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182
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529
-1815
A 596600
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Visser, E.
Cash vs. Crin.
-
1895


ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLURIBUS UNUM
TURBOR
SI-QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAM
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не
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*W 8/5
&
Price 25 Cents
GASH VS. GOIN
An Answer to "Goin's Financial School"



1
2
3
1.Day's work in 1860
2. Day's wage in 1860
3 What the day's work &
dollar would buy in 1860
4
5
6
4 Day's work in 1892
wage in 1892
What the day's wage
would buy
in 1892
Gharles H. Kerr & Company, Publishers
175 Monroe Street, Ghicago
Trade supplied by The American News Company and its Branches
CASH vs. COIN
AN
ANSWER
ΤΟ
"COIN'S FINANCIAL SCHOOL"
BY
EDWARD WISNER
CHICAGO
CHARLES H. KERR AND COMPANY
175 MONROE STREET
1895
3
Copyright 1895
BY EDWARD WISNER
Unity Library, No. 43.
Monthly, $3.00 a year.
March, 1895.
Entered at the Postoffice, Chicago, as second class matter.
Reclors 2-1-28M NP.
ΤΟ
JUDGE CARL A. WAGNER
OF
PORT HURON, MICHIGAN,
AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS CRITICISM IS PUP-
LISHED IN ITS PRESENT FORM, THIS
BOOK IS DEDICATED.
54257
All money is a medium of exchange, but
intrinsically valuable money, only, is
a measure of values.
Value depends upon utility and is con-
trolled by the cost of production.

False ConclusIONS
sxactfied Folge
Statemen;
Log's
False
Fremises

'And I don't consider it much of an achievement,
either."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTORY.
II. CASH
III. CASH'S EXPERIENCE
PAGE
11
16
19
IV. THE SECOND TILT..
V. THE CRIME OF '73..
46
68
VI. SOME EFFECTS OF A CHANGE OF STAND-
ARDS..
76
VII. A FIAT MONEY..
79
VIII. WHY SOME THINGS ARE CHEAPER.
82
IX. WHY SOME FARMERS ARE IN THE TOILS
85
X. A STORYETTE
•
XI. PURCHASING POWER OF GOLD..
XII. LEGAL TENDER...
XIII. ROCKY MOUNTAIN DOLLAR HUNTER.. 100
88
94
97
XIV. A PARABLE.
XV. COIN AND REPUDIATION.
•
XVI. CLIPPED COINS .
102
101
109
XVII. SIX TESTS FOR CURRENCY PLANS..... 112
XVIII. RICH GROWING RICHER...
ADDENDUM.
114
119

CASH vs. COIN.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
THE American people are in the midst of a
momentous struggle, the outcome of which no
inan can foresee. It is a battle royal, but it is
not one of blood, and while the consequences
will affect the interests of every citizen of the
republic, no matter how humble, it is not a pre-
lude either to the slavery of the masses, or the
disruption of our government. The American
people are determining what their money stand-
ard shall be. This is the one absorbing ques-
tion. In the country store, the counting-room
of the great city, in the farmer's home, and the
bank president's office, on railroad trains, and
everywhere where men meet and mingle, are
heard the clashings of opinions. The people
are thinking, and more intensely than this gen-
11
12
CASH VS. COIN
eration has ever thought upon a purely economic
subject. They are arraying themselves into
two sharply defined bodies, and entirely regard-
less of past party affiliations and prejudices. On
one side is arrayed the substantial business in-
terests of the country, represented by the
thoughtful and educated men of business, the
political economists, a major portion of the great
metropolitan press, and the more substantial and
intelligent among the farmers and laboring men
of the country. This is the side struggling to
maintain a reliable standard of values, and to
prevent a corruption and debasement of the life-
blood of commerce. These are the genuine
bimetallists, who want neither gold nor silver
monometallism. They want both metals upon
terms of equality as a circulating medium, but
an equality which also means a parity. They
want an "honest money," which is neither an
appreciated nor depreciated money.
On the other side of this question is arrayed
a formidable combination of honest delusion and
demagogism, of absolute dishonesty and purest
motive. To this class belong those deluded
people, who, like the poor, are always with us,
INTRODUCTORY
13
who think it possible for their great fetich, the
government, to make something out of nothing,
by creating value with the stamp of the mint, or
with the printing press and paper. They are
led by men of their own stamp, and by others
who know better, but who wish to ride into
power upon a popular wave, regardless of con-
sequences to the people. Added to these are
those who have borrowed good money, have
unwisely invested it, and when caught in the
squeeze, want to pay in the cheapest money
obtainable, regardless of the moral phase of the
operation. Besides these are the thousands who
were unable to see the inevitable but perfectly
proper and legitimate decline in prices, and who
have been told that this decline is wholly due
to a great financial crime, the result of a great
conspiracy, by which silver was removed from
the money of the world as a measure of values.
Believing this, their honest indignation is
aroused, and they are joining in, and lending
respectability to a movement, which, if success-
ful, will produce another era of wild speculation,
make a new crop of millionaires, and finally
wind up in another panic, with a smash in
14
CASH VS. COIN
prices, and a greater number of unfortunates in
the toils.
It always has been, and probably always will
be, an easy matter to catch the crowd with glow-
ing promises. All the great swindles of history
have been operated solely by promising to give
something for nothing or much for very little.
A very considerable number of people would
be benefited by "cheap money," if men are ever
benefited by repudiation, but the vast majority
of honest toilers of the country are deeply
interested in maintaining a stable currency, and
reliable measure of values.
The soft money delusion may win in the first
round, but that the American people will finally
decide upon maintaining a reliable and sound
financial system, the writer considers as certain,
as his belief is firm in the honesty and intelli-
gence of his countrymen.
In this little effort the writer has not attempted
to add anything to the economic literature of the
country, but tries, in a brief and hurried way, to
warn those who are reading and quoting the
subject of this criticism, of some of its most
glaring errors of fact and logic, and to earnestly
*
INTRODUCTORY
15
appeal to those who have hastily joined the
ranks of the cheap money party to apply to their
financial theories the same hard, everyday
sense they use in the ordinary affairs of life.
It is written with but this single purpose and
presumes that all its readers have read "Coin's
Financial School."
}
CHAPTER II.
CASH.
ON March 25, 1895, while riding on one of
the through express trains of the Queen &
Crescent Railway in Louisiana, I sat chatting
with the train baggageman, "Charley Cash,"
as he is familiarly known by everybody between
Vicksburg and Shreveport. Charley had
escaped duty for a few minutes between stations,
and we were discussing the prospects of the
proposed international monetary conference,
when the train butcher passed through the car
calling out "Vicksburg, Monroe and New
Orleans papers and 'Coin's Financial School.'"
"Coin's Financial School' and be blanked!"
said Cash, with a vehemence. "Why, do you
know, sir, that fellow Coin has more cheek than
a Delhi land boomer. I was in Chicago on my
vacation when that charlatan was running his
school, and was there every day but one. I do
16
CASH
17
not claim to be a political economist, but I
routed that fellow Coin after I had caught on to
his method, and don't consider it much of an
achievement either.
"And yet, continued Cash," I see people going
wild over his book. Everybody is reading it.
Its sale is greater than all other books sold on
this train, combined, and the majority seem to
accept its teaching as gospel. I think the book
likely to do a great deal of harm in creating a
vicious and unhealthy sentiment on the money
question."
"And you say you attended his school?" said
I, growing interested.
"Yes, I did, and a great deal transpired there
which Coin did not put in his book."
"Tell me all about it," said I. "I, too, have
read the book, and have noticed its very exten-
sive sale. If you routed Coin, I would like
your history of it.
"Excuse me for a moment," said Cash, and
he went to the baggage car. He returned in a
few minutes, carrying in his hand a roll of man-
uscript, which he handed to me.
"There it is," said Cash. I wrote up my
CASH VS. COIN
|
experience with Coin and his school, and tried
to get the Vicksburg Herald to publish it, and
afterward the Bastrop Appeal and the Monroe
Bulletin, but, as you know, they are all soft money
cranks themselves, and I could not get them to
print it. You can do what you please with it.”
Charley Cash was educated for the bar, but
being without means, became discouraged while
waiting for clients, and accepted the temporarily
more lucrative, but not less honorable position
of train baggageman on the Queen & Crescent
Shreveport line, in which position he has found
ample time to supplement his early education on
economic questions by extensive reading.
CHAPTER III.
CASH'S EXPERIENCE.
On the 8th day of May, 1894,happening to
be temporarily in Chicago, I heard of the re-
markable performance of a youngster, who
called himself "Coin," who had set up a "Finan-
cial School" in the Art Institute. As I had
always taken a deep interest in economic dis-
cussions, I concluded to attend the school and
see why the furore.
Coin has given to the world a detailed descrip-
tion of the occurrences of the six days' session
of his now famous school; it is therefore unnec-
essary to go over the ground again.
I was only one of the throng, and quietly
took my seat near the front, where I could see
and hear all that was going on. During the
remaining five days of the school, as Coin has
told you, were present a large number of
eminent Chicago citizens, lawyers, bankers, mer-
19
20
CASH VS. COIN
chants, and people prominent in every walk of
life. Young Coin had created a sensation in
Chicago. In his school-room he was master.
No one could successfully dispute him. Every
attempt to do so ended in complete victory for
Coin.
After the second day's session-the first for
me-I returned to my room at the Tremont
House, to think the matter over. During the
entire time while Coin was talking I had felt a
strange sensation. I seemed powerless to think
or to act for myself. Coin's manner and- influ-
ence were simply irresistible. But my memory
was good and as I revolved his statements and
logic in my mind, I could clearly see that
Coin's teaching was nothing but a mass of
picked-up rubbish, premises of error, and like
conclusions. I determined to attend the next
day, and to refute such statements as I knew to
be wrong.
