The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902, August 24, 1899, Page 5, Image 5
K UAT. . . . . : > * # < W u Conservative. repose , a respite to sharpen anew the sword and prepare for future struggles. "A genuine , enlightened patriot dis cerns that the welfare of his own coun try is involved in the general progress of society ; and , in the character of a patriot , ns well as of a Christian , he rejoices in the liberty and prosperity of other communities , and is anxious to maintain with them the relation of peace and amity. "It is said that a military spirit is the defence of a country. But more fre quently it endangers the vital interests of a nation by embroiling it with other states. This spirit , like every other passion , is impatient for gratification , and often precipitates a nation into war. "What especially distinguishes war is , not that man is slain , but that he is slain , spoiled , crushed by the cruelty , the injustice , the treachery , the mur derous hand of man. The evil is a moral evil. "War is the concentration of all human crimes. Under its stan dard gather violence , malignity , rape , fraud , perfidy , rapacity , and lust. If it only slew man , it would do little. It turns man into a beast of prey. Nor is this all. There is found in war a coldhearted - hearted indifference to human miseries and wrongs , perhaps more shocking than the bad passions it calls forth. When I look back on the ages of con flict through which the race has passed , what most moves me is not the awful amount of suffering which war has in flicted. The terrible thought is that this has been the work of crime ; that men , whose great law is love , have been one another's butchers ; that God's children have stained His beautiful earth with one another's blood , that the shriek which comes to us from all regions and ages has been extorted by human cruelty ; that man has been a demon and has turned earth into a hell. " In his recent address at the grave of Grotius , Ambassador Andrew D. White declared it to be the duty of civilization to ' 'go on with the work of humanizing war. " But how shall that be humanized which is inhuman in its very conception and in every detail of its operation ? "War's a brain-spattering , windpipe- splitting art , " wrote Byron. "War is hell , " said General Sherman and Prince von Bismarck. No 1 No ! No ! We cannot human ize this hideously inhuman thing. Our task is to abolish it as we have abolished its twin sister , piracy. It is ours to find a better way and to follow it. William Lloyd Garrison said : "The popular claptrap , 'My countryl May she always be right but right or wrong my countryl' is simply a diabolical maxim , " and I will add that a more baleful piece of sophistry , a more anti- Christian sentiment was never written. [ t has been the miserable apology for unnumbered crimes. "Loyalty to country is noble , but loy alty to country and to truth is nobler still. Commodore Decatur , at a ban quet at Norfolk , in 1816 , gave his fam ous toast : "Our country ! In her in tercourse with foreign nations may she always bo in the right ; but our country , right or wrong. " Then the soldier spoke. Hon. Carl Schurz , in the United States senate , in 1872 , said : "Our country right or wrong 1 When right , to be kept right ; when wrong , to be put right 1" Then the statesman spoke. In conclusion I take pleasure in quot ing from Hon. Wm. J. Bryan's speech at Chicago only a few days ago : "It is not for the Filipinos that we plead. It is for 75,000,000 of people , the greatest in the world , and yet a people not great enough to do harm to the humblest people in all the world. " JOHN J. VALENTINE. FKEE COINAGE OF SILVER AND FUEE TRADE. Is the quantitative theory of money , used in support of the demand for the free coinage of silver , correct and com patible with free trade ? What is the quantitative theory of money ? The silver man answers : "The quantity of money determines the prices of commodities. " What effect would the free coinage of silver by the United States have upon prices ? The free silverite answers : "It would increase the volume of money and thereby advance the prices of all commodities. For instance : The per capita circulation of money in the United States at present is $25.00. If it were doubled it would advance the price of every commodity in the same proportion. " Let us see. The per capita circula tion of money in the United States is $25.07 ; England , $19.98 ; France $80.70 ; Mexico $4.71 ; Servia $3 98 and Bulgaria $1.78 ; therefore commodities in Servia ought to be worth 200 per cent more than in Bulgaria and 1,050 per cent more in France than in Servia , and less in the United States than in France , etc. , but as they are not it is evident that the theory , that "the quantity of money in a country determines prices of commodities therein , " is not correct. What effect then would the coinage of silver by the United States have upon prices ? There can be only one explana tion : It would increase the money stock of the world and in such proportion tion as it increased the aggregate circu lation of the world it would advance prices. If an increase in the money circula tion of the world is required before prices are influenced , that can easily be srovided. The mints of Mexico are open to the free coinage of silver and the volume of money in the world can be increased by laving it coined there just as well as in ; ho United States. A great deal of silver money has been coined in Mexico and the money of the world increased , but it lias not advanced the prices of commod ities ; consequently the coinage of silver does not seem to have the desired ef fect. fect.How How can this be explained ? The silver man will answer : "Mexico does not make the silver dollar lar a legal tender , therefore the Mexican dollar does not fulfill all the functions of money. The United States will make it a legal tender so that a silver dollar will be worth as much as a gold dollar. " The United States can not make it a legal tender outside of its jurisdiction , therefore it can have no more influence on prices outside of the United States than a Mexican dollar has outside of Mexico. Then where do we stand ? Suppos ing the United States has doubled its circulation of money by the coinage of legal-tender silver dollars and that the prices of commodities have also ad vanced in the same proportion ? Let us admit that free coinage has done all this. Then the question arises : Will the people of the United States consent to pay more for goods than they can be bought for in foreign markets ? No. They will go abroad and buy. The only thing that can prevent this is what ? A protective tariff ? EDW. A. BUODBOLL. The cost of producing COST OF PRODUCTION. ducing silver bul lion 999 per cent pure was a few years since estimated by the superintendents of the English and American mints to be about fifty-two cents an ounce. But since that esti mate silver has been mined and melted into bullion at less than twenty cents an ounce in Mexico. Silver , like wheat , is a product of the efforts of human minds and muscles in relation to the earth upon which we walk. There is no reason why law should be invoked to raise , fix and main tain silver at one dollar and twenty- nine cents an ounce and not invoked to put wheat at a dollar a bushel and keep it there. The laborer who mines for silver is paid three and four dollars a day and the product of his efforts it is proposed to artificially raise so that the ratio of agricultural remuneration shall be , in days of toil , about sixteen to one 1 It does not cost as much work to get an ounce of silver as it does a bushel of wheat out of the earth.