Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-04-29
DEADLY EFFECT
OF THE PROGRESSIVE AP-
PROBATION OF THE
MONEY UNIT.
General A. j. Warner Gives
Some Views on the Subject
Now Uppermost in I'M
pOrtance.

dJ uFeL view ltS connection WIFI the
destructive consequences that neces-
sarily flow from it.
III the consequences of an appre-
ciating money standard could be, or
were; seen and recognized by people
generally, such a standard would no
more be tolerated than a pestilence
that could be avoided. But the truth
is, few at first see or recognize the
effect OF such force upon the affairs
of life, and fewer still entirely COM
prehend its silent but all pervading
power.
! Indeed, without knowledge to
the fundamental laws of money, it is
difficult to fully understand the e&-
tent Of which the appreciation or de-
probation of the money unit effects
social conditions. But when the true
relation of money to the prices of
commodities, the wages of labor, and
to debts to be paid is understood,
then the consequence of such changes
become at once apparent, and when it
is understood that price is the value
of thing in money, and that gen
eral prices, or price levels, express
the relation between money and COM
modities; or more strictly, perhaps,
between money on the one side and
things to be bought and sold and
debts to be paid on the other, and
that necessarily as money appreci-
ates. or rises, other things go down,
while obligations to pay money for
most part remain unchanged, the
Disguise in which the evil is yelled is
no longer rimpenetrable, and the wide
spread injustice such condition en-
| tails is disclosed.
1t is now generally conceded that in the
| last twenty five years the relation between
| money and commodities generally has uu-
derpone change expressed by an increase
of at least 100 per cent. in the value of mon
| ey and a corresponding fall of 80 per cent.
| in the prices of commodities and of proper
| ty generally. other than money aud money
securities. Such a change in a quarter of a
century is without PARALLEL in all history.
Changes in the value of money there have
been, due to increase in volume. but never
| before 80 rapid as during the last quarter of
this century; and never before with world
debts to be thereby affected anything like
80 general or of soch magnitude as now.
Who can conc i've the extent of the trans
fer of wealth from those who created it, or
formerly held il, to those who are in posi-
ton to command it in satisfaction of mon
ey obligations, enhanced in valne to the ex-
tent that money has appreciated? The
ightest inspection of such force Is enough
t. show that but a brief period would be
required to transfer to few hands. by this
agency alone, the bulk of the wealth of the
world. 1t is impossible to conceive OF
power for wrong at once so subtle, so po-
tent, and SO ll-pervading as that which
springs from the appreciation of the money
unit. If all weights and all measures should
by some occult process be m ade to undergo
a continual augmentation in length. volume
or weight, with no compensating off act, the
effect such variations would have in the dis
tribution of wealth can easily be imagined;
but the disastrous consequences Of such
changes would fall short of those that follow
the continual appreciation of the money
unit.
1t is impossible, while such conditions
exist, for equity to prevail in the dealings of
men. In fact, under such conditions Justice
is essentially banished from the world! No
amends can be made for wrong so radical.
Professor Fisher, of Ya'e college in long
and labored paper, has undertaken to show
that this evil is compensated by reduction
in interest. While it ia not denied that a
reduction in inte, est affords some measure
of compensation, many things, as taxes and
fixed charges generally, are not affec ed by
reduct on OF interest. Moreover, the pro.
I6sbOT ldllS W cStdOlIsi duy
compensating connection between rise OF
money and reduction of interest.
The average rate of increase 10 the value
of money since 1873 has been more than 4
per cent per aunum. With debts amounting
to Thousands of millions, if there we're no
interest at all; twice the quantity of COM
modities must now be set off to balance the
money obligations oftwenty years ago that
otherwise would have been required. What
Eba ta infa ha To
the rate of appreciation must be added to
it, to find the true increase in the power of
an apprectating money.
How long can civilization stand against
force so tremendous, working prepetually
agsinst the right and for tae wrong? How
long ctn society, as now organized, continue
when the essential elements OF equality and
justice are destroyed? How long can insti-
tions based upon the foundation of equal
rights endure?
Surely the roo of all financial evil is the
continual appreciation of the money unit.
Nor can there be any other remedy than the
removal of the cause of the evil. Stop the
appreciation of money! lis deadly effect
can be overcome bv no countervailing
measures. Moth ng else will check the drift
of wealth to few hands, and with wealth !
concentrated in the hands of few, neither
a high state of civilization nor prosperous
condition of industry is possible. Of what |
avail, in the middle ages, with all the wealth |
in the hands of one million freemen, with |
twenty four millions of slaves, would an in |
dustrlal system have been that would have |
multiplied products for the million who |
owned the wealth? They could not sell to
81 yes. So now, of what avail to invent |
mechanical appliances and set more ma
chinery in motion to produce more for the |
five millions who are already oversuppl ed, |
after the other seventy-five million have be |
come SO impoverished that they cannot buy? |
Markets are made by people who can buy.
Prosperity will never come to our people |
by lifting few near the top higher up. 1t |
must come from the bottom up, not from |
the top down. The power to buy must be
increased by raising prices of what the mil |
lions have to sell, whether that be labor or |
the pre- ducts Of labor. The farmer, the |
producer aud consumer generally must be |
taken into the deal before prosperity will |
core 10 stay.
A high state OF industry, or high state of |
civilization, can exist only where wealth is |
widely distributed, The root of the disease
which threatens to sap the modern industrial |
world is the continual appreciation of the
money unit.
The most vital question, therefore, before
the civilized world, and especially for this
country, is how to stop the appreciation of
money and restore conditions under which |
equity can again prevail in the dealing of |
men. This can be done in one way, and one
way only; and that is by providing for mon
ey supply adequate to maintain practically |
stable relations between money and other |
things which money bays. A. j. WARNER.
THE criticism of the Supreme Court
by the Chicago platform Mortified |
national bankers, railroad magnates
and corporationistsg generally, and the
followers OF Bryan were called cranks
and anarchists; but since the same
court rendered its decision in the
Trans-Missouri Traffic Association,
decision which declares against