2 Conservative * And now , with TIMK IS AX eighteen hundred AUCTIONiiJK. : and ninety - eight just about ripe and rendto drop into chronology , Tin : COXSIUVATIVK : hears various opinions of the quality and re sults , the opportunities , the successes and the failures which have been experi enced by sundry individualities during the last three hundred and sixty days. Some declare them to have been very disastrous because the ] > er capita circula tion of money has been insufficient to fill the particular pockets which their particular cajtntH control. If one could only see the coins of the country circu lating in torrential currents so deep that every citizen could wade in up to his chin , whether he worked or not , perhaps all rnpnt * would be satisfied except the most vacant ones or those on very tall people. But now among those impecun ious persons , who will not stick to busi ness and who abjure all effort , mental and manual , and who have no securities to put up , there is a very unanimous de sire for a redistribution of wealth. These rampant redistributors are gen erally of the opinion that the year eigh teen hundred and ninety-eight has been a miserable failure in all those desirable things which an indolent , an unambiti ous human being would like to have the government or providence shower upon him. These complainants have found no dollars , not even silver ones , groan ing prone upon the sidewalks to be lifted up. They have discovered no orphaned property , real or personal , pleading to be taken , and owned , and cared for by people ple who will not work , either with hand or head. Property dislikes and avoids dullards and drones. Property can not trust itself with such folks. Now and then THE CONSERVATIVE lisens to an old man , a pioneer , who solemnly asserts SOME OLD MHN. hftf , "a lectio the toughest year" out of nearly four score that he has over had to breathe through. Things haven't been like they used to be along back in the oO's. Crops haven't been just as satis factory. Things have lost their old zest , and flavors have fled from foods which away back in the 50's were perfectly de licious. But the aged pioneer never dreams that he himself has changed in the slightest degree. It never occurs to him that a solid crisp apple like the Seeknofurther , or the Baldwin , or Steele's Red would taste about as well now as it did in 1854 , if he had those ss ? sumo solid , natural teeth with which to masticate apples. And so with senile vehemence he avers "that apples aren't what they were in the old days. " Every little while some Otoe county farmer comes in to talk to Tire COXSEU- * * " * * Tftkm ° * * TIIR FAKMEU. class , farmers speak kindly of the dying year. They toll of its incoming with a pleasant January md of its balmy spring and the planting. They describe its summer and the timely mins and the generous frui tion which came in the golden autumn. Sow and then , one may casually dep recate the corn yield as below normal , jut as a rule they cheerfully , and with expressions of thankfulness , praise 1898 md praise God for the crops , comforts and satisfactions which it has brought ; o their fields and homes. Farmers in Nebraska who farm land with plows , instead of political preambles and who intelligently till the soil with cultivators md harrows , instead of with Grange resolutions and petitions for the free coinage of silver at 1(5 ( to 1 , are doing splendidly , getting rich and feeling self- reliant and exuberant. This is about the time in the life of a year when it is customary for many persons to discover UKSOLVBKB. and other undesirable traits in their own characters and lives. During this last week of 1898 many foundations will be laid upon which it is honestly intended to build up stronger and better individ ualities. These resolvers are an annual product. This crop of resolutions on each succeeding New Year's day is always a "bumper. " But a good many resolutions die young. Especially is this true of the very good resolutions. They are always the hardest to bring up to maturity. Many of them are drowned in wines and other drinks be fore they are a day old. Thinking and resolving to do better is a good thing. But to really o better is a much better thing. If every body will do actually better next year how much better off the whole world will bo at the close of 1899 than it is now ? Time advertises in the almanacs all over the globe , and in all languages , to all peoples , that TEW DAYS LEFT. ony ] three days more left out of 1898 for use , or abuse , in this busy and beautifial world. In minutes , heart-beats and hours within the homes of the high and the proud and among the abodes of the lowly and the meek , the pendulum is swinging and with the passionlessncss of metals crying out , like an inexorable auctioneer , going ! going ! going ! and gone ! Henceforth from the mysterious looms which have woven for humanity in numerable myriads of yesterdays there shall come glorious tomorrows full of light and life and joy for millions and also full of darkness and death am : sorrows for other millions. The Scientific American prints , on beautifully glazed paper , a warning of the bad effects of glazed paper on the reader's eyesight. Not only is The Sci entific American's paper highly polished but it is so thin that pictures shov through from the other side of the page. No matter how METALLIC MONEY. many sorts of money may bo nediating exchanges and measuring values in the United States , there must 30 and can be only one standard of value for all the various kinds. The standard must be necessarily the highest , dearest , most precious and superlatively good with which all other money must 30 compared. Up to date that superla- ; ive money is gold. It is superlatively ; he best because it is most desired by all civilized mankind. This universal de sire makes universal demand. This de mand is always fully equal to , and quite generally greater than , the supply of gold. Therefore free coinage can be given to gold without incurring any danger of a surplus of gold currency in the agriculture , inaimfacture and com merce of the world. In the United States today one hun dred one-cent pieces will buy one del lar's worth of flour , sugar or any other staple commodity , just as readily as will a one-dollar gold piece. But this does not indicate the relative value of gold and copper bullion. The copper in one hundred United States one-cent pieces is worth at its bullion value eight cents. Now , then , if a law could be passed pro viding for the free and unlimited coin age of copper into one-cent pieces , there would be at first an anoarent nrofit of ninety-two cents 011 each dollar so coined. But the coinage of copper is limited , because one-cent pieces , nickels and dimes , quarters and half dollars ( and formerly silver dollars also ) ai e merely token money and can be lawfully used in the payment of limited amounts only. In the fifteenth century all the com mercial world over , the average value of fine silver per ounce was f 1.40. But today , in the last decade of the nine teenth century , the average value of silver in the world of trade throughout the civilized globe is only forty-six cents per ounce. When the ratio of 16 to 1 was established ; that is , when the gov ernment , by enactment , declared that sixteen ounces of silver were worth one ounce of gold , silver was selling at $1.29 an ounce in all the bullion markets of the world. If the ratio established then was coiTcot , while the product of silver was relatively limited , that ratio today must be incorrect when the production of silver is , relatively to gold , tremen dously increased. Any attempt by law to now force silver to $1.29 an ounce , by the free coinage of that metal at the ratio of 16 to 1 , in unlimited quantities , would bo as futile as a similar attempt to coin copper at a ratio of 85 to 1 of gold when the relative value of copper and gold bullion is as 175 to 1. In view of the above , it is easily seen that if the government of the United States proceeded to coin these two baser metals in unlimited quantities at the ratios proposed , in a short time all other money would bo