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THE CONYERS WEEKLY, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1895.
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Hev, diddle, diddle.
The mine owner’s fiddle.
SMALL CHANGE.
Silverites claim that the adoption
of their scheme would “make more
work.” In the sense that men would
have to work harder to get the things
they need, free silver would certainly
make more work. So would burning
down houses make more work for car¬
penters. But that is no reason for
abolishing fire departments in our
towns and cities.
The progress of civilization in any
country is best shown by the use of
superior tools and labor saving inven¬
tions. There is no doubt that if the
skilled American mechanic were com¬
pelled to work with the crude tools
used in China and India, it would
take him far longer to make an arti¬
cle, and he would thus have to work
harder than he does now. Does he
want that kind of “more work?”
In the same way the adoption of an
inferior metal like silver for a^stand
ard of value would make the process
of production and exchange of com¬
modities more difficult, and thus the
working classes would have “more
work.” Biit since it is not merely
work in itself, but the products of
labor, which workingmen really want,
their best interests are served by the
use of that standard of value under
which production and exchange are
greatost and easiest.
There can be no question that it is
in the countries which have deliber¬
ately adopted the gold standard that
the intelligence of the people, as
Bhown through their superiority in
methods of production, arts, sciences,
literature, etc., has reached its high¬
est level. Since this is tho case it is
reasonable to infer that their use of a
particular metal for a measure of
value was guided by the same wisdom
which they have shown in other direc¬
tions. The silverite idea, that all the
civilized Nations are inferior to th»
semi-civilized countries on the one
point of their monetary standard,
while excelling in all ether respects, is
too ubsurd for serious argument.
All attempts to show how free coin¬
age would, increase the demand for
goods, and, therefore, create a busi¬
ness boom, have dismally failed, and
the silver cause is rapidly losing the
supporters who were attracted by the
promise of better times under the sil¬
ver standard. The proof that cheap
money does not encourage consump¬
tion, and therefore would not increase
the volume of exchanges of goods, is
found in the undeniable fact that in
all countries using only silver money
the avirage consumption is much
smaller than in the gold standard coun¬
tries. As the production of goods
must be limited by their consumption,
it is evident that a scheme whioh
merely looks to an artificial stimula¬
tion of production could not bring
any increase in industrial prosperity.
In the silverite arguments intended
to Bhow the farmer that he would be
richer if he received moro “dollars”
for his products, it is taken for
granted that the dollars he would get
under free coinage would be worth
jnst as much as those he gets to-day.
If the farmers once understood that
the value of the money they are paid
for their crop depends entirely on the
quantity of goods which it will buy,
and that v with free silver a dollar
would willnow.tney only’purchase quickly'cease half of what it
would their
agitation for cheap money. When the
eilverites claim that free coinage will
double prices of all products, they
practically admit that their silver dol¬
lar would be worth but fifty cents.
What the farmers need is more 100
cent dollars, and not a lower measure
of values.
The money question has been laid
away, and instead the farmers are dis¬
cussing and devising ways to take care
wi their big corn crop.
A BITTER EXPERIENCE.
That of tbo Wage-Earner With De¬
preciated Currency During Our
Greenback Period.
Perhaps there is no better or clearer
demonstration of the effect of a de¬
preciated currency upon wages than
that offered by the experience of the
United States during the Civil War.
Prices advanced as soon as the Gov¬
ernment began to issue legal tender
notes. Wages advanced a little later
bat less rapidly. At no time during
the period from 1861 to 1867 had
wages advanced sufficiently so that the
wage-earner could purchase as much
for his day’s labor as in 1861.
In spite of the fact that about one
fourth of the best workers were serv¬
ing as soldiers and withdrawn from
competition with their fellow wage
earners, so groat was the decline in
the purchasing power of wages that,
in 1865, the workingman found him¬
self working for four-fifths of what he
had received in 1861. Since 1865, and
especially since the resumption of
specie payments in 1879, the purchas¬
ing power of a day’s labor has been
steadily increasing.
In the following table (taken from
“Quality of Money and Wages,” by
Frank L. *McVey) the average nom¬
inal wages paid in leading occupations
in 1860 was taken as a normal—100
per cent. ; the prices for the leading
necessaries of life in 1860 were taken
as the normal for prices; the amount
of these necessaries that could be pur¬
chased by a day’s labor in 1860 was
taken as the normal for the purchas¬
ing power of wages.
TABLE OF WAOF.S, PRICES AND PURCHASING
POWER IN THE UNITED STATES, 1860-1891.
[Aldrich’s Senate Report, Part L, pp. 13, 93.]
Year. Currency Wages. Currency Puichas’g
Prices. Power.
