The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-03-24

THE LIGHT Is SPREADING.

The free silver case IS built upon
the proposition that the public needs
vast quantity of money for the
transaction of its business and that there
is not enough gold to supply the quantity
OF money needed ana that silver is neces-
sary, therefore. TO supplement gold. This
IS the free silver advocates whole case.
Ever since the controversy waxed warm
The Times has conceded the free silver
mans main proposition that vast guam
titles are necessary Tor the purposes of
business hut il has insisted that this
money need not be actual coined dollars.
but that credits, stated in dollars. We're
just as effective for the purposes of bust
ness as actual coined dollars, and that,
being so much more conveniently handled.
whether IN the shape Of bank accounts
on which checks may be drawn or i'm the
shape o. bank notes redeemable on de-
mand in coined dollars. they served the
purposes o. business far more effectively
than coined dollars could, and that as
this was so. business would not use coin
ed dollars If they were offered to It. but
would continue 10 use its own
machinery of credits, however many
coined dollars were offered ~ it.
That the AN ossontisl condition TO this
state of affairs was that the dollar. the
standard Of value. the thing by which
credits arc measured, should always be
kept al one thing. as rigidly as the yard
stick is kept at one thing, and that as
soon as a question was allowed as 10
whether the dollar OF redemption. or
standard of value. as you choose to call
1t. was Of one value or of another value.
credits would not allow themselves TO be
established. because there would be an
uncertainty as to what was meant when
a man checked for 500 or 81 600, and that
this uncertainty would at once deprive
the country Of a thousand times more OF
the practical money with which business
is done than all the mints in the world
could supply. II solid mountains of silver
were put at their disposal, in one hundred
years. That the reason lying at the bot
tom OF these facts was the further fact
that business Is not. as che masses sup
pose. q purchase and sale Of things for
actual dollars, but an exchange OF the
commodities produced in one locality for
the commodities produced in another To-
cality, and that these exchanges are ef-
fected by drafts drawn against one COM
modify for It's value In dollars. meeting
in the banks drafts drawn fgainst the
other commodity in dollars, which
drafts are matched against each other
and the Indebtedness on each side cam
celled; that this state OF facts is due to
the revolution in business caused by
steam and electricity.
The Times has been steadily preaching
this as the true theory of finance ever
since the silver controversy got hot and
Il has pointed out. therefore, that what
We want is perfectly free credit which
free silver would destroy by introducing
this element OF neutrality-suspicious. a
credit Of 500 or $1,000 meant 500 or $1,000
OF one value or OF another value.
But knowing. as The Times did, that
this was the crux of the whole business.
It has preached away and preached away
through dreary years without making
any apparent impression and without re-
ceiving any aid or assistance of any sort
30 far as 1t knows. Truth, however.
though obscured by prejudice, al
WAYS makes is way when II
has an independent advocate who
Is not deferred from stating and
expounolng II by the clatter OF many
voices deriding him. The good seed we
have planted is bearing fruit, as was
shown last Saturday evening in
Pttsburg by Secretary Gage. His
utterances three or -four years
back showed that he dld not
then understand the case. but the speech
ne made last Saturday before the Du-
quesnc Club. in Pittsburg. shows that he
has now mastered It. His speech was an
exposition OF the doctrines The Times has
been 50 steadily contendIng for as We
have stated them above. and IL was
most mastery presentation OF them.
Tho fFue idea IA now ahf-r.ad ord a. ..,itf