The next day found me again in Coin's
school. But it also found me under the same
strange influence for which I could not account.
Coin's statements were like the previous ones.
Men of influence and mental power far beyond
}
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
21
mine made feeble efforts to refute them, but
could not stand against the magnetic Coin. It
was another day of victory for the young
teacher, and the fourth, fifth and sixth days had
the same results; Coin had been proof against
all comers.
At the close of the sixth day Coin announced
that his school was over. I went to my hotel
confused, and utterly unable to understand how
a mere boy could become such a master of men
that the most palpable error could be made, for
the time at least, to seem like the shining truth.
For the past four days I had been trying to dis-
cover the secret of Coin's
power. I had
neglected the news of the day, and had devoted
my time for five days to Coin. But his school
was over and I concluded to drop the matter for
the time, at least, and went down to the office
and bought a copy of the Times. It contained
several complimentary notices of Coin and his
school. The Times had formerly been my
favorite paper, but that was when a master
journalist was at the helm. In its degenerate
days I had bought it occasionally, more for the
purpose of comparing it with its former self
than for any merit it contained.
22
CASH VS. COIN
In the miscellaneous reading matter on the
seventh page, my eye caught the headline
"Hypnotism." Instantly the thought flashed
through my mind, "Coin is a Hypnotist." I
threw the paper down without reading it further.
I had, I thought, made a discovery. I paced
the floor; I took my hat, walked out to the
street, down past the Illinois Central tracks, to
the lake front. It was past midnight, but the
bright moonlight made all near objects visible.
I walked up the track and back again. The
more I pondered, the more certain I was that my
surmise was correct. How else could the strange
occurrences of the past few days be accounted
for?
I went back and to bed. In the morning I
awoke refreshed, and with the conviction that I
had discovered Coin's source of power. After
breakfast I started out on my accustomed morn-
ing walk.
I went south on Wabash Avenue,
and had not gone far when I noticed a sign
which read "Electrical Treatment."
It was
still early, and I walked on, resolved, however,
to stop on my return. I had a theory, and
wished to put it to a practical test.
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
23
Coin had announced that he would hold a
reception in the parlors of the Palmer House, on
that very day.
About 10 o'clock I entered the office of the
Electrical Institute and requested the doctor in
charge to fill me full of electricity. He placed
me in an ordinary chair on the platform to
which was attached a large electrical machine,
consisting of a multitude of wires, a mammoth
glass wheel, a powerful magnet, and a crank for
turning the wheel. By his instruction I seated
myself in the chair. The doctor turned the
crank, and almost immediately I began to feel
a prickling sensation in my flesh. The doctor
turned slowly for perhaps a couple of minutes
and requested me to hold my foot towards a
chair which was close by. I did so and a small
flame of blue light shot out from the end of my
shoe. I reached my hand up towards an over-
hanging wire, and the blue flame was again
manifest. I felt a peculiar and indescribable
sensation, and announced that I had enough. I
got off the platform, paid the doctor his fee, and
went out. I went at once to the Palmer House
and found Coin's reception in progress. The
24
CASH VS. COIN
in the
with the
corridors were filled with people, curious to see
and hear the now famous financier. But among
the crowd I could distinguish none of the promi-
nent people who had been floored by Coin in
his school at the Institute. Senator Cullom was
there, but he was as powerless as John R.
Walsh and Lyman Gage had been in
the Institute. I took
took my place
ranks, and my turn to shake hands
remarkable youth came in due time.
hand grasped mine I caught his eye.
which was flushed, turned white, a look of sur-
prise, followed by one of consternation, over-
spread his face. I said nothing and I passed on;
but the spell was broken.
I felt in full posses-
sion of my powers.
The crowd surged on, but
Coin's manner had changed, his look of confi-
dence was gone.
As his
His face,
My diagnosis was correct. Coin was a hyp-
notist; the secret of his power was mine, and I
could break it. I thought rapidly; I realized
that I owed a duty to the public, but how to dis-
charge it I did not know. My power as a de-
bater I knew would be limited, but I reasoned
that if I could get Coin's spell broken I could
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
25
I
call to my aid the able and brilliant men who
might be at hand. I resolved, and acted at
once upon that resolution. I mounted a chair
not far from where Coin stood, and in a tone as
firm as I could command requested the attention
of those who were in the room. All eyes were
at once turned upon me. Coin was silent.
stated that I had attended all of Coin's sessions.
except the first one.
others, I had quietly listened to his statements
of fact and his arguments with a subdued con-
sciousness that he was wrong, but that on
account of some power he had been able to over-
come all opposition? I stated further that I
believed I had discovered the secret of his hid-
den power.
I then challenged him to hold
another session of his school on the morrow at
the same place, and that I would guarantee to
find at least some very weak spots in his eco-
nomic armor. Coin objected. Said he did not
know me; that he did not have time to argue
with unknown, irresponsible people. His record
for the past few days would stand.
That in common with all
Coin,
But the crowd was getting interested.
for the first time, gave evidence of flinching. A
26
CASH VS. COIN
voice from the crowd said, "Give the man a
chance." "Yes!" "Yes!" came from a dozen
different throats in the room. Coin was in a
corner. There was but one way out, and that
was to face the music.
with evident reluctance.
day was arranged.
Coin consented, but
A school for the next
I had
I returned to my room, much excited.
undertaken what to me seemed like a huge.
task. What if I should fail? Coin was a
smooth talker. He had the sympathy of the crowd,
and that I knew to be more than half the battle.
I jotted down on paper such points as I could
remember where I had considered Coin in error.
I had read several of the great economists on the
money question, and I felt that I could at least
present to the school what would in most parts
of the world be accepted as a correct monetary
philosophy. I knew, moreover, that Coin's occult
power over me being gone, I should have some..
what of an advantage over him. I was "in for
it," anyhow, and must make my best effort.
At 10 o'clock, the appointed time, the room
used by Coin at the Art Institute was full to
overflowing. I was there on time.
Coin was
a little late, but finally showed up.
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
27
He wore his usual bland smile, and was re-
ceived with cheers by his admirers, who were
largely in the majority. A close observer could
see, however, that Coin did not possess his full
measure of self-confidence. Coin knew why.
So did I. Coin knew his power over me was
gone, but did not know how I had been emanci-
pated. I did, and so now do you. I had that
morning repeated my visit to the electrician.
With all the confidence he could muster, Coin
tapped the bell.
"We are here this morning," said Coin, “to
thrash over the old straw of last week. We
have with us to-day a gentleman unknown to
me or any one else in Chicago, so far as I can
learn, who evidently thinks he can succeed,
when the shrewdest business men of Chicago
have failed, to refute our ideas. If he succeeds
he shall be my teacher, and I will become his
pupil."
In his politest manner Coin turned to me,
saying: “You are at liberty to begin," and
thereupon stepped back a little, and I stepped
forward and addressed myself to Coin directly.
"To start at the beginning, Coin," said I, "]
28
CASH VS. COIN
will ask you if the statement published in the
Inter Ocean on the morning of the 8th inst.,
concerning the industrial situation of the United
States, is a correct report of what you said."
"It is essentially correct," said Coin.
"Do you attribute all the ills you there enu-
merate to the demonetization of silver?”
"I do," said Coin, "and prophesy that we
have not begun to see the trouble we will if the
crime of '73 be not atoned for."
"Will not your words used to describe the
present depressed condition of business, just as
well apply to the panic of 1873, 1857—or 1837,
before silver was demonetized?"
"Perhaps they would," said Coin, but seeing
the point made, hastened to add, "There are
other causes for panics."
"Glad to hear that," I replied. "Other
causes besides the silver question may have had
something to do with the present panic.
"Coin, did you ever read the philosophical
works of Herbert Spencer?" I asked.
"A little," said Coin.
"Did you ever read where Mr. Spencer men-
tions the common error of taking concomitant
events to be cause and effect?"
Į
1
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
29
"No," said Coin, snappishly. "Spencer is
an Englishman, and nothing English goes in
this school.”
Turning to the audience, I said: "While
Coin has greatly overdrawn the picture, I admit
that we are in the midst of a great financial and
industrial depression. I contend, however, that
it is no worse than the great panics which have
preceded it. To charge it to the restricted use of
silver and an enhanced price of gold is wrong.
"What has caused it?" said Coin.
་ད
I do not know all the causes," replied I,
"but I believe that the principal one is the de-
creased cost of production."
"But that same statement was made last week
by Mr. Kirk; I answered it to his satisfaction.
then."
"But," replied I, "you did not answer it to
my satisfaction, nor do I think you did any-
thing but evade it.”
"I have no other answer," said Coin.
"Do you think gold has risen in value, Coin?"
said I.
"Most certainly I do," replied he.
"Why?"
30
CASH VS. COIN
"Because," said Coin, "the gold dollar, or
in other words, 25.8 grains of standard gold
will buy twice as much of almost any commod-
ity now as it would twenty-five years ago. It
is all the same whether you say gold has
doubled in value or everything else has shrunk
one-half. I think I may say without fear of
successful contradiction that gold is worth twice.
what it was before the demonetization of silver,
and everybody except the most bigoted gold-bug
admits it. The gold dollar, or any other dollar,
redeemable in gold, will buy twice as much, or
more, wheat, cotton, or iron, as it would be-
fore '73."
