The climax. [volume] (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1887-1897, 1896-10-21
FACTS ABOUT FINANCES.

stitute the producing class get to under
stand how the lack of sufficient volume
OF circulating money has affected the |
prices of that which they produce, and |
thereby their prosperity; if they get to |
understand how the lack of a sufficient |
volume of circulating money increases
the debts which they owe by requiring
more of everything they produce to OBJ
tain money that is scarce with which to
pay those debts, no honeyed tongue lisp
ing sound money nor the terror OF such
words as Anarchist, Repudiator and the
like can make them vote for gold stand
ard. But from the kind of information
that SO many receive it must be very
difficult to form very clear ideas of the
merits of a question that is of such real
Importance to them. Few men stop to
consider what is money. Why it is nee
essary. What it docs. How much of it
the people OF the country need, or the
world needs. Whether there is enough
of il. How much more is needed, or if
more is needed, how to get more of it in
existence. Each man is generally think
ing of what he can get for himsel to-day
and does not care to study these ques
tions any more than the theory of tie
circulation of the blood. But the condi-
tons to-day in our country are not unlike
that of a man who might eat enough to
support a tape-worm and not make
enough blood to keep himself warm.
Does it stand TO reason, as some one has
suggested, that the bankers know better
how to diagnose this trouble than any
one else can know? If so, why? Does
the adding up of figures, writing of drafts
bills of exchange, etc, loaning money
and again squeezing money out of the
unfortunate, give banker broader views
of the needs of his country, or larger
ideas of what is the greatest good to the
greatest number? By no means. Does
it also stand to reasen that bankers and
those who have invested interests bring
ing in fixed returns, if they do know
enough to know how a particular ffan.
cial system, how scarce volu1 of cir
culating money benefits them al Tbe ex-
pense of the great majority Of heir fel.
Ihy', ana CO.. Be will be SO magnani-
nous as to advise that such system be
abolished and suggest a better one? Can
the people repose confidence in the rep
resentatives of great corporations who
profess TO be more interested in the well
fare OF the people and the laboring man
than their own? Can they trust the ed
itors of the great newspapers, all of which
are now run as stock companies, to write
their honest thoughts of what is best for
the people? Is not the editorial column
controlled and directed by the business
management, or, in other words, by the
stockholders OF the company When
large stock company paper like the
Courier-Journal, whose editor Henry
Watterson was supposed by great many
people not only to run the whole of the
paper but to write everything in it, when
such paper now teaches that which is
in every way opposed to what it taught
ten years are and denounces those, who
still believe in those teachings which
they learned from it ten years ago, as
being dishonest, repudiators, silver
cranks and anarchists, is it possible for
any one not to have some doubts as to
the honesty or the intelligence of that
paper? Is it not a lame sort of defense
to claim that those editorials were writ
ten by one who afterward became crazy
Was Mr.. WattersOn crazy when he urged
upon the convention that nominated
for Governor, Simon Bolivar Buckner
and that was presided over by John G.
Carlisle, "the re-assertion of each Of the
old time honored doctrines that has any
bearing upon the present state of public
affairs; the needful limitations of Federal
power; the unimpaired rights of the
states; the money of the constitution ex-
pressed in gold and silver and paper con-
vertible into coin upon demand" These
words were spoken only ten years ago
and are at this moment taken from an
old Courier-Journal pasted in scrap
book. Is Mr.. Watterson now taking a
course of treatment, in a lunatic asylum
in Switzerland for having spoken these
words? Did any one of the Courier
Journal or any one in the State OF Ken
lucky then admonish him for having ut.
tered such damnable heresy for having
declared in favor of a doctrine that was
infamous, dishonest, reputation itself
and which would shake the foundations
of the Government? Did any one for
the Courier-Journal or for Mr.. Waiter
son ever state in these latter days that
contrary views of what is the money of
the constitution had been entertained by
them ten years ago, or that they had
found those views to be incorrect or false
and therefore abandoned them? Not
much. They were exposed to the public
before they would be made to confess it.
Therefore, let every one this year do a
little thinking for himself instead of fol-
lowing these irresponsible, self-cohstitu-
ted leaders who assume as labor of love
to do the thinking for the people of this
country. There have been great men
who have studied the questions of finan-
ces as the astronomers do the stars.
These men are called economists. II
you will consult the writings of the fore
most economists for the past 200 years
you will find that they all agree on this
point at least that universal gold
standard is absolutely undesirable. The
reason is plain. There is not enough gold.
They also agree as to the functions of
money being to facilitate exchanges, to
measure values of commodities and TO
determine present values of debts paya-
BILE in the future. They also agree that
the value OF money is different from
what is termed the commercial or rate of
interest it commands. They agree that
by the value of money is to be under
stood its exchange value: what dollar
will exchange for in commodities or its
value in the payment of future obliga-
tiou. The so-called sonnd money. bald
headed, silk hat men of to-day who as
sumo to themselves all the wisdom and