Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-15

and knitting machines, the principal kinds of boot and shoe machinery, especially the Mckay sewing machine, which, between 1861, when 1t was perfected, and 1876, had made 225, 900, ,000 pairs of shoes in the United States alone; the Westinghouse air brake and it's various adaptations, electro plating, lithography and photolithography, optical instruments, musical instruments, ice machines tne growth of india rubber manufacture, the Goodyear vuloanizing process, dating from 1S44; machinery used in sugar refining and in paper, porcelain and glass manufacture, stereotyping and electrotyping processes, Bruce's and other type casting machines, folding and ad- dressing machines, the Gordon job press and the Adams, Campbell, Walter, Bull lock and Hoe perfecting printing presses
 In this connection remember that there Is no branch of industry where production has cheapened in any degree approaching that of the mining of gold in recent years. But cheapened gold mining does not seem to have cheapened gold compared with other commodities to any alarming extent.
 Effects of a Changing Standard.
 Tho method of operation and the effect of changing money standard are not suf- ficiently understood. Any convenient me- dium of exchange to which prices had once accommodated themselves would discharge sufficiently well the mere function of medium of exchange. But, when viewed as a measure of the values of all other things, it is of the very greatest impor- tance that the money unit remain as near ly unvarying as possible in value over long periods of time. When a man loans an- other a sum of money, he loans a certain quantity of purchasing power, for that Is what money is. Now, absolute justice would require that when the loan is repaid it should stand for the same purchasing power as before But if, meantime, money has depreciated-tha is, if prices ! .ve risen-the same nominal sum when repaid has less purchasing power than when borrowed, and the lender or creditor really receives less than he loaned, tho bor- rover or debtor profting by the difference On the other hand if money rises in pur- chasing power between the making of the loan and the repayment, so that the bor- rower has to find more commodities with which to buy the money to pay back than tho money would buy for him when he borrowed it, then be loses the difference and the money lender makes it.
 Now, ill either case the changing stand ard takes something from one man with out his deserving to lose it and gives it to another who has no right to it. In either case 1t is 0 silent robbery. The ideal standard would preserve the rights of both debtors and creditors. But if deliberate choice had to be made between gradually falling and gradually rising standard all writers of authority agree, and 1t is oonsonant with common sense, that moral ly, economically, politically and socially the falling standard would be preferable I tho lender, who can better than the debtor endure its effects, and it encourages en- terprise, while the certain hardships of the rising standard fall on the borrower, the debtor, the investor, the captain of indus try, who cannot so well sustain the bur den, who has no surplus, but Is most fre- quently wiped from the face of the indus trial world by the vanishing of the margin between his property and the automatic ally enlarging lien upon it.
 In tho latter case the absolutely un- ayoidable result must be- if the evil is permitted to run, that all property will eventually belong to those who shall con- trol the ultimate money of the world, and thrift and enterprise if enterprise and thrift can belong to a race of slaves, would plan and save and toll to further fatten the overfed fatness of their masters. This is no exaggeration of language. It is the speech of truth and soberness. Said Sir Arthur James Balfour, the real head of the present Conservative government of England, an earnest bimetallist and one of the profoundest thinkers in Europe, in speech at Manchester Oct. 27, 1899:
 But of all conceivable systems of cur rency that system is assuredly the worst which gives you standard steadily, con- tinuously, indefinitely appreciating, and which by that very fact throws burden upon every man of enterprise, upon every man who desires to promote the agrioul- tural or the industrial resources of the country and benefits no humsn being whatever but the owner of fixed debts in gold"
 Falling prices of agricultural products deprive the farmer of the means of buying his usual conveniences and necessities, and these accumulate on the hands of the man. ufacturer and retailer, who in turn curtail expenses to the uttermost, discharging la Dor, which then loses its power to con- sume, and limiting their own consumption to the barest needs. Thus farmer, manu- facturer, tradesman, transporter, laborer, all lose patronage and employment, while taxes, Interest and principal of mortgages, fixed charges, bonded indebtedness and rents arc constantly and remorselessly measuring off increasing equivalenoes in all human products. Under such circum- stances there Is no inducement to enter prise or to investment in producing indus trios. No man wants to borrow money to use in a business in which the fall of prices is sure to eat up his profits. On the oth- er hand, the man with money for the same reason does not want to put 1t into busi- ness, but prefers either to invest 1t in gilt edge securities or let 1t lie idle and grow. This collects the money in the large flnan- oial centers and emphasizes the absolute power of the money lender, who must be sought in his lair, and who can make his own terms with borrowers. It is bad symptom w.-en breeding" money, to use 6hylock's phrase, Is regarded as better business policy than embarking it in pro- ductive industry.
 The results of an appreciating standard are so hiddt-l In the very processes of or dinary business that until we stop to look carefully for them we are not aware how serious-nay, how fatal-they may become. My time will permit only few Illustrations. Between 1874 and 1885 gold appreciated so that the holders of the pub lio debt of England could buy in the lat