New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-07-21
A TALK ON FINANCE.
WILLIAM c. REDFIELD MAKES AN AID
DRESS ON SOUND MONEY"
WORK OF THE NEIGIIBoRHooD GUILD AssocIA-
TON IN EDUCATING THE PEOPLE
OTHER TALKS TO FOLLOW.


OTHER TALKS TO FOLLOW
The Neighborhood Guild Association. OF Brooklyn.
an ofrshoot OF Maxwell House. Is doing much In
the way OF educating the people in the neighborhood
OF the Navy Yard 1t has rooms at No. ~ Navy-st..
where the different clubs hold their meetings on
different evenings OF the week. The mems club Is
the most important Of these organiza lions.
Usually during the summer their meetings every
Monday evening have been entirely OF social
nature This year. however. they have decided TO
have once month. talk by some leading cit
izen on important social and economical problems
Of the day The first one OF these talks was given
by William C. R4dheld. president OF the Brook
lyn League O.. Loyal Citizens. ast evening. The
subject was Sound Money" These talks are not
to be- Of a political nature. but are merely given
for the purpose OF informing these people AROUND
the Navy Yard OF the facts and history OF the lead
ing problems Of the day. Mr.. Retheld's talk was
entirely OF this nature. and contained no partisan
aliuson In the way of Introduction he said:
We meet 10 discuss in a friendly fashion one oil
the most important subjects that can come prtole
any people the important subject now before
the American people. The question is what our
money shall be. Let us consider TINS W,mo1t par IN
which every one Of us has deep personal interest.
We must all Use money. and there is no one mere
money shall be the best money to be had H. how
there IS any one TO wnom II Is Tec,as w rh
has very little Of 1t. The man who mas many 1o
lars, great many dollars can d. onot On ' mas
onIy a very few dollars When man has to make
every cent n dollar go to rs umos en ,or nm geo to
have a dollar which shall have tull value ana De
worth in exchange for bread ana nea Rss sI how
ever there is no difference between the interests
Of oct ne so rS wnm a th nI best that can
A great many years ago-centuries a.o-tnere
S Sa' p@6 of an
Other. This barter. which existed chiefly, before
venient that naturally people looked 'out ~
And some one thing or some few things that ev-
body wanted o OR when thew Wished TO sell or give in
exchange for what they wished TO buy. ana .nIs
thing things that are thus by common s con,
s SEN or bn commodites-is money There are
many kinds Of moneysome SGoa soma enS and even
sea-shells have been used as money. untli, as tne
result OF years OF experience the pTSr srs sbstan
tally the only money used by civilized people.
substantially because .' yn, w probably
ask me II paper money is not used here ana Use Use,
where more than no fo, real Or money at all only the
promise to pay money. and II that promise cshn nov
no ner money becomes worthless. and II some day
YOU lose all your faith in it, 1t Is worth just paper
NJ BEFORE looking at the financial history OF ms
country let got two or three suo al
ferent things There is always much more proper
much more wealth in nation than mere i IL oy
and !, a"ay nre Wealth in real estate in NewYork
State alone than there Is money or IN than thirty
tines az much property In the country In the shape
Of real estate as sd there 5sa Is s macy am sorry to say
about debtor Glasses and creditor classes a DIS,
as is supposed workingman owe his grocer
or baker or tailor for things he has bought OF MN
on the other hand. he Is creditor OF his empoyer
who him the wages that he mus, pay pay w svsIy
,berefore every workngman is creditor as well
as debtor The baker who bakes your bread is
he is debtor 10 his own Iaborers ana 10 the mrr-
chants from whom he bought -four The farmer his Is
a debtor to the man who has mortgage on ms us
farm. but he is creditor OF the man TO- 70, whom ne
sells his wheat and he has SAVED t the,
Probab Div the largest debtors In this country are
the banks but the money they lend does not
belong to the bank They owe every dollar of It TO
what they call capital stock but dollar OF
this they their, stockholders. and they owe
When this century opened say 100 years ago
every civilized nation was on silver basis the
standa rd Of It's money a silver standard. Now
nearly every civilized nation, all the great nations
least the gold standard Russia and r Ags ,un
and hard TO use the double standard to keep silver
and gold alongside Of each other but having f8und
M silver and kept to gold What, now. has been
the experience OF our own country?
Mr. Redheld then went on to show how the opera
ton OF Crs~shams law had caused the long con-
tinuance OF the double standard. He gave history
of coinage from It's beginning dealing with the al
legged crime OF 1873 He explained the so-called de-
monetization Of silver showing how silver had
been coined since 1873 than before. in spite OF the
demons cation. He showed how the alleged depre-
citation OF gold compared with facts and told OF the
greatly enlarged supply OF gold In recent years He
explained the proposals Of the silver men. showed
what l6 10 / meant. and pointed out the fact that
the real ratio at present should be 80 10 l. He talked
OF the present prices in commodities and wages; OF
the alleged independence OF Europe Of America, and
Of the effect which free coinage would have on the
Nation He then took up the history OF gold. and
told what the gold standard had done for the country
in years past. and showed that the gold policy Is not
n british policy but the policy OF civilization and
therefore OF America.