1860 100.0 100.0 100.0
1861 100.7 95.9 105.0
1862 103.7 102.8 100.8
1863 118.8 122.1 97.3
1864 134.0 149.4 89.7
1865 148.6 190.7 77.9
1866 155.6 160.2 97.1
1867 164.0 145.2 112.9
1863 164.0 150.7 109.4
1869 167.4 135.9 123.2
1870 167.1 130.4 128.1
1871 166.4 124.8 133.3
1872 167.1 122.2 136.7
1873 166.1 119.9 138.5
1874 162.5 120.5 134.8
1875 158.0 119.8 131.0
1876 151.4 115.5 131.0
1877 143.8 109.4 131.4
1873 140.9 103.1 136.6
1879 139.4 96.6 144.3
1880 143.0 103.4 137.6
1881 15J 7 105.8 142.4
1882 152.9 106.3 143.8
1883 159.2 104.5 152.3
1834 155.1 101.8 152.3
1885 155.9 95.4 163.4
1896 155.8 95.5 163.2
1887 156.6 96.2 162.7
1888 157.9 97.4 162.1
1889 162.9 99.0 164.5
1899 168.2 95.7 175.7
1891 168.6 96.2 175.4
The wage-earner’s loss is shown in a
more striking form in the accompany¬
ing diagram, also taken from Mr. Mc
Vey’s pamphlet:
1861 m m 1657 18 69 •>- J87I IS 73 1875 m (879 1881 1883 1885 1887 1889 183
i l&RSIIF ms
700 — »»c urren cy W ages
-'1 c urrency P ncea
j i\ ; urcl-sgsmgV power ilo
Taken from tables avera^iid acc ord.na .mooHanco
' I Jk-/ y\ J i i ) K. (i
Nsn !//? ■ _
' ! KJ \ 150
.
If/) ; s . .
■
17$ T f . |
M- • ! / 4 ( U .
v
109 Ik *- L c k
■ j' 00
k .1 * ’! & i/kjDRlCHS i 5lNATtlRlPMk'ffc?lP ! P*« • l ; l t ' i J ; j
■ -> Ik IHORIT l. W" | ; 13.14 93 * It# I !
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<S63 4668 -ISP, 1669 >«7K_4873 -16 75 1877 1875 8ii BS3 1385 IBS7 1889
It seems strange, with such a history
and such an experience before him,
that any wage-earner would be foolish
enough to agitate for depreciated sil
ver oi any other kind of cheap dollars,
SO SILVER IS CIRCULATION IN
1873 .
The plain truth is that this act of
1873, which has been the subject of so
much misapprehension and denuncia¬
tion, was simply a legal recognition
of a monetary condition which had ex¬
isted in fact in this country for about
thirty-five years, or ever since a short
time after the passage of the coinage
act of 1834.* From about the year
1838 until after the passage of the
Bland-Allison act in 1878, no silver
dollars were in circulation in this
country, and our whole currency con¬
sisted of gold coins and bank notes,
except from 1862 to 1878, when our
active circulation, outside of Califor¬
nia and its neighboring territory, was
all paper. There was during the lat¬
ter period about $25,000,000 in gold
in circulation on the Pacific Coast,
and the United States was collecting
customs dues in gold and using it in
the payment of interest on the public
debt, but there was no silver in circu¬
lation anywhere in this country, not
even the light-weight subsidiary coins.
The value of the United States
note or greenback was always
measured by gold and not by
silver, and commodities had a
gold price and a paper price, but never
a silver price, because silver, except
the half-dollars, quarters and dimes
coined under the act of 1853, had been
out of use here for more than twenty
years before the commencement of the
war, and even these subsidiary coins
had not been in use for eleven years
prior to 1873. Our own monetary
history had already furnished two
most striking illustrations of the
operation of the natural law under
which the coins which are over-valued
by statute always drive out of circula¬
tion the coins which are under-valued.
Our own experience had again demon¬
strated what the history of the world
already showed—that whenever the
coinage laws of any country permit the
free coinage of both metals with full
legal-tender qualities at a ratio of
value which does not conform sub¬
stantially to their intrinsic or com¬
mercial ratio in the markets of the
world, both kinds of coin cannot be
kept in circulation at the same time.
The reason is that, both being full
legal tender, the least valuable coin
will always be used in making pay¬
ments, and will become the sole meas¬
ure of value, and the most valuable
will be hoarded or sent out of the
country into the markets where its
real value can be obtained.—Hon.
John G. Carlisle.
A “Bimetallic” Paper’s Blunder.
The Philadelphia Manufacturer ex¬
presses a common Populist error when
it says: “It is exactly true that the
commercial prosperity of a country
depends upon the presence of metallic
money in large abundance.” Instead
of being true this statement is exactly
the reverse of the facts. The produc¬
tion, distribution and consumption cf
large quantities of goods, which is
what is meant by commercial pros¬
perity, depends on the honesty, in¬
dustry and intelligence of the people
of a country; on the natural condi¬
tions of soil, climate, etc.; and on the
mineral and other resources which
furnish the raw materials for manu
factured goods, The presence of
metals which will serve as a measure
of values, and a means for exchanging
goods more readily than by barter,
will be of material aid in the general
machinery of industry and commerce.
