Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-07-03
Official Paper of County.
Money Of the Highest Purchasing
Power"

luelr dTSuu1eul ny udy uuu lu6lI
dream by night. We must have mon
ey of the highest purchasing power"
In an interview last spring (see the
Globe-Democra of March 2S) John
Sherman said:
mo one ca n misunderstood my po
sition on the money question. ia
vor the gold standard, now adopted
by all the leading nations of Europe,
and the use of limited amount of
silver coin maintained, as now, at par
with gold. This policy secures to Ia
borers and producers money of the
highest purchasing power for their
productions"
We accept that as authoritative
that the gold standard is advocated
because it makes money of the
highest purchasing power. This is
the kind of money Mr.. Sherman says
the gold standard secures, and that it
secures that kind of money to "labor-
ers and producers"
Right here we wish to meet Mr..
Sherman and all other advocates of
the gold standard. In the first place,
gentlemen, you will admit that labor
ers and producers constitute the far
larger portion of our population In
the second place, you will admit that
the legitimate purpose of government
is to secure the greatest good to the
greatest number. In the third place,
we join you in your own proposition
that the gold standard Secures
money of the highest purchasing
power.''
Now, then. The laborers and pro-
ducers are the greatest in number
Their greatest good cannot be attain
ed without money. They have not
money to buy things until they have
sold things, and the only things they
have to sell is their labor and its
products. They otherwise have no
money, and cannot buy with money
of high or low purchasing power,
until they have sold some of their
labor or products for the money.
Bear in mind that they must sell
before they can buy. If the money
is OF the highest purchasing power"
it will purchase more of the labor
and its products. won't it? Selling a
given amount of products, therefore
which costs just BIS much labor as
formerly. the producer will not get
30 much money as he did before the
gold standard secured money Of the
highest purchasing power" now vii
he2 Then is not the laborer and pro
ducer directly injured by the gold
standard, and his greatest good pre-
vented?
But when he gets the money, il
will buy 80 much more than 1T die
before?
We know that is what you say, bu1
OF what will it buy SO much more?
business calls him to the city, he pay
three cents mile car fare, tn g SAM
he paid twenty years ago. If he stop
at hotel his bill is the same that i
was before-he can get CHEAP far
now and he could then. If he get
shaved he pays 10 cents, the same q
he did before; if hair cut, 25 cents
the same as he did before. If he take
his children to see the circus (there i
nothing there he cares to see himself
he pays 80 cents, the same that h
paid when he was boy. If he send
a son or a daughter to college, tuitio
and books are the same as they wer
before. If an obliging Santa Clau
happens to leave baby III the hous
cnnthinr oncfc 1,o hot
did before. If he gets into troubl
and into court, the costs and fees ar
much the same as they were before
IT he buys home the deed costs tn
same it did before, and SO does the r.
cording of it. Some things al
cheaper, we allow, but not at all
proportion to the loss in sales he mu!
sustain through the gold standar
which secures money of the highes
purchasing power" The things thu
are cheaper are invariably the pr,
duct of somebody's labor. Meal
while how stands it in the other co
umn. Every debt he owed demand
as many dollars as it did before; It'll
interest rate exactly as many cent
the tax receipt is just as high, and 9
fetal salaries remain the same.
have actually been increased.
We come, therefore, to this concl
sion, that the gold standard, whie
secures "money of the highest pu
chasing power" is ruin to lahore
and producers, because they are ne
eesarily sellers more than they al
purchasers, and as these constitu
the greatest number of a country
population, the government TIL
adopts the gold standard misses i
legitimate purpose and ceases to me
it the support of its subjects. That
perhaps hard saying, but if our a
gument is legitimate and fair, and
it does not logically lead to that co
clusion, then we stand ready to co
fess our error, and we will thar
Senator Sherman, or any one else
point out the defect in our course
reasoning.
On the other hand the gold stan
ard, which secures money of tt
highest purchasing power" increas
the wealth of the money owner in e
act proportion as it increases the pu
chasing power of the money, becau