Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-15
GOLD AGAINST THE FARMER.
Timely Reflection on the Money Question by
 Mr. B, B, Conner,

ml Ds O' OOiHcIs
 MT. B. B. Conner is contributing to the Eufaula Times series of thoughtful ar ticles on the financial question, which will repay perusal and study. The first article is given below:
 Gold monometallism is the central!za- ton of money. The last measure of ev- cry product of labor is money. From the remotest times centralization has led to tyranny, a redundancy of force that al- ways falls the heaviest on the farm 1T, and in every land and in every time the farmer has fought the tyrant Today we have the strongest cabal of tyrants the world has ever known parading under the spacious moral nomS de plume Of "sound money" "A hundred cent dol lar, a dollar that will go anywhere in the world.' This combination of capital ists, gotten together for the selfish purpose of enhancing their own values, regardless of the fact that it carries de- struction to every other value, have forced and are forcing centralization of money the extent and damage of which is beyond the conception of man, and in their resistance to the restoration of stl- yer, which they know means the uncen- traliZatio of money, they threaten bribe and scandalize with opprobious epithets. Free coinage means that man who has silver or gold bullion can carry 1t to the
  The government does not guarantee or indorse either; it is simply legal tender and the fact of coinage does not add cent to its value and its commercial val ue and that value will be the same the world over. Iris true that we would proba bly go to a silver basis, but to the very extent we used silver as primary money we would decrease the use of gold and cheapen it, and it is the fact that free silver would eheapen the gold that makes the capitalist fight the free coin age measure so hard, and it is just as sensible for farmer to fight for a scarce, hgh-priced currency, gold if you please, with which his crop must be measured, as if would be to fight for double weighted scale or enlarged measure Tor a bushel The farmer is the seller of the universe, the other man is the buyer, and alike want to get the most they can for their stuff, and 1t is immaculate nonsense to tell a farmer that IL is to his interest to increase the purchas- ing power of money. Under our old free coinage law both metals were made pri- mary money. The government had no fiat money. The mines of the world turned out about equal quantities in the ratio of 16 to l. To illustrate we will rep resent them by and 1 taken together as 2: that is, all the gold money was l. all the silver money was l, and the sum Of both 2, which was all the primary money
 
 silver was demonetized we had as much money as we had before; that is, when we took $1 from $2 we had $2 left. They say further that if silver was remone- tized that all the gold and all our money would vanish; that is, if we added back to 1 we would have nothing left. The silver in a dollar today Is worth 60 cents: 1t will bring that anywhere in the world. The goldtes say if we had free coinage the country would be flooded with 50-cent dollars and that would en- rich the silver mines. MT. Editor, we have tackled the 200-cent dollar quite awhile and have seen our stuff shrink and shrink until poverty stared the best of us in the face and have seen the chances of success for our sons dwindle to about that of a rabbits and we would like to see that flood of cheaper money come tumbling down; but let some of your friends explain how free coinage will enrich the miner unless silver bull lion advances. We have seen the gold miners enriched by the characterization of silver and many of us would like to know what possible advantage this has been to us and what returns have we from the sound money crowd for our cheap cotton, cheap corn, cheap products and property of every kind. A dollar ever increases in value. One hundred cents twenty years ago. 200 cents now, 300 cents when? B. B. COMER.