Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-10-29

he III that 1t would bring more mis-
cry to humanity than all the wars,
famines and pestilences that the world
had ever known.
The gold Democrats say that they
will give US an "elastic bank cur
rency.n There is no hope in that, be-
cause the bankers would control the
volume of money in their interest and
not in the interest of the people.
The Republican party offers more
taxes and less money, unless we can
carry a free silver bill through Con-
gress and every other law-making
body on the face of the earth. The
hope of securing international blmet-
allism is as baseless as the fabric OF a
vision.
Now you see the gold dollar is a
dishonest dollar, a changful dollar,
one that is changing every day, and
every change making it dearer and
dearer.
The Democracy proposes to stop
that change. 1t proposes to stop the
appalling contraction by putting sill
ver money into circulation and by in
creasing the supply of money-take
out some of its purchasing power that
has been given to it in the last twenty
years. 1t intends to make it honest.
They say that if we coin silver we
will degrade the nation and ruin the
people. We tried it for 81 years, from
1892 to 1s73-S1 years-and we pros
pered under it, and if that which gave
us prosperity for 81 years will now
give Us ruin, we would like to know
why.
They say we cannot coin silver, be-
cause silver bullion, when not used
for money, is not worth as much as
the gold bullion when gold is used as
money. Value is human estimation
placed on something, the quantity of
which is limited. The production of
silver is limited and it's value will rise
fall just as the. people estimate OF
decry it.
They say law cannot create value,
but viii they deny that 80 DON as the
makes anything a legal
tender for debts it gives to the thing SO
invested with legal tender qualities a
value equal to the value of all the
debts in the country.
Law can create value, not simply by
saying a thing has value, but by
creating a new use for it. To say
that every bushel of wheat should sell
for a dollar would not perhaps affect
it's price, but if the law says that after
wheat is measured by the Govern
ment, and the correct weight labeled
upon it, a bushel of wheat will pay a
dollars worth of debt, Immediately
wheat would 60 to a dollar. So with
silver; make it legal tender for debts
and stand 3714 grains of it, and make
it legal tender, and the value at once
rises, because there is a constant de-
mand for money to pay debts and
there is 20 billions of debts in the
country. II the silver in the silver
dollar could be bought for So cents,
then every debtor would buy it. All
the debtors of the country would be
bidding, n against the other, for
silver, and this bidding would con-
tinue SO long as there could be a cent
made at it and would stop only when
the silver dollar became as valuable
as gold. The scramble for silver is
an increased demand and an ~increas-
ed demand means an increased value.
While everybody vas hunting silver
only afew would be seeking gold, and
the decreased demand for gold would
cause gold to fall and the increased
demand for silver would cause it to
rise and the one falling and the other
would meet at 16 to 1 and be
indissolubly knit together, and be of
equal exchangeable value, and give
to the country, not the sky-rocket
dollar of gold, but an honest dollar
one of lees purchasing power, but un-
changeless and honest.