The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-30
AN HONEST DOLLAR.
It ISN'T That Ono Which tho ''sound Mon
cy" Goldbugs Arc Backing.

Ae ISN'T That Ono Which tho "Sound Mon
cy" Goldbugs Arc Backing.
When referring to obligations to pay
money, an honest dollar is the dollar of
the contract. In general, that is an hon.
est dollar which maintains parity"
with the things it measures in daily
transactions, or that preserves stable re-
lations to commodities That, too, is
manifestly the best dollar and the best
kind of money.
Tho term "honest money!" however.
is usually hypocritically used to mean
gold, or the dearest money. BY "hon-
est" money is usually meant that which
will buy the most, and of course in that
view of it the dearer it becomes the
honester it gets. The honest" way to
increase the value Of money would be to
increase the weight of the coins; then
all could understand how it was done
and what it really meant There are
two ways to double the value of metal
lie money-one is to double the weight
Of coins, the other to destroy or de-
monetize half the metal out of which
money can be made. The latter is the
way taken to make money "honest" in
1878; by destroying half the world s
money they doubled the value of the
other half
The effect of this may be illustrated
by single fact:
1t is now everywhere admitted that
the price level of things generally has
fallen fully so per cent since the de-
monetization of silver in 1878. which is
the same thing Us an increase of 100 per
cent in the value of money, for when
81 will buy in general way twice what
it would formerly buy it has doubled in
value or increased in purchasing power
100 per cent The total debts of the peo-
pie of the United States Of every kind
aggregate not much under $25, 900, 600, :
900. 1t takes the same number of dol
lars to pay the annual interest ON this
debt that it took 10 or 10 years ago,
but with q scale Of prices indicated by
wheat at 81 bushel, wool at % cents
and cotton ut 10 cents pound and 9TH
er things In proportion. which would
be the bimetallic scale, it would take
some $500, 600 men working every day
to pay this interest but by scale of
prices indicated by wheat at so cents q
bushel, wool at 10 cents and cotton ut
cents pound, ON the single gold stand
ard scale, it will take at least 8, 900, 900
men working every day in the year to
pay the interest ON this debt, and, if q
bushel of wheat or ten pounds of cotton
on the average equals days labor, it
will take much more labor if expended
In raising wheat and cotton to meet the
interest on this immense debt. And gen.
orally money that is itself constantly
increasing In value must necessarily
produce widespread and amending in
Justice No one would undertake to JUS
tify the scaling down. of the dollar,
but common honesty ought to prompt
the equal condemnation Of standard of
value that. by constantly increasing,
works always to the advantage of the
creditor and nonproducing class and
against the debtor and the producer.
Such money is not honest, and no
amount Of pious cant about il can make
it So
Besides the infinite injustice caused
directly by money standard that is
constantly increasing in value, as the
gold standard is, the indirect effect up
on trade and industry is bcnumbing
and deadening. AS money rises in value
prices fall, trade becomes hazardous,
production is checked and labor is
forced into idleness; hence the truth of
the observation made by Hume long
ago that an increasing volume of
money is always attended by activity of
business and the increase of wealth,
while contracting volume of money is
attended always by stagnant trade and
restricted production. 1t is therefore
perfectly safe to conclude when one is
heard prating about ''honest money"
that he is either not sincere or does not
understand what he is talking about
A. J. Warner