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.