Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1897-07-10
Not an Answer.

vi tuo oilNot ouS P0P"J"'''''" 'iS - "'Ai
berland independent essays an answer
to the question:
How can a free coinage or any other law raise
the prices of the commodities have to sell
and lower the prices of those | have to buy?
Improving the INDEPENDENTS silver
standard rhetoric the JOURNAL will
quote it as intending to say:
OF course the JOURNALS question is I'M
answerable-as unanswerable as it is non
sensical, and as silly as would be the inquiry
how can the free coinage of gold kill me
when am dead and bring me to life while
am living?
The JOURNAL submits that there is
no parallel or paraphrase of the
JOURNALS question by the Independent.
Each alternative in the JOURNAL $
question looks to a betterment of the
individual.
In the independents problem one looks
to the emphasized death, the other to
the accentuated life of the individual.
The independent may not know 1t,
but the accepted philosophy of death
does not contemplate the idea that it
is perpetual, but of life, especially
the gold-standard christian life, as
beautifully said by Emily Judson-
This life, which have dared invoke,
Henceforth is parallel with Thine.
The question submitted as an an
swer to question must be, therefore,
of the same quality, symmetry and
pertinence as the original. Like
Porter's homiletical remark concern
ing "the exordium"-
1t should fully correspond ~iM the subject
and the occasion
The JOURNAL would like to analyze
the next two paragraphs in about the
same style, but it must hurry to the
core of the INDEPENDENTS philosophy,
which ought to be entitled" tine
Impossible Can Happen :"
The free coinage of silver and gold taking
the place of the present law providing for the
free coinage of gold only, would raise the
price of commodities produced by the in
dividual.
Yes, it would do this Just about like
taking cup of water from the At
lantic and pouring it into the Pacific
would increase the quantity of water
on the globe. This figure might not
be pertinent, but the independent makes
it so by adding:
1t mo,Id do this by Increasing tie supply o,
gOl,ne Of money.
The independent goes on:
Raising the price of things produced by the
individual would certainly raise the value of
the labor of the individual.
Not necessarily. If that were 50 all
the editor of the independent would
have to do to get double salary for
answering unanswerable questions
would be to raise the subscription price
of his paper accordingly. And if
nothing else would do, he could have
it done ''by MO."
Here is richness:
to buy, because he produces more than he
consumes. But the JOURNAL may again in
quire if this be true what becomes of the sur
plus? The answer again is easy. 1t goes to
feed the idle-those, for example, who have
retired upon a competence or, those whose
income Is derived from fixed investments.
But under the free coinage regime
there are to be no ''surplus," no "idle,''
no ''income" other than from work
no fixed Investments" Indeed, there
is to be no need of any of them. "The
volume of money! for the first time in
human history, is to pour its cornu-
copia of argentiferous riches upon the
Just and unj just alike with more than
Pactolian munificence. To men who
do not wish them there will be abundant
opportunities to acquire wealth, but to
those of money-making instincts and
money saving habits, there will be
little worth working for.
1t is true, similar schemes have been
projected before, but always with
calamitous results.
Financial history to free coinage
democrat, however, is as much of a
myth as a legal precedent is to a
populist.
One more quotation
Nobody other than disciple of gold mono
metalism, seeking to deceive, ever contended
that the free coinage of silver, or any othe
law, would raise the price of the things a
man might have to sell and at the same time
lower the price of things he might have to
buy.
That is probably the very best an
swer that can be made to the JOUR
NAILS question.
1t was necessary, however, for the
independent to impeach the honesty of
the questioner, who has the same inter-
est in the country it has.
But it is almost more Il pity that the
Independent was in the same breath
compelled to admit that the thing-Me
only thing that will make US all better
off is not only not sought by free coin
age people, but it is not even "con-
tended for, mauifesily because it is
an everastingly impossible achieve
ment.
The question remains unanswered.