Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-02-05
WATSON ON MONEY.
FREE COIN A CE A LIZ E rs
INADEQUATE.
The Destruction of Paper Money and
Its Eject On Prices - Banks Must
Go Out of the Government Business
Populism to the World.

From the St Louis Chronicle: Gold,
silver and treasury notes constituted
the legal currency of this government
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
broadcast, 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
In other words, trust can be based
upon money, just as 1t can upon wheat
or cotton. The only way to break the
grip of 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.
If 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?
citizen who owed a 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 minis 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?
Populsm says it 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 its adj
which would exercise this power, would
be the surest guarantee that If the
populist principles were adopted no
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 $4,000, 000,-
900, and the taxes growing heavier
every year, while the number of the
people and the volume of business con-
stantly increases, the demand for
money has enormously increased over
than it was n 1867.
The demand being greater than in
1867, the supply of money should be
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 less
than it was in 1867.
/ We need not wonder then that
money, being so much scarcer is cor.
respondingly dearer.
Money is a measure of value" the
book makers tell us.
In 1867 money measured" the two
million bales of cotton and found them
more valuable, in dollars, than the
nine million bales were in 1895.
"How is that?" says Populism. The
bale of cotton had precisely the same
intrinsic value in 1895 which it hat
in 1857.
Not only that, but it had the SANE
commercial value as compared will
all other commodities money
In 1867 money measured" sever
hundred million bushels Of corn, ant
found them to be more valuable thai
twenty-one hundred millions in 1895
Yet the bushel of corn would feet
man and beast just as long in 1897
as in 1867. The intrinsic value il
precisely the same. Why then doe
the corn raiser have to pay six bush
els of corn to get the money on
bushel used to get?
Simply because when the corr
raiser goes into the market to bu.
dollars he finds that the demand ha
increased and the supply decreased.
Populism says that the silverit
does not reach the marrow of tn
question at all. He does not go deel
enough. He weakens the case by com