The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1896-09-12
SILVER and PROSPERITY.
Why FREE COINAGE AT 16 TO !
WILL BRING BETTER TIMES.

Prices of Comm ODDITIES Would Go Up,
Farmers Would Prosper and Idle
q Factories Would Resume Work
s-Goldbus Arguments Answered.
I'll the Democrats are successful"
declare Republicans, There will be
widespread ruin. A panic worse than
any recorded in history will ensue,
and the suffering OF the people will be
appal!ins.' Asked to explain, to give
reasons FOR such dismal view OF the
future of this country, the inquirer
will be met with statements contain
ing the tounaationless declaration
that free coinage will dcpreclate the
currency, cause wholesale debt repn'
diation, loss of confidence abroad,
and the return to this country OF Sc
curties payable in gold; and that the
demand for gold will bankrupt the
country. That is, OF course. q picture
OF dire calamity. But ask for the
proofs, the data that make this con-
c!usion reasonable one. The Republi
can, if he has read the newspapers Of
his party and gold literature, will i'm.
lnediately begin to pirate about eff.
ty cent" dollar.
Let us lock into this basic argument
Of the Republican party against free
silver. What is the gold dollar to.
day? Measured in gold it is worth 100
cents. What is it measured in silver
of in other commodities: 10 do that
will seem, to the gold standard man,
an impossibility. But get right down
to the fundamental principles that
nnderlie the use OF gold and silver as
money. The gold man will claim tnat
his metal is the natural standard ne.
cause OF its intrinsic value. Its in
tlinsic value is so much per ounce, and
it never Huctuates. As soon as al in
dependent investigator makes the
economic fact clear to himself that
there is no such thing as intrinsic
value he is on the road to becoming
al ardent patriot, supporter Of Bry.
an and Sewall.
There is no such thing as intrinsic
value. Jevon, a gold man; Ricardo,
John Stuart Mill, Prof. Francis A.
Walker, all men of world renown as
political economists, declare that value
arises out OF the relations that exist be-
tween things, and that It cannot be
intrinsic. Intrinsic quality IS posi-
BILE, because quality is fixed, but value
is only fixed by supply and demand,
variable things. Thus gold has no in
trinsic value. If placed alongside the
other products of the earth it would
show as does wheat, corn, oats, cot.
ton, silver, fluctuations according to
the supply and demand. But gold has
been specially chosen by Governments
as unit of value, and an enormous
artificial demand for it has thus been
created. In this way silver, the other
money metal OF the Constitution, has
been Disseminated against, and the
money supply Of this country, and the
Governments and Nations OF Europe,
has been limited to material that is
vastly inadequate to supply the de-
mands of trade.
Has this greatdemanl for gold affect
ed it's value? The gold man will say
no! He will declare that gold dollar
Is dollar, and that as bullion the
metal will exchange in any country in
Europe for the value intrinsically in
the metal. Place gold, it's supply for
the last twenty years, alongside Of sill
yer, wheat and cotton and corn, and it
will be seen thai the average supply
was of not a sufficient difference to
have affected the comparative value
under natural conditions. Why is it
then that while gold has remained NJ
its stamped value, the other commodi-
ties have fallen, or has gold risen in
purchasing value, and have the COM
modities remained at the regular prices
created by supply and demand? Has
there been an overproduction OF wheat,
corn or cotton? Has there been an
overproduction of silver? What has
caused the seeming fall in prices, or
has there been fall in prices. What
is the fact?
Gold has appreciated! Since 1874
it has appreciated between forty and
fifty ner cent. Il will to-day com.