The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-05-08
MONETARY RASCALITY.
Appalling Effects of Shrinking Ysr1.
sticks and Gallon Measures.

Appalling Effects of Shrinking Ysr4
sticks ard Gallon Measures.
care We a Nation of Rascals?' is
the title of an article by John F.
Hume in the American Magazine of
Civics, treating the silver controversy
from the standard point of honest
money. After an exordium emphasize
ing the commercial importance of
honest money, Mr.. Hume paints q
humorous picture of the dismay that
would be caused by ''a sudden shrink
age of all the yardsticks of the coun-
try" The lady who had purchased
and paid for goods supposed to be
sufficient for complete suit Of fash
ionable construction would find that
she had barely enough material for .
modern bloomer costume, and the
gentleman doing the same thing would
be forced to put up with knicker-
booker pantaloons and q coat IN
adorned with tails. The housewife
who had bought carpets for her floors
would have half the boards uncovered
when her order was filled.
And so in other things. If the
gallon measures we're suddenly con.
tracted from four quarts to two, and
the quart from two pints to one; or.
turning to matters of avoirdupois, If
all the pound and pennyweights in our
markets shriveled until they would
only provide us with half the usual
quantity of fish, or beefsteak. or
sugar, or salt, or tea, we bad been
accustomed to get for our money. the
effect would be appalling. Nine
tenths of our families would be re.
duced to half rations. And what an
outcry there would be! Thousands of
voices would be raised in denuncia-
ton of the change.
s'Now," continues Mr.. Hume, "our
yardsticks, our weights and other
regulators in buying and selling are
made of money. If not exactly COM
posed of the same materials, their
measuring capacity is determined by
its purchasing power. We can change
every one of them to all iutents and
purposes, by merely changing the
standard-that is, the value-of our
currency.
"But would anyone in all our broad
land be rascally enough, it may be
asked, to seek to SO contract our
measuring standards-our yardsticke,
etc.-that they would only give Us
half the values for which we had been
contracting and paying? Even so, it
must be admitted. That is the very
thing proposed by large aud inauen-
tial portions of our countrymen, who
are led in the movement they are urg-
ing to that end by men that are promi-
nent in public life, and who call
themselves statesmen and economists.
They are seeking to bring about the
change suggested by revolutionizing
the money standard of the country
by substituting 80 per cent. silver for
100 per cent. gold. That is the effect
which the success of their policy would
involve"
Mr.. Hum concludes his article thus !:
"While there are unquestionably
some points in connection with this
currency business about which there
may be honest differences OF opinion,
mainly owing to the positions held by
different observers, there is one thing
we can all depend upon. If we attempt
to impose upon the country and the
world a currency graduated at ratio
that does not represent real values.
and thus seek to cheat them in the
operation; if We so arrange matters
that the bond made payable in gold,
which the rich and crafty capitalist
holds, shall be worth par in the market,
while the farm mortgage, made paya'
BILE in current funds, in which the
humble and inexperienced citizen has
invested his or her savings, shall be
worth but half as much; if we frame
our laws so that the wealthy bankers
boarded gold shall be doubled in pre-
ductive power, while the pittance
which the wage Garner receives shall
proportionately shrink in its buying
capacity and, above all, with the full
knowledge of the fact that the worst
of all governors and governments
have been those that have sought to
corrupt and debase the money of the
realm, and with eyes wide open to the
consequences involved, we go to work
to unsettle the foundations of public
credit by setting up monetary stan.
dard that on its face would be q lie,
the concensus of the worlds conclu.
sions must be that we are nation OF
rascals.