USTLIKENESS LN" ORGANISMS. 147 



er of American commercial life. Now, on the heels 

 of the disasters which have followed our inflated cur- 

 rency, and which in some senses have turned a great 

 part of the country into a gambling-house, we are 

 asked to inflate the currency again by agreeing that 

 ninety-two cents in silver shall be worth a hundred 

 in gold. Many of the evils which came to savings 

 banks under the old inflation will come in this pro- 

 posed new inflation. Every man has been watching 

 the rise of the value of the paper currency. It now 

 is almost ready to transform itself into gold. We 

 shall resume the cash payment of paper promises 

 soon, and do so in the hardest coin, — that which is 

 the standard of the world. But it is very evident 

 that if the silver bill were to pass, and the new infla- 

 tion were to enter upon its course, every man who 

 has made a contract, every man who has money out 

 at interest, would be more or less defrauded. 



It seems to be seriously imagined in certain quar- 

 ters, that we can buy things cheaper if only we pass 

 the silver bill, and make ninety-two cents equal to a 

 hundred. But here is my friend Mr. Jones, who 

 sells merchandise and groceries ; and here I am. He 

 sees me coming with a dollar that is worth ninety- 

 two cents. What does he do? He raises the price of 

 his groceries and his merchandise rather more than 

 eight per cent, and when I reach his salesroom my 

 advantage has evaporated. How is it that we do not 

 see that the poor, the extremely indigent, who must 

 pay high prices for food in parcels, are injured by all 

 inflation in currency ? Prices go up as money goes 