The crowd cheered Coin, and his face again
wore a pleasant smile. He thought his point
established.
name
"But, Coin," said I, "I am not a gold-bug,
and I dispute your proposition. I can
you one commodity, the truest and best measure
of value ever discovered, and the one by which
this whole question ought to be squared.
Neither wheat, cotton, iron, silver nor gold is
anywhere near so reliable."
Coin's face wore a puzzled look as he asked,
"What is that commodity?"
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
31
"A given unit of human labor," I replied.
"A day's work will answer well for that unit."
Coin was silent.
"Do you admit," asked I, "that human labor
is the true measure of value?"
"I had never thought of that," said Coin,
"but I can see no objection to it."
"Before going any farther," said I, turning to
the audience, which were now listening with
rapt attention, "I wish to reach some basis of
agreement. I contend that
I contend that any discussion of
the money question should take into account
only normal conditions. I do not think that
the time of a temporary panic, in which men's
fears are magnified, and ordinary principles
do not control business, makes a fair comparison
with a former normal period. I shall therefore
ask Coin to take, as the period for comparison,
with what he considers the good old times, the
period of one or two years just before this
present panic. Say '91 and the first part of
'92. Is not that fair?"
"No," said Coin, "I will not; the panic is
the result of the demonetization of silver, and
you cannot discuss the question and leave that
out of account.'
32
CASH VS. COIN
"How do you know that?" asked I.
"Because," said he, "the panic was the result
of the continuously falling value of the great
products of the world, and that decline in price
has been uninterrupted ever since silver was
demonetized."
66
'And for a long time before," interrupted I.
Apologizing to Coin for this interruption, I
waited a moment for him to proceed, but he
was silent.
"You must admit," said I, "that for years.
before 1873, wherever labor-saving machinery
and cheapened transportation had begun to play
their part, a process of cheapening had been
going on. Is not that so?"
,
"I am not prepared to deny it," was Coin's
reply.
"To get back to the foundation," said I to
the audience, "I shall, with or without Coin's
consent, use the years preceding this panic as
the period for comparison with the olden time.
I appeal to you, my listeners, am I not right?”
Manifestations of approval from all parts of
the audience settled the matter.
Coin looked confused, but said nothing.
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
33
"Let us now take our new measure of value,"
continued I, "a measure which even Coin
admits is the best one, and measure gold by it.
You see I am a stranger here in Chicago. I
have no opportunity to marshal statistics, but I
will keep myself within limits recognized by all
intelligent men. I make this assertion, that a
day's labor will to-day buy more of anything
the human family needs, including gold, than
it would forty years ago, before the mythical
English baron and his equally mythical Ameri-
can co-conspirators were ever conjured up in
the minds of the American soft-money jingos.
A day's labor will buy more than one and a
half times as much gold, twice as much clothing,
and ten times as much literature as it would forty
years ago." I turned to Coin, and asked. “Do
you dispute that assertion?"
*
Coin was dumb. He had disappointed the
audience and his spell was broken. While no
violent manifestations of approval were apparent,
I felt that I was winning my way, and was there-
fore encouraged.
66
'Nearly all things are cheaper now," con-
tinued I, addressing the audience, "including
*See table on next page.
}
The following table of comparative values is compiled by Mr. Edward Atkinson from
the report of the Finance Committee of the United States Senate, computed under the
direction of Commissioner Carroll D. Wright.
In this table the prices of the year 1860 are taken as the base-100-and variations
up or down are based upon the prices of that year.
PRICES, WAGES, PURCHASING POWER.
34
1845 1850 1855 1860
1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890
Meat.
Other food
Clothes and clothing
Fuel and lighting..
Metals and implements
Lumber and building materials.
Drugs and chemicals
House furnishing
Miscellaneous
D
Average of all prices.
Average of all wages
Average wages by importance.
85.7
90.9
Salaries of city teachers..
74.8
100
79.4 86.6| 104.7 100 197 174.3 140.4 103.6 107.6 99.6
82.8 80.7 114.5 100 240.3 146.3 135 116.9
97.1 91.3 94.7 100 299.2 139.4 120.1 104.5
102.6 121.1 100 237.8 196.5 156.5 100.2 89.6 92.5
110.8 114.8) 117.8.
100
191.4 127.8 117.5| 96.3
77.4
73.2
106.7 102.2 103.4 100 182.1 148.3 143.7 130.9 126.6 123.7
121 123.6) 129.2 100 271.6 149.6 144.2 113.1 86.9 87.9
102.3 125.6 121.1 100 181.1 121.6 95 85.2 70.1 69.5
114.8 107.7 115.2| 100 | 202.8 148.7 122.9 109.8 97.5 89.7
102.8 102.3 113.1] 100 | 216,8 142.3 127.6| 106.9| 93 92.3
86.8 92.7 98 100 143.1 162.2 158.4 141.5 150.7
97.5 100 148.6 167.1 158 143 155.9
83.8 91.4
134.7 186.3] 188.1 182.8| 186.3|
97.2 103.5
84.8 82.4
158.9
68.2
86.3
Paper money
100
100 100
100
49.5 81.1 88.8 100 100
100
Gold price of silver bullion in London
95.3
97.3 100
100
99
98.2 92.2 84.7 78.7
77.4
Purchasing power of wages..
84.4 90.6] 86.6
100
66
114.1 124.1 132.3 162
172.1
}

CASH'S EXPERIENCE
35
gold, because it takes less human labor to pro-
duce them. It takes less labor to produce not
only a bushel of wheat, but a dollar's worth of
wheat, than it did forty years ago. The same
is true of everything that is cheaper. Name
me any product which requires the same amount
of human labor it did in the '50's, and I will
show you an article that is dearer instead of
cheaper than it was then. This is true because
the commonly accepted standard of value of
gold is cheaper than it used to be, or in other
words human labor is relatively dearer.
I can
think of no such commodity at this time outside
of literature and the fine arts."
"I will admit," said Coin, "that what you
say was, in a measure, true a year or two ago,
before we had felt the worst effects of this de-
monetization of silver, but now men are unem-
ployed, and no matter how much a day's work
might buy, they cannot get the day's work."
"But," I replied, "this panic will not always
last. Before one year rolls around the revival
will have become manifest.* That is, if the soft-
*At this date, April 15, 1895, a larger proportion of the un-
employed of one year ago have found regular employment.
Wages which were temporarily reduced during the panic are
Hi
CASH VS. COIN
money people do not keep all those who have
money scared out of their wits. Men will
again find employment for their labor, and that
labor will continue to buy an ever-increasing
supply of all that makes good living. The
panic has taken the wind out of many enter-
being rapidly restored to the rates prevailing in 1891 and 1892.
It is rather late to call attention to the signs of better times.
The wise banker did that six weeks and more ago, who was
quoted in these columns as saying that he fixed the 9th of
February as the turning day. Still it is worth mentioning
that the largest dry goods house in the city sold more goods.
in the month that closed yesterday than in any other March
in its history Things are picking up.
Things are picking up.-Cincinnati Commer-
cial-Gazette of April 1.
New York, March 30.-Bradstreet's to-day says:
"General trade for the third week in succession continues
to show evidences of improvement. In no other direction is
this so plainly indicated as in the tendency of prices A week
ago encouragement had been obtained from a generally unex-
pected advance in cotton and wheat. Following their slight
reaction, the week has witnessed a firm cotton market, further
improvement in wheat, with a systematic influence on corn
and oats, the effect of which is greatly emphasized this week
by advances in quotations, not only for coke, but prospectively
for iron and for Bessemer pig iron, for steel billets and
actually for manufactured iron at western markets.
"The better feeling in general trade circles which character-
ized reports from a number of cities has become more wide-
spread, and even where no actual gain in movement of staples
is reported, increased confidence in a better demand is
marked."
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
37
prises which were maintained on a fictitious
basis, and thereby supplying their product or
service at a higher price than legitimate cost.
In that way, at least, the ill wind will blow some
good."
Just here Mr. Joel Bigelow asked how a
"natural" fall in prices could produce a panic.
"If labor has not fallen, it seems," continued
he, "that that indicates a strong demand for it,
which should keep everything moving."
"I did not come here to expound my notions
of political economy," said I, "but simply to
refute some of Coin's worst errors. I am afraid
that an explanation of this kind would take too
much time."
"Go on, give us the explanation,"
from half a dozen sources.
came
There was none of the excitement of Coin's
school, but an intense interest. They were
hearing the other side of the case, and wanted
to get it all.
"The cheapened cost of production," said I,
"very seriously affected the value of the great
corporation properties of the country, princi-
pally the railroads. It has been the custom, in
Flyve
38
CASH VS. COIN
this country to bond corporation properties for
all or nearly all they cost, and sometimes more.
There are railroads running into Chicago which
are to-day bonded and paying interest on a cost
of $120 per ton for steel rails. Steel rails can
now be bought for one-fifth of this sum, and of
course, bonds predicated on the higher cost
cannot, except when franchises are very valua-
ble, keep their old value. The bonds calling
for dollars had not, nominally, declined with the
value of the security. So long as interest could
be paid, the bondholders did not trouble them-
selves about the decline in the cost of the rail-
road building. But the panic has waked them
up; or rather, their awaking produced the
panic. The same statement is true of a hundred
and one other forms of property. Nothing can
long be worth more than the cost of reproduc-
tion. When people began to make an examina-
tion of the new, but perfectly legitimate condi-
tion they became alarmed. Prices of their
securities began to tumble; loans based upon
them were called, and as they had lost much of
their value, nobody knowing how much, it be-
came impossible to negotiate new loans.
