The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-21
ABOUT THE VALUE OF A MAN
SECOND IN REV. DE. J. LEE MIToH-
 ELL's SERIES OF SERMONS.

Asingle Standard Composed ofTwo Metals | Impossible-what Silver Coinage Pro Effect of Free Silver on Capitalist and | Wage Earner-Reasons for the Large Free Trade Vote in 1s02-"The Trouble | With MT. Bryan's Mind is That it Arrives Before It Gets There" Rev. Dr. J. Lee Mitchell, pastor of Grand avenue church, preached at his church last evening the second of a series of three sermons, the first of which was delivered week ago. The subject of last evenings discourse as "The Value of Man." and the text was, Fec. V, 10: He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver" The sermon was in full as follows:
 Tt is tolerably obvious that you can not have single standard composed of two metals any more than you can say mile is a mile because 1t is called a mile and then leave man his choice whether it shall be a Scotch mile or an English one The grocer would hardly succeed who bought goods by avoirdu- pois weight and sold them by Trey weight. It would not avail him much to say, Why, both are legal pounds
 It is possible enough, however, to have double standard of weights and measures because a perfectly definite relation can be determined between them, and that relation once determin- ed never varies. There never would be anything dishonest or disturbing to business in introducing the metric sys- tenn as the standard in the United States or in using both systems, be- cause the relation between them never varies. But suppose a metre was liable to be 39 inches to-day and 19 inches the first Of January? In the first place it wouldn't do for standard at all and Tn the next place you never could fix it's relation to the other standards. You cannot have two standards composed one of gold and one of silver because if you fixed the relation between them 1t wouldn't stay fixed one day, and the minute one metals was worth less than the other it would drive the other out. The relation between gold and silver is not like that between a balloon and its car, rising and falling always at the same relative distance from each other, but more like that between a kite and its tail, sometimes the tail hangs straight down. sometimes it's floats along beside the kite, and sometimes it is on top of the kite.
 Silver and gold are both maintained in circulation by the United States by making silver the equal of gold by law, and then so restricting the coinage that the government can keep it's word The silver dollar is not fiat dollar, l. e., a dollar only because the govern ment says so, because point often overlooked-the government holds in reserve the seigniorage i. e., the differ ence between the actual value of a sil- Yer dollar and it's nominal value. The silver dollar itself is only worth 53 cents, but there Is back of it A cents more in the vaults of the treasury uncoined bullion, and congress to it's honor has steadily refused to coin that bullion, declaring it was always af1oat in the silver dollar. You can take silver dollar to the United States treasury to- day and they will give you that other AT cents if you want it. They won t whittle you off AZ cents worth of silver bullion, but they will accept your sil- yer dollar as the full equivalent of a gold dollar Both in theory and prac- tice it has been possible in this coun- ci tbn nf ments to exchange silver for gold, the moment it is not so possible We have really, whatever we may say, two standards of value and must accord ingly have two prices for all things from potatoes to loans. Free silver coinage proposes to ignore the differ ence in actual value of silver and gold as though 1t could make the earth turn back and the moon stand still and make the silver dollar whatever it's value happens to be, with no seig- norage or government pledge back o1 1t, legal tender, for any obligation public or private, not specifying gold Indeed, only the courts stands between that party and the ignoring of gold contracts.
 ''TIow will this effect the wage earn CT, the price of which man can com mand for himself?
 ''The relation in which most of us stand to the material world is mainly that of wage-earners. The great ma. jority of this congregation are alsc capitalists to a greater or less extent You have money deposited in savings banks or invested in a house, or il some of our conservative New Haver stock companies, or in life insurance Everybody understands that if thu principles represented by MT. Bryar should previal s100 in the savings banl could be taken out at the present price of silver only $53, and as was showr last night that price might rise some what, but to nothing like s100. Thert can be but one reason that men art not going to savings banks now, not withstanding their deposits, and quiet iy getting the money into gold certi ficates and greenbacks, and that reasol is that they don't believe this countr. will ever commit the supreme foll! of electing MT Bryan. The west itsel is having fun talking because it know 1t will never have to back up it's talk There are 50, 900 men talking free silve
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