The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-03-24
MCKINLEY'S LETTER.
Consists OF Lot of Shallow Plati.
tudes.
Philadelphia American.

Philadelphia American.
In the letter referred to, Mr.. Nc
kinley asserts that, 1--WE must make
good every obligation to our national
creditors, express or implied, in the
best money known to the world at
time Of payment" And by best
money he means not that Of greatest
stability in purchasing power, not
that which will come nearest to doing
exact justice between debtor and
creditor. but that money which, of
all kinds, will purchase most, that will
cost the debtor most to raises ,and that
will confer on the creditor the great.
est advantage. In short, the dollar
that robs the debtor for the enrich
ment Of the creditor; not the dollar
that neither robs the debtor nor de.
frauds the creditor, is the best dol.
lar.
And, having thus epigrammatically
stated that we must pay all our obli-
cations In the dearest money, Mr.. Nc
Kinley lays down this epigram as
automatic: "Poor money" he writes,
never made any country rich, and
sound money will not and cannot
make anyone poor" To this epigram
stated by itself, and sound money be-
ing understood to be honest money,
which must be money Of fixed pur-
chasing power, for no other money can
protect the debtor from being robbed
by the creditor, or secure the creditor
from being defrauded by his debtor,
we can all subscribe. But, unfortun-
ately, we cannot take this epigram
by itself, we cannot discount it from
the foregoing assertion of~our Presi-
dent that we must pay all our obliga-
tions IN the dearest money going, and
SC Sound money" as used by Mr. Nc
Kinlcy, comes to mean ne honest,
but dishonest money. And dishonest
money can make country poor,
whether it be dishonest from appreci-
alton or depre If dollar ap-
preciates, prices must fall, and if
prices fall debtors must part with
more Of the products Of labor to get
the dollar they owe their creditors.
And this is dishonest dollar to debt
orS, for it forces them to give moro of
their produce to their creditors than
justice requires, and thus depriyes
them Of the fruits Of their toll.
And such are the dollars with which
Mr.. Mckinley tells US we must pay
our obligations. And when he says
We must pay our national creditors in
the best, the dearest, money known to
the world, he tells us in effect we
must seek out and pay to our credi-
tors the most dishonest money on the
face Of the globe, that is, the money
that will do The greatest injustice to
debtors.
The greater part Of our national
debt was refunded in the years 1877
1879. This debt had arisen out of the
war. Now, at the time this debt was
refunded we could have paid each
bond Of 1000 with 903 bushels of
wheat for wheat then brought on the
farm 81. 10 $40 bushel. Last year it
the enhanced value as compared to
other products given by the Indian
famine, 1877 bushels, for the farm
price of wheat was but 126c. In 1879
corn brought an average farm price of
81. and oats 33. lc., last year Of 2l.5c.
and 19.7c., respectively. So it appears
that 1861 bushels Of corn would have
paid a $1,000 bond in 1879; in 1896 it
would have taken 4j51 bushels. And.
taking oats, we could have paid the
same bond in 1879 with 3U21 bushels
that last year would have taken 534s.
Now, it seems quite evident to the or
dinary mortal that it is much harder r
to pay our national Indebtedness to-
day than it was in 1879, and it also is
quite clear that the sound dollar that
has been growing sounder or dearer
and forced down prices SO that we
must give Ala more bushels OF wheat,
or 1854 more bushels Of corn, or 1927
more bushels of oats to pay $1,000
bond today than we had to in 1879, not
only can but must make those men
who raise these cereals poorer.
And now suppose we look in anOth-
er way at the question Of whether or
no "sound money" which Mr.. McKin-
ley defines as the best-the deares t
money known to the world-has or
can make any poorer. In 1879, our
farmers planted in cereals corn,
wheat, oats, rye, barley and buck
wheat 102 ,26O, $50 acres, and the value
Of the crops was $l.245. 127, ,7l9, or an
average Of $12.1 II an acre. Now, last
year the acreage Of these same crops
was 149, 1890 acres, and the value Of
the yield 1912. .O69,0C0 or $6,5l an acre.
1t is clear, therefore, that to pay a
thousand dollars Of Indebtedness in
1879 the cultivation Of so acres would
have suf1iced, while in 1896 our farm
ers had to cultivate l53 610 acres to
pay the same Indebtedness. And this
being SO, it is evident that the dollar
that has caused this fall in money
value Of farm products through its
own enhancement of value conse-
quent on the efforts to contract the
worlds currency to the gold basis, and
thus made it necessary to give the
products Of close to 1T more acres OF
land to pay an Indebtedness of thous-
and dollars in 1896 than it would have
taken in 1879, must have made the
men who cultivate these acres poorer.
1t may have made the men who re-
ceive this dear dollar as interest and
principal richer, but 1T must have