Goodwin's Weekly | 1910-05-07 | Page 3 | What is King?

What Is King? SENATOR Hammond, in 1858, In a speech in the United States Senate, declared that "Cotton "Cot-ton is king." It was at that time. Those who culivated it had, perhaps, the greatest monopo'y in the world. The reasoning was: "The whole world wants cotton; the demand for it is insatiable; insat-iable; we possess the only great area on which it can be successfully grown." It made them arro-i arro-i gant, so arrogant that they determined to throw I off the restrictions that did not suit them, even if J in the act the Great Republic should be destroyed. Since then, in the great central valley of our republic, with better, reason, a vast host of men have declared that "Corn is king," and their ' claim is more reasonable than was that of the cotton barons, for mankind can do without cloth ing, but cannot get along without food. And when we reflect upon the various uses to which !corn can be put, we are bound to say that among , food plants It certainly is the sovereign, though rice is a great rival, and up to date feeds more human beings than corn does. As invention and mechanical skill increased, and as the necessity of grid'.roning the world with railroads became fully apparent, men began to declare that "steel Is king," and, in its own realm, it surely is king. It is and always must be indispensab'.e, and men are turning more and more to it. It makes the track over which men and commerce are carried on land and sea; it supplies the Genii that does tho world's work; out of it armies and navies forge their engines of destruction; it makes the framework for bridges and houses and ships, its use Is everywhere and no material known to man could be substituted for" it. And the steel kings are quite as arrogant as were the cotton kings, though their dream of empire is not confined to any country, they aim to be the arbiters of the world's trade, and the power that dictates trade will, if once established and concentrated, make a'l the inhabitants of the earth its subjects. There is yet another class that holds that gold is king, and at the present time they are more nearly r.'ght than any of the others have been, and they will continue to be until the people will, by and by, rise up and ask a few questions, among which will be these: (1) Is gold anything but a commodity, produced pro-duced from the earth, and does It not have its good and bad periods of production the same as the cerea's and vegetables and fruits? (2) If this is true, -why should the value ofr all that we produce or have be measured by th's constantly varying commodity? ' , (3) In itself it is not food nor raiment nor anything that man needs; it is not fitted to make the implements with which men pursue their industries, why should the value of all they need, or ilossess, be measured by something which at btst is a mere ornament? (4) You tell us that it- Is money; what is money but a medium of exchange? (5) Are you not doing In your way what was done under Sinai, even when the mountain was shrouded in darkness, shuddering under the footsteps foot-steps of Omnipotence, as it b'azed and roared under His thunderbolts? Did not the people throw their ornaments into a common crucible, and when those ornaments were fused and moulded, H i and a golden calf was produced, did they not fall H.I down and worship that senseless thing? Is it '1 not that same calf that we are worshiping? M I (G) If the modern process is different, is not H I the result the same? m I (7) If A has 20 sheep and no pig and B has m 10 pigs and no sheep and A gives B two sheep for m a pig, you ca'l that barter, do you not? 1 (8) But if C has 20 beeves aud he wants 3 B pigs and G sheep, and he buys them of A and m B, and gives each a paper promising to pay for M them when he sells his beeves, you call that en- M lightened trade, do you not? M ' (9) But if, when he comes to pay, beef has M fallen In value and pigs and sheep have advanced; B . advanced as measured by that commodity called M i gold, he really ha3 to pay doub'e what he agreed H to pay when he made the purchase, does he not, m because the measure is short on beeves, but long H on pigs and sheep? M (10) Why? Is it not because on the Chicago M market the beef trust has, for its own purposes, M sold beef short, while in St. Louis and Cincinnati H the same trust has cornered the market on pigs B and sheep and doubled their value as measured H in gold? BH'--j (11) When money was first coined each piece A. represented the value of some animal, did it not, f A and behind both the reckoning was founded on Km"J the amount of labor required to produce each? M , But now the property represents labor, whi'e the H gold represents the value which sharp manipu- y lators please to place upon it. m (12) Suppose the people should decide that m they are tired of this, and decree that the dollar B unit, on which rests our standard of values, the m r dollar and its multiples, as they are but substi- W tutes which for convenience men accept as rep- H' resenting the value of men's property, those rep- m resentatlves hereafter shall be intrinsically value- fl less, but mere paper, with the government stamp B upon them, shall be to the nation what to the in- M dividual his check is, valueles unless he has the B property behind his check which men respect; H that whereas men have now to pay their debts M out of their property converted into gold, that H i oppression shall be removed and only a natural H demand shall regulate the value of property, shall H increase the re'ative value of one product, and H the absence of the demand shall cause another H" ' product to decrease in value? M (13) And, further, instead of prosecuting as H J gamblers those who try to sell long or short the H products of industry, giving them the chance, H through sharp lawyers, to postpone trials until the M mischief is done, the nation and the several states H through the proper authorities shall, with a sur- B plus fund of these substitutes loan these substi- H tutes to responsible men and companies when the B market is tightening, and call them in when af- fairs again become normal, and that gold itself M shall hereafter be subject to the same laws that other property is. Then gold would cease to be B king, would it not, and be as it was when it was M made a sovereign, and the world's wealth would M rest as it did at first, on the value of its property, m ( and not on the measure of a yard stick which H today is two feet long and tomorrow four feet M Then the lust for gold would have nothing to B work upon. Great trusts and combines would be M compelled to pursue only legitimate business, and , if sharp men ceased to take from the pockets of B other men abnormal fortunes, they would live V quieter lives and tbeir fear of the judgment day K." would grow less and less, and Industry would ' be King.