Fear
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
39
became general and all confidence in values of
nearly all kinds was lost-and that was the
panic. The shock was largely precipitated by
the agitation of the free silver people, who
wanted to pay their debts in cheaper money, in
money which would cost less labor or effort
than the kind they had borrowed. European
investors became frightened first, and by un-
loading American securities on
securities on our market,
produced the crash at home."
"I contend," broke in Coin, "that plenty of
money, such as the free coinage of silver would
produce, would have maintained the value of
their securities, and the panic would have been
averted. Is not that true?"
"It would be possible," said I, "temporarily
to keep prices from declining by applying the
cheapening process to money. It would be pos-
sible for a time to keep prices rising by making
money still cheaper. But it would not be desir-
able to do so, even to avoid a panic, since a
continuation of that process would produce a
A mon-
much worse panic than we now have.
etary unit should as nearly as possible represent,
continuously, a given amount of human labor
40
CASH. COIN
*
or effort. The one product which has done
that more nearly than any other, is gold, but
owing to improved mining facilities and trans-
portation, even that is continuously growing
cheaper, that is, taking yearly, less human
labor to produce a given quantity. Silver
formerly kept gold a very close race, but since
the use for it as money has lessened, because of
the adoption of the gold standard by so many
of the great nations and the much cheapened
cost of production, it has fallen greatly in price in
the last few years-it matters not whether
your measure be gold or labor."
"Did not I show the other day," said Coin,
'that the stock of silver in the world has cost
over $2 per ounce ?"
"No, you did not," I replied, "you do not
know what the present stock of silver cost per
ounce. When you say dollars it depends what
kind of dollars you mean. Even if it did cost
$2 per ounce in gold, its present value is depen-
dent entirely on what it costs to produce silver
now, just as the present value of railroads
depends upon the cost of reproduction."
"But I contend," said Coin, "that when un-
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
41
productive mines and unrewarded effort are
taken into account, the cost of producing silver
has not materially declined, and there are many
men in Chicago who know that I am telling the
truth.
"Men continue to produce a product at a cost
of two dollars and sell it for sixty cents, do
they?" I asked.
“I mean that that is the average cost," said
Coin; "it does not cost all producers that.'
""
"But," said I, "men figure the average cost
when they engage in business, do they not?"
"I suppose so," said Coin.
"Then your estimate is incorrect or your
silver miner is a fool.
"So far as your Chicago silver miners are
concerned," I continued, "it is altogether prob-
able that the whole lay-out was really a 'gold
mine' located in Chicago, and that it was
worked entirely without spades or blasting
powder."
Everybody in the room, except Coin, Joel
Bigelow and Hon. George Sengel, of Fort
Smith, who carries the politics of Arkansas in
his vest pocket, laughed outright.
42
CASH VS. COIN
"You admit, do you," said Coin, "that the
demonetization of silver has made it cheaper?"
"Undoubtedly. A lessened demand and a
continued large production necessarily made it
cheaper."
"And with it wheat, cotton and iron have
grown cheaper," broke in Coin.
As
"Yes," I replied, "but not because of it.
I have before stated, the great staples of the
world are cheaper because it takes less human
labor to produce them. Every new railroad
and steamboat, every labor-saving machine and
improved process of manufacture increases the
grasp which labor holds on the desirable things
of the world. The only way the human family
can be benefited by the triumphs of science
and art is by a decreased cost of the things it
needs. The words 'cheap' and 'dear' mean
nothing without a standard for comparison.
When compared with human labor, things can
never get too cheap."
The audience approved and even Coin nodded
assent.
"According to the published reports of our
first day's session, Coin, you spent the most of
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
43
your time trying to prove that one is a unit and
that 371 grains of silver were selected by the
revolutionary heroes as a standard of value
for the country, because they had a great hatred
for England and an intimate knowledge of her
designs on this country. Am I correctly in-
formed?"
“I stated it differently," said Coin.
"But substantially the same," said I.
"Now, Coin" said I, "you did not prove* that
371 grains of pure silver was adopted as a
measure of value by the founders of our mone-
tary system, but suppose you had, would it
make any difference in the discussion of this
question, to-day?"
"I think it would," said Coin.
"Why?" I asked.
*The following is that portion of the statutes of 1792 which
Coin twisted about and perverted on pages 10, 12 and 16, Coin's
Financial School. This is the correct reading:
"Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That there shall be from time to
time struck and coined at the said mint coins of gold, silver and copper of
the following denominations, values and descriptions, viz.: Eagles-
each to be of the value of ten dollars or units, and to contain two hun-
dred and forty-seven grains and four-eighths of a grain of pure, or two
hundred and seventy grains of standard gold.
"Dollars or units-each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as
the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one
grains and four-sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and
sixteen grains of standard silver.'
11
44
CASH VS. COIN
“I—I—I cannot say just now."
"Now, Coin," said I, "do you really think
the hatred of England has anything to do with
the selection of a standard of value for this
country? And if it had, do you think that would
be a sensible controlling motive? Do you not
know that our silver dollar was made of its pres-
ent weight and fineness simply because it coin-
cided with the Spanish Milled Dollar, at that
time the most common coin current on this side
of the Atlantic ?"
Coin did not answer.
"And, Coin," I continued, "tell me honestly,
what do you think of an advocate and his cause
when he must pervert facts and appeal to national
prejudice to make his case appear plausible?”
"You are nothing but a gold-bug, English
worshiper, and I will make no reply to your
arrogant and insulting questions," said Coin
hotly.
"That is your safest course," said I, as
good-naturedly as possible.
(6
'An appeal to the prejudice of the American
people against the Mother Country," continued
I, turning to the audience, "is the resort of
CASH'S EXPERIENCE
45
It
every demagogue who has no argument.
has long been tolerated in political campaigns,
but for a would-be political economist, posing
as a teacher of the public, to make use of such
means is both disgraceful and outrageous. The
money question should be discussed on a higher
plane, and in such a discussion the appeal should
always be to reason and never to prejudice.
Coin was still silent, but angry and agitated.
The audience cheered and this seemed to in-
crease his anger. He was no longer master
of the situation. His magnetic influence over
his audience was gone.
I turned again to Coin and said: "So far as
I can learn, it would be perfectly safe to admit
pretty much everything you said during your
first day's school and still deny your conclu-
sions. You stated some facts, but in a way to
befog and mislead.”
Coin was still master of ceremonies, and right
here suggested that it was time to adjourn.
I asked him if he would come again to-morrow.
Coin hesitated. It was plain that he did not
want to. But the audience demanded another
session, Coin finally assented and eight o'clock
that night was fixed upon as the time.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SECOND TILT.
}
THE time for the second tilt with Coin had
arrived. The room at the Art Institute proved
altogether too small for those who wished to
hear the debate. Eight o'clock came, and no
Coin. The crowd became impatient. Soon
cries of Cash, Cash, were heard from all parts
of the room.
I stepped out on the platform. I began by
explaining to the audience that I was in Chicago
merely by accident. That I had been drawn into
this debate by the accidental discovery of Coin's
secret power which he had exercised over his
school last week. That I was there without
time or opportunity for presenting anything
like a concise or systematic exposition of the
money question. That my attempt had been
and would be to puncture holes in Coin's argu-
ments, that I had no knowledge of the science
46

to
Gold
silver
Bimetalism
The money
question
is a very
easy one
juggle with
Gard Kirve
WIND
Winter
Bimetalism
'Gold
3
foffol Regule
Rowley
But?
THE SECOND TILT
49
of money, superior to that possessed by every
fairly intelligent man who had given the sub-
ject any attention.
Just here Coin came into the room, but this
time he was received without cheers.
his place on the platform, and said:
He took
"The money question is a very easy one to
juggle with, but facts and figures speak for them-
selves. I ask you all to remember that in my
school last week, I proved everything with the
statistics-figures, and figures do not lie." Coin
ceased speaking.
Figures do not lie," said I, "but they are
the best friends a financial liar ever had.
"In your controversy with Mr. Gage the
other day, Coin," I continued, "you stated that
the commercial parity of the two metals would
be maintained by the unlimited demand created
by Government for both metals at an established
ratio. Did you not?"
((
'Yes, I so stated, and correctly," said Coin.
'You drew on the blackboard a picture of a
beam of wood with small blocks with strings
attached thereto underneath. I see it on the
board yet. It is intended to show that with free
50
CASH VS. COIN
coinage of both metals that the strong hands of
the government pulling at both strings will keep
both blocks (metals) just so high and no higher.
That is the idea, is it not?"
"Yes," said Coin.
"Well," said I, "it represents a fiction, and
not an actual condition. There never was and
never will be in any country for any consider-
able length of time under free coinage, a gen-
eral use of both metals. As the commercial
ratios vary one or the other will be overvalued,
and will stay in circulation while the under-
valued one will leave.
in this country nor in
countries you name, did
gether until the coinage of silver was restricted
and it became in part a token money. Can
you deny the correctness of these statements,
Coin? Do you deny the existence of the Gresham
law, the operation of which I have just stated?”
"I thought I was right," mumbled Coin.
66
At no considerable time
France, both of which
both metals float to-
'But it was Mr. Gage who was right, after
all," said I.
"You are a bimetallist, are you, Coin ?" I asked.
"I most certainly am," answered Coin.
THE SECOND TILT
51
"What do you mean by bimetallist ?" I asked.
"I mean the free and full coinage and use of
both metals as standard of value without dis-
crimination by the government."
"Do you think it possible to have two stand-
ards for the same use?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, you propose a creation. There
never has been such a thing. To my mind the
proposition involves a contradiction, and all
history proves it. You have yourself said that
silver was the standard in this country up to '73,
and gold since that time."
