The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-02-25
THE CONSPIRATORS.
WHO ARE CALLED MONETARY
MISSICNERS.
They Are Like tho Fourteen Men Who
Swore to XIII Paul--AlI Their Claims
Have Been Kefutcd and Exploded
Leg Ago.

themselves together by an oath that
they would neither eat nor sleep till
they had killed Paul. They did not
succeed in killing the apostle and were
necessarily compelled to break their
wicked oath. The reason why these
fourteen conspirators desired the death
or Paul was that he was preaching
against idolatry and other receptions
that were practiced against the people
by a corrupt money class who misled
the people with false doctrines.
This band OF ancient conspirators
have something like prototype in the
eleven conspirators who banded them
selves together at the instance Of the
bankers indianapolis convention Of
sound money" deceivers, and spent
weeks in Washington in secret con-
clave, devising a plan to destroy the
liberties of the American people. Yer
monts discarded ex-senator at the
head Of this band of conspirators. Their
work has been laid before the public,
and is probably the most ingenious
piece OF sophistry, false assumption
and cunning, innocent appearing as
sertion. ever produced. The false the
cries Of money invented and practiced
by bankers and hoary usurers, and that
nave been exposed and refuted by I'M
deniable facts thousand times, are
all mustered with inimitable skill. This
class base their hopes on the old adage
that a lie well stuck to is as good as
the truth.
1t would be as tedious as Improbable
TO follow their long meandering trail
through their dissertation on money,
and particularly the government money
of the United States, which is pro-
nounced as "bad" except its gold
coins. The whole contention of the
band of conspirators is for STANDARD"
money, and that standard money must
be gold, and the continuation of the
present gold standard. They attempt
to give no reason why gold is stand
ard" money or should he standard,
and the only standard money and not
silver, except that 1t is more handy than
silver. Silver was as much of stand
dard money for thousands OF years
before 1873 as gold, simply because the
minis of all countries were open to it's
coinage, and there was always a de-
mand for the metal beyond the supply.
Open them again and the same condi-
tons will produce the same results.
There would be the same demand for
silver as for gold. Close the same
mints against gold and it will fall in
price in the bullion market the same
as silver has fallen, only a great deal
more.
The monetary scheme concocted by
the eleven conspirators of the Indian
apolis bankers convention, in principle
and object, is the same as the concoc-
ton Of Secretary Gage and President
McKinley's greenback retirement plan,
only the former is more ingeniously
presented and worked out in detail.
The fundamental falsehood on which
they are all built, is "a standard Of
value" There is no standard of value,
never has been, and never can be.
Value is the relative difference between
articles of merchandise or things con-
trolled by the fluctuations of trade. The
value Of the same articles changes al
most daily, influenced by demand and
supply, whether that demand be natural
or artificial. Money is a medium of
exchange and recorder of prices, and it
is nothing else unless its legitimate
function is abused by cornerers, usurers
and spectators. The whole object OF
the class for whom the eleven con-
spirators speak, is to make money
scarce so they can corner it with facili-
ty. Any commodity that can be cor
nered can be given an artificial price
The conspirators tell us there are
two kinds Of money, or rather there
are two distinct functions for money.
One is the standard Of value" the
other medium of exchange" that
gold is the only standard-of-value
money. and they imply that no other
commodity-they acknowledge that
gold is commodity-is endowed by
the intrinsic power Of constituting
standard money. The exchange func-
ton they claim inheres in all other
kinds Of money composed of silver, pa
per, etc. Gold, while possessing the
sovereign power of standard" money,
has also the function of exchange in
common with its subject money, as Of
course the sovereign should have.
1T will be noticed that the divine
right" is at the bottom of the gold-bug
theory Of money. Gold is king. and
money created OF any other substance
must owe its power to exist to the will
OF the sovereign. All other moneys
formed If baser CLAW must have tho