Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1897-10-22
BIMETALLISM AS VIEWED BY
MR.. GAGE AND AS IT Is.


sound, honest money is that which is
worth its face value as bullion. Thus
it has been defined by c. Stuart Patter-
son, member and prospective chairman
Of the Currency Commission, appointed
under resolution of the business mems
monetary convention that met in In
dianapolis on January last, who has
declared sound money to be ''that
whose market value as commodity is
equivalent to its face value as money!
thus it was defined by Mr.. Edward
Atkinson of Boston, when he asserted
that "it is by the ordeal of fire that
money may be tried;" that "the coins
which being melted down, retain the
entire value for which they were legal
tender before they were melted down
are good money" that those which do
not retain it are not good money" By
defining sound money in this way it
was sought to class silver as dishonest
money But now Mr.. Gage comes
along and asserts that under free coin
age the bullion value and the coinage
value are and must be Identical" thus
vouching for the assertion of bimetal
lists that as tried by the definition Of
free coinage, would be sound and hon
est money.
This test of honest money, namely,
that any dollar that contains weight
of bullion equal at it's market value to
the bullion value Of the coin, must be
an honest dollar, is, truly, no test at
all, for under it the most dishonest of
dollars might be tried and pass the test
for honesty. The only truly honest
money is that which will neither de-
fraud the creditor or rob the debtor,
that will neither enable the debtor to
pay his creditors in dollars of less value
than he covenanted to pay or enable
the creditor to exact payment from his
debtors in dollars Of greater value. The
dollar that will not meet this test is not
honest, for it cannot do Justice between
creditors and debtors. And the dollar
Of paper can stand this test just as well
as the dollar of gold or silver.
It is the value of the dollar as meas
ured by it's purchasing power, which
value is conferred by the supply Of and
demand for dollars, and not the value
as measured by the value Of the sub
stance of which it is composed, that
makes the scale by which we must
measure the honesty of the dollar. And
just to the degree that the dollar may
be kept Interchangeable. in purchasing
power does it approach the measure re-
quired by honesty. Further, to keep
hence an honest measure of values, it
is necessary that the volume of money
be increased Just as the demands for
money increase, and decreased Just as
the demands decrease.
Therefore it is evident that if the
volume of money is dependent on the
supply Of the precious metals, and we
cut down the source of supply to one
metal gold, by demonetizing the other,
silver, thereby so curtailing the supply |
of money that the demand far outruns |
it, we may have the most dishonest of |
Gear dollars, even though that dollar is |
worth no more than the value of the
bullion of which it is made This is
what we have in the gold dollar today,
and this is the contention of bimetal-
lists. Bimetallists further contend !
that the reopening of the mints to free
silver coinage would increase the sup
ply of money, cheaper money, that is
raise prices, and so strip gold Of some
of it's dishonest dearness and release
debtors from part Of the increased and
unjust burden put upon them by the
Of the dollar, as shown by
the fall in prices, which has required
them to give to the creditor classes
greater share of the product Of their
labor with the result that less has been
left to be divided as wages and profits.
That the restoration of bimetallism
would give an absolutely honest dollar,
that is dollar of invariable purchasing
power, is not contended, for such
dollar is not attainable so long as the
supply of money, and hence the value,
in great measure, is made dependent
on the supply of gold and silver avail
able for coinage, and which supply
may far exceed the demands for money
Dr. fall far behind it. IT the supply ex-