value of
the thing in money And if the quantity of
money be greatly increased and that in
crease does raise the price of things
generally will not the things themselves
preserve their relative values among them
selves? And if by an infinite coinage of
silver at 10 to l pork, priced at S. per bar
rel and -four priced a So per barrel, each
be put at So per barrel. they have each
doubled iii price. but each is still only the
value of the other. Therefore, there may
be general rise a general fall IN prices
without affecting values at all.
And yet some agitatOrs and revolution
lists. who denounce accommodations of money
by industry, proclaim their intent to create
money galore by the mere trick of stamp
and to make millionaireS by mere statute.
They declare the dollars too good and COM
moditieS too cheap for the plain people,
and by the free coinage of silver at 16
to they propose to make the money cheap
err and goods higher By statute they pro-
- YNrfA, Fs1 IL R1h---