Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-03-08


has not, time and again, declared fl
favor OF bimetallism and the restOra-
tion OF silver toan equal plane VIII
gold. And why? (Applause.) Be
cause they know that when 1T pay'
money to 20 to work, it will pay then
to 20 to work. They know, my friends
that when prices are rising, produc-
tion is stimulated; then they have
work; and when they work, they have
wages; and wher they have wages
they have a surplus oyer and above
their necessities, they have some
thing to spend on other products
and when they have something tt
spend, there is a market, there is not
the phenomenon which the gold
standard people today are calling
''Over production =" applause
THE FARMER AND SILVER.
My friends, what the ~orkingmen
OF America want-what the working
men of the world wants a system OF
money under which things will be
worth at least as much money, and
that, therefore, money will 20 into
the making of things, 50 that there
shall be demand for their labor, they
will look out for the rate of their
wages, for they may then insist upon
fair wages.
And so, my friends, you take the
interest of the farmer. What is it,
10 the question of bimetalism The
farmer has suffered more than auy
other producer in the community, aud
why Well, chiefly because whole
sale prices fall first You keep pay
ing 10 cents for a bar Of soap quite a
while after the wholesale price OF
soap has fallen, because you are ac-
customed to pay it. and the retailer
continues to accept the customary
amount, and it is small, and you keep
paying IT, 1t is quite while be-
fore competition will reduce retail
prices.
But the farmer sells at wholesale:
he purchases at retail. He is there
fore the first man TO get the low price
and the man that pays the high price
longest; and, therefore, the farmer,
as the darkey said "gets it comm
and goin. -
But. my friends, there is another
reason why the farmer feels most SER
iously aud first of all the great power
of exchange between silver and gold.
The power of exchange means what !?
Why il means that, where there is an
equality of Use between gold and sill
yer, it does not make any difference
to the man who has to use one Of
them, which he uses. And, in some
countries, more gold was used, and
ia Others more silver; but man in
one country trading with the other,
could remit in the money that the
other country would want, If lie had
to settle by the shipment of specie,
without making the SlightlesG differ
ence to him, since, as long as the
equality was maintained, he could
send one, or its equivalent in the
other. Now, as soon as the power of
exchange was broken, as soon as there
ceased to be an established relation
between the value Of gold and silver,
its value fiuctuated; that is to say,
man trading between gold country
and silver country must discount in
his business reckoning the liability of
the exchange To go one way or the
other, and beat him out of a certain
percentage of his investment.
AS Tule-and of recent years with
constancy-the power of exchange
continued TO be forced apart in the
direction of rise in gold and fall in
silver; but, my friends, long after sill
yer began TO bring less gold, it cOntin-
ued to stand for the same average Of
commodities in the market in the
silver country that it had always
stood for.
A FOOLISH FALACY.
Now, my friends, the principles
upon which bimetallism rests are easy
of comprehension. They depend alb.
solutely upon the established doctrines
Of all the writer's upon the subject Of
political economy since there were any
writer's upon the subject. For exam
pie, the contention by which the gold
standard is defended, that gold has
intrinsic value whereas silver is sub
ject tp the weaknesses and intirmities
of ordinary commodities, is absolutely
without support anywhere. You may
take for example, the great econOm-
ist Henry Dunning Mcleod, who is
the greatest defender of the gold
standard next to Robert Gifiin, in the
world, and you will find that he exam
ines all the authorities of ancient and
modern times. and comes TO the con-
which he announces in so
many words, that there is no such
thing as intrinsic value and that value
in exchange is the only value that po-
litlcal economy knows anything about.
,Applause,)