Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-15

was that Z" he only way to have good
times is to unsettle our currency" in
other words. IN order to have good times
prices OF everything must be going up
and, currency must be going down." 1t
seems 10 be the idea of all political
economists and business men of stand
ing, that our currency should be stable,
and, so far as value is concerned, should
be as Interchangeable as possible. 1t
would be as sensible to say that, in
order to have good times, our yard stick
should gradually grow shorter or our
bushel grow smaller
As a standard of value money is
simply measure of the value of all
things. If that measure is fixed the
person who holds dollar knows what
it is worth. But if our standard is
fiuctuating he does not know what his
dollar Is worth
A fuctuating money is not a good
money. The only persons who profit
| bv the fluctuations Of the money mar
ket are those who make business of
specializing on money The farmer and
the laborer are losers by every currency
| t1uctuation.
Those voters who are old enough to
remember the uncertainty of the wild
cat'' currency before the war, and the
fluctuations of our greenbacks before
specie payment was resumed will APP
preciate the force of the above state
ments.
If at this time free coinage of silver
should be established, the people who
would make money out of the change
would be those who have boarded gold,
which they could sell at premium, and
those who hold silver bullion. For sill
yer bullion would be TEMPORARILY en-
HANGED in value by free coinage, and
what bullion they could coin and unload
| before the bullion again fell to its nor
NAL value they would make great profit
! OH.
Neither the hoarder of gold, nor the
hoarder of silver bullion, would have
added anything to the worlds wealth
to correspond with what they would
make by reason of the f1uctuation of our
money. Hence, what they make on the
deal Gf free coinage carries) the pro-
ducers of the country, that is, the
farmers, laborers and manufacturers,
must lose.
Mr.. Riley also claimed that protective
tariff can not bring us prosperity when
we have an approaching currency and
falling market; and that free coinage
was the only remedy for the hard times
Under the Republican policy of pro-
lection, from the close of the panic of
1878, to the beginning of the panic of
1898, the country was prosperous, with
out free coinage of silver. Why should
it not be so again? Mr.. Riley, nowhere
in his address, touched this question.
He could not answer it. With return to
protective duties, laid upon right lines,
prosperity will return, slowly of course,
but surely.
Mr.. Riley spent half an hour parading
before his audience the prosperity of
Japan and Mexico, two countries that
he claimed are OH "siiver basis" Mr.
| Piley had to admit that wages Of the
common laborer in Mexico are extreme
| ly low. Had he gone little further he
would also have been obliged to admit
that, in Mexico at least, prices of farm
products are very low.
But the absurdity of these statements
of Mr.. Riley's as an argument for free
silver and the desirability of going to
'silver basis" will be seen when we
| find that Japan is NOT on ''silver basis"
| but has nearly as much gold in actual
circulation as silver. According to the
report of the Treasurer of Z. S. (circu
lar No 1913, pages 26 and q, published
July l, 1866 the total circulation of
Japan for each person in that country is
81, of which, $1.95 is gold and S2.05 is
| silver; only ten cents difference. Fur
Their, there is no such thing as ''free
coinage" of silver in Japan. Under
their laws silver coinage can be sus-
pended at any time; and silver coinage
has been limited for nearly five years.
Mr.. Riley and our free coinage friends
| tell us that we have too little money in
this country, that we need more money
to make the country prosperous. Ac
cording to the circular Of the Z. S.
treasury, above referred to, on pages
| 26, q and "a, the actual stock of money,
per capita, in the U. S. in 1895 was S S334 SO
of which 500 90 was in actual circulation.
| While from the same source we learn
that the amount Of money in Japan per
capita is but 81, and the amount in
Mexico is only 1896. If we need more
| money in the L. S. to make US prosper
Gus, how can Mexico and Japan be so
prosperous as Mr.. Riley states with so
little money? The fact is we must re-
store the confidence of the business
men of the country, and when we have
done that we will find that we have
money enough to do business with.
To show that the hard times that we
have been experiencing for the last few
years have not been due to the lack of
money in the country We have only to
refer to this same treasury circular. That
pamphlet (page 4 shows that the money
in the country and the money in circu-