"But admitting that in the abstract you are
right," said Coin, "it is still possible to have a
practical bimetallism, is it not?”
"Yes," I answered, "but not under your def-
inition. The only way to have a practical
bimetallism is to use one of the metals as a stand-
ard and measure the other by it, but always at
its commercial ratio, in other words, full value.
"You also illustrated your lecture on the same
day,” said I, addressing Coin, "by showing two
reservoirs of water connected by a pipe. Did
you stop to think that a fixed ratio would plug
that pipe?"
HorM
52
CASH VS. COIN
"No," said Coin, looking puzzled.
"That connecting pipe," said I, "should be
labeled commercial ratio, which is never sta-
tionary nor fixed. Trying to fix a ratio for the
two metals would be like trying to regulate the
flow of water through the connecting pipe with-
out being able to control the supply from each
of the feed pipes.
"The only way," continued I, "that govern-
ment can maintain a parity of coins is to select
one of the metals as a standard, and then be
prepared to redeem coins of the other in coins
of the standard metal at any and all times."
Coin was silent, and an intense stillness per-
vaded the room. I admitted my inability to
make a more satisfactory illustration of the prin-
ciple involved, but no one was ready to dispute
my reasoning.
"Last week," said I to Coin, "Mr. John R.
Walsh asked you 'how the government could,
by passing a law, add one cent to the commer-
cial value of any commodity.' Suppose now,
that the question be changed in form to this:
'Can the government by the passing of a law
create value in any commodity?' What would
be your answer?”
THE SECOND TILT
53
I shall give you the same answer I gave to
Mr. Walsh," said Coin. "The government
can create an extra value in horses by going
into the market to buy any considerable num-
ber. The increased demand raises the price,
not only of the kind the government buys, but
all other kinds as well."
"By so doing would it increase in bulk the
value of the whole stock of horses in the coun-
try?" asked I.
"No," said Coin, "but it would make the
number available for general use smaller, and
add value to each horse.”
Where would the government get the money
to pay for these horses it bought?"
"From the general revenues."
"That is," said I, "by taxing the people.'
"Yes," said Coin.
"Then the money paid for these horses, which
represents the increased price of what are left,
would simply be money taken from the people
and transferred to the horse market?"
"Yes," said Coin.
"And is that," said I, "what you call the
creation of value?"
54
CASH VS. COIN
No answer.
"You can apply the same test," continued
I, "to every operation of government which
appears to make value, and you will find that
in every case it is only a transfer from the people
through its taxing machine, sometimes loaned
to selfish individual interests through a protect-
ive tariff. Nothing but human labor can create
value, and all forms of value are but the product
of labor or the power to command it.”
"Do you dispute these propositions ?" said I,
turning to Coin.
"You appear to be right," muttered Coin in
an undertone.
"During the third day's session," said I,
addressing Coin, "you exhibited some fancy
pictures or charts showing what you call re-
demption money as a base with all forms of
credit based upon it. Did you mean by that
that credits are based upon actual money only ?"
"Yes," said Coin, "all forms of credit are
based upon gold at the present time, and the
base is insufficient.'
""
"And right there is where you are wrong,"
said I, "and that error is what has befogged
THE SECOND TILT
55
the whole question.
value and never was; it is only a measure of
values which exists in cotton, wheat, wool, iron,
brick blocks, lands, silver, copper, and a thousand
other things which minister to the wants of
Gold is no more the basis of values than
the yard stick is the basis of
weight the basis of sugar.
Gold is not the basis of
man.
cloth or the pound
The value of any
commodity rests upon its utility and is con-
trolled by the amount of labor it takes to pro-
duce it.
"The credits of the country are based upon the
property of the country. The debts of the
country are paid in its commodities, the prod-
ucts of the soil and the handicraft of its people.
Money measures the value of those products,
and is a convenience for their interchange.
Credits are not ruined by the varying supply
of money. The present panic came upon us
when money, even what you call redemption
money, was more plentiful than ever before in
this country's history. It was caused by an over-
valuation of the properties upon which the credits
were based.
"These properties are cheaper, not because
56
CASH VS. COIN
there is less money, but because it takes less
labor to produce them than it did when they
were formerly valued as a basis of credit."
"But I claim," said Coin, "that the range of
prices is dependent upon the volume of redemp-
tion money in the country.'
"If that be so," said I, "it would be impossible
for the wealth of the country to increase unless
the volume of money increased, and at no
greater ratio than the increase in money."
"That is correct," said Coin, "that is the
quantitive theory of money and is held by all
the great economists of the world."
"But,” said I, "the property of this country,
the value of it expressed in dollars, has increased
at more than twice the ratio of the increase of
money, counting both redemption and credit
money.
"I suppose you will admit," continued I,
"that the per capita circulation of money is
approximately two and one-half times as much
in France as it is in England."
"Yes," said Coin.
"But the prices of the great staples do not
vary much in the two countries," said I.
THE SECOND TILT
"No," said Coin.
57
'Then, what becomes of the quantitive theory
of money?" asked I.
"I don't know," said Coin, "but you must
remember that you are now quarreling with all
the great economists of the world."
"Well," said I, "so far as this debate is con-
cerned, I can afford to quarrel with them on one
proposition if you can quarrel with them on all
the balance of economic science. Your respect
for authoritative opinion seems to have developed
very suddenly. You will remember that you
charge all the great teachers of political economy
with being nothing but the tools of the great
capitalists.
Coin looked confused, the audience cheered.
"Right here I want to go outside the statement
made in your school.
"I am informed that you stated publicly in
the corridors of the Palmer House that the
Rothschilds own nearly half of the gold in the
world.'
"I did not state it on my own authority," he
replied. "I quoted it from the Chicago Daily
News."
58
CASH VS. COIN
"Did the News really make such a state-
ment?"
"Yes," replied Coin.
"And did you believe it?"
"Well, I don't know," answered he.
"If you don't know," said I, "you ought to
be ashamed of yourself, posing as a teacher of
political economy, to make or quote a statement
which does such violence to common intelli-
gence."
Coin blushed and hung his head.
"The other day in your school, Coin," said
I, "in reply to Mr. Sovereign, you announced
a new kind of money based on labor.
Can you
tell me what advantages it would have over other
and well known forms of credit money?""
"It would increase the basis for credit money
and relieve property of the burden,” replied he.
"Then you abandon the idea that primary
money only is the basis for credit money, and
propose to use a prospective value to be created
by labor? Do you see inconsistency in your
new position?”
"I have changed my mind about the basis of
credits including credit money," said Coin.
THE SECOND TILT
59
Said I, "A credit money based upon services
to be rendered through the government would
undoubtedly pass in a limited way, but it would
be at a disadvantage compared with other kinds.
of money. Its redemption would be limited to
a single kind of service, where other kinds of
credit money are good for all sorts of service.
"It would be like Lyman Gage pledging his
future salary as president of the First National
Bank, to a broker for a small loan, when he
had a million dollars in government bonds locked
up in his private box. Your discovery, Coin,
is worthless.
"At your fifth session last week," I said to
Coin, "in your discussion with Mr. Eames over
the purchasing power of a bushel of wheat, you
exhibited two rubber balls, one to represent the
debts of the world and the other, about twice its
size, representing the property of the world.
In the first place the balls do not represent cor-
rectly the comparative volume of debts and
property. Suppose they did, your statement
that the larger one has been shrinking on ac-
count of demonetization of silver is not correct.
In fact, it has not been shrinking at all except
60
CASH VS. COIN
temporarily by the shock of panic. It ha
grown steadily ever since 1873 and more rapidly
than it ever did before. The smaller ball has
grown too, but in nothing like the proportion
of the larger one. I make this statement with-
out fear of contradiction by any intelligent man.
"So far as the purchasing power of a bushel
of wheat is concerned, whether it has increased
or diminished proves nothing in a discussion
like this. It is not a standard. The bushel of
wheat cost the old-time farmer more hard labor
than three bushels do now, and the three bushels
will buy more than the old one formerly did—
and that is the crucial test. The old chestnut
you got off about the National debt has been
answered a hundred times. It will, of course,
take more property to pay the remaining debt
dollar for dollar, than it did that portion of the
debt first paid; but it will take less labor to get
that property. The remaining $1,000,000,000 of
national debt will be settled by one half the
human labor required to pay the first reduction
of $1,000,000,000."
Just here Coin said that the session had already
lasted longer than usual, and that it was time to
THE SECOND TILT
61
adjourn. He stated that he had not been feeling
very well all day, and that there would be no
more sessions of the school. "I will, however,"
said he, continuing, "publish a book explaining
the theories of my Financial School. I assure
you, my fellow-citizens, that before publishing
this book I will hold consultation with such
authorities as Senator Peffer, Mary Ellen Lease
and Hon. Geo. C. Ward, and that everything
published therein will be standard doctrine ac-
cording to our ‘School.'” With a sickly smile,
Coin bowed and started to retire.
that the audience was
effort to proceed, be-
be impolite to do so.
But it was plain to see
not satisfied. I made no
cause I felt that it would
But that question was soon settled by the
audience.
"Cash! Cash! Cash! go ahead, Cash," came
from the crowd with such an earnestness that it
could not be disregarded.
"I thank you, gentlemen," said I, "for such
an earnest invitation to continue this effort to
break down a tissue of falsehood, and to coun-
teract a vicious and dishonest sentiment which
is appearing in all portions of our fair America.
$
62
CASH VS. COIN
It is but the scum coming to the surface of a
disturbed political sea. But lest it be reabsorbed,
somebody should skim it off.
