Gold Not Necessary for Foreign Trade [pp. 483-488]

GOLD NOT NECESSARY FOR FOREIGN TRADE.
conspiracy against civilization benefits
only those who by stealth and cunning
have placed themselves in a position
which enables them to say to the nations
of the world, "Stand and deliver, or we
will ruin you." It enables them to say
to every monarch in the civilized world,
"Divide the substance of the people with
us or we will destroy your government,"
and to say to Mr. Cleveland, "Give us
ten millions of the people's money and
buy protection for the country for nine
months."
The power to command and extort,
which the gold conspiracy has acquired
by reducing the money of ultimate payment to gold alone, ought to satisfy the
greed of Shylock- and the ambition of
Lucifer. With no motives but ambition
and greed, it is natural for the conspirators to invent hypocritical, equivocal,
and dishonest phrases and put them in
the mouths of subservient politicians and
echo them through the commercial press,
which they own and control.:
"Parity of the two metals" is another cheap-John catchpenny phrase.
What do they mean by it? If they mean
anything they mean that silver shall remain demonetized until the market value
of silver bullion, with silver so demonetized, shall rise to the market value of'
gold bullion with gold continued,monetized. This impossibility they require
before the mints are opened to silver.
They know full well that if silver had
the same right of mintage with gold, the
parity between the two metals would be
restored and maintained as it was for
thousands of years previous to the crime
of 1873. But what do we want with
parity of one-metal with another? What
the people want is parity of money
with labor and the products of labor, so
that money, which is only a measure of
value, shall be an honest measure between the rich and the poor, the debtor
and the creditor.
There is another suggestion of the
goldites which the gold press and hungry
office-seekers frequently iterate and reiterate. They say if the price of property which the people sell is low, the
price of property which they buy is also
cheap, and the poor wages paid to labor
is compensated,by cheap living.t- In short,
cheapness is beneficial and benefits everybody alike.
The absurdity of this stale argument is
illustrated by the object-lesson presented
by China. There everything is cheap;
wages are from three to ten cents a day,
and the people live on less than it costs
to feed American chickens. All the
wealth in the country is owned by a few
nabobs and mandarins. Do the people
of the United States want such cheapness? If they do they want Asiatic
civilization. Besides, falling prices are
more disastrous than the stationary
cheapness of Asia. Every investment
in any kind of business or enterprise is
seriously embarrassed by continuously
falling prices. The farmer,, the manufacturer, the merchant, or any other
man engaged in business, feels the loss
when his property depreciates in price.
Profits are reduced, and if business is
continued loss and ruin follow. Enterprises are stopped and labor is thrown
out of employment. The result is universal stagnation in business and enforced idleness throughout the land. But
falling prices are not only disastrous but
absolutely ruinous to the debtor class.
The aggregate indebtedness of the people
of the United States, public and private,
is estimated at about thirty thousand
millions, drawing an annual interest of
about two thousand millions. Five hundred. millions is exacted by the general
government through taxation, and the
taxes for State and municipal purposes
are estimated to be double that amount.
The people engaged in productive enterprises'must sell much more thanj they
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