Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-01-27
FACTS ABOUT MONEY.
Falling Prices Engender War u.
tween Capital and Labor.


"The Wealth of Nations" published in
1776, the year our independence was de
elared, overcame and for long time
it was supposed had entirely dissipated
the then existing mercantile theory
that the object of trade between one
country and another was the acquisi-
| ton of money, by demonstrating that
the wealth of a nation did not consist
in the money, but in the property II
possessed, and that the object of com
| merce between nations was an ex-
change of commodities whereby the
Deficiencies of each were supplied from
the superfuities of other nations; that
money was only useful in facilitating
these exchanges; that it was not an
end, but the means to an end.
The advocates of the single gold
standard are reviving the old mercan-
tile theory which for centuries OPP
posed and retarded the industries of
Europe. Regarding money as gold
alone all nations are struggling for
gold. Our secretary of the treasury,
owing undoubtedly to his long prac-
tice as a banker, seems to be imbued
with this spirit, and if reported in
terviews with him are correct, he
gauges the prosperity of the country
by the quantity of money that can be
accumulated in the treasury, and for
the benefit of owners and dealers in
money declares that the reserve of
S10O,00O,000 in gold, locked up in the
government treasury, will at any cost
be preserved-that is, regardless of its
effects upon the industries of the coun-
try. To this the advocates for the
restoration of silver reply that it is
not the possession, but the employment
of money in productive industries that
benefits mankind. They say, as David
Hume, the historian and philosopher,
said $50 years ago: Gas regards prices,
money locked up in chests is as if it
were annihilated," that is only useful
while in the hands of the people cir
culating the products of their indus
tries.
In the opening sentence of "The
Wealth of Nations" DIR. Smith says:
THE annual labor of country is the
fund which originally supplied it with
all it annually consumes and consists
in the immediate produce of that labor,
or what is purchased with that prod
uce from other countries"
Falling prices for that produce dimin-
ishes this fund, and their tendency is
to arrest production, the greatest evil
that can befall a people. It is from
the prices received from the sale of
the products of an industry that the
wages for labor employed in prosecut-
ing it are paid, and as these prices fall
wages must fall. 1t is falling prices
that engender a war between labor and
capital, whose friendly cooperation is
necessary to a continuance of produc
ton.
The implements of this warfare are
strikes and lockouts, which for the
time being arrest production, to be
resumed only when a compromise is
effected.
Owing to the independence of indus
tries the suspension of one of these
causes a suspension of many of the
others.
These phenomena are not witnessed in
silver standard countries for the rea-
son that the money standard silver falls
as compared with gold as commodities
fall, and they have no disturbance of
price, neither do they have monetary
crisis. No, these phenomena are pc
culiar to and are everywhere seen in
gold-standard countries. They were
practically unknown in this country
prior to 1875, when this baneful pol
icy was furtively adopted.
All history teaches that a country's
most prosperous period is when, by
the inflow of money, prices are rising
to Il higher level, and its most disas-
trous period when, by contraction of
money, prices are falling to a lower
level.
The advocates of single gold stand
ard claim that the present business is
wholly due to lack of confidence, and
all that is necessary to restore prosper
ity is to restore confidence.
Confidence or the lack of it is not
the cause, but the result of business
conditions. AS well cry for health at
the bedside of sinking patient as to
cry for confidence in the midst of fall
ing prices. How can any prudent man
invest money or lend to be used in a
productive industry so long as the in
dications are that the money received
will not be sufficient to pay the cost
of producing and placing them upon
the market.
1t is falling prices that has with
drawn money from the channels of in
dustry and gathered it in pools in our
money centers, where it is invested only
in municipal bonds and interest-pay
ing securities. Falling prices are the
necessary consequences of our having
the gold dollar alone our unit of valu
alton. So long as gold rises (and all
nations are struggling for it, the pur-
chasing power of this unit will increase,
and there will be a corresponding fall
in the money value or prices of other
forms OF property. Relief can only be
found in reducing the purchasing
power of this unit, and this can only
be accomplished by putting silver in
competition with gold as a money
metal When this is done, and not be-
fore, there will be beneficent change,
and the winter of our discomfort will
be succeeded by glorious summer"
Finally, this great battle is between
those who are already in the posses
sion of money and those who are
struggling to obtain it-between the
drones and the working bees of society.
The drones are saying to the working
bees, Hush! be still. Complaints from
you disturb social order. Above all,
do not agitate the money question"
The working bees reply: "Money is
- RI