The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-04-22
THE GOLD STANDARD.

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not. Gold is not wanted for use at
home, and it is not borrowed for that
purpose. 1t is wanted for export; it
is wanted to pay for imports or for
interest on debts our people owe to
other countries, for the carrying trade
ETC. When will the necessity for bor-
rowing for such purposes end? Man
iiestly ouly when we pay in some
other way. The borrower does not
keep the money he borrows;he pays it
away. Borrowed gold never stays in
the country that borrows it. Con-
ditions that make it necessary to bor-
row gold will send it out again as
fast as it is liberated. Gold stays
only where it goes of itself, in the
course of trade Gold will stay in
this country ouly as it comes here in
The course of trade, and it will come
here in that way on the one condition
that the prices here are enough be-
low the price level of other countries
to make this the best market to buy
in; that is, to invest gold in. We
can get gold and keep it in no other
way
High prices and the gold standard
do not go together, and they cannot
both be had at the same time. The
one condition on which the gold
standard can be maintained is low
prices; that is, the conditions under
which gold will come here of itself
must first be created. Nor can debtor
nations maintain an even price level
with creditor countries. Prices must
be lower with US than in countries
owing no outside debts.
Besides exporting enough to pay
for all our imports, we must pay an
nually, as interest and other charges,
not less than $400,000,00O. This
must be paid with products of some
kind or with gold. We can pay with
products only on condition that we
will sell as low as any other country,
and we must compete with all other
debtor countries for the privilege OF
paying in commodities.
The condition, therefore, on which
the gold standard can be maintained
here is not only lower prices than
now, but prices lower than in
countries not in debt-enoush lower
to induce our creditors to take of US
commodities for what we owe them
rather than demand gold.
No matter, therefore, how ruinous
the fall of prices has been, nor what
the consequences of q further fall
may be, they must go u good deal
lower before gold can be made to
stay here, and until then We will not
in fact be on a gold basis. That is
the cost of the gold standard, and it
can be had at no less price.
We have borrowed since 1898,
s162,000,000, and are now issuing
bonds for $100,000,000 more. All
that we have borrowed has gone from
US, and all that we are now borrowing
will undoubtedly go in the same way.
And will there not be the same neces-
sity to borrow again when this is gone
as now? If, after $l6O,00O,0OO had
been borrowed, more borrowing is
necessary, will not more borrowing
be necessary after $260,000,000 have
been borrowed, and will the necessity
stop at S5OO,OOO,OOO or at $lOO0,000,-
900? What will stop it? The truth
is, every loan for such purpose in
creases the necessity lor more loans,
and there is no end but the limit of
credit, and that, of course means
bankruptcy.
This is so plain a proposition that
any body can see through it, and
hard headed men all over the country
do see through It, if bankers don't,
and are asking when it is to stop.
If Mr.. Cleveland and Mr.. Carlisle
think this policy has the approval Of
the peoplenet them take a trip through
almost any part of the country out
side OF Wall street, and they will hear
deuunciations of it in language that
would make Tillman's epithets appea.
mild.
The truth is, plain people know the
attempt to mairtain the gold standard
by borrowing gold, is blunder, and
they believe it is approaching very
near the line of criminal blunderips,
Nor is it possible to change this
condition by tariffs. If prices Of
commodities that must 80 to pay
what we owe abroad, could be, and
were, raised by tariffs above prices
for like commodities in other
countries, then our creditors would
refuse to take goods and demand
gold. Aud if a protective tariff can
not be made operative on the things
produced by half our people, it ought
not to be made to operate in favor
of the other half, or for the benefit
of one and injury of another; and it
cannot long be made to operate in
that way, for it is not possible, by
tariffs or in any other way, perman.
emily to maintain low price level for
half of our industries and a high
level for the other half.
Tariffs, to be justified, must be
made to cover our industrial system
as whole.
Again, the question of maintaining
the gold standard,o or ofkeepiug gold in
this country, is not one of revenue.
If twice as much revenue were COL
lected as is now paid into the Treas
ury, it would have little or no effect
on the outflow of gold. Gold is not