The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-07


and demanding an increase in the me
dunn of exchange, or in money, faster
than the gold production was increas,
ing, and that therefore there was 6
gradual reduction of prices and appre
citation of gold going on all the time tina
worked an injustice to debtors for time
loans no matter when the debts wer(
contracted.
Their idea was this: If farmer
could raise ten bushels of wheat per day
worth s1.00 per bushel before 1873 and
worth so cents after, then if the farmer
borrowed $1,000 before 1873 to be paid
after he would borrow the equivalent
of 100 days work and have to pay the
equivalent of 200 days work. If all
which was true, then crime was COM
mitted in 1878.
Prices of commodities were increasing
up to 1878 and have been falling since
until recently, and now the trend is up
ward again.
If demonetizng silver started the fall
ing what has recently reversed the pro-
cess?
Wages have been going sometimes up
! and sometimes down, with no apparent
reference to 1873 and are now trending
upward.
| The workingman who takes ballot
in his hand and proposes intellgently
to vote on bases of the monetary
prices of commodities and services
must know a lot about the amount Of
capital engaged in producing commodi-
ties, about the cost of their production
about the amount of commodities on
hand. about the amount of capital seek
ing investment and looking for en-
ployes, about the number and quality Of
men who are seeking employment
about the relations of one group of cap
italists and laborers or either to other
corresponding groups, about the ad-
vance in the arts, interest, insurance,
rent, skill, intelligence, industry etc,
and about the amount of gold in the
world, and the proportion of it availa-
BILE for monetary purposes, and the
amount in the United States just how
much it is displaced by subsidiary coin
age, paper, forms of credit, ETC.; how
much the currency is contracted or LA
BILE to be contracted by insecurity, es-
pecially insecurity arising from propa-
gandas that conflict with the arthme-
tic, ETC., etc. In other words. such
workingman needs to make political
economy a life work to know how to
vote intelligently.
Silver was not demonetized in 1878.
Silver was demonetized, as standard
of value, long before 1873 by natural
causes, in which the silver advocates all
wit ba nf h,I,, mi tN
The United States statute, which Off
cially placed the country on gold ba-
sis simply recognized condition that
then and for long before had existed by
fiat of nature. So much was this the
case and so nominal was the effect of
the statute that most people knew moth
ing about the Crime until twenty
three years after, when the silver mine
owners attempted to get the United
States to double the value of their pro-
ducts, and the debtors attempted to get
the same authority to scale down their
obligations one-half. Nor was the cur
rency contracted in 1878, for more silver
in the form of Subsidiary coinage has
been used since than ever before.
Most Of the debts contracted previous
to 1878 have been paid or outlawed, and
it is difficult to get ideal justice from
legislation any way. But it is doubtful
If one dollar Of injustice has been
wrought the debtor class by gold before
or since 1873. The amount of it in the
world is tremendous and the annual
production is larger than ever before
and increasing in a greater ratio.
Probably it has been d hard task
master, making the debtor in hard
times pay dollar for dollar and cent for
cent or go to the wall. But the I'M
changing value and memorable, honesty
of gold is financially worth more to so
ciety than can be dispensed with be-
cause of the suffering incident to pay
ing mems honest debts.
The silver men care nothing for the
monetizatioD of silver as such, and If
the commercial ratio of silver to gold
was is to there would be no political
agitation over the matter.
What the silver men want ia to have |
the United States double the value Of
their product by statute, and the states
men who are engaged in increasing do
nestle prices for the manufacturers |
ought to double it for them. Our incar-
nation of protection In the White House |
seemed to think we'll OF the consistency |
Of the scheme so long as he could not !
make up his Napoleonic mind as to
where the power lay.
A proposition to give the silver men
free coinage at the commercial ratio
would meet with a cold reception; it is
16 to l when the commercial ratio Is 80
to I that they want.
Convenience is the center OF gravity |
of monetary systems. Money itself |
came into use because 1t was more con-
venient than barter. Men have tried all
kinds of things as money; and nature,
working through mems wants and con-
veniences and along lines of least resist
ance, has wrought survival of the fit
test which has brought gold to the top
among the advanced nations The de-
Of silver by the different |
nations is but their official recognition |
Of natures determination as to gold.
Now if the money of a country Is to be |
determined not by convenience, but by !
the desires Of people who have commo-
dities to SELL let us compress a bushel
Of so cent wheat into a cube and call it
a dollar. OF course it would be heavy !
bulky and inconvenent but it would
double the price of a bushel of wheat
and think how it would help the farmer.
We might also put UP cubes of oil, rock
salt and all kinds of things that pro-