Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-09-17
AN OREGON BOY.
CONTINUED from second page

that prosperity always goes with ri.
ing prices Of products and labo,
y When L went to Utah nearly twent
years ago, Salt Lake was dead. moth
ing was doing, labor was unemploved
carpenters were getting 81 80 per da,
when they could get anything. Thi
continued until the Bland Alliso,
bill WAS passed when everythin,
sprang Into life, prices advanced or
all products, and times remained poot
until 1913 OF course Utah is a silver
producing country, but the effect
went much further than the silye,
states, for the money went forth into
the world. l know 1t Is argued that
silver went steadily down, but what
could be more natural. Gold being
the only real money we had, must ap.
preciate, and especially so, when a
time comes for demanding payment ot
debts The question Of debts brings
up that other question OF repuda.
tion. A man asked me the other day
II L thought it was right to pay debt
in deprecated money. | answered by
asking him another question: Suppose
you borrowed $500 Of me three Years
ago when money was easy, and prop
erty high, and now l could take that
money and buy twice as much food,
twice as much clothing, twice as
many cows or horses, would it be NOR
ally right for me TO enforce the full
collection Of the note with full inter-
est? Would | not really be as well of
as | was then if were paid in soc.
dollars? Or, suppose l had bought a
piece Of land with that $500 instead OF
loaning it to you, and now could get
no more than $3.50 for it, you would go
around sniveling about "man's lnhu-
manity TO man" You talk about
money as If it were something sacred.
Why shouldn't it fluctuate in value
the same as other products? / said if
you were q farmer struggling to get
on and came to me to borrow some
seed wheat, and wheat was only soc.
per bushel, and you promised to me
the same number of bushels the next
year with ten per cent added for in
terest, and the next year your crop
was short and the price Of wheat was
81 90 per bushel would it be morally
right for me to exact the same num-
Der Of bushels l loaned you, with in
tereSt, when on account of a short
crop you could less afford to spare it?
Why should not men who deal in
money be subject to the same disast-
ers that men are who deal in the prod
ucts produced by toll and privations?
Is the money changer so much better
than the wheat grower, that his as
sets must be guarded against any pos
sibility of loss?
~ thought of you philosophic, just,
humanitarian, and wondered how you
would feel today collecting-frOm-
when perhaps it would take his whole
possessions to raise the money, and l
thought of the thousands, whose fates
have been the same, and to save my
life l could not weep over the pros
poets Of repudiating debts. Espec-
Tally was this true, when l remem-
bsred that large portion of our gov
ernment bonds was bought with green
backs, which we're originally bought
up by speculators us 40 cents on the
dollar. What an unholy horror it
would be for those poor fellows to be
paid in silver.
president Diaz OF Mexico says his
country has been wonderfully bene-
fitted by a silver standard; says it has
acted as a high protection tariff.
And when / reflect that silver stand
ard would give us all the trade Of
South and Central America,
and all Asia, as against Europe, l am
to take the risk. l can under
SId1u bIlAU SOLhO Vi OUA pSNPAN ''NA
suffer some loss. No radical change
can come without loss to some.
When our fields are dying of thirst,
heavy rain, which is boon to most,
will almost always prove a loss to
some.
"In the first place, / couldn't quite
reconcile myself to 60 out Of the Re-
publican ranks. l have always
Bhought they were the nearest right,
and of a higher moral and intellectual
type, possessing more of the reforma-
tory element; but my examination in
70 the money question leads me to ac-
,ept the free coinage of silver, as
partial remedy for existing evils, and
/ am in a state of mind now to be,
Ieve that a ratio that will stand
against the invasion of the money