The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-01-21
WHAT IS MONEY?

The editor of the Statesville Land
mark lives in a very intelligent com
munity, but his partisauism and a
tendency to imbibe the plausible but
false doctrines of the goldbug dailies,
seems to have clogged his thinking ap
paratus to a remarkable degree.
The Landmark says:
Some little time back THE PROGRESS
sIvE FARMER said that when silver is
restored to its proper place and the
coinage of it resumed, times will grow
better, but that is only a part of the
financial reform needed upon which
The Landmark remarked that from
the tone of the POpulist papers it had
supposed that free coinage at Is to 1
was to cure all our ills, and that the
foregoing was strange talk. THE Pro
GRESSIvE FARMER retOrts that it is not
strange talk at all. "A few papers and
a good many Individuals it says, have
sought to make the silver question d
paramount issue, but they are greatly
in the minority "A provision for
issuing paper currency and other finan-
cial laws are needed we are told, and
The PROGRESSIVE FARMER declares that
we do not var to be at the mercy of
the silver men any more than we want
to be in the clutches of the gold men,
From this any of our Democratic
friends may see that their hope of get
ting on the good side Of the PopuIists
by merely advocating the free coinage
Of silver at the ratio of Is to 1 is iIIu-
sive. Years ago the late Col. L. L.
Polk said that the free coinage of silver
was all well enough in its way; was
good enough as far as it went, but that
it would add only so cents per capita
to the circulation, and therefore did not
go far enough; that what is needed is
fiat money. Now his successor in the
editorship of THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
tells IS substantially the same thing.
1t is for free silver, but it's thoughts
turn longingly to paper currency and
it speaks In injured accents of stopping
the printing presses used for getting
out paper currency
In the Populist idea of finance free
coinage is merely a starter. Irredeem-
able paper currency in unlimited guam
titles is the final goal. People who ever
stop to think at all should be able to
see that such a currency is neither
money nor the representative of
money"
The Landmark is correct in one par
ticular. Free coinage of silver is only
a starter" Just what amount of cir
culation it would add to the present
per capita, we are not able to say, but
it would add something every year. 1t
is claimed by some statisticians that all
the silver now coined and available for
coinage would not amount to more
than 81, or one-seventh of the actual
circulation needed per capita. If silver
be restored to coinage as it was prior to
1873, and that is what we want, all
that may not be needed in the channels
of trade can be stored in the vaults at
Washington and silver certificates of
the denominations of from 81 up to $40
or $50 may be circulated, they being
more convenient than silver coin. That
plan would simply restore to silver all
the privileges gold now has, and in a
short time silver would be worth as
much in~trinsically and commercially
as gold, in proportion-say Is to 1.
Such was the case in 1873, in fact ever
since the United States Government
was established. Silver has often been
at a premium-as often, perhaps, as
gold. Any fiat money about that's
The Landmark will probably say that