But to say that commercial prosperity
depends on the means of lessening the
friction of exchange is equivalent, to
use an illustration from ex-Secretarv
of the Treasury Fairchild, to saying
that the transportation of goods de¬
pends on the amount of grease used
on car or cart axles. Does the Manu¬
facturer pretend that with a large
abundance of metallic money Iceland
or Greenland would be prosperous,
while without such money Holland
would be a poverty-stricken country?
It will now be in order for some of
our “16 ter ones” to kick on the gold¬
en streets because they are not paved
with silver, and swear that the whole
plan of salvation is a scheme of the
gold bugs to put heaven on a gold
basis.
Unsafe.
Teacher— “Now, Dick, you may re
peat the golden text. ”
Dick Hicks—“I don’t dost; me fad
der is a silver man.”
THE SILVER DISCUSSION.
Disputed Points Definitely Settled
During the Past Six Months.
During the past six months the
country has been turned into a vast
debating society, and the proposition
for the free coinage of silver at a ra¬
tio of 16 to 1 has been eagerly dis¬
cussed in the magazines and newspa¬
pers, on the platform and in political
conventions. At the outset the advo¬
cates of free silver appeared to be in
the majority, and as their movement
was well organized it seemed a9 though
the 16 to 1 issue would sweep the
country.
But the advantage of the cheap
money shonters was shortlived. Real¬
izing the danger of the business in¬
terest of the country from the threat
of a depreciated staudard of value, the
believers in a sound currency and an
honest dollar joined in exposing the
fallacies and delusions of the free coin¬
age scheme. Through the sound
money press, and in a large number of
books and pamphlets, the folly and
dishonesty of • free silver was clearly
shown, and by facts and statistics,
which left no room for controversy.
Now that public sentiment is strongly
inclined in favor of maintaining our
present sound financial system, a brief
review will show the main points
which have been definitely settled
during the free coinage discus sion.
1. It was asserted by the silver¬
ites that by “the crime of 1873” sil¬
ver was secretly demonetized. It has
been proved beyond dispute, so that
the charge has been generally
dropped, that the coinage laws of
1873 were adopted after being three
years before Congress,and with the full
knowledge of the members of both
Houses.
2. It was claimed that the free coin¬
age of silver at 16 to 1 would establish
a bimetallic standard of values, where¬
by both gold and silver would be used
as standard money. It has been
proved that in reality free coinage at
16 to 1 would mean silver monomet¬
allism, and this is now admitted by
such eminent advocates of bimetallism
as President Andrews and General
Francis A. Walker.
3. It was urged that there was a
scarcity of money and that free silver
would give a larger volume of cur¬
rency. It has been proved that there
is now more money per capita than at
any time in the history of the country,
and that the adoption of the silver
standard would lead to currency con¬
traction by driving out all our gold.
4. It Tfras said that since 1873 one
half of the money of the country had
been struck down. It bas been shown
that while in 1873 there was less than
$100,000,000 of silver money of all
kinds in the country, there is now
over $500,000,000.
5. It was charged that the gold
sta'ndard was adopted and maintained
at the instigation of a small creditor
class, against the interests of a large
debtor class. It has been proved that
the number of creditors far exceeds
that cf the debtors, and that the only
way in which free silver could benefit
debtors would be by aiding them to
repudiate part of their debts.
6. It was said that the passage of a
free coinage law would raise the com¬
mercial value of silver from 30 to 1 to
the ratio of 16 to 1. It has been
proved that it would be impossible for
the Government’s stamp on silver
coins to increase their real value,
which, a3 in the case of all other com¬
modities, depends on supply and
demand.
7. It wa3 claimed that free coinage
would benefit workingmen by giving
t,hein higher wages. It has been
proved that under the silver standard
the prices of everything the working¬
man buys would at once be doubled,
while any increase in wages would be
slow and much smaller in proportion.
8. The cotton planters and wheat
growers were told that the decline in
the price of their products was caused
by the gold standard. It has been shown
that during the past six months cot¬
ton has advanced 50 per cent., and
that wheat rose from 55 to 84 cents
per bushel, without any change in the
standard or volume of money. It has
also been shown that prices of corn
(our greatest staple), oats, butter and
eggs, and of many other farm pro¬
ducts, as well as of the pxice of labor
(wages), are higher now than in 1873.
9. The business depression of 1893-4
was asserted to be due to the alleged
demonetization of silver. The present
widespread industrial revival, with
factories running on full time, new
mills being built, and general evidence
of prosperity, is a complete answer to
the calamity bond which was the main
reliance of the silverites.
