Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-05-22
Official Paper of County.
a Screed Upon Goldand Silver.


in the value of silver, measured in the
necessaries of life, since the time when
Judas Iscariot felt the touch of the
white metal on the hills above Cali
lee, and accepted the price of his
treachery. Falling markets, in gen
eral, have accompanied the falling
value of silver. Practically an ounce
of silver has always possessed the
same purchasing power, measured by
things which human needs require.
When silver has fallen in value the
price of work and of wheat and most
of the products of labor have fallen
correspondingly. In 1879 bushel of
wheat at tide water was worth $1.31.
AT that time one ounce of gold would
buy 15a ounces of silver worth $l.29.
Now wheat hovers close to the fifty
buy 30 ounces of silver. Following
out this line of comparison for twice
one thousand years, and it will be
found remarkably true that silver
that labor's reward is invariably
measured in the value of silver; that
when silver is debased and Inundated
labor suffers in like degree. Official
salaries, rents and interest charges,
however, usually remain fixed for a
certain period thereafter. For in
stance while silver was demonetized
% years ago, those debts which were
fixed by bond or other evidences con-
tinued to run their term at from to
10 per cent, requiring nearly if not
quite double the amount of property
to discharge the debt required at the
time it was made, proving loss to
the wage Garner, the farmer and the
laborer and corresponding gain to
the money lender.
While the relative values of gold
and silver have fiuctuated from time
to time since mankind has used them
as media of exchange, it will be
found as rule, only proven by slight
exceptions, that silver has continued
at an even level, as measured, not by
gold, but by what it would buy of al
those things we need. With oul
modern system of communication be-
tween far distant countries such vari-
ations as formerly existed between
the values Of the metals, are impos
sible. Marco Polo, q Venetian, who
flourished from 1854 to 1924, exchang
ed in southern China silver for golG
on the basis OF three parts of gold fol
one of silver, and on his return t.
Venice, from his travels exchanged
hisgold at the rate of fourteen O
silver for one of gold. By common
consent and by nearly all nations VI
to 1878, the relative value of the tw,
metals was indicated by the ratio o
15t to one. At about that date, sever
al of the great commercial countrie
of the world demonetized silver, thu
largely enhancing the value of gol'
and giving it an artificial value, an
at the same time throwing all tn
burdens of international balances an
deferred payments upon that meta
alone.
This artificial enhancement of tn
demand for gold has wonderful
stimulated the search for the yello,
metal throughout the entire world
and if the fabulous tales told of rio
gold fields discovered in the Births
and French Guineas; in South Amer
lea; in Mashonaland by the overthrow
of the Matabeles; in Colorado an
California, prove true, the result
would be an immense increase of tn
money of the country and an increas
in the price of labor and of all its pre-
ducts to such an extent that the me-
who now clamor for gold as onl
honest money would change the
base of argument and demand as the
did when the gold Of California we
discovered its characterization and e.
clusion from the minis. Banks an
money lenders and usurers of a
classes would then come TO regar
gold as they now do silver, as too il
consistent and uncertain base fc
values.
paramod prnnos,t,on-Its Sjpni