Iron County register., 1899-05-25
The Currency Question.


a
| of the ill-success which has attended
laws which frustrate any attempt on
the part of a government to create
wealth by legislation, which is the same
| thing as creating it by magician S
wand. / maintain that while the con-
traction of the currency is hurting and
sitting the manufacturing activity of
India, most of which derives its origin
and support from European capital, it
will have still more blizzard effect on
agricultural operations, which are
wholly dependent on native agency,
both for finance and labor. Prices of
most kinds of field produce have al
ready fallen. What else than stoppage
of cultivation, failure to pay rent and
taxes, famine and beggary, can ensue
from a constant and continued fall in
the price of these and other commodi-
ties, the produce and outcome of the la
Dor of nearly 200, 100000 of the popula-
ton? Our farmers in India are unable
to fight against hard times. They have
no money of their own, but are entirely
at the mercy of the money lender, who
has none of the sentiment of the Euro
pean merchants, or the banker who
finances tottering tea concerns. Agri-
cultural banks, about which charita bic
people talk much and do so little
toward establishing, could not stave
off the evil day, however large their
capital. The land must go uncultivated,
India's exports decrease and the reve-
nues of the government dwindle.
IL T,,l
marks that if we only behold the action
of the husbandman in the seed time,
when he casteth away much good corn
into the ground, we shall account him
rather a madman than husbandman;
but when we consider his labors in the
harvest, which is the end of his endeav-
ors, we will find the worth and plenti-
full increase of his actions. In closing
the Indian mints to the free coinage of
silver the government of India refused
the seed which this land requires, and
the harvest can be but a lean one.
It is exactly 800 years ago since
the first association was formed in Eng
land for prosecuting the trade to and
from India, and since then the men who
have from time to time formed the gov
themselves of the idea that they could
manage commercial undertakings bet
ter than commercial men. Anyone who
reads the history of the East India COM
pany can learn how the trade of this
country has all along been paralyzed by
the deadening influence Of monopoly.
1t would be fitting that the last trace
of government monopoly should cease
to exist in the three hundredth year of
our trade with India. With the sterling
debt liquidated as far as possible, the
mints could then be thrown open to
the free coinage of silver without fear,
while the government would do all that
lies in its power to discourage the i'm
port or use of gold by the people, but
encourage the free consumption of sill
yer for currency and other purposes.
Under the influence of cheap money
and sufficiency of currency, her manu-
factures and the out-turn of her fields
would splendidly increase, bringing af-
fluence to the people and peace to gov
ernment.
In conclusion I will say that all who
wish to satisfy themselves as to the
merits of this case may readily do 50
by diverting their minds from the be-
lief that money is wealth, when in fact
it is nothing more than a medium es-
tablished by governments for the con-
venient exchange of those commodities
which constitute wealth. Without such
exchanges, on free and liberal scale,
there can be no prosperity, and the ex-
changes cannot be effected without an
adequate supply of the medium. Con-
traction of the money supply has the
same effect on commerce, industry and
property values that an insufficient
amount of wholesome food has upon
the human body. The result in either
case is inevitable, and it ought to be
plain to every creature possessing the
powers of reason and the capacity for
thinking.