66
During the few minutes that I shall continue
to talk to you, it will be impossible for me to
even point out the errors which Coin has imposed
upon his people. But I make this broad dec-
laration, that he made not one statement tending
to prove the value of his cheap money doctrine
which cannot be easily and readily refuted. He
juggles with facts. He would cultivate your
prejudices. To follow his teachings would be
repudiation and disaster, would turn back the
wheels of progress and civilization, would again
involve us in war with all of its horrors of blood,
carnage and waste of substance.*
"Heirs of all the ages,' and blessed as no
other people ever were, we cannot, fellow-
Americans, afford to do violence to our highest
conceptions of right and justice.
*"A war with England would be the most popular ever
waged on the face of the earth." Coin's Financial School,
page 132.
"In such a war as they would wage, the United States
would grow wealthy and prosperous-as all nations do when
there is an expansion of currency." From A Tale of Two
Nations, by W. H. Harvey, the author of Coin's Financial
School.

}
POLIT
OBLINI
- }
SOMEBODY SHOULD SKIM IT off.
63
THE SECOND TILT
65
This splendid city, in which I regret I do
not live, is the result of the practical workings
of the new conditions during a single generation.
During the same time an empire has grown up
to the west of it filled with a more prosperous,
better fed, better clothed and housed, and more
intelligent population than any other part of
the world ever before contained. These are but
a part of the results that Coin's plan would arrest
and subvert. But the world has progressed too
far, and he and his vicious philosophy cannot
prevail.
"I contend," continued I, "that the great fall
in prices during the last forty years has in the
main been perfectly legitimate, and that its ulti-
mate result will be most beneficent. It, together
with the rise in wages, measures man's increased
command over nature, and through it the world
is benefited, and to be further blessed by re-
markable abundance of all of the good things
that make life worth living. The invention
of labor-saving machinery, the marvelous new
forces which men are harnessing for the service
of the human family, the remarkable modern
facilities for transportation, and the stoppage of
66
CASH VS. COIN
the waste of war during the last quarter of a
century, are what have produced it.
It is a
condition which has produced temporary hard-
ships for the individuals the need for whose ser-
vice is thereby eliminated, but for the vast mass
of humanity it will bring emancipation from
want and the promise of a golden future, when
a minimum of time shall be required to provide
for physical necessities, and leave full oppor-
tunity for a broader physical and mental cul-
ture, the full measure of which no mind, how-
ever hopeful and optimistic, can conceive.
It
"As prices, compared with human labor, de-
cline, the condition of the people is elevated.
is the process of a natural law and a phase of
evolution. Men struggle against it only because
they do not understand it, just as they have in
every age fought against the clevating influences
which have brought them thus far out of slavery
and darkness. It is a process which should be
assisted, and if only a fraction of the effort made
to stay its progress, had been expended in ad-
justing conditions to meet it, there would have
been no panic, and no 'Coin's Financial
School.'"
;
THE SECOND TILT
67
A burst of applause from the audience came
just in time to intensify the emotions of Coin as
he slipped quietly out at the side door. I did not
see him afterward.
A large number of the leading men present
came forward and greeting me warmly, com-
mended my effort. A fine looking gentleman
whose name I did not ask, wanted to know if
I wished to have a public reception tendered
me. I declined the honor, telling him that I
had already been in the city longer than I had
originally intended, and that as my vacation was
over my duties demanded my presence in Vicks-
burg.
Thus ended Cash's manuscript. I read it
carefully, and became so much interested in it
that I re-read "Coin's Financial School,” and
concluded to supplement Cash's argument with
a short criticism of some points omitted by him,
and to submit some facts favoring the correctness
of his theories.
CHAPTER V.
THE CRIME OF '73.
THERE is a vast amount of misrepresentation
and misinformation about the currency change
in 1873 being peddled about the country by
the cheap money agitators, Coin included. It
is alleged by these people that the currency law
of '73 was passed surreptitiously and was the re-
sult of a conspiracy on the part of English
money kings, aided and abetted by John Sherman
and other American statesmen.
But here are the facts:
In 1834 the mint ratio was changed from 15
to I to 16 to 1. This was because gold was
worth more than the mint ratio and none of it
was coined. It was an attempt to get to the
commercial ratio, but they went too far and at
once gold was worth less than the mint ratio, or
in other words 16 ounces of silver were worth
68
THE CRIME OF '73
69
more than one ounce of gold in the markets of
the world, and the silver began to leave the
country and gold took its place.
Some worn
and mutilated foreign coins still circulated in a
small way because their real or bullion value was
less than their face.
In 1854 Congress, recognizing the situation,
reduced the amount of silver in the subsidiary
coins-in effect changed the ratio again-limited
the coinage and made the new coins a restricted
legal tender. No change was made in the size
of the silver dollar because, practically speaking,
there was none to change. The silver dollar
never had been any considerable factor in our
money. We had been experimenting with the
double standard for more than sixty years and
had learned what other nations had already
discovered, namely, that a bimetallic standard
was an impossibility; and as gold was then the
money of the country, Congress did not try to
make any change in it, but sought to provide a
subsidiary money for the convenience of the
people.
The law of '73 was only a continuation of
the change of policy adopted in 1853. It
70
CASH VS COIN
dropped the silver dollar from the list of coins
and made gold the unit of value, simply recog-
nizing a condition which had prevailed in this
country ever since 1834.
The law of '73 was prepared by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, Mr. Boutwell, and sub-
mitted to John Sherman, then chairman on the
Finance Committee of the Senate, in April,
1870. It was submitted to the House in June
of the same year. After having been considered
during five different sessions of the Senate and
House and printed thirteen different times by
order of Congress and the debates on it occu-
pying between sixty and seventy columns of the
Senate reports and nearly eighty columns of the
reports of the Proceedings of the House, and
after a consideration of nearly three years, it be-
came a law in January, 1873- It would seem
to an unprejudiced mind that this disposes of
the oft repeated charge of haste and secrecy.
There was no cry raised about it at the time
because nobody cared about it, and nobody
would care about it now if silver had not become
cheaper than 16 to 1 of gold, thereby offering
a means of currency debasement.
THE CRIME OF "773
71
In
The unlimited demand afforded by free coin-
age of both metals does not, as will be clearly
seen, keep both metals at the legal ratio.
fact no such unlimited demand exists. The
government creates no demand for silver by
opening its mints, it does nothing but to certify
to the weight and fineness of the metal, and the
demand must exist in the commerce of the world
in order to give the coined metal any value.
The government does not consume" or use a
metal by coining it. It prepares it for ready ex-
change only. Coin argues that silver was at a
premium over gold because the French had given
it a higher value than we had. But if that be
the reason we had in the same way given gold a
higher value than the French had and our gold,
if his arguments be sound, should have at once
risen to a parity with silver.
66
In 1878, silver having become cheaper than
16 to 1, there was a strong demand that it again
be made into money. The Bland act was a re-
sult of that demand, but it was so evident that
absolute free coinage would mean silver mono-
metallism that the coinage of silver dollars was
restricted to $48,000,000 per annum, but the
72
CASH VS. COIN
full legal tender quality of the silver dollar which
was taken from it in 1874 was restored.
Ever since that time silver has been get-
ting cheaper and our government has been
struggling with the silver question. The Sher-
man law of 1890 was a compromise.
It was
an attempt to bolster up the silver market with-
out loss to the government and without chang-
ing the monetary standard. That it did not suc-
ceed in staying the fall of silver is well known by
everybody. It loaded up the government with
a vast stock of silver which is now worth about
$130,000,000 less than it cost. The continual
fall in the price of silver and the already large
volume of overvalued silver in our currency,
coupled with the demand by the free silver agi-
tators for a change to the silver standard, was
what produced the loss of confidence which pre-
cipitated the panic of '93.
It is continually alleged by Coin and his
"School" that on account of the so-called demon-
etization of silver, all farm products have de-
clined at the same rate silver has, thereby
proving that gold has gone up and that silver is
the real measure of values. As a matter of fact,
THE CRIME OF "73
73
of the great staples of the farms of the United
States, corn, oats, pork and lard are higher now
than they were in 1878, just before we first
reached the hard money basis. Therefore if the
demonetization of silver has forced down cotton,
wheat and wool, it has forced up pork and corn.
In truth, all products have gone up or down
according to the law of supply and demand,
silver included but without reference to silver
bullion.
To say that silver was. ever demonetized is a
play upon words. The white metal is more
largely in use as a money to-day than it ever
was before, and in the United States it is a full
legal tender in any amount for all debts, public
or private. In 1873 we had no silver at all; in
1895 we have about $600,000,000 of it in circu-
lation, either in the shape of coins or certificates.
Coin and his "School" are not bimetallists,
they are for silver monometallism, or in other
words, for a reduction of the standard of values.
Coin does not object to gold if it is reduced to
the silver standard. If by any means silver
should go to a premium over gold, the demand
for its coinage on any terms except to reduce
74
CASH VS. COIN
x
1
the amount in the dollar would at once cease.
Coin would probably then fall back on fiat
money.
The writer is not opposed to the use of silver
at any ratio at which the parity of both metals
can be maintained. We do not know of any one
who is. A dollar's worth of silver is entirely ac-
ceptable to everybody if represented in a con-
venient form. But fifty cents' worth of silver
bullion cannot be made into a good 100 cent
dollar by government fiat. Our present silver
dollars are not floating at par on account of their
legal tender quality, but only because of the fact
that the government redeems them in good value.
The great wrong and disaster of a change in
the standard of value can hardly be depicted.
It would upset the calculations of all business
men and be the greatest means of robbery of
the poor and helpless, as well as of the creditor
classes, which could be devised. It is conceived
of a desire to get something for nothing and is
essentially dishonest in its plans and purposes.