Disaster With Dishonor.
National dishonor is the dishonoi
of every citizen; and any change in
the standard of value, or anything
done which shall dep.v.ve any creditor
of the United States of payment in full
in money recognized as valid by the
leading commercial Nations of the
world, will not only be dishonorable,
but will result in the pecuniary loss
to every citizen in the United States.—
R. Weissinger, in “What Is Money?”
A (Question.
Quericus—“What do the silver peo¬
mean by 16 to 1?”
Jollicus—“Those are the odds
against their winning. ”
MILLS’S POSITIOS,
OUTSIDE THE SILVER CAMP.
He Finds It Impossible r JOno er
, Lf®' *
-He lleve in the Free Coinage” D e °"
Gives Most Excellent r
sons for His Change of Front
Senator Mills, of Texas, bas d ;
the past six months ar n
of the renewed his 2
the money question, and has eo
to conclusion that free coinage
silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 with gold I
a delusion. His recent letter to
Chairman of the Democratic ^
Committee of Texas has State
sternation in the created con
camp of the silver
ites. Why it should do so will folio" b 8
derstood after reading the wing
extracts from his letter:
“The proposition is not to be dis
puted all other that things the increase being of currency' rml's
prices wherever the equal,
But prices not money affected circulates
are in any
country where the money does not
circulate. The opening of our mints
to the unlimited coinage of silver will
increase prices in the United States
but m>t in Europe. As the prices of
commodities rise here, the value of the
dollar falls here in precisely the same
proportion. The price of the gold
dollar, which is the common measure
of value, remaining the same in Eu¬
rope, it would go to Europe, because
it would buy more commodities there
than here.
“I object to the silver standard be¬
ing adopted in lieu of the existing
standard because it will defraud all
creditors out of one-half the value of
their debts. Every debt contracted
since January 1, 1S79, wag contracted
on the gold standard, The debtor
honestly owes the value of 23.22 !
grains of gold for every dollar prom¬
ised, and the creditor is honestly en¬
titled to receive it. When it was pro¬
posed years ago to demonetize all the
coined silver of the world and sup¬
press the iurther coinage of that
metal, I joined with other friends of
silver in denouncing the monstrous
proposition, because it was an attempt
to double the debts of tho world, and
to bring all debts in this country Jeon
traoted on a paper staudard, much of
it at less than 50 cents on the dollar,
to par with gold. Is not the propo¬
sition now to substitute the silver dol¬
lar on the silver standard for that gold
dollar the same that we all con¬
demned, except it is the creditor now
who is to be the victim instead of the
debtor then?
“No persons would receive the
least benefit from the change of stand¬
ard to silver except the man who
owes 100 cents and wishes to pay it
with 50. He would under the silver
standard be able to discharge his debt
by paying one-half of what he prom¬
ised. This would be a scheme to en¬
rich one-half of a community by
despoiling the other half. Wherever
there is a debtor there is a creditor,
and he is entitled to the same protec¬
tion as the debtor. Congress has the
power to discharge insolvent debtors
by a bankrupt law, but the adoption
of the silver standard now would dis¬
charge all solvent debtors from one
half the obligation of their contracts,
even though as a class they might be
the wealthier part of the commiinity.
“Believing that the silver standard
would prove injurious to the people
of the United States, and especially to
that part of them engaged in growing
cotton, I am unwilling to take any
steps in legislation calculated to im¬
peril that great industry upon which
the welfare of my constituency so
greatly depends.
“The vast army of wage-workers will
be injured, and seriously injured, by
the expulsion of the present standard
and the adoption of any depreciated stand¬
standard of values. The paper
ard, as I have said, is the worst, be¬
cause the paper has no appreciable in¬
trinsic value to check its expansion.
The silver standard is the next in or¬
der, but its mischief is limited by the
market value of the metal in the Q4r
lar. The most stable, invariable and
the best of -.U moneys is that one ot
the precious metals which is recog¬
nized as ‘the common measure of
value’ of the commercial world.
have that stable, invariable standari
of value now—and there is nothing
wanting for its improvement but the
substitution of halves, quarters bans- am
dimes in the place of National
notes and a continued coinage of silver
so limited in its amount as to keep R
at par with gold.”
A FROWZY FAD.
Six months ago the free silver cv-i*
was as popular in the South and
as the Dolly Tardea and crinoline
fashions were at fashions one time had among some >■ ts j
women. These
deeming traits about them, bn. as -
are now gone and the women loo'
pretty and are as sweet as ever beiO- . •
The free silver fashion has no ret ee.
ing traits. Take it up one side anu
down the other it is about as giga *
piece of foolishness as ever °
a people,
bugged the American 11
popular and the demagogue r
was But
it for all it was worth. 8 •
alack! You can fool the people some
times, hut not forever. The Am*
can people are honest, they are
gent, they read and think.