The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-05-26

StS III ola ulOutlS EQUALS lle loeoi 6oNN
money in existence. To make money
scarce and dear is to increase its
wealth and power, and to correspond
lngly weaken the ability of the people
to resist any demands it makes.
This rich, powerful and crafty
combination understands every pref
udice of the human heart and every
weakness of the human intellect. BY
skillfully manipulating these they not
only secure acQuiescence in their
schemes of robbery and spoliation, but
cause their victims to zealously do
their work.
Among the various catch phrases
coined in the parlcTs OF the worlds
great pawn shops to deceive their un-
wary victims are numerous ingenious
and sophistical appeals to the moral
sense, the pride, and the passions OF
man, says the National Waterman.
The craft, cunning and ingenuity OF
the phrases used are evidenced by
their acceptance as truth by millions OF
unSuspecting victims.
One Of the statements that has done.
and is doing, duty for the gold combi-
nation is the cry of a "50-cent dollar
1t is not uncommon to hear men sus-
pected of average intelligence, who
wear clean shirts and whose ordinary
p%retensions pass muster, cchoing the
50-cent dollar argument. If such per-
sons realized hat such arguments ex-
posed their weakness of intellect and
caused them to forfeit the respect OF
their more intelligent associates, they
ing classed as intellectual imbeciles by
declining to eve repeat them.
The argument current among many
thoughtless victims of gold monopoly
is that the reopening of the minis
to the free coinage of silver would
enable miners and other owners of sill
yer to have fifty cents worth of their
material stamped a dollar by the gov
eminent and empowered by law to dis
charge a dollar Of debt; that this dol
lar would only be worth fifty cents &C.
tual value, and that, therefore, gold
dollars worth twice as much would NO
longer circulate side by side with
them, concurrently and in~terchangea-
bly,, making purchases and payments;
that the withdrawal of the gold money
from circulation would cause a terrific
contraction of the money volume, max
ing money SO scarce that it would Grip
pie business and ruin debtors, aud that
the business of the country would be
transacted with dollars worth only
fifty cents"
1t m"st be remembered that money
is desired not for the purpose of
swapping dollars of different material,
but as a medium Of exchange 10 facili-
tate the work IL producing and ex-
changing commodities. The value OF
money, whether made OF gold, silver
or paper, is the amount of other things
in general that it can be exchanged
for. When money is made of material
such as gold or silver that car be re-
minted and the coin OF one country
converted into the coin of another
country, free of charge, in whatever
quantity ~obtainable, such money ma
terial will move from one country to
another seeking the market wherein it
can be exchanged for the most goods,
and commodities will seek such coun-
tries as they can be exchanged for the
largest amount of such money mate
rial. Thus it will be seen that the
whereabouts of gold must always be
determined by the prices of commodi-
ties.
So long as commodities are priced N
and exchanged for money, vheneve.
money becomes scarce prices must fall.
So any attempt to take any large
amount of gold out of circulation
would cause such a fall in prices as to
at once call the gold back again by
giving it a greater power to exchange
for commodities here than elsewhere,
Thus it will be seen how absurd is
the claim that our gold could leave on
any account SO long as prices in this
country do not go above the interna-
tional gold price level. Again, tnat
u volume of money would be con-
tracted to a point that business would
be cramped and debtors ruined. and at
the same time we would hare in cir
culation dollars worth Oily fifty cents,
or one-half as much as before; that
they could only be exchanged for e
half tie amount tf other things,
reaches the climax of tr~anscezdent abb
surdity.
To say mat money, the one thing of
universal and constant demand, hay
ing full debt-paying power, can be
scarce and cheap at the same time,
SC scare that it will stagnate business
and ruin debtors, while it can be OBJ
tanned for one-half the labor or sacri-
fee it could before. and everything for
sale will command double the amount
of it in exchange, is to confound all
logic and common sense. Whenever
you hear a laborer, producer. or tax
payer. or any other person not a mil
lionaire bondholder. make such an
argument, please examine the size OF
his ears.
POINTS FROM THE PRESS.