It cannot succeed, because the great mass of the
people are honest and they do not want to es-
cape their just obligations. Neither do they
THE CRIME OF '73
75
want another period of unsettled business and
wild speculation.
Once let the American people see the real an-
imus of this agitation and they will proceed to
squelch it as they did the greenback folly of ten
or twelve years ago.
CHAPTER VI.
SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF A CHANGE of
STANDARDS.
THE effect of the free coinage of silver with-
out international agreement and as is proposed
by Coin, would be to drop the standard of value
by one half and would be the same as reducing
the value in a gold dollar one half by cutting
the quantity in two.* This would produce a doub-
ling, not of values, as Coin contends, but of
prices. It would permit the debtor to discharge
his obligations with one half the property or
effort it now takes, and would be a practical
repudiation of contracts by one half. It would
reduce the value by one half of all notes, bonds,
mortgages and other evidences of indebtedness
* "With silver remonetized, and a just and equitable stand-
ard of values, we can if necessary, by act of Congress, reduce
the number of grains in a gold dollar till it is of the same value
as the silver dollar. We can legislate the premium out of gold.
Who will say that this is not an effective remedy?" Coin's Fi-
nancial School, page 143.
76
EFFECTS OF A CHANGE OF STANDARDS
77
not payable in gold. That would hit the in-
vestor and capitalist a hard blow but they would
probably survive it and put themselves in posi-
tion to benefit by the inevitable panic.
The poor people would be the worst sufferers
by such a change of standards, for the follow-
ing reasons: They are the owners of the vast
savings deposits, which would be cut one half in
value. The surrender values of all life and
fire insurance policies, which aggregate a larger
sum than the total stock of money in the United
States, would likewise be reduced one half. All
pensioners and owners of annuities would be
deprived of one half the value they are now get-
ting. And most of all, the laboring classes of the
country would lose more in wages during the
time they were waiting for wages to adjust
themselves to the new standard than they could
ever hope to gain by repudiating their debts.
That a time of inflation is not the happy time
for labor is clearly proven by the experience of
labor with the inflated paper money of our civil
war period. Taking 1860 as a base-100-the
purchasing power of wages declined in 1865
to 66. Wages were nominally higher but really
78
CASH VS. COIN
44
one third lower when measured in what they
would buy. Since 1865, using the same base,
1860, the purchasing power of wages has in-
creased from 66 to 172.1.
It is popularly supposed that the people to be
most injured by a change of standards would
be the bankers and Wall Street speculators.
A greater error never gained currency. The
bankers are the greatest debtor class in the
country, and owe on the average a greater pro-
portion of their assets than any other class of
business men, except the life insurance com-
panies. The Wall Street speculators are debtors
as a rule, and the violent fluctuations which a
change of standards would produce would be
the greatest picnic they have had for years. The
banks and life insurance companies are already
largely protected against their debtors by gold
contracts, while their creditors from the very
nature of the case are helpless. They, the
bankers and insurance companies, would be
great gainers temporarily by a dropping of the
standard of value. In the end, of course, they
would all suffer from the general disaster which
would follow inflation, as surely as the headache
follows a drunken spree.
CHAPTER VII.
A FIAT MONEY.
ON page 75 of "Coin's Financial School,"
Coin states:
"You might have a purely paper money. The
method would be to have no redemption money,
and to make it a legal tender in the payment of
all debts public and private.
This is the old "Greenback" idea which was
supposed to have died a natural death several
years ago.
It is a flat contradiction of a half
dozen propositions advanced by Coin in the first
part of his book.
The principle in some form or other has been
tried by most nations at some period of their
history—and never worked. It is unreasonable
to suppose that, if the legal tender quality can-
not maintain a money which is a promise to pay
a real value, when the promise becomes doubtful
of fulfillment, it could give value to a money
79
80
CASH VS. COIN
which had no value of itself, and no promise
to pay any. It could be used to discharge debts,
but could not buy property or value. Nothing
can be used as a standard of comparison of a
quality it does not possess. You cannot measure
the power of a steam engine with a yard-stick.
When that prince of demagogues, Ben Butler,
was running for the presidency on the Green-
back platform in 1884,he came west on a stump-
ing tour. In a speech delivered in Grand Rapids,
he said:
"It does not take value to measure value any
more than it takes milk to measure milk. A tin
cup will measure a pint of milk.” And the
crowd cheered,
And right here is the basis of this fallacy. To
measure a pint of milk is to determine its quan-
tity, or capacity. The pint cup can measure the
capacity or quantity only because it contains
within itself a unit of capacity. You wish to
know the capacity or quantity of milk you are
buying. You must use some standard of capac
ity, with capacity itself to determine it. The
pint cup does not tell you whether the liquid is
milk or chalk and water, it only tells you how
A FIAT MONEY
81
much there is of it. Capacity measures capacity.
And just as truly it takes value to measure
value. You say a thing is worth a dollar. A
dollar of what? The word "dollar" is no more
definite than the word "high." A dollar in gold
means something-just as "ten feet high" means
something. A "Mexican" dollar means a dif-
ferent but definite thing, just as five feet high
conveys a definite idea.
Men will not exchange valuable things for
that which has no value of itself, and represents.
none. Government could fill jugs with water,
and label them milk, but nobody would buy
them. It could, by its fiat, compel people who
had already bought, but not received milk, to
take it in lieu of the promised milk. But the
operation would cease right there. They would
make no more future contracts of that kind.
A money which is good only because men
are compelled to take it will not long be good
for anything.
CHAPTER VIII.
WHY SOME THINGS ARE CHEAPER.
IN 1840 the average New England mill hand
with the machinery there in use, and working
fourteen hours per day,produced 9,607 yards of
cotton cloth. In 1894 with the improved facil-
ities, and working ten hours a day, the average
mill hand produces over 30,000 yards. Working
five-sevenths the time, and under vastly im-
proved sanitary conditions, the wages are more
than doubled, while the product has been greatly
cheapened.
On pages 84 and 85 of "Coin's Financial
School," Coin in trying to prove that the decline
in prices is not due to improved facilities, states:
"Take the case of wool. There have been no
improved facilities for making wool grow on
the backs of sheep or of shearing them, in the
last twenty years, and yet wool is only about
one-third the price it was a few years ago."
And in speaking of the low prices of horses,
82
says:
WHY SOME THINGS ARE CHEAPER
83
"It cannot be said that there are any
improved facilities for raising horses."
It is a well known fact that the improved
transportation facilities have made it possible
to put into all the horse and wool markets of
the world, horses and wool which cost next to
nothing to grow. Horses and wool are cheaper,
not because it costs so much less to produce
them in the State of New York, but because
both products are more easily brought from
places where it never did cost much to produce
them. Such statements as these above quoted
from "Coin" are the quintessence of dema-
gogism.
The increased facilities for mining iron ore,
transporting it to the furnaces and for manufac-
ture, have made it possible to produce a ton of
steel of good quality with a smaller expenditure
of labor than it formerly took to mine a half a
ton of low grade ore.
On the Mesaba Range,
in the Lake Superior district, a high grade ore
is scooped up with steam shovels and placed on
board the cars as easily and as cheaply as though
it were so much sand out of a sand hill. The
84
CASH VS. COIN
*
cost of placing this ore on the cars ready for
shipment has been estimated by some operators
as low as four or five cents per ton. It is placed
on the great ore carriers entirely by steam power
and gravitation and can be carried at a profit
to the blast furnaces on the south shore of Lake
Erie for less than $1.50 per ton. In Alabama
iron ore, coal and limestone are found within a
radius of a half mile from some of the furnaces.
Iron is cheap, because it ought to be cheap.
A good carriage costs less than one-third
what it did in 1860. Carriages are now so cheap
that their use among the farmers and poorer
classes has become almost universal in the
country districts. Even the thrifty negro ex-
slave raising low-priced cotton goes to town in
his carriage.
And yet the men who are making these
buggies get more than twice the per diem wage
they got in 1860, and with the present day
wage can buy nearly four times as much as
they could with a day's wage in 1860.
Who has the right to complain?
CHAPTER IX.
WHY SOME FARMERS ARE IN THE TOILS.
IN all the older settled states is a class of far-
mers who are badly in debt, and, as their prod-
uce has declined in price, their debts are harder
to pay. To this class the sophistries of "Coin"
appeal with peculiar force. The farmer in ques-
tion is the one who went into debt for land when
prices for both land and produce were higher than
now. He has seen his equity in his farm growing
smaller and smaller each year. It is not difficult
to make him believe he is being robbed. But why
have his land and wheat declined? First, his land
has declined because the wonderful develop-
ment of railroad and steamboat lines has
brought into competition with his land almost
all the arable land of the world. This has had
the effect of nearly destroying such values as
are given to land by dense population. It has
spread the formerly existing values which covered
only a comparatively small area over all the good
85
8888
CASH VS. COIN
farming land in the world, just as the building of
electric suburban railroads has affected the value
of city residence property, and added to the sub-
urban districts. The farmer's produce is reduced
in price becauseof the broadened opportunities of
cheap land, and the general use of labor-saving
appliances, both in production and transportation.
The farmer thus situated is one of the unfor-
tunates who get in the way of the wheels of
progress and civilization.
He is, in company
with the man whose money is invested in the
old-time iron mines, and railroad stock, issued
years ago. The village shoemaker, and the man
who can "make a whole watch" are in the
same procession.
But for every man thus injured a hundred are
blessed. The conditions of these unfortunates
could be much improved if they only understood
the causes of their undoing, and would adjust
themselves to the new circumstances.
