The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-08-28

temperature by. II one measure is correct, tn
other cannot differ from it and be correct.
/ Gresham's Law.
1t is an memorable law of money that whe1
| two metals are coined at a fixed ratio and boil
made legal tender, if either is undervalued il
the coinage law the undervalued metal goe
| out of circulation. About the middle Of the
fourteenth century Nicholas Oresme, the
father of finance in France, announced hi
| great law to Charles v; 100 years later Copper
! nicus, the founder of modern astronomy, an
nounced it to the Prussians. and 81 years still
later Gresham announced it to Queen Eliza
! beth. Macaulay in his fHistory of England
shows how perfectly this law worked in Eng
land and eloquently describes the direfu
/ consequences. He was describing coins de-
based by clipping, but still legal tender. A coir
| Is just as bad when debased by generalization
| a coinage as when clipned or copnterfeited
| In the one case the creditor is deceived, and
| In the other he is forced. 1t is simply the
| difference between theft and robbery. Tho
| law of money has never failed. We know what
will be its operation just as we know that the
deadliest poison will kill because it always has
! killed.
We Now Have I6 to / Bimetallism.
! The gold standard advocates believe in gold
as standard with the largest possible safe
use of silver among the people. The l6 to
dreamers believe in the so called double stand
ard, and we are driven by this law to the use
Of silver alone. All gold standard coull-
tries use large amounts of silver and no
silver standard country uses any gold what
ever. AS the practical question is the use
of the metals it follows that we are the
bimetallist and the 16 to l people are the
monometallist. Hence the battle that is 10
be fought to finish next year is.whether we
lr@p, lc,l al
bimetallism in use among the people-gold
and silver circulating freely without discrinl-
! nation against either-or shall We have a SO
called double standard at the minis and no
where else, with silver recommendation in ar
tual use? The battle is between substance and
shadow, between those who want bimetallism
in fact and those who want it in name only.
We are the friends of silver money, who would
bring to its aid the power of the government
to keep it good, and they are its enemies.
who, by unlimited coinage, would take from
1t the guarantee of parity by the government,
and thereby degrade it to its market value.
Our government has been and is now coin.
ing silver at the ratio of 16 to l. 1t is enabled
to do this, because under the law it re-
strict the amount coined, and, being vested
with this control, it undertakes to make every
dollar good money. The moment the govern
ment loses control of the coinage, confidence
In it's ability to protect the money issued is
It and is worth so cents. To illustrate: A
merchant could very well guarantee the ex-
penses of his clerk if he were allowed to con-
troll the expenses but if the clerk demanded
free and unlimited expenses then the mer-
chant would have to "stand from under" and
let the expenses take care of themselves.
We hear great deal of indignant declama
tion because the government does not pay it's
"coin" obligations in silver. To maintain the
parity between gold and silver it is essential
that the government in receiving its dues and
paying its debts must ignore the inferiority Of
silver, just as a mother pretends not to see the
limp of her lame child. This gives the option
Of metals to the person dealing with the gov
eminent, whether as debtor or creditor. If the
government should discriminate against silver
by refusing to receive it for dues, or by insist
ing on paying it instead of gold, that moment
the parity would be gone and the silver in
every mans pocket would would be at dis
count. Its coinage being under the control of
the government, the government makes it
good at it's counter, and this makes it good at
every counter in the world.
If there is anything in the double standard
stability idea we ought to work for it for all
10 is worth. If two metals will fix value better
than one, then three metals will beat two and
four beat three, and by having eight or ten
metals in the standard we can anchor it so
that it will not crawl an inch in 1000 years.
The second proposition is that gold has ap-
preciated and thereby depressed prices. The
same cause operating upon number of ar
ticles will produce the same effect in all those
not affected by contravening cause. When
we contemplate prices, we find that since the
gold standard was adopted, Feb. IL, 1873, some
articles have declined in value some have
remained stationary, while some risen in
price, and no contravening causes will ac-
count for the failure of gold to depress all
alike. We find that no two articles have de-
olined at the same time or in the same de-
gree, nor has any one article remained uni
formly depressed. This demonstrates that as
to those articles that have declined, no one
controlling cause can be assigned as having
produced these results.
The stock argument of the 16 to people is
that wheat and cotton have declined, and they
seem to gloat over the fact. 1 knew an old
negro who. when asked how he was getting
along, always replied, "Poorly, thank Godl"
and they are thankful when the country is
poorly on wheat and cotton. Since 1878 the
vast fertile prairies Of the northwest have
been turned into wheatfields, so that the pro-
duction of wheat in the United States has been
doubled since then. The same thing has been
going on in Russia and South America. The
wonderful improvements in machinery for
harvesting wheat and the extension of rail-
roads for transporting it to market gave an
immense impetus to the production of it. A
farmer can make more money raising it at 80
cents per bushel today than he could at 81 per
bushel 20 years ago. The result has been that
the overproduction Of wheat has reduced its
price, and the gold standard had nothing to do
with the reduction. Its price is regulated by
supply and demand.
Chinch Bugs, Caterpillars and BolIworms.
Last May little bug settled down on the
wheatfelds of the northwest, and in one or
two weeks eat up one-half of the 16 to argu-
ment on prices and sent the prices back into
the neighborhood Of those of 1878. The old hay
seeds, who knew the habits of the chinch bug
and the kind of a multiplication table he used
in regulating the increase in his family, took
the trains for Chicago, commenced buying
wheat and broke all the "smart Alecks' in
the city. They may have talked gold standard
depression at home, but they put their money
on the chinch bug in the city and won. The cat
erpillar and bollworm can do the same thing for
cotton. only know the chinch bug by reputa-
ton, but ] am personally acquainted with
these worms. They are composed of appetite
and skin. They do not care tinker's blessing
for anybody's standard, and when they invade
the cotton fields Of the south they send the
price of cotton up in every mart of the world,
gold standard or no gold standard. They have
been doing business with us this summer and
have moved the price of cotton up 60 per cent
This bug and these worms haven't many
friends, but as sluggers in an argument with
. 16 to crank they are entitled to the belt
lrrof O ~ W.