Evening star., 1896-10-17
The Possible Effect of demonstration
on Agriculture.
THEFARMER'S CHANCEOF PROSPERITY
A Leading Illinois Farm Writer
Looks at the Question.
P POINTS TO IDER


Inc farmers interest in the subject is dis
cussed by Mr.. John M. Stahl. secretary of
the farmers national congress, in a pa
per forming one of the contributions to a
Tree coinage symposium in the October
Forum:
II gold and silver remain at nar;tv
"nen we have the free and unlimited coin
age or both metals at a ratio of 16 IN
then the people of this country. acting
through the machinery of the national
ss9vernment' set, will pay one dollar for about
my cents worth OF silver. 1t is safe to
say th'tt not one hundred farmers in all
the country will have any silver bullion TO
Sell. Practically the only individuals hav
IN ing SILVER bullion to sell will be the owners
VI siiVer mines and moneyed SPECTATORS
rich men. II gold and silver do not remain
az parity when we have the free and
usHmited coinage of both metals at ratio
OF III TO i, then tine holders of gold whi ,h is
now out of circulat ton, being hoardad in
banks, safe-deposit vaults and elsewhere.
Will be able to sell it at a premium which
may reach near to 100 per cent. 1t is safe
to say that all the farmers of the coun-
try will not hold per cent of the gold in
the country; and thus the premium will 90
into the pockets of those "shylocks'' who
are continually beirg denounced nv the
free coinage advocates
Ihus, whether gold and silver remain ct
a parity, or whether they separate, the
farmers Will reap no benefit; in either case
the dlrect effect will be to enrich the very
ones who, the free coinage advocates claim
are already too rich; the direct effect will
be the very effect that these advocates de-
clare 1t their object to avoid-'making the
rich ricner' And, as there will be no ere
alton of real value, the effect must also
De to make the poor poorer"
certainly the rich mine owners and mon
ey lenders are not rightful objects of the
nations charity. There is no more reason
why the government should pay one dollar
for fifty cents worth Of silver than that it
should pay one dollar for fifty cents worth
of wheat.
The national government is the instru-
| ment of the nation, the machinery by
which the people a nation do business
II the government pays out a dollar il
must be dollar that belongs to the Deo-
pie; in most cases a dollar that the people
nave paid as tax; in every case dollar
that could be paid out for the benefit of all
the people-to improve the mail service, for
example. If the holder of silver bullion is
PAID by the government two dollars for the
bullion that is commercially worth only
one dollar, it is not the treasurer of the
United States who furnishes the money,
but the people of the United States The
farmers of the country will furnish from
the proceeds of ffty-cent wheat and twen-
ty-cent corn very large part of the
millions of dollars that will be used to en-
rich the owners of silver mines All farm
ers will pay this tribute to the rich men
who own these mines.
The free and unlimited coinage of silver
demanded by the Chicago platform would
not be, by reason of an increased price
given to silver bullion or by reason of
putting gold at a premium, Of any benefit
to the farmer, the manufacturer, the nler-
chant, the mechanic the common la
borer; none of these has gold boarded or
will have silver bullion to sell; the only
| ones who will be enriched will be the very
ones that the advocates of the free sill
yer coinage demanded by the Chicago plat
form declare should, of all men, not be
enriched; the very ones that it is sought to
array the farmers and laborers against.
The farmer will not be benefited if gold
and silver remain together; he will not be
| benefited if they fall apart. wall street"
that is. what the advocates Of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver mean by
that term-would profit in either case; for
huctuating currency increases its op-
pcrtunities for gambling 1t would prob
ably get share Of the profit by being paid
| more for silver than it is worth, or of
having gold at a premium; but this share
would not be taken from the mine owners
or the "shylocks," but be made through
| manipulating the market"-increasing the
fictitious value given silver or forcing high
er the premium on gold 1t would thus
grow fat on the necessities of business and
the miSfortunes of the peoples Instead of
Wall street. as the populists understand
wall street." being successfully combated
by the free and unlimited coinage of silver,
1t would successfully maneuver with sill
yer and gold, forcing the price up one day
and down the next, to the profit of the
gamblers and the unsettling, perplexiiy
and disaster of every business interest.
Farming Is business interest.
Whenever in a country there have been
two kinds Of money, the one inferior in
bullion value to the other, the inferior
money has circulated among the farmers,
and the money that found its way into
the strong boxes of the rich and the hands
Of "usurers'' has been the better money.
1t will be SO until human nature changes
until man voluntarily parts with the
| hotf Of fuyn in0 md oil
for himself. Farmers always have been,
and always will be, the chief sufferers
from the discrediting and debasing of any
part of the money Of country. In the
days Of the wild cat' currency, farmers
had the least coin; and as, from the nature
of their business and the longer time re-
Quired for informant tion to reach them, they
could not keep so we'll Informed as could
bankers and merchants, they were nearly
always the losers. They 1t was who suf-
fered most from the rotten currency of
those days. Can any good reason be given
why they would not suffer most from the
debasement of any part of our currency
now?
The more convenient greenbacks treas
ury notes. bank notes and silver certificates
have always circulated almost entirely in
cities, and the less convenient silver in the
country. Gold and gold certificates went
out of circulation in the country several
months before they went our of circulation
in the city. One rarely sees a treasury
NJ
The best money has gravitated to the
cities, being retained there, and the money
not redeemable in gold being paid out, un-
til on the farm one finds now only silver,
silver certificates national bank notes and
an occasional stray greenback. The farmer
has been made to bear the brunt from the
distrust of part of our currency. Debase
that currency and the injury to the farmer
will be increased.
Legitimate business-the business that
makes real (not speculative, fctitious)
value by employing labor in the field, the
mine the shop the store, or by trans
porting products-is most solidly prosper
Gus when the currency is stable and every
part Of it has certain and fixed value
in no wise doubted distrusted by the
people; and such business has always suf-
fered by change in these conditions. The
history of our country does not furnish
single exception to this: and 1t is exceeding
ly doubtful il the history of the wo-ld
furnishes an exception. The free and IN
limited coinage of silver demanded by the
Chicago platform would therefore be very
Injurious to the farmer, the manufacturer
and the merchant for years to come. To
doubt this injury to business is to count
as naught all the experience of the nast;
1t is equivalent to saying that the opposite
of what has always happened will hap
pen. 1t would not be more illogical to say
that because we should coin, at a ratio
of 16 to /, all the silver that might be
brought to our mints, water would run up
hill and the clouds would drop sunshine.