Conservative.
THE CONSERVATIVE.
A copy was sent mo by a friend and
I will express a conservative opinion of
the paper in general , and say that it
contains many good articles and is
gotten up in good style. I will briefly
notice a few errors in judgment mani
fest in an article entitled "Silver Solici
tude , " by Hardy , of Lincoln.
"What will be the difference be
tween Secretary Gage's 'asset' bank
bills and the wild cat bank bills of 50
years ago ? " The correct answer to this
is : The national bank notes are based
on the honor , wealth , boundless re
sources and reputation of the first
nation on the earth. The bank bills of
blessed memory were issued on the basis
of the honor and financial ability of a
few poverty-stricken individuals. The
notes of the small corporations were not
intended to go outside a county.'and of
course were worthless except at home.
They might pass outside a county at a
heavy discount , but outside the state
they would not go at any price , and
even at home they generally rated from
80 cents to 50 cents on the dollar. When
the civil war began , these banks went
the way of all flesh. Under the present
system a bank may fail , yet the bank
notes issued by the government are not
effected by the failure.
Parity.
"What we meant by 'parity' between
property and money was that as long as
they coined gold and silver free , $600
would buy as much of the six great
necessities of life , corn , beef , pork , wool
and cotton ( I suppose wheat was over
looked ) one year as another. " Let us
see. The great crime did not occur till
1878 , so all the silver men say. In the
50's pork was 2c a pound dressed with
head and feet off ; in 1875 ( about that'
time ) it was lOc a pound on foot.
About the year 1816 a large ox would
bring $8 , and in the 60's would sell at
$60. In 1862 cotton prints rose from lOc
and from 5c to 80o and 85c.
From 1857 to 1860 , corn in Illinois was
worth only about 10 cents , yet from
that time on it has ranged from SO to
70 cents. Without going into further
details , I will simply say the price of a
commodity has never been the same for
two successive years , and seldom for
two months , i. e. , it has varied more or
less. When Bryan was at the height of
his folly in 1896 , and declaring that
wheat and silver were always on a
parity , wheat took an upward turn and
silver went down.
Coinage.
"What made our silver dollars 'un
sound , ' while up to the time their coin
age was stopped , they were worth more
than our gold dollars ? " Well , Mr.
Hardy , you surely know that our silver
dollars are not unsound that each one
is worth 100 cents in gold ; and you also
know that the coinage of silver has
never been checked by legislation. The
last year the coinage of gold was $99-
000,000 and of silver $26,000,000. Since
1878 more than 600,000,000 silver dollars
have been coined. Since the crime we
have had twenty times more favors than
we had before. It is not true that a
silver dollar was wortli more than a
gold dollar in coinage value. At the
16 to 1 ratio the commercial value of
silver was a little more than that of
gold , but a silver dollar was worth 100
cents then just the same as now. The
coinage value of gold is the same as
the commercial value of gold. The
commercial value of silver has di
minished more than one half , while
that of gold has suffered no loss. If
silver were based on its commercial
value , wo would either have 45 cent
dollars or else the si/e of the dollar
would be more than double.
Just hero I notice another error in
this connection. "Should gold continue
to go down as it has for some time as
compared with silver , corn or cotton
until we can buy a pound of gold for
12 or 15 pounds of silver , which would
be sound money then ? " This question
has so much latitude that the corn and
cotton should be eliminated. I cannot
see how we could make sound money
out of soft corn or imperfect cotton ,
not even if they were number one. The
government never contemplated coining
potatoes nor any products of the farm.
If the father is the head of the family
when the boy is born , does he give up
his position when the boy grows up ?
Just hero let us notice that the so-
called gold standard is not really
a standard based on gold. A
bushel is used to measure grain , and a
yard stick to measure cloth. Our
standard measures gold and also meas
ures silver. It is styled a gold standard
just for convenience , and also because
the fluctuations of gold are so slight
that the commercial value is reckoned
as permanent. Our money standard is
outside of all metals. If gold should
depreciate in commercial value , our
standard would simply require so much
more gold for a dollar.
But gold has not gone down in pro
portion to silver , nor will it ever go
down to any alarming extent. In
Mexico the amount of silver in proper
tion to gold has been in bulk 100 to 1.
In the best gold regions , in the Eocky
mountains , the amount of silver is fully
twenty times that of. gold , and will
average more than thirty times. The
accession of the Philippines and the
open door in China will make a large
demand for silver and most likely enhance -
hanco the commercial value , but it will
be silver which ascendsnot gold coming
down.
The Tariff and Silver.
One more error I notice : "The high
protective tariff restricts the supply of
silver. " How ? It doubles our supply
of gold , as duties are paid in gold. If
silver could bo shipped here free would
it not stop our silver mining , and with
it the gold ?
Lest this may not bo plain enough to
those who once taught that the govern
ment can make "fiat" money out of
worthless paper , I would say that from
creation's dawn gold and silver alone
have been reckoned as money. A bank
note is only a promise to pay and is
based on the money standard. A paper
certificate for silver in the treasury
means payment in gold or money
reckoned at the so-called gold standard.
A paper promise is reckoned as money
on this ground , so when silver began to
leave gold in commercial value at the
ratio of 16 to 1 , so that 16 oz. of silver
were not worth half as much as 1 oz. of
gold , it was thought best to coin silver
on a gold basis at a 16 to 1 ratio , though
the commercial ratio was 85 to 1.
Thus as 100:45 : : : Uncle Sam : Bryan.
HUGH A. BARCLAY.
Denver , Colo. , Jan. 4 , 1902.
OMAHA'S CREDIT. '
The Excelsior is a charming little
publication in which the Omaha people
ple see their names printed when they
go to dances. The editor of the Ex
celsior has read a recent remark of
ours , to the effect that Omaha is not
paying all the paper that has its name
signed to it , and screams as if he had
a mouse under his skirts. He says ,
"it is an absolute falsehood. There
is no truth in it whatever and we de
mand a retraction from the editor. ' '
The Excelsior should read its Iliad
and see what happened to Venus , when
she meddled in the scrap , which was ' '
purely a gentlemen's affair. The pay
ment or non-payment of obligations
is a matter of business , not a society
function. If the Excelsior's nerves
are injured , she should take it up
with her city officials , who , when
their dress suits are off , sometimes
amuse themselves with allowing their
city's obligations to become dishon
ored , or of so dubious value that other
Omaha gentlemen can buy them in at
a largo discount. These things are
only too true , and that is why , as we
said before , there are plenty of invest
ors who will not touch a scrap of Om
aha paper with a ten foot pole.
Or looking at it from a purely Oni-
aha standpoint ; no doubt the Excelsior
knows what interest is most Omaha
people do ; what does she think of her
financial governors allowing paper
bearing seven per cent to run ten
years , in these times ? That is sup
posing that they mean to pay it at all.
Herbert Hersheynow in St. Joseph ,
sends us a photograph of the old
Robidoux cabin , which is preserved as
a relic in one of the parks there. The
town was named after Joseph Robi
doux , one of the old French traders ;
we never could see where they got
the "Saint. "
