The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-10-16
GOVERNOR BOlES, OATS.
Qseer Argument Made by the Iowa DEM
Ocratic Statesman.


ocratic Statesman.
Ex-Governor Boies made a queer ar
gument at Ames Friday night. He took
oats at 10 cents a bushel and tried to
prove that the gold standard had
cheapened everything. The governors
argument falls to the ground when we
recollect that two years ago under the
same gold standard oats were so
expensive that we who live in town
were compelled to sell our cows and
horses because we could not afford to
feed them. If the gold standard makes
oats low now what made them high
two years ago? The governor might
have picked out any other thing to
have established his point. Boots and
shoes are cheap; newspapers are
cheap; calico, pins and needles are
cheap. How can the governor prove
that the gold standard has anything
to do with these prices when We prac-
tically have the same amount of money
in the country now that we had in
1873? The governor knows that under
silver imitation that we would all just
simply play that we were getting
more; we would not be getting more
in fact. We would be like the boy who
got a 50-cent piece converted into pen
MES in order to make his pocket stand
out and create jealousy in the minds
of the other boys. He had not in
creased the purchasing power of his
money though he had enlarged it's bulk.
When the governor explained that it
took thirty bushels of oats at 10 cents
a bushel to pay his nights lodging at
the Slavery House, he seemed to lose
track of the fact that If he inflated the
currency to increase the price of oats
he would probably pay sixty bushels
of oats for his nights lodging and
neither he nor the landlord would lose
or make by the so-called change in
the value of oats. The same rule
would apply when the governor should
go to buy any other thing. The only
way that he could be benefited would
be in the payment of debts already
contracted. Debts to be contracted in
the future would be no more easily paid
by inflated money than at present, for,
the debt would be larger. All this Jug.
Cling with the value of currency to af-
feet prices is simply feolishness on the
part of honest men and rank dis
honestly on the part of those who
know better, yet continue to advocate
it. 1t could not help the laboring man
and for long time. at least, after 1t
should go inp operation it would give
to what he buys a fictitious price be-
fore 1t gave his labor fictitious value.
Finally. If his labor got the same
amount of imitation that the currency
had, he would be relatively in the same
condition that he Is today. Two dol
lars reduced to the purchasing power
Of 81 would be practically TO the Ia
boring man no good, nor would 1t BEN
eft the farmer. We are surprised at
Boies standing UP and solemnly dis
cussing a grave political question bas-
ing his argument on the low price of
one crop which next year may be high.
In this connection we want to ask Gov
ernor Boies why 1t is at the present
time wheat Is increasing in price while
silver is decreasing in value? We
have been told that silver and wheat
are inseparable; that they always went
up or down together. They seem now
to have been to Dakota or Oklahoma,
where divorces are within easy reach.
At any rate, a separation has taken
pYAce-Des Moines Capital