Natchitoches populist., 1898-06-24
FOR CHEAPER MONEY.
THE REASONS FOR THIS POP
ULAR DEMAND.
What the People Need Is a Dollar That
Carries with 1t q just Proportion Of
Labor and No Arore-D. O. MCCARTHY
Gives Fills Views.

Senator Sherman once said In a
speech that those who wanted more
money wanted cheap money In order
10 pay debts with 81 currency of less
value" Senator Blair added "or with
less days work" These statements
were made as an argument against
1ree silver and casually suggest the
IDEA OF reputation. Such assertions
IN the past have closed the mouths of
many good men, but failed to convince
their Judgment. That, however, was
during the flood tide Of national bank
rule, when to doubt was to be de-
stroyed. The ideas of the people have
changed somewhat since that time
and the infallibility of past and pres
ent legislation is being challenged
throughout the entire country. The
condition to which these senators re-
ferred in derision the people are de-
mandlns in earnest. 1t is a cheaper
dollar and dearer days work that
they must have or become enslaved.
1t Is not a cheap dollar in the offensive
sense in which it is used by plutocracy,
Out a cheaper dollar as compared with
all honorable ideas of fairness and
right. Which is nearer the line of
justice, a cheap dollar worth 81 cents,
or dear dollar worth 200 cents, and
which carries with it the greater power
10 oppress? Money is bought with the
products of labor; consequently, the
dearer this money is the more labor
is required to purchase It. T. is the
few who own the money, and the
many who must work. to earn it; there
fofe, cheaper money benefits the ma
Jority, and is In strict accord with the
teachings of the constitution. What
the people need Is d dollar that car
rles with 1t just proportion of labor
and no more, The present dollar dis
tributes the products of labor unjust
ly; 1t is to neutraliae this unfairness
that a cheaper dollar is demanded. 1t
is claimed by the advocates of a dear
dollar that a cheaper dollar has and
always will be the wDrkingman's abid-
Ing curse; that the purchasing power
OF this dollar would be less, and there
fore operate against labor In produc-
ton. The first and last propositions
are absolutely unterable, and cannot
be sustained either by precedent or
argument. But the proposition that
the purchasing power of the cheaper
dollar would be less is true, and it Is
primarily upon this fact that labor is
demanding less costly dollar. Labor
IN production never prospered as dur
ing the period of cheap money from
1863 to 1857. All labor was employed
at remuneratiye wages, tramps were
unknown, and failures in business the
and not the rule, as at pres
snt. Even Senator McCuiloch was en- |
abled to state that the people were |
comparatively out OF debt, ard not |
obliged to labor incessantly for a liv-
ng. To confound cheap money with
worthless money is unfair, and dis
loses want Of better arguments. 1t
will hardly frighten the people as it
'nce did. Cheaper money than the
ountry now has is necessity, and
$ sure to come in the near future.
jheaper money means more money,
nd that in turn means higher COM
nercial values and better times. It
neans that the farmer can pay off the
mortgage with less days work; that
he mechanic can finish paying for his
title home with less hours of labor,
nd that labor, wherever 1t may be and
t whatever kind, will be enabled to
ay less tribute to those who own or
ontrol the money. Labor demands a
heap, flexible volume of currency, that
ill eliminate the speculator and the
surer by establishing price that is
easonable and will not fiuctuatts.
n n AE,rk ID rrYyv