Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-06-23
CONTRACTION OF CURRENCY.
Ex-senator Sherman said 1t Would
Cause Bankruptcies and Disaster
Three Glasses Benefited.

| Let me give you an extract from .
| speech made by the ex-secretary Of
state-John Sherman, then q member
of the United States senate. He was
| speaking of the contraction of the cur
/ rency. and he said that it was a very
| serious thing, more serious than gen.
orally supposed.
| He said the nation could not take the
voyage without the sorest distress. He
said that to everyone, except the cap
! italist out of debt, the annuitant, and
! the salaried officer, the contraction of
the currency would result in the sus-
| pension of all enterprise, bankruptcies
and disaster. These things would fol-
! low contraction, and there were GER
tain persons who would be exempt
| the capitalist out of debt, the salaried
officer and the annuitant-
Why the capitalist out of debt ex-
empt? Because his propertyis money,
and as money rose his money would
buy more. and therefore he would not
only be exempt from the sufferings
| which would come to others, but he
would actually profit by those suffer
| ings. And how about the salaried Of
| ficer? Why, to the extent in which the
salary is fixed, he profits by rising
dollar.
If a man has position for life at
fixed salary, the more the dollar rises
| the larger his salary is. The great
trouble is so few people have fixed sal
aries. Most of the people have salaries
or incomes dependent upon business
Ir,% r a1ov
fixed for life, the bigger the dollar be-
came the richer he would be and the
bigger would be his salary. If he re-
ceived a thousand dollars a year at a
time when dollar would buy certain
amount of goods, and the dollar rose in
value until it would buy twice as much,
his salary would, in effect, be 50, 900.
And if the dollar kept rising until the
dollar would buy ten times as much,
his salary would be, in effect, $4,000.
And how about the annuitant? He is
in the same position. because he re-
ceives fixed amount per year for life,
and as dollars rise in value his income
or annuity increases in its value to
him.
Why, it was on this theory that peo-
pie were warned last year-warned
against having & system that would
lessen the purchasing power of the dol
lar and life insurance companies felt
it their duty to notify their policy hold
ers what terrible calamity would
come upon them if the dollars fell in
purchasing power.
But the policy holders, as a rule,
knew enough to know that the insur-
ance company receives every year more
money than it pays out, and If receives
the same kind of money that it pays out.
and therefore, just as long as it is a sol
vent company, it is more interested in
having the dollars which it receives rise
than it is in having its policy holders
lose anything by cheap dollars.
But here are the three classes de-
scribed by Senator Sherman, the capt.
talist out of debt. the salaried officer
and the annuitant. / have sometimes
thought that if we paid our salaries in
commodities instead of dollars, saIaried
officers would be more watchful about
commodities and less watchful about
dollars. If, for instance. we paid the
president of the United States $4,000
in cotton, he would be trying to find
out why cotton is two cents pound
lower, with confidence restored, than it
was before the election.-Wm. J. Bryan.