The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-09-18

freeing that In future the yard meas
IRE should consist of eighteen inches.
That would not hurt anybody particu-
larly. When you want certain guam
tity/ Of cloth you just order twice as
many yards as you order now, and you
pay about the same for 1t. Where ten
Yards would suffice under the present
measure you would order twenty yards,
and you would have just exactly the
same amount of cloth, and you would
probably pay exactly the same price for
1t. But, on the other hand, IL they
should increase the yard measure to
seventy-two inches, where you order
ten yards of cloth now you would order
five yards of cloth then, and you would
pay about the same for it, and you
would get exactly the same quantity
If cloth.
How tho Laborers Would Suffer.
Nobody would be hurt, further than
the disturbance in the measurements,
which would always be an inconven-
lence. But II you contracted debt for
ten yards of cloth with the existing
measurement, and before the cloth was
delivered the legislature of Illinois
should change the yard measure from
thirty-six inches to eighteen inches and
declare that all existing contracts
should be settled according to that
measure, then instead Of ten yards for
which you paid you would get five
Yards from the dealer, and you would
have been cheated by the law which
changed the contract you had made. If,
on the other hand, they provided that
the yard should consist Of seventy-two
inches and make the new measure ap-
plicable to existing contracts, why then
you would get twice as much cloth as
you had paid for and the cloth dealer
would have been cheated out of just
one-half the cloth which the law had
compelled him to deliver to you.
"The same thing is exactly true If
you change the standard of value by
which debts are measured. If man
owes you for labor, for goods, for any
thing of value, $50, and before that
debt became payable the government of
the United States debased the coinage
so that dollars would be worth one-half
what they are worth to-day, you would
be cheated out Of just one-half the debt
that was due you. And since every
laboring man is always a creditor for
week or two weeks or a months work,
and all the laborers of this country are
creditors every year to the amount of
over $2,000,000,000, a. fraud practiced
upon the creditors Of this country will
fall with the heaviest hand upon labor
ers and producers, who are always the
chief creditors.
why More Currency?
Now, Mr.. Bryan will tell you that it
is very necessary to increase the guam
tity of money, that you must have more
money, more dollars than are circulate
ing to-day. Well, don't exactly see
why. I would rather have one active
dollar than ten idle dollars. Just look
at the way money works according to
your own experience, my friends. Take
little village where the operations of
economic laws are plainly visible to
everybody, where the population is so
small that we all see just how every
man does his business. There you find,
for instance, that the railroad company
pays off it's men on Saturday night.
Those men go to the grocery store with
the dollars which have been paid to
them and settle their bills.
Next week the grocer pays freight
bill to that railroad, and that grocer
uses the same money which the rail-
road paid to the laborer and the labor
er paid to the grocer, and within an
other week that same money is paid out
to the laborer again, and it goes the
same road and comes back again, and
it is great deal better that the grocer
should need more freight and force the
railroad to employ more money and
men and make those dollars more act
i've than it would be to swell the cur
rency and leave the vaults of the treas
ury choking with unused money, while
trade is frightened from the market,
labor is unemployed, and business in
active.
When Mr.. Bryan tells you he wants
to reduce the value of a dollar, or he
wants to circulate cheaper dollar than
Is the standard of value in the country
to-day, does he tell you how we are
going to get any more dollars than we
are getting now? Does he propose that
these extra dollars which are to be
coined shall be taken to the steps of
the treasury at Washington and thrown
upon Pennsylvania avenue to be
scrambled for by the favorites who
happen to be in front of the building?
Does he propose to send few car loads
to Chicago in order to make the Fourth
Of July interesting by throwing their
contents through the streets of the city?
How are these extra dollars to be cir
culated without labor, unless they are
earned? And who is there who has ev-
er found scarcity of money when con-
fidence existed and credit was sound
and mon trusted IN tho honastv and