| Show SILVER AND PREJUDICE 1 A friend said yesterday r Suppose silver should be at a fair ratio atio with gold the people would not Dot accept it or be satisfied with it I mean the great masses of eastern people eople You cannot comprehend the prejudice that exists against it That perhaps has been heen true for I twenty wenty years Tho The truth is that the disposition of or i men is very err much like that of sheep Most l men have some ome bell wether which they ar are bound to follow even if it is over a precipice where their necks willbe willbe will wille be e sure to be broken The movement to demonetize demonetize- silver started when vast rast amounts of government bonds were in the hands handsor or of o a few people It was at first defeated by a reso- reso lute ute clear brained congressman from New Y York Olk When Then his term terns expired it was introduced again tinder un un- under under der a disguised pretense to regulate the currency It t was fathered by the thc then comptroller of the thc cur cur- rene rency ency It was introduced through a sneak and passed congress under a misapprehension of the facts Gold at once began to advance in value as measured by silver Hilyer or any other form of property save interest bearing securities I When tho tiro wrong was pointed out when it was shown that every other form of property was fulling falling in ill n the same ratio that hat silver was falling it made madeno 10 no difference to the average eastern man lie saw that his own property was falling but that ill in m his mind could never justify a dollar that was of less value than a gold dollar The great press of the cast generally sided with the Jie bondholders We e were about to be overwhelmed overwhelmed over over- whelmed with an avalanche of silver though there was not a year ear when the silver product estimated atthe at atthe atthe the old ratio of 16 to 1 equalled fn in value the hens hens' eggs that the people ate Thou Then too a new race of political economists ros rose e up at the head of oi whom wheat was the tho late Edward Atkinson of odorous mellOr memory With him was Professor Sunnier Sumner of Y Yale al and Professor Professor Pro- Pro fessor Censor McLaughlin n hlin of Chicago who rever reversed ed the rule of the ages that prices followed the volume of money in a country rising rising as the volume increased falling as the volume decreased The heresies finally won but it was only through a panic that prostrated business and made bankrupt bank- bank rupt every man who when silver was demonetized was in in debt to the amount of 30 per cent of the value of his liis property and who tried by his property properly and labor to pull through and save his home But even in their distress when the question was left to them they decided against silver So we do not will expect they now engage very enthusiastically in trying to have haye silver restored But if it can l be e restored and receive the recognition of the government it will be at the tho price the government government govern govern- government ment fixes upon it all around this old world within t two l days dus after the law lark is is s passe passed Then the trouble will be over Let those eastern people but once realize realize realize re re- alize that all the world around silver is just as valuable valuable vain vain- able as gold at the ratio fixed upon and they will speedily get bet over the belief belie that if they accept two half balf dollars in change it will break their backs to carry it In a month they will prefer silver to fractional currency in change in iu six months if they have haye a few dollars to put under tinder their hearthstones they ther will select silver for that purpose |
