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

GOLD NOT NECESSARY FOR FOREIGN TRADE.
buy. They must sell enough to pay
taxes and interest, educate their children,
support the church to which they belong,
and meet many incidental expenses be fore they buy at all. The fact is that
the fixed charges upon the people of
the United States absorb the proceeds of
all they can sell, leaving only a meager
and parsimonious support for themselves
and their families. This is true of the
most enterprising wealth producers, while
millions are suffering for the necessaries
of life. What a mockery to say to them
that the cheapness of the few articles
which necessity compels them to buy
compensates them for lowwages and low
prices for what they are compelled to sell
to keep the red flag from the door and the
sheriff from ejecting them from their
homes!
It is easily understood why Mr. Cleveland regards the gold standard as sound
money. It took on an average 33,333
bushels of wheat per annum topay President Grant's salary. It now takes
83,333 bushels of wheat to pay
President Cleveland's salary for one
year. In other words, if the salary
of President Cleveland were paid in
wheat, he would receive 50,ooo bushels
a year more than President Grant would
have received. Is it not preposterous in
Mr. Cleveland to contend that the farmers who raise 50,ooo bushels of wheat
more to pay him than they did to pay
President Grant are as much benefited
by low prices as he is? Mr. Cleveland's
case is the case of all officers and persons
having a fixed income or drawing interest
on time contracts. The case of the farmers who raise the additional 50,ooo bushels of wheat is the case of every wealth
producer in the land. None but officeholders, annuitants, and coupon-cutters,
and those whom they control, argue that
a shrinking volume of money is "sound
money" and "safe currency," and the
reason why they do it is well illustrated
by Mr. Cleveland's own case.
The country now sees the effect of
falling prices, and it seems idle to be
compelled to tell the people that it is not
a good thing. No country has ever pros pered or advanced in civilization while
prices were falling. Every country
which has made any progress in civiliza tion has been able to do so through an in creasing volume of money. Reason and
experience teach us that falling prices
lead to bankruptcy, ruin, slavery, and
barbarism; that rising prices lead to
wealth, prosperity, and higher civilization. Times were good when Solomon
built his temple, because gold from the
land of Ophir was abundant. Times
were bad when the Roman legion occupied Jerusalem and the money of Judea
was transferred to Rome. Times were
good in Greece when Athens was the
university of the world and the armies of
Greece were invincible, because the
mountains of Thrace were furnishing an
abundant supply of the precious metals.
Times were bad in Greece when the
mines were exhausted. The people, being impoverished and without money to
defend their country, became a province of Rome. Times were good in Rome
when her conquering heroes had robbed
the world of gold and silver, and were
enslaving their conquered enemies to
mine in Spain and Italy, because there
was nearly two thousand millions of gold
and silver in circulation in the empire.
Times were bad when the barbarians of
the North overran and.conquered Rome,
because her mines had failed and her
coin had disappeared by wear and loss,
and Rome was conquered by poverty and
want before the foot of a Northern barbarian entered upon her soil. Fourteen
hundred years of contraction of the
money volume are called the Dark Ages,
and people wonder why it was so called,
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