The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-15
SILVER HAS IT'S DAY
MONETARY CONFERENCE LISTENS
TO HON. CHARLES A. TOWNE,
OF MINNESOTA
MONEY is PURCHASING POWER

TOwne Based His Argument In
Favor of the Coinage and Use of
Silver AS Standard Money CO.
OrdinateIy With GOId-senator
Allen Welcomes the SiIverites.
OMAHA, Neb., Sept. 14.-In taking
the chair to preside for the silver day
at the monetary conference, Senator
w. V. Allen, of Nebraska, voiced a
hearty welcome on behalf of his state
to the champions of all sides of the
money question who had met to discuss
the merits of their respective claims.
Abiding to Horace Whites reference
to his speech against the Cleveland
bend issue, he said:
II said then, and say now, that there
was not the slightest authority in the
statutes of the country for that bond
issue, but the American people are too
generous, as we'll as just, to stand upon
technicality, and they will pay them
dollar for dollar for the money received.
Il cannot conceive how a man can be
a gold monometallist who wants justice
and to see men enjoy the fruits of their
labors. If man desires a small vol
ume of business and the resultant
spoliation of business by the creditor
class, l can understand why he will de-
fend the gold standard. I wish this be-
bate could be repeated in every city,
village and hamlet in the country, but
to me it Is hard to conceive there
should be any controversy over what
constitutes money. Money is a creation
OF law Qoud applause from the silver
ites), and this has been the doctrine of
all authorities on finance from Aristo-
tie to the present day."
MR.. TONNES ADDRESS.
Hon. Charles A. Towne, of Duluth,
ex-congressman from Minnesota and
chairman of the National Silver Re-
publican committee, delivered the open
Ing address on THE Coinage and Use
of Silver as Standard Money Co-Ordi-
nately With Gold" Mr.. Towne said in
part:
The era Of ambiguity is past The recent
state conventions of the Republican party
have with marked unanimity declared them
selves unreservedly for the gold standard
and we encounter In these debates the
apologists. but its champions. l congratulate
the National Sound Money league" on its
sumo to recommend still further exhibit
of candor, and following the example of it's
English prototype, it change it's name to the
American Gold Standard Defense associa-
ton"
Mr. Town subdivided his address into
eleven propositions; as follows: Money is
Ss as GOD Of value value the
evil Approaching money neither sound
nor honest" The god standard unsound
and dishonest" There was every reason to
THE effects of characterization were fore
seen and foretold" Vain efforts to break
the force Of conclusion" Present condition
intolerable," The restoration of silver the
only alternative" THE United States alone
can maintain the parity at 16 to IL
Whatever else money may be. defined to
particular commodity this purchasing power
expresses itself as the price of that COM
modify. But the purchasing power of money
extends to all commodities. 1t can there
all commodities. In other words. the pur
chasing power of money is indehnable, ex-
cept in terms of average prices. Money in
Its origin and on principle is mere con.
yenience in connection with things, but those
interested in adding to it's value as meas
ured by things have succeeded in making 1t
more important and influential than all the
productive functions Of society combined.
Monometallists take the bank-counter view,
the mere physical simplicity view, while BIZ
metallists take the other-that of the essen
tial meaning OF money as measuring other
things, with its ultimate and intimate eehi-
cal and social signifcances.
Stability of value, or the nearest prac-
ticable approach to it. is the test of good
ness in money. This is generally admitted
The physical simplicity school assumes gold
in advance as the perfect standard as change
less and invariable. and then gauges the
stability or instability of everything else
including other forms of money, by COM
parison with gold. By the other view how
ever, stability of value means constancy Of
exchange relations to other things invariabi.-
ity Of purchasing power. 1t is submitted that
the latter meaning is the only one that COM
mends itself to common sense. Since value
is exchange relation, stability of value means
stability Of exchange relations, or, as ap-
piled to money, of purchasing power.
Falling prices are an industrial, economic
political and social evil of almost unparallel-
ed proportions. They discourage industries
drive money from activity into idleness from
the channels of trade into the bank vaults
reduce wages and throw laborers out Of en-
ployment, make property unproductive and
crease the burden of taxes and all fixed
charges, ruin debtors, pie up wealth in the
hands Of the few, encourage the formation
of trusts, monopolies and combines make
producers the prey of middle-men. strengthen
the hold of the merely rich upon the po-
litica machinery of the state, stihe the
spirit Of liberty among the masses, multiply
immortality, and, If long enough protracted,
inevitably lead to the overthrow and demoli-
ton of the very fabric of popular govern
ment,
If, according to the premises, money is pur-
CHASING power over things in general; and
If the value Of a money unit consists in the
amount 1t possesses of this purchasing power;
and if falling prices are, in the ways we have
seen, inimical to Industrial progress and So
cial happiness and thus ultimately destruc-
tive Of liberty, 1t follows that a money sys-
tenn that furnishes such a unit Is both I'M
sound and dishonest; and If during any period
the average level of general prices under
goes progressive fall, this fact itself is an
indictment of the money system in operation
The gold standard, dating approximately from
1873, has furnished the nations attempting to
use 1t with a money unit which, since that
date, in spite of short temporary periods of
relative stability and with even slight occa-
+sior2 destinations toward its former com
modify equivalents has, upon the whole con-
stantly risen In value until the purchasing
power OF a unit weight of gold is today ap-
proxtmately 100 per cent geater than in 1873.
This indisputable and portentous fact of
the tremendous appreciation of gold is the
central point of this great controversy
Rightly apprehended it is alone absolutely
destructive OF all claims on the part of the
gold standard to be considered a satisfactory
with the insuperable fact that during the ex-
istence OF that system it has given the gold
using world most unstable measure of value
one that has nearly doubled in twenty-five
years. The gold standard and permanently
higher prices are impossible companions
tinued increase In the purchasing power of
the dollar, and, which is identically the same
thing, protracted fall of general prices.
GOLD STANDARD EXPERIMENTS.
At present the experiment of the gold
standard is in state of incompleteness. To
go on with 1t to the logical conclusion of the
gold valuation system is a practical impos-
sibility, while it is equally out of the -oues
ton for the world to remain in it's present
monetary condition. The gold standard in It's
simplicity contemplates the abolition of every
other kind OF money Of full debt-paying
power except gold alone and the use of vari-