Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19
1882 ELECTION TO TURN
ON STATE OF BUSINESS
Demand for Cheaper Money Stirs Old
Silver lssue-''Plausible Remedy"
for Depression Only Obstruction.

Journal the following, from a very
| careful observer and accurate minded
! scholar:
Recently this writer CThomas r.
| Woodlock, recently interstate COM
merce commissioner referred to
cloud the size OF a mans hand upon
the horizon that seemed to portend O.
coming debate or question or problem
or conflict (whateVer one chooses to
call it, on the matter Of the money
unit or standard OF prices. Out
OF such situations Gas the present de-
preSSion invariably arises a demand
for relief Of the debtor. which in these
later days almost invariably takes the
form OF demand for Cheap money or
OF imitation. That such q demand will
become more and more insistent as
time goes on is most probable.
symptoms already are apparent.
We already have heard mutterings
against gold from both the extremes
tfat constitute the debtor class (busi-
ness borrowers) and the farmer. The
agitation concerning silver-which Is
at present little more than a local 'po-
llticaP affair. so far as this country Ia
concerned-is rather likely to gain force
IS time goes on. A battle sooner
or later seems to be looming"
The magic inherent in the idea of
silver currency, making it q plausible
remedy and giving it potency for ex-
citing mems imaginations, is that it
increases the number of dollars in the
country. And scarcity of dollars-not
exactly that. for dollars are not really
extraordinarily of getting hold of
enough dollars to pay debts. Is the
principal aspect OF this depression. Not
one person in a thousand sees it that
way or expresses it that way The
Kansas farmer says his trouble-and
1t is very real troubles the low
price Of wheat"
But the low price of wheat" ID (for
the Kansas farmer exactly the same
some two years ago q Kansas farmer
in search of a dollar could get one by
paying speaking roughly one bushel
OF wheat for it. Today a Kansas farm
er In search of q dollar must nav
speaking roughly nearly three bushels
OF wheat for it. The high price of
dollars" is the true way to express the
condition better than the low price
Of wheat"
When debtors find dollars dearer
their minds become fertile soil for any
political leader who promises ''plausi-
Die remedy" There are few examples
or the sense OF injustice so embitterinF
as that which boils in the mind of
farmer who. let us say borrowed 81 600
lew years ago when $1,000 was.
roughly, the same as 1000 bushels of
wheat-and now is called upon to paw
back the debt Cor the interest on it,
at q time when 81 900 means almost
3.UO0 bushels OF wheat From lust that
KIND OF sense OF injustice a good many
farmers are now suffering. And not
only farmers. Every other borrower.
big or little, of any business whatever.
VINO 10 In the debtor class. Copper
nh
mines when six pounds OF copper
would buy 81. and now find themselves
in o period when IL takes twelve pounds
OF copper to buy dollar The rannifi-
cations are endless and Infinitely in
tricate.
Cheap Money Demand.
Out Of this kind of feeling widely
distributed. can come demand for
cheap money" as it Is called. for leg
lslation which will increase the num-
Der OF dollars and thereby make dollars
easier to get. The other side of the
picture is that the present condition
may readily change within year. Even
II the country should not get all the
way back to wheat at 81 bushel and
copper at IL cents a pound. and other
commodities at the similarly higher
prices Of 1928 or thereaboutS-evsn if
We should only get part way back.
mems minds would be caeered to the
point where they would not fall for a
plausible remedy"
Yet the possibility of the Gree sill
yer" issue coming back is at least great
enough to come back again and again
to ones mind. 1t IS hard to avoid
thinking about it. hard to avoid re-
membering how easily nearly half the
population Of the country embraced this
panacea in 1896. No other book ever
originated in America had anything like
the circulation Of a curious little paper
covered volume, cheaply printed and
illustrated with crude woodcutS, known
as COINS Financial School," written
by w. H. Harvey which IN 1896 and
during year or so preceding. caused
millions Of people to believe that the
free coinage OF silver in the ratio Of rs
to l would relieve debtors restore
Justice. and in all respects bring some
thing like economic millennium. OF Mr..
Harvey and his little yellow covered
book The Review OF Reviews said in
August, 1896: LAS a disturber of old
parties, q pathfinder where political
issues were mixed and hay, an agitator
with a genius for exposition so great
as to sway public opinion from the
Alleghenies to the Pacific, Mr.. Harvey
has made 1t certain that his name must
be forever connected with one OF the
most remarkable chapters in the po-
litical history of his country