CONGRESS. (SPECIAL SESSION THE SHERMAN ACT.) 



231 



iiu-tullism, but by the clear and certain nutliu,! ..fa 

 multiple .standard, a unit l>UM-d ii|inii the Hfllilltf 

 prirr> <il' ,-i IHlliitiiT nt' articles of |_TMrnil riiMMlliiptioM. 



A I.HIL: time fiintrui-t wnulil tlicn-liy !>< paid ut its 

 maturity )>y the sumo purchaHiiitf jutwrr UK wait given 

 in tin- beguxning. 



.l.-voiis, one of the most generally accepted 

 of tin- writers in favor of a gold standard, ad- 

 mits the instability of a single standard, and in 

 language very similar to that above quoted ^u^- 

 gosts the multiple standard as the most equita- 

 ble if practicable. Chevalier, who wrote a l>ook 

 in 1858 to show the injustice of allowing a debt- 

 or to pay his debts in a chean gold dollar, 

 recognized the same fact, and said : 



If the value of the metal declined, the creditor 

 would suffer a loew upon the quantity he hud re- 

 ceived ; if, on the contrary, it rose, the debtor would 

 liavc to pay more than he calculated upon. 



" I am on sound and scientific ground, there- 

 fore, when I say that a dollar approaches hon- 

 esty as its purchasing power approaches sta- 

 bility. If I borrow a thousand dollars to-day, 

 and next year pay the debt with a thousand dol- 

 lars which will secure exactly as much of all 

 things desirable as the one thousand which I 

 borrowed, I have paid in honest dollars. If the 

 money has increased or decreased in purchasing 

 power, I have satisfied my debt with dishonest 

 dollars. While the Government can say that a 

 given weight of gold or silver shall constitute a 

 dollar, and invest that dollar with legal-tender 

 qualities, it can not fix the purchasing power of 

 the dollar. That must depend upon the law of 

 supply and demand, and it may be well to sug- 

 gest that this Government never tried to fix the 

 exchangeable value of a dollar until it began to 

 limit the number of dollars coined. 



"If the number of dollars increases more 

 rapidly than the need for dollars as it did after 

 the gold discoveries of 1849 the exchangeable 

 value of each dollar will fall and prices rise. If 

 the demand for dollars increases faster than the 

 number of dollars as it did after 1800 the 

 price of each dollar will rise and prices generally 

 will fall. The relative value of the dollar may 

 be changed by natural causes or by legislation. 

 An increased supply the demand remaining the 

 same or a decreased demand the supply remain- 

 ing the same will reduce the exchangeable value 

 of each dollar. Natural causes may act on both 

 supply and demand; as, for instance, by in- 

 creasing the product from the mines or increas- 

 ing the amount consumed in the arts. Legisla- 

 tion acts directly on the demand, and thus affects 

 the price, since the demand is one of the factors 

 in fixing the price. 



"If by legislative action the demand for sil- 

 ver is destroyed and the demand for gold is in- 

 creased by making it the only standard, the ex- 

 changeable value of each unit of that standard, 

 or dollar as we call it, will be increased. If the 

 exchangeable value of the dollar is increased by 

 legislation the debt of the debtor is increased, to 

 his injury and to the advantage of the creditor. 

 And let me suggest here, in reply to the gentl"- 

 man from Massachusetts, who said that the 

 money loaner was entitled to the advantages de- 

 rived from improved machinery and inventive 

 genius, that he is mistaken. The laboring man 

 and the producer are entitled to these benefits, 



and the money loaner by every law of justice 

 ought to be content with a dollar equal in pur- 

 ( lia-iii^ power to the dollar which he loaned; 

 and any one desiring more than that desires a 

 dishonest dollar, it matters not what name he 

 may give to it. Take an illustration: .l-.hn 

 Doe, of Nebraska, has a farm worth $2,000, and 

 mortgages it to Richard Roe, of Massadni-ct t -. 

 for $1,000. Suppose the value of the monetary 

 unit is increased by legislation which creates a 

 greater demand for gold. The debt is increased. 

 If the increase amounts to 100 per cent, the 

 Nebraska farmer finds the prices of the products 

 have fallen one half and his land loses one half 

 its value, unless the price is maintained by the 

 increased population incident to a new country. 



" The mortgage remains nominally the same, 

 though the debt has actually become twice as 

 great. Will he be deceived by the cry of ' hon- 

 est dollar ' f If he should loan a Nebraska neigh- 

 bor a hog weighing 100 pounds and the next 

 spring demand in return a hog weighing 200 

 pounds he would be called dishonest, even 

 though he contended he was only demanding 

 one hog just the number he loaned. Society 

 has become accustomed to some very nice dis- 

 tinctions. The poor man is called a socialist if 

 he believes that the wealth of the rich should be 

 divided among the poor, but the rich man is 

 called a financier if he devises a plan by which 

 the pittance of the poor can be converted to 

 his use. 



" The poor man who takes property by force 

 is called a thief, but the creditor who can by 

 legislation make a debtor pay a dollar twice as 

 large as he borrowed is lauded as the friend of a 

 sound currency. The man who wants the peo- 

 ple to destroy the Government is an anarchist, 

 but the man who wants the Government to de- 

 stroy the people is a patriot. 



" We have been called cranks and lunatics and 

 idiots because we have warned our fellow-men 

 against the inevitable and intolerable conse- 

 quences which would follow the adoption of a 

 gold standard by all the world. But who, I ask, 

 can be silent in the presence of such impending 

 calamities? The United Stales, England, France, 

 and Germany own to-day about $2,600,000,000 

 of the world's supply of gold coin, or about five 

 sevenths of the total amount, and yet these four 

 nations contain but a small fraction of the in- 

 habitants of the globe. What will be the ex- 

 changeable value of a gold dollar when India's 

 people, outnumbering alone the inhabitants of 

 the four great nations named, reach out after 

 their share of gold coin f What will be the final 

 price of gold when all the nations of the Occident 

 and Orient join in the scramble! 



A distinguished advocate of the gold stand- 

 ard said recently, in substance: 'Wheat has 

 now reached a point where the English can af- 

 ford to buy it, and gold will soon return to re- 

 lieve our 'financial embarrassment.' How de- 

 lighted the farmer will be when he realizes what 

 an opportunity he has to save his country 1 A 

 nation in distress; banks failing: mines closed! 

 laborers unemployed; enterprise at a standstill, 

 and behold, the farmer, bowed with unceasing, 

 even if unremunerative, toil, steps forth to save 

 his country by selling his wheat below the cost 

 of production ! And I am afraid he will even 



