Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-10-01
UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES.

Baltlmoro sun.
Mr.. Bryan must be aware that there are |
many perplexing mysteries about his free |
coinsge prescription for prosperity which |
the millions of honest and as yet uncon- |
vinced voters are anxious to have him ey-
plain to their satisfaction. II he can. His |
letter Of acceptance would have been q
most fitting channel through which to
clear up these dark enigmas that puzzle
the popular mind, and his neglect to make
use of 1t for that purpose will greatly
strengthen the suspicion, already quite
strong, that he is not able to clear them
up.
! The grand mystery OF all to which Mr..
| Bryan should try and furnish key
touches the very heart of his free-silver
logic. He said, in his Madison Square
Garden speech, that two things would
happen together as result of freely coin
ing silver at 10 to /: First, the prices of
all products, save gold, would be raised
and oil producers would thereby get more
money for what they had to sell; second,
the demand for silver would be so greatly
increased that the price of it all round
| the world would rise at once to par with
| gold; that is, to $1.29 per ounce. The mys-
terry that battles the general understand
ing is how these two results, each alb
solutely opposed to the other, could both
flow from the same cause ut the same
time. One of them might happen and so
might the other, but how could both hap
pen Mt once?
Examine these two contradictory prom
ises closely for n moment On the one
hand Mr.. Bryan says that the prices of
I'LL goods, except gold would advance I'M
der free-silver coinage. That could only
happen because. relatively to the present
dollar of 100 cents in gold, the new free
coinnge dollar of silver would be of less
intrinsic and therefore, of less exchange
able value; that is, it would be worth less
itself, and for that reason would buy less
of cotton, or grain, or meat, or clothing,
or. any of the other things that mankind
must buy. That is all plain enough and
probable enough to happen. Indeed, ii is
what would surely happen under free
silver coinage at 16 to 1, the dollars being
of less value, all the people with things
to sell would demand more of them for
the same amount of those things. and all
the people who had to buy things would
have to find more of those less valuable
dollars TO pay for them with.
, All that is easy to believe; it is what
, has always taken place in every country
where the experiment has been tried of
making currency of cheap money with
| a coined or face value far above the actual
value of the bullion in the coin and with
| out any bullion i'll reserve to redeem it.
/ we may be quite sure that it would happen
| again with us If we were to coin 50 cents
y worth of bullion and stamp it ms n dollar
without putting the other AZ cents worth
. of face value somewhere in the back
ground, either in the treasury or in the
n banks, to be handed out when called for
: Nobody, not even free-silver orator
!. would take a dollar thus made-53 pei
4 cent of 1t real value and Al per cent of il
n make-believe, with nothing back of til,
~ pretense--in exchange for the sam,
). amount of food, or fuel, or clothing, o.
u other valuable articles as he would b'
!. willing to part with In exchange for a dol
# lar with 100 cents of real value in 1t, o
!. back of It, ready to be paid over when
n ever called for. Therefore, prices woul'
o rise. Mr.. Bryan is reasonable and RICH
n in predicting that prices would rise--no
/. wages, remember, but prices.
Remember, too that n rise in prices ]
!. not rise in values. Prices and value
'. are different things. The price of a thin
nj is only a statement of its value in tn
"a terms of the standard by which we meas
RI ure 1t, whether it be a standard of gold
r or of silver, or of copper. If the standar
,r used is itself more valuable than anothe
q standard, things measured by it will hay
ty their prices stated by fewer number @
y standard units; if the standard used
m less valuable, then the things measure
or by il will have their prices stated by
nj larger number of units. But that is all
nj mere matter of statement; the real valu
| Il, Al, Lu xvbinbAvnr or u1a rd fI
N measuring is done and the price statet
10 If we should make the one-foot measur
TO consist of six inches, u room that is mo-
~ called twenty feet wide would have to
be called forty feet wide, but there woul
as be no more space in it than before. So
h the Bryan party should make SO cent
is the legal measure of a dollars worth, I'll
N. price of thing that now sells for OF
dollar would become two dollars, but I'll
of value would he unchanged and the prit
Il. would he unchanged, tea, except for IL
as way of stating it.
or Right here is the kernel of the free-si
10 yer nut the central deception of the who
% humbug--the confounding Of price wit
ut value and attempting to cheat the farm'
nd and the planter, and everybody else wi
ot produces things to sell, into the belief thi
in by change in prices, by merely makir
en- huff us many cents worth of metal Il
M standard to measure by as are now ust
for that purpose, the real values OF thin
in will be doubled and they will all be
ir- much better off. As If collecting two dc
sir lars, each worth fifty cents, from pu
Ter CHASER of goods would be more profitab
M than collecting one dollar worth one hu
N dred cents.
OF Would man really live any longer
IA changing the legal length of year to $
tie months and stating his age in standa
ON years containing each one-half the pre-
scs ent amount of time? Would the Atlant
be ocean be made any wider between Ne
rlt ork and Liverpool by having the standa
on length of marine mile and stating t
ATE number of miles with twice as many ii
iTt ures? Is anything made any longer
II wider or deeper by simply calling it s
1ot Can we change things by changing tn,
we names only? If we can, then changi
Ion prices will change values; if not, pric
'ur may be raised as high as we please a
values will remain untouched.
On the other hand, if the real value
~, ah silver is to be raised by free coinal
y. which Is Mr.. Bryan's other and qu
,as contrary contention, SO that the SO cen
on worth of silver to-day is to become a
". ually 100 cents worth, then neither t
80 farmer, the planter nor anybody else C
,,So no pnssihly benefited one iota If I'll