Cheap money, that is a low standard of money,
would help those who are now in trouble, but
it would be at the cost of repudiation and dis-
honor, and would produce a new crop of un-
fortunates. We ought not to check this ten-
WHY SOME FARMERS ARE IN THE TOILS 87
dency of civilization towards
cheaper produce if we could.
it with cheap money, but we
higher labor and
We might check
could not stop it.
Another class of farmers living in the semi-
arid west are in distress, and they, too, are calling
for cheaper money. These people have gone
to and made their homes in a section which
never ought to have been settled by farmers.
They have sown but did not reap. They are
the fit subject of our sympathy and charity,
but good land in a region where it rains,
or where irrigation is practicable, is what they
want, and not cheap money. No inflation
of the currency can make their land produce
crops; to repudiate, their debts by using fifty
cents on the dollar will not preserve their credit.
They have one and only one remedy, and that
is to go where conditions permit prosperity.
There are many such places in the Southern
States, and their salvation is to move.
CHAPTER X.
A STORYETTE.
JOHN MILBURN had just graduated at the
Michigan University, and was spending a few
days with the old folks at home.
"John," said the elder Milburn, "I've been
readin' what a young feller in Chicago has been
sayin' about money, and I'm a good deal mixed
up. He says everything has declined in value-
except some things, and that we farmers have
been getting the worst of it. I confess I think
he's almost right, but for all that I can't under-
stand it. Now your schooling has cost me a
good bit of money, and I think you ought to be
able to explain it.
"You have been reading Coin," said John,
with a smile.
"That's the very feller," said Milburn.
"Well," said John, "that boy Coin is very
clever, but he tells you a little truth and a great
88
A STORYETTE
89
You
deal of untruth very ingeniously mixed.
will find, father, that all those things that are
made by machinery or are brought by railroads
and steamboats from where they are easily pro-
duced, are very much cheaper than they formerly
were. On the other hand, you will find that in
all articles where labor is the chief cost, they are
no cheaper but probably higher.
You can
generally test prices by that rule."
Farmer Milburn said nothing, but got up and
went into the adjoining room. He returned in a
moment or two with "Coin's Financial School"
in his hand. Turning to page 43, he said:
"This feller Coin has got a picture here showin'
just how the farmer gets it. First he shows a
speaker, a politician probably, a-tellin' the far-
mers that a bushel of wheat will buy as much
as it ever would. Then he shows a farmer a-
payin' his taxes, but the taxes ain't a bit less."
'Taxes are mostly used to pay wages or sal-
aries," said John. "Wages have not declined,
and you could not expect taxes to decline
either."
"Yes, but my wheat has gone down,” said
the father.
90
CASH VS. COIN
"Your wheat has gone down because it is
easier to produce wheat than it was when you
were young.
You can raise a dollar's worth of
wheat even at the present low price, easier than
you used to," replied John.
"That's a fact, John, that's a fact."
Turning again to the book, "The next picture
shows that the judge's salary is the same," said
the father, “but you've already answered that.
29
"The farmer goes on a trip next," said the
father. "He finds the street car fare just the
same. How about that?"
"There are two reasons for that," said John.
"Street car service very largely represents labor,
but the principal one is that street car lines are
monopolies and competition cannot reduce the
price, but while the price is the same, you get
a superior service, and that is really the same
thing as a reduction in price."
"The farmer next takes a Pullman at the
same old price," said the father. "It does seem
as if that ought to come down."
"You are right, father," said John. "Not
only the farmer, but everybody else has a right
to kick on that score. But when I came home
A STORYETTE
91
I took the free Chair Car, and that was good
enough for me."
"The farmer next registers at a first-class
hotel," said the father, "at the same old price.
"Yes," said John, "but the first-class hotels
in Chicago have increased in luxury and elegance
as rapidly as the price of your wheat has fallen.
There are plenty of places in Chicago where
the farmer can get better accommodations than
the city possessed thirty years ago, for very
much less money than he could then. Quality
must be considered, father, in any question of
price."
Here John takes the book.
"You next see our farmer at the telegraph
office. The picture shows that he pays the same
old toll that he used to. But that depends on
where he wants to send his message.
If it be
to San Francisco or New York the telegraph
toll is greatly reduced. In fact, it is less than
it used to be,unless the old toll was only twenty-
five cents. As a whole the telegraph service has
been greatly improved, and prices reduced
within the last few years."
"Next," continued John, "your farmer gets
92
CASH VS. COIN
a shave and a shine. The prices are the same,
because they are only pay for labor performed,
and, you know, wages have not declined.
66
The farmer then goes to buy tea and coffee,
and finds the price the same. It is true that tea
and coffee have not declined with wheat-but
that proves that our money has not done what
Coin claims. Labor-saving machinery has not
yet been applied to any extent to the production
of tea and coffee. But if Coin had wished to
be perfectly fair in his illustration, why did he
not include sugar and salt in his grocery list?
"The next picture shows the farmer going to
the bank to get his note discounted.
"Now, father," said John," what rate of inter-
est did you have to pay when you first came to
Illinois ?"
"I have paid as high as fifteen per cent for
short accommodations, and ten per cent. on
mortgage loans was the common rate.”
"What can you borrow money for now?"
said John.
“I am owin' some of that money I sent you
the last time," replied the father, "and I am
payin' six per cent on it. Mortgage loans can
3
T
A STORYETTE
93
""
be had as low as five per cent on good security.'
"The next picture represents the farmer pum-
meling the politician," said John; "what do you
think of that?"
"I think," said the father, with deep earnest-
ness, "that I made a good investment when I
sent you to school. For the life of me I could
not get around that feller Coin's arguments;
but now I think the man who has to work for
his livin' ought to give Coin the same dose the
politician got. The workin' men were never
as well off as they are now, and as for hired
girls, why, you can't tell one you see on the
village street from a banker's wife."
4
CHAPTER XI.
PURCHASING POWER OF GOLD.
"THE increased value of gold," is the text of
"Coin's Financial School," and is likewise the
scarecrow of the soft money advocates all over
the country.
Cash, in his first day's argument with Coin,
shows that compared with human labor gold
has not increased in purchasing power, but has
actually declined. Nevertheless since the sub-
ject is a most important one, a further word of
explanation may not be amiss.
It is true that compared with wheat, iron,
wool, cotton, and a great variety of other prod-
ucts, gold has a greatly increased purchasing
power. But that is because gold has more nearly
held its own, while other products have been
cheapened. Why these other products are
cheaper has been fully explained in other pages
of this book.
94
PURCHASING POWER OF GOLD
95
That gold still measures human labor better
than any other product, that relative to labor
it has declined less than any other product, is
the best evidence of its utility as a commercial
measure of values. A unit of human labor,
while it is the real test of values, is not such a
commodity as can be used as measure in com-
mercial transactions. The one article of com-
merce which has most continuously kept near
labor, is gold. As the purchasing power of
labor has increased, so has that of gold-but at
a lesser rate. If a unit of labor and its equiva-
lent unit of gold could remain identical in pur-
chasing power, then gold would be an ideal
measure of value.
If by reason of restricted production or in-
creased demand, gold should show an increasing
purchasing power over labor, then will be the
time to think of selecting some other commer-
cial standard. From present indications there.
is no early prospect of such a condition arising.
The supply of gold from the mines was never
so great as now, and with improved methods of
mining it is likely to increase rather than dimin-
ish. It is interesting to note in this connection
96
CASH VS. COIN
}
that the present production of gold alone is
many millions more than twice the production
of both gold and silver in any year previous to
1850. The production of both gold and silver
Estimated produc-
for 1849 was $66,100,000.
tion of gold for 1895, $175,000,000.
The gold production in the whole world in
1849 was $27,100,000. The present rate of
gold production is about six and one half times
that amount.
Between the years 1811 and 1821 the average
annual production of gold was only $7,606,300
for the whole world, less than 1-23 of the present
output; or an increase of 2,300 per cent since
the above named decade.
In view of the increasing output of gold, and
the increased facilities for exchange by means
of checks, drafts, money orders, etc., thereby
relieving gold of its duties as a medium of ex-
change to a very large extent, it is hardly neces-
sary at this time to worry ourselves about the
enhanced price of gold.
CHAPTER XII.
LEGAL TENDER.
COIN fought shy of the subject of legal tender
all the way through his book. He mentions
the subject, but only incidentally. But it is easy
enough to see from his propositions that a legal
tender quality is an essential in his monetary
philosophy.
The legal tender quality is given to money
for the purpose of making it "go" by law, when
it will not go on its own merits.
Legal tender laws are one of the means by
which government becomes a party to private
robbery. They are entirely impotent and un-
necessary whenever applied to full value money,
or money which is readily redeemable in full
value. Legal tender and non legal tenders
float together at par in our currency at the pres-
ent time, because the government guarantees
the parity of all of our present currencies with
gold. The object of the legal tender quality
97
98
CASH VS. COIN
is to permit individuals to satisfy contracts based
upon good money with a cheaper or depreciated
money. Its purpose is to compel one of the
parties to accept less than the agreed value.
Nobody is ever compelled to take a full value
money. It is always acceptable.
It is related that in the year 1860 A. T. Stewart,
the New York merchant prince, made a contract
with a Hudson River quarryman, by which the
quarryman was to supply Stewart with the stone
for his magnificent residence, at a specified price
per cubic foot.
The war came on and with it a debased cur-
rency. The number of dollars which the
quarryman had agreed to take would not pay
the labor at his quarry, because they were
worth less than half the dollars he had based
his figures upon. But the contract