Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-07-23

now have dollar, We would then have
a hundred, but it would all be honest
money because if you melted it it
would not lose anything. have only
multiplied and divided by hundred.
I might multiply and divide by
thousand or q million, or a billion, be-
cause, according to the meltlng-pot
test, it does not matter whether YOU
have one dollar in circulation or q
million or billion, just so it can be
melted without loss, it is honest money.
Let me give you my definition of an
honest dollar. and trust this defini-
ton will be placed against the goldbug
definition, and l am willing to test
our system by the definitions. If their
definition is sound, then, my friends,
my definition is not good; if ours is
sound, then theirs is not good. What
is the definition of an honest dollar?
NY definition of an honest dollar is
this: A dollar whose average pur-
chasing power is the same yesterday,
to-day and forever. And that is the
only honest dollar there ever was or
ever can be. The dollar which rises
in purchasing power is just as dishon-
est as the dollar which falls. The
only difference is that different per-
son is hurt by it. If dollar rises in
purchasing power, it helps the credit
or. If a dollar falls in purchasing
power it hurts the creditor. Why has
the gold dollar been called an honest
dollar? Because the financial classes
and the creditor classes have coined
our definitions and they have declared
that to be honest which grows fat,
while the people grow lean.
"Now, l am aware that my defini-
ton makes it difficult to secure an alb
solutely honest dollar. You tell me
that you do not know of any way in
which the purchasing power of the
dollar can be maintained year after
year at exactly the same position. I
admit it. I do not know of any way,
either, but my friends, am also aware
that the works of human hands are
never perfect; and the dollar is the
work of human hands, and if we can.
not reach perfection, we are not any
the less required to approach it as
nearly as possible. And when l tell
you that l know of no way of securing
a dollar absolutely honest, also tell
you that it is our duty to reach as
nearly to absolute honesty as human
intelligence can do. The poet has
said that the honest man is the noblest
work of God, and l add to it the de-
clarations that an honest dollar will
be the noblest work of man. if we get it.
81 have sometimes been criticised
because admitted that did not ex-
pect to see an absolutely honest dollar,
but feel about it as the man down in
Mississippi did. He was q candidate
for Office, or rather a friend of his was;
and this friend prepared o petition,
took it around for his friends to sign,
describing his good qualities, and urg-
ing him to become candidate for
certain Office. His friends generally
signed it, but finally he came to one
man more cautious than the rest, and
this man read the petition over and
told him he would sign it if he would
allow him to change one word.
WELL he says, what word do you
want to changer His reply was !:
You describe yourself as strictly hon
est. If you will let me scratch out
strictly and put in tolerably,' will
sign it,
Now, that is the way feel about it.
l would like to have strictly honest
dollar, but if we could get q tolerably
honest dollar it would be 80 much bet
ter than the one we have been having
that we could be content with it for a
while. How can you get the nearest
approach to absolute stability
A voice-Paper money.
"By having money which increases
in volume as nearly as possible in pro-
portion to the demand for money. If
dollars increase more rapidly than the
demand, the purchasing power of the
dollar will fall. If the demand in
creases more rapidly than the dollars,
the purchasing power of the dollar will
rise. How can you get dollar that
approaches honesty by getting enough
of the dollars to keep pace with the
demand for money?
ode la VIOLA has said that if river
is fed from two sources it will be more
uniform in volume than if fed from
one source, his explanation being that
when one of the feeders is swollen, the
other will he low, or may be low, and
vice versa. Therefore the volume OF
water in the river will change less than
if it is fed from one source, and must
change with the change in one feeder.
This illustrates bimetallism. In BIZ
metallism the volume of money is de-
rived from two sources-the gold
mines and the silver mines. Some
times the gold mines increase in pro-
duction; sometimes the silver mines
do. But if the volume of money is
fed from two sources, that volume is
less changeable, and the value of the
dollar is less fluctuating than if the
| volume of money ia fed from ono