The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-09-24
CAMPAIGN NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,

been distributing among the shop EN-
ployes pamphlet A, purported ex'
position of the fallaces of free silver
The only evidence of respectability
about the phamphlet is the Union print
ers label of Chicago. 1t is tissue of
Misrepresentation from the first page to
the last. The writer OF the pamphlet
evidently did not want to be convicted
of imbecility, so he did not sign his name
to it. Whoever he is and whatever his
complexion, he has about as much
knowledge of political economy and the
science of money as ten year school
boy who never studied them. The
author denies that the stopping of the
coinage of the silver dollar by the act of
1873, demonetized silver, and affirms
that the discussion of the passage of
said act was done openly and that the
omission of the standard silver dollar
was frequently pointed out. Every
student of the silver question knows
that at the final passage of the second
substitute Of the original bill codifying
the mint laws that no mention was made
of that section which dropped the coin.
age of the silver dollar, and that every
effort to find out what the bill contained
was frustrated by sharp tactics on the
part of the authors. The testimony Of
the leading senators and representatives
of congress is in evidence that for two
years after the passage of the act of 1873
they knew nothing about the effect or
the intention of the bill.
The author denies the quantitative
theory of money; that is that the amount
of money in circulation governs prices,
and says that money is valued according
to its own specific value and not accord
ing to the amount of money in circula.
ton. Nothing has been more clearly
proven than that in proportion, as
money is scarce or plenty, things to be
bought with money are dear or cheap.
Every writer Of reputation on political
economy admits that proposition with
out evasion or equivocation. 1t is not
the kind of material that money is made
from that makes it cheap or dear, but
the amount of money in the hands of
the people.
The pamphlet further makes the state
ment that there has been a constant
widening of the difference Of values of
gold and silver, therefore the double
standard has proven failure wherever
tried. History of coinage for 400 years
is directly contrary to such a statement.
Whatever has been the production of
the precious metals, under the free coin
age of both, they were kept at parity.
If there had been no difference between
the ratio of Europe and America, there
would have been no difference in, the
price of the precious metals at any time
in the last 100 years with both metals
coined free. If the free coinage of both
metals have been stopped between 1856
and 1870 gold would have shrunken one
half of its coinage value, as compared
with silver, so enormous was the in
creased yield of gold, being three times
that of silver during that period. On
the other hand the production of silver
bullion from 1880 to 1920, period oI
forty years, was more than three times
that of gold, yet the demand for oul
new silver dollars was so great in 1906
that they commanded premium, and
the parity between the metals was moi
disturbed because both metals enjoyed
free coinage. If silver could maintsir
its price for such long periods when i
was produced in so much greater pro
portion as compared to gold than 1t II
now, would double standard prove
failure where the free coinage of botl
was permitted without restriction? 1t i
J the legislation against silver that ha
caused its decline in price as bullion AM
not the increased production. The com
parison of production in the last tel
years has been gold 44.3 per cent AM
! silver 55,7 per cent
Another statement made by thi
anonymous author is, that in 1873 "w
Z were at the climax Of long era of II
fiation, the bubble of which was abou
to burst" This statement is woefI
n attempt to deceive or an assinine exhib
9 ton of ignorance. The panic of lSI
was not caused from imitation but col
traction of our money volume. Hol
a John A. Logan, senator from Illinois,
y his place in the U. S. senate, said thi
d the panic of 1878 was caused from
q monev famine. Every writer of repu