The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-12-06

M4ss4OA VI AAt64AS9ACO py N"ASA
chip of telegraphs and telephones.
A few words in regard TO the free
coinage OF silver and I will close.
When I gave up the gold standard
years ego and adopted the principles
OF the Peoples party, I took no real
interest in the silver issue. The great
exaggeration of lis importanCe has done
harm by Withdrawing attention from
the fundamental principles Of the Poo,
pies party on finance. As a result g
great many PopuIists came 60 consider
it the great issue in finance, and when
the D 3mOcrats ct their Convention In
Chicago adopted il, said they had
stolen the financial principle 8 o. the PEG
pies partg. How absurd! As 8 result this
was the chief measure by which the
Peoples rarty was led so gh9 slaughter
az s.. Louis in 1896 Oar people are
divided Into classes on the money quss
tiCn and these classes r as far 6QRrt
as the poIee-on the IA hand we have
m9taliets, and on the other those who
believe in United States Treasury notes
-afull legal tender for all dues public
and private as the only rightful cur
rency of cur country. The m9talists
are Of present OF two types-the same
in kind diff 3ring only in d7gree-they
are those who believe that metal alone
is money. One type OF them are
morometalists claiming that gold alone
is money; the other t ype are the bi
mstalists who claim that gold and sill
YER alone are money. The gold stand
ard men represent the first type. Sill
yer Democrats, silver Republicans and
those so called Populists who agree
with them constitute the other.
Claiming that these so-called precious
metals alone are money they demand
that money made of any Other mate
of any material shall be redeemed in
them, which makes sill other money
simply evidence Of debt. As there is
not enough of these so called precious
metals to furnish money for the cum
merce of the world the result is a
small foundation Of money with an
immense s~uperstructure Of credits
which il periodically TOPPING over,
causing disaster and misery. That
this is true of bimetalism as we'll as of
mouometRlism is clearly shown by the
financial history of our own country
IN which bimetalism prevailed from
the organic ltion Of the government
until silver was demoGetiz3d in 1878
During ali this time we had periodical
financial crises, usually about ten
years apart and some Of them cyclones
Of destruction-more especially thCs5
Of 1887 and 1857. And yet there ere
those who tell us that it is only neceg-
sary to re establish bimetalism 10 cure
the financial ill5 of Jul country.
There have all along been those who
have earnestly opposed this system
Franklin, one Of the Wisest meu our
country ever produced, said: Let
gold be used to plug teeth and for or
nament by those VINO 80 desire and
the remainder sent abroad to pay
debts and buy such things as we need.
We do not need iG f3r money paper
will answer every purpose" Calhoun,
one ef the putest AMI wises5 Of states
men, said, in his great speech of Aug.
II, 1887: There is mortal war b.
tween coin and pap9r money, and in
the end paper WILL win" The fight Is
steadily becoming P0re desperate and
it will not be long till his wonderful
prophecy will be fulfilled.
The old fetish idea that gold ana
silver are in themselves money is about
exploded. Intelligent men admit that
they are simply commodities, but soma
claim that they should be used to
measure the balance Of all other com
modities, because they are more uni
form in production and stable ia value
than any other commodities. This
statement is incorrect to large degree,
but history shows that such use OF them
brings periodical disas Ter aud i. is time,
therefore, to inquire if there is no bet
ter way to secure as far as possible
stability in values which i5 of the ut.
most Importance if we would main,
tain the equity of contracts. Since it
is entirely practical to use a large
number, an almost indefinite number
of commodities to regulate values,
why should we use only n OF two7
The larger number will certainly give
a safer basis.
There is no law in political economy
more universally accepted than the
statement that demand and supply re-
guIate the value of money as we'll as Of
other things. An increase in the vol