the cost of production and honest profit. Such a
condition is destructive. It tends to make thrift
impossible, and by increasing the number of those
maintaining themselves by a jugglery in values, it
vampire-like saps the strength of a nat'on.
Because it involves the action of underlying
tendencies such as these, the smouldering silver
question is of greater importance than the tariff,
and perhaps the most important question before
the public at the present time. The common
people of this country should not unwittingly lend
themselves to any scheme originated by those sel
fishly interested, that may debase our currency at
the same time that it induces the speculation and
the extravagance that inevitably attends inflation.
The business of the world is done upon the ba
sis of gold. Bimetallism, that is the perfect equali
ty and interchangeability of gold and silver every
where, isnot yet an accomplished fact, and that na
tion, that people, disregarding this, and attempting
to deal with its momentary affairs as if it were shut
off by itself, and independent of other countries,
will come to grief. There is no magic in any law
of congress that can make the world accept an
ounce of silver as worth any more in coin than in
bullion. Money cannot be created by legislative
act, any more than the laborer can get it without
work. And as the nation is neither more nor less
than a body of laborers, the sum of its wealth is
neither more nor less than it actually produces.
Nor can the nation make debts without paying
them with any greater degree of security and com
fort than can an individual.
Therefore, when it is proposed to put the busi
ness of this country on the basis of a dollar with an
intrinsic value of but 6scts as compared with gold
by the side of which it is to stand upon equal
terms, it is proposed to create millions of debt
which must finally be paid, or the nation be forced
to occupy the same uncomfortable and insecure
position held by the individual who has impaired
his credit by issuing promises to pay which re
main unredeemed.
It is obvious that if the holder of silver bullion
THE FREE LANCE.
shall be given a gold dollar for 6scts worth of sil
ver bullion that the price of silver will rise to the
price of gold, and just as obvious that it will re
main there only so long as we have gold to give
for it, and are willing to give that gold. But to
thus offer for silver an over-amount of gold would
be as great a mistake as it would be to offer more
than the market price for wheat. Just as the, grain
dealer who did so would soon payout all his mon
ey for wheat at an unnatural price, so we should
be compelled to in a few years pay out our gold
reserve for the silver of the world at an absurd
price. Such gold as was not hoarded would quick
ly pass out of the country and into the treasuries
of the “silver scorning” nations of Europe. No
longer would the yellow elytron of the hated gold
bug gleam in the sunlight of Wall street 1 The
continued production of silver would keep it plen
ty and cheap, while the scarcity of gold would
cause it to appreciate in value, thus widening still
further the gap between the two metals, until we
should be left at the mercy of the commercial
world, which with its golden weighted bastinado
would mercilessly punish our folly.
This feature of the silver question cannot be too
thoroughly understood. Had our hypothetical
grain-dealer had money enough, perhaps he could,
have, as some have said, cornered the grain mar
kets of the world. But nothing short of the wotld
can corner the world's silver. We could not, year
in and year out, sustain silver at a fictitious value j
and the very moment we ceased to give for it on
demand, gold or its equivalent wrung from the
toil of the citizens of this republic, no power on
earth, no proclamation of president, or fiat of
Congress could persuade a single foreign mer
chant to give more than 65cts, gold value in mer
chandise or credit, for a single one of our short
weight dollars.
Then we should commence to feel the natural
and logical result of such a short sighted and il
logical financial policy. Our immense credit sys
tem would be destroyed, and in spite of the in
creased circulation per capita, there would every-