Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-10-01
HARvEYs HARD HITS.
Telling Blows Given the Gold standard
at Chicago.

y
talked to large audience at the Audi
sorium, Chicago. on Saturday night,
September 10, on the subject of free sill
yer. In the course of his remarks he
made some telling hits in support of his
arguments for the free coinage of sill
yer. Mr.. Harvey said:
Man promotes his own interest by pro-
noting the common good. Individual self
ishncss, crystallized into law. is the mother
of anarchy and the death of republics.
Therefore the present is the crucial test
OF American institutions. Money is the
blood of commerce. You can do without
wheat, corn, beef, or any OF what are called
the necessaries of life, but IL you are
part of civilization you cannot do with
out money. Without money society would
go back to barbarism.
There is in society a need for certain
amount of money, just as there is a need for
a certain quantity of bread, and laws inter
fering with them are oppressive. If there
were laws encouraging the boarding or
wheat they would be repealed. If there are
laws encouraging the boarding or money,
we should demand that they be repealed
also. There is not enough money to meet
the normal requirements. We should see
that more is made. A cattle man in Texas
knows that IL one-half the cattle in the
country were destroyed, his herd would
be worth twice much as 1t is now; the
money dealers know the same concerning
their money The difference is that every
one can raise as many cattle as he pleaseS,
but everyone cannot coin all the money
he wants. [Applause.l
"Bimetallism is the right to use either
gold or silver for money, SO that these met
ais will be in competition with each other.
The idea of relying on two metals rather
than one is taught by nature. We have
two eyes, two ears, two lungs, and two
legs. Monometallism is like a man with
one lung or one leg. We are not mono
krYf toll icfG VL a q ~
silver men, but If gold had been demonet-
lied, we would be called gold men. We
believe in both metals, so that IL one
grows scarce, we may use the other. lap
piause.1
Sizes Up Gold and Silver.
.'AII the gold in the world available for
use in money is s4,OO0, 00o, O00 If cast into
one block it would only make cube OF p
feet. All the silver in the world ayailaple
for money is 81, 600, 000, 600 likewise. II cast
into one block it would only make cube
of &c feet Under the law OF bimetallism
the two metals have never varied In COM
mercial parity more than three per cent,
and this slight huctuation was the elastt-
city that the bimetalllc system gave 70
our currency. From 1902 to 1850 the world s
supply was two dollars of silver and one
dollar of gold, or thirty-two ounces OF Sill
yer to one of gold. From 1850 to 1873 TINS con-
dition was more than reversed, and yet
these violent fluctuations did not seem 10
have any pcrceptible effect on the con-
mercial value of the two metals. Ihe OPP
ton of the debtor acted like the regulator
on steam engine,
an 1879 coinage was left free to gold, but
denied to silver. One of the main arteries
of civilization was cut of. The debtor was
limited to gold payments Form that time
until now the worlds production mas Deen
sixteen ounces of silver TO one ounce o.
,old which could not be said or any 20
wears Dreyious to 1873. But, in spite OF
that fact, the metals have departed from
commercial parity 80 per cent whle pre-
vious to 1873, with violent fluctuations IN
production, the variation was ohiS Three
per cent [Applause.l
People Have Delusion.
"paonle have a delusion that a dollar is a
fixity They think wheat may ran, put nol
dollars. In like manner, 1t was thougnt the
earth stood still and the sun moved. buI II
the law had made bushel of wheat the
unit of currency then the delusion would De
that the value of wheat was stationary ana
the value of dollars fiuctuating. With paper
or silver redeemable in gold, an exchange
of dollars for a horse means the relative ex-
changeable value of gold fer the horse. a
rise in gold will cause it to luy more prop
erty and property to buy lass gold
Suppose all the gold in the world were
DESTROYED, except 1000 gold dollars. and the
demand for gold should remain what 1t is
now, with all the nations SCI ambling for It,
Then a single gold dollar would buy the
state of Illinois. If all the god in the world
were destroyed except OI1C SSA0 dOAAnAs 2hN
the law recognized no other primary money,
this dollar would buy the hemisphere. So
the dollars rise in value as expressed in
relation to other property
with the strain that had been shared by
both metals before 1873 shifted to gold alone,
and with silver made mere token money,
there came rise in the valGe of gold. The
debtor could no longer regulate the demand.
Thereafter when value was expressed in
terms of money it was to mean gold. The
government which had walked on two legs,
had now to walk on one. Their. came the de-
cline in prices, for prices IL the value of
property expressed in money The value or |
property as compared with money has de- |
clned and gold has gone up. The equivalent |
has followed the gold, as the tail follows |
the kite. [Applause.]
Falling Prices and Debts. |
Failing prices require more and more /
property to pay debts. A debt contracted |
in 1884 for $1,000 could have been paid had |
rot wheat declined, with 1000 bushels of |
wheat. But with wheat declined 1t now |
requires 1000 bushels of it to pay the same |
debt. The effect of demonstration, there |
fore, is the conf1scation of the property of |
debtors. With falling prices the merchants |
goods are worth less than he paid for them
and the manufacturer cannot afford to
work up his material. But for falling prices |
more taxes would have been collected, and |
the debts of the nation, ano of the states,
and cities would not have reached
tEeir present frightfuI proportions of $780,
all the real and personal property in the i
United States is only $24, 900 COG, 600.
when one is stripped of his possessions
and cannot find the wherewithaI to COM
fort his family and to provide for his nat
elral wants he becomes a desperate man. To |
say that he is a poor citizen but feebly ex-
presses IL. Such a condition creates a loss
of pride. When the information comes to
one, accustomed to the ownership of a
home, that he is to lose that home after
years of toll, and that information is con-
veyed to such a persons wife and family.
who have worked hard and shared the tolls
and troubles of the husband and father
and all this coming upon them in some
manner observation-disclosures come with ii |
sorrow and distress When tens
of thousands in distress are multiplied into
hundreds of thousands then there is that
general feeling that comes as if some great
upon the nation. In the midst of it all we
hear the cry of the creditor: Pay in honest
dollars, maintain your credit as people |
The people redouble their energies They
are all honest. They want to do what is
right, whether real or seeming, but the
task OF producing enough property to pur-
chase the enhanced dollar is too great and |
they finally surrender their possessions
into the hands of their creditors. lap
plause.1
Result Is Terrible.
1.-THE result is terrible to the republic
THnantTy is rapidly increasing, so that in
Nav York 81 per cent. of the population |
rent their homes, and this condition is
sweeping westward. With foreign credit
ors owning our lands, with increasing de-
nand for penitentiaries and lunatic asy-
huns, and with constantly multiplying sui !
cides, everything portends the breaking |
IF ,sw IT, 49,. n