The Louisiana populist., 1897-03-19
WATSON ON MONEY.
FREE COIN AGE ALONE is
INADEQUATE.
The Destruction Of Paper Money and
Its Effect On Prices - Banks Must
Go Out OF the Government Business
Populism to the World.

lue legal currency OF thlS SOFelA-neAl
from Jefferson's time to Lincoln's.
That gold and silver should be used
as money, the constitution recognizes;
that paper could be likewise used, II
the government saw fit, was recog-
nized by the practice of Jefferson,
Jackson and Lincoln and the supreme
court of the United States, in the
broadest, directest terms, declared the
practice legal
Populism agrees with the advocates
of silver coinage as far as they go. We
say they do not go far enough.
Money can be controlled in its price
by any one who controls the supply.
In other words, trust can be based
upon money, just as it can upon wheat
or cotton. The only way to break the
grip of a trust is to bring into the
market another supply of the COM
modify "cornered."
The wheat trust is broken by bring
ing in more wheat, the cotton trust by
bringing in more cotton.
A money trust can only be broken by
bringing in more money.
If gold were the only legal currency,
it could easily be "cornered," because
the supply is so small
II both gold and silver constitute the
only legal money the formation OF a
money trust is more difficult, but still
it could be done.
There being no legal money but gold,
how could a trust in gold ever be
broken?
The world would be helpless. Every
citizen who owed dollar OF debt or
taxes would be absolutely at the mercy
of the trust which held control of the
only money in which the debt or taxes
could be paid.
The free silver men tell us that this
gold trust could be broken by opening
the mints to silver, and thus bring
ing into market another supply Of
legal money.
True enough, but suppose that the
available supply OF both gold and sill
yer be cornered, how then is this trust
to be defeated?
Populism says 1t can only be done by
reserving to the government the power
to issue paper money, and thus to
bring in the supply, without which the
grip Of the money trust could never
be broken.
The very fact that the spectators
in money know that the government
was vested with the power, and it's ad-
ministration in the hands OF a party
which would exercise this power, would
be the surest guarantee that If the
populist principles were adopted nc
corner on money would ever be at
tempted.
We say that scarce money means
| dear money, just as scarce wheat means
| dear wheat. The more money there is
in circulation the easier it is for each
citizen to go into the market and buy
dollars with corn, cotton, land and la.
Dor. The demand for money depends
| upon the number OF people, the amount
of business, the amount of debt and the
amount Of taxes. This people being
in debt to the aggregate of SAC, ,OOO, ,OOO,
600, and the taxes growing heavier
every year, while the number Of thu
people and the volume of business con
stantly increases, the demand fol
money has enormously increased owe
than it was N 1867.
| The demand being greater than /,
1867, the supply of money should b.
greater. in order that the equilibrium
between money and all other com
modities should be preserved.
| But the supply has not only not in
creased, but is about eight times les
than it was in 1867.
| We need not wonder then tha
money, being so much scarcer is cor
respondingly dearer.
Money is measure Of value" tn
book makers tell us.
| In 1867 money measured" the tw
million bales OF. cotton and found ther
more valuable, in dollars, than tn
nine million bales were in 1895.
"How is that?" says Populism. Th
bale of cotton had precisely the sam
intrinsic valus in 1895 which it ha
in 1867.
Not only that, but it had the san
commercial value as compared wit
all other commodities except none
In 1867 money measured seve
hundred million bushels of corn, an
found them to be more valuable ths
twenty-one hundred millions in 1S9
Yet the bushel of corn would fe'
man and beast just as long in 1S
as in 1867. The intrinsic value
precisely the same. Why then do
the corn raiser have to pay six bus
els OF corn to get the money o.
bushel used to get?
Simply because when the CO..
raiser goes into the market to b,
, dollars he finds that the demand h
. increased and the supply decreased.
Populisna says that the silveri
does not reach the marrow of t
question at all. He does not go de