The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1896-10-13

uand years to come.
disposed to study political questions
from an Independent standpoint anG
vote their honest convictions.
plutocratic press represents Uncle Sam
with a silver dollar in one hand anC
a magic wand in the other, saying tc
the people: "See, children, I touch
this money (worth So cents with this
wand-and, presto! It's value becomes
100 cents!' The cartoon is wholly un-
fair, inapplicable to the subject and
calculated to deceive. Every student
of the money question will make dis
tinction between the commercial val
ue of a dollar and its legal value The
magic wand represents the law and
invests the piece of silver with the
legal value of 100 cents, and authorizes
it as a medium of exchange and a legal
tender in the payment Of debts. tie
commercial value is only affected to
the extent of the increased demand for
it's USE The value of money is not in
herent in itself, necessarily, but as an
agent to facilitate commerce. The man
who finds a counterfeit ten dollar bill
may pay it to A, whom he owes that
amount; A may pay it to B, and B to
c, and C to D, and D to the man who
found it before it is detected to be a
counterfeit; yet it has gone the rounds
paid all these debts and no one is the
loser thereby.
Then the question might arise why
not have counterfeit money? The rea-
son is simple. To preserve stability Of
prices it is necessary to have uniform
volume of currency. On this point
all writer's on political economy agree.
And here comes an important issue
raised by the Peoples party. The gov
eminent (the people, alone can be
trusted to preserve this uniformity of
volume. Congress alone is invested
with that power. 1t was denied to the
states and why should it not be with
held from corporations who have every
incentive to abuse it. Why even should
it be confined to the uncertainties Of
the varying production Of one, or even
two, metals? The power over the cur
rency carries with it the power over
prices and the business Of the country.
If the government confines itself to gold
and silver it is to a greater or less
extent subject to the control of men
who own and control these two CON-
modities. This is fact that is beyond
dispute. The plenary power of the
government over the currency Iues-
ton is not confined to the one duty
Of promoting barter by a system where
all other commodities are made ex-
changeable into the two of gold and
silver, but to promote the exchange of
all commodities with each other.
One of the amusing phases of the
campaign is that everything that hap
pens, or is going to happen, in the line
of the dreadful, is charged to the So
called free silver craze Recently two
men in the city of Chicago committed
suicide. One was millionaire banker
and sound money advocate and the
other poor man and a friend of the
white metal. The millionaire drowned
himself in Lake Michigan, and the poor
man shot himself in Lincoln park. The
rich mans suicide was caused by dys-
pepsia, inducing insomnia and aberra-
ton of the mind; the other by a fit of
dependency. Notwithstanding the
verdict of the coroner's jury to the con-
trary, the plutocratic papers announce
that the real cause Of both deaths was
the agitation of the silver question.
The banker according to the theories
of the plutocrats, went crazy because
he was likely to have to pay his debts
in SO cent dollars, and the poor man
took his own life because he had not
even the SO cent dollars.