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
