Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1896-05-12

welfare TO force a loan, from the
the people to a few silver miners
and bullion spectators and re-
ceive about half Of the amount in
silver and no promise to pay back
the other half. You may find
some difficulty in getting the
poor man and the laborer to see
bow it is going to benefit him
to receive half pay instead Of
full pay for his product or labor
by the l6 to free coinage patent.
But this you might explain
to him on the tenet that half a
loaf is better than no bread, and
that it would be pure selfishness
on his part to always insist upon
having whole loaf.
G. S. Ogren.
Gold aud silver have always
been used as money from time
immemorial. They no doubt were
used for that purpose because
their supply was limited, because
they were inde5tructable, and be-
cause they could not be manufact-
ured. Besides they were pretty
and people had taken a fancy to
them on account Of their beauty as
ornament, just as was the case
with the Indians and their Wam-
pun. For the information why
both metals have been used we
would advise you to consult the
first spiritualistic medium that
comes along who may have COM
municatiop with old Abraham or
any other CT our venerable ances
tors. We believe that it is a good
arrangement that there should be
one scarce metal for to form the
money OF the rich and a cheaper
and more plentiful metal to form
the money Of the poor.
Why they coined at the ratio
of l6 to | or any other ratio, was
was most likely because people
saw that the quantity Of silver
was about l6 times greater than
that Of gold. Besides gold being
prettier and scarcer people in
their fancy priced it higher. It
was all established by fancy.
For an instance a common farm
er, would not give $500 for a
diamond for his own use, while a
dude will give hundreds for it. The
same with old coins. Some per.
sons take a fancy to them and
and pay dollars for old coins that
iutrincically are not worth a
shilling. It is only fancy. The
diamond would not be worth any
thing if it was not for the fact
that there are fools in the world.
But, after gold and silver had
begun to be used as money and
civilization began to advance,
more and more, then the ratio Of
value, though based on fancy,
became very important; then the
metals had another function tc
perform besides adorn the ear OF
some proud Egyptian queen -
they gra l,lal|y, step by step, be-
came the legal tender of all ma
tons sThe life blood Of civiliza-
tion.' It is true that the coinage
ratio has been changed at differ.
ent times in the worlds history
but that it was done because of
a change in. the commercial ra.
ito is not necessarily true, 4
might have been done through
some scheme Of the moneyed men
or because the governments, wher
there was serious change il the
relative production, wished to
give one metal equal show with
the other in forming the standard
of money. In our issue OF Apri
4th1 we showed by history that thu
relative production has had M
bearing on the commercial ratio
which has always remained the
same the legal ratio ;:Sbutzit il
true, however, that the govern:
ments have triel. to keep the le.
gal ratio as=neao the lative sup,
ply as practical. ..: /.
You spaak Of q double stand
ard two measures etc. e sim.
ply refer Oh to history # for
some reason one dollar gets dear
er than the other we don t have
two differ ent measlres but the
dearer simp = goes. ous ofs ciircu-
lation, as was the case between
1884 and 1873 il this IS eountrJ
Erhe great pr'ii1ncip le q bimet=