Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-05-28

The fourth proposition is that you can
no more have two different standards OF
value in one country at one time than
you can have two different standards Of
weight or two standards Of measure. If
any man goes into the market, the law
being that yard shall be either or 3
feet in length, and buys carpets by the
yard at fixed price, there will be do
livered to him carpets measured in yards
Of Q feet in length. If he goes to the ale
house to buy pot of beer, the standard
Of capacity under the law being either q
pint or quart, and he buys by that
standard Of measure at a fixed price, he
will have delivered to him pint. In
the same way if the standard Of value Of
money be either gold coins or silver
coins worth intrinsically only half Of
their nominal value, and not convertible
at par into gold coins, the payment will
be made in the money Of least value.
That is principle of human nature
which it is utterly impossible to get
away from.
1t is tho teaching of history that
wherever the attempt has been made to
circulate side by side coins Of full value
and coins of less than full value the coin
of full value is boarded or exported and
the coin of less than full value becomes
tho only coin in circulation.
The fifth proposition is that Of the
two functions Of money. Its function as
a standard Of value is in modern times
Of more Importance than its function as
medium of exchange, for the standard
Of value enters into every transaction,
present or future, and is Of great inn
portance also as effecting the owners
valuation Of every possible description
Of property, while nearly all transac-
tions Of exchange can be, and in point
of fact are, made by representative form
Of money, such as notes, checks, bank
credits and clearing house credits.
Free coinage means, using the figures
offered when the average market price
quoted at the mint was 81 cents, that
anybody could take 81 cents worth Of
silver to the mint and obtain therefore
the money Of the United States to the
amount of $1.29, thereby making on
each ounce Of silver a profit Of 81
cents
The whole agitation is inspired by
gentlemen who are the owners OF silver
bullion worth GIL cents in the dollar,
which they propose to sell to the gov
eminent Of the United States for double
its market value. Has not the govern
ment done enough at your expense for
the owners Of silver, and is there any
reason why the owner Of silver should
be better treated than the owner Of iron
or Of farm products?
Let me test the honesty Of the propo-
sition of the silver men. Will they
agree that silver shall be admitted to
free coinage at the minis Of the United
States, but that the silver shall have
no legal tender, and shall pass only by
its bullion value? Will any silver man
agree to that? Every advocate Of the
gold standard asks no more for gold, for
the value that gold has is its value in
the markets Of the world while the
value which the silver dollar today has
is the value which the government OF
the United States gives to it because the
honor and credit of the United States
are pledged to the maintenance Of its
parity with gold.
The most important question before
the American people today is the
maintenance of the gold standard, for
there is nothing which so effects the
welfare of the working people, who are
the bone and sinew Of this country, as
the preservation Of the purchasing pow
er Of their wages. Under the free insti-
buttons Of this country the ballot has
been Entrusted to every man, rich or
poor, black or white. A reduction Of
the purchasing power Of wages is a
lowering of the manner Of living OF
the workingman.
Is it not worse than madness to under
take to degrade the great mass Of voters
to whom has been intrusted the per-
Torrance Of the grave duties which the
suffrage imposes, and upon whose right
performance depends the security OF ev-
cry dollar Of property and the safety Of
every individual in this country? That
is the vital question which underlies
any mere economical or pecuniary con-
sideration of this subject. We are in
duty bound to preserve the higher man.
hood Of the American workingman as
contrasted with that of the foreign work.
ingman. No policy can succeed whose
effect will Re to reduce the free and in
dependent workingman Of this country
to the level Of tho laborers in silver
standard countries