Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-10-20
l." SOUND MONEY"
Term Used by Single Standard Adj
vOcates to Cloak Most Gigantic
Crime of the Ages.

virtue.
The term sound money" is used by
the advocates of single gold stand
| ard to cloak the most gigantic crime
of the ages. The use Of term asso-
| ciated in the minds with stability,
| correctness and orthodoxy, for the
| purpose of securing mental acqui-
essence and eluding inquiry, when in
vestigation would prove the very op-
posite to that which the term implies,
is a recognition of the existence OF
moral forces that must be reckoned
with.
Sound money is money that Will pre-
serve practically unvarying purchas-
ing power through a period of years
and preserve the equities of time con-
tracts. Money to meet this require
ment must increase in volume with
the increase of population and de-
mand for its use. No money can be
called honest or sound under which
debts contracted to be paid in one,
five or ten years cannot be paid with
out doing an injury to either the debt
or or creditor. When a debt is con-
tracted a business transaction is but
half completed. The transaction is
finished when payment is made, at
which time the money of payment
should bear the same relation to prop
erty and commodities in general that
existed at the time the debt was con-
tracted. With such money the pro-
duction of wealth and the develop
ment of the resources of a country
will reach their maximum, and the
success of individuals in business will
be measured by the intelligence and
industry of each. Such a money will
not enrich its owner while locked up
in a safe. The owner can profit only
through its use.
Money is not sound or unsound be-
cause of the material of which it is
composed. The test of soundness is
its unvarying power to purchase
things in general. If all transac-
lions between man and man were COM
pleted at once, and no debts were Gre
ated calling for payment in money at
a future time, the question of bimet-
allism or 4 gold standard would not
be under discussion. 4 plentiful sup
ply of gold and silver from the mines
would give prices an upward tendency,
stimulate production, and such thing
as enforced idleness would be I'M
known. But should the supply of
money be cut off through the failure
or exhaustion of the mines, falling
prices would ensue and the profits of
industry lessened. If such condition
should continue long time the money
value of all forms of property would
be vastly diminished and production
would become limited to the impera-
tive demands of daily life.
Thus it will be seen that under con-
Gition of cash payments and the alb
sence of debt no motive would exist
for the demonetizationo of either metal
present form would find no place in
the arena of politics.
If there were no debts to be paid in
money at future day, no person could
be found who would favor the demone-
tia ton of either metal or a contrac-
ton of the money volume. The as
sault that has been made upon silver
as a money metal is the work of a
combination of the creditor classes
who own the bonds and mortgages
against the nations, states and people
of the world. The amount of the
worlds indebtedness is said by the
best authorities to exceed $3.50, 600, O0O.-
600. \ very large proportion of this
Indebtedness is held by a compare
lively small number of persons resid-
ing in less than a dozea of the princi-
pal cities of Europe and America. The
large owners of securities effected an
alliance or organization over 40 years
ago. They are interested in making
money scarce and dear. The fall of
prices that bankrupts the man of en-
terprise, drives labor into the street
to starve. and confiscates the equities
of debtors, enriches them by giving a
larger purchasing power to the money
in which their interest and principal
must be paid.
This combination at the present
time controls legislation on the money
question in all the principal nations of
the earth and in none more so than in
our own. They constitute a money !
trust With gold alone the standard |
of the world there would be |
just sufficient of it to pay six months |
interest to the great creditor COM |
bination. and it would require all the |
gold money in existence 33 times over |
to pay the principal. The owners of |
these securities are also the owners |
of the principal banking houses al the |
great money centers Of the world. |
The tax gatherers backed by the sher- |
ifs and armies of the world are their
In the payment of inter-
est a stream of money from all the |
n tions of the earth is constantly |
flowing into their Golfers. Through |
the great banking houses which they
control at the money centers, whose
dealings are only with other banks.
the money is loaned again and finds it's
way back into the channels of trade.
he banks under the control of the
great creditor combination possess
he power to discriminate against any
state or other bank. refuse it credit
and force it into liquidation. So great |
S the power of this creditor combina-
ton that not only the banks of the
world generally but the corpora tions
md trusts who must have bank ac-
to successfully prose-
ute their business are terrorized bv
hem and forced to favor the legisla-
ion they indicate upon the money
question as the price of continuing in
business.
The creditor combination is what is
meant when we use the term money