The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1897-07-28
lie aoLD poLLAIs.

THE GOLD DOLLAR.
The Dishonest Creation OF Ie
nOrance and AVar1ce.
William Jennings Bryan in July arena
We hear much about sstabl
currency and an honest dollar.
II is significant fact that thosl
who advocate single gold stand
ard have for the most part avoided
a discussion of the effect of an ap.
preciating standard. They take il
4 for granted that a gold standard il
not only an honest standard, but
the only stable standard. de-
Enounce that child of ignorance and
ayarice, the gold dollar under uni
versal gold STANDARD. as the most
dishonest dollar which we could
Eemploy
stand upon the authority of
every intelligent writer upon po-
Eitical economy. when I assert that
there is not, and never has been an
honest dollar. An honest dollar is
a dollar absolutely stable in rela-
tion to all other things. Laughlin.
in his work on Bimetalism, says:
Monometallists do not-as 1t IS
often said, believe that gold remains
absolutely stable in value. They
hold that there is no such thing as
standard of value for future
payments in either gold or silver.
which remains absolutely inva-
riable.,
He even suggests multiple
standard for long time contracts. I
quote his words:
a regards national debts, it is
distinctly .averred that neither gold
nor silver forms a Just measure of
deferred payments, and that if JUS
tice in long contracts is sought for,
we should not seek it by the doubt
full and untried expedient of inter
national bimetalism, but by the
clear and certain method of a null
tiple standard, unit based upon
the selling prices of a number of
articles of general consumption. A
longtime contract would thereby
be paid at its maturity by the same
purchasing power as was given in
the beginning"
Jevons, one of the most gener-
ally accepted of the writer's in favor
of gold standard, admits the in
stability of a single standard, and
in language very similar to that
above quoted, suggests the null
tiple standard as the most equita-
bic, if practicable. Chevalier, who
wrote a book in 1853 to show the
injustice of allowing a debtor to
pay his debts in cheap gold dol
lar. recognized the same fact and
said:
..If the value OF the metal de-
clined, the creditor would suffer a
loss upon the quantity he had re-
ceived; if, on the contrary, it rose.-
the debtor would have to pay more
than he calculated upon.
[ am on sound and scientific
ground, therefore, when I say that
dollar approaches honesty as its
purchasing power approaches sta
bility. If / borrow thousand
dollars today and next year pay the
debt with thousand dollars which
will secure exactly as much of all
things desirable as the $1,000 I bor-
rowed, I have paid in honest dol
lars. If the money has increased
in purchasing power I have salts
fed my debt with dishonest dol
lars. While the government can
say that given weight of gold or
silver shall constitute a dollar, and
invest that dollar with legal tender
qualities, it cannot fix the pur-
chasing power of the dollar. That
must depend upon the law of sup
ply and demand, and it may be well
to suggest that the government
never tried to fix the exchangeable
value of dollar until it began to
limit the number of dollars coined.
Go to work, Young Man.
There are more young American
men in the penitentiaries in this
country learning trades than there
are outside of them, says a recent
writer. The principal cause of
this is that we are educating our
young men for gentlemen-trying
to make lawyers. preachers. doctors
and clerks out of material that ma
ture intended for blacksmiths, car
penters, sailors and other honest
'shewers of wood and drawers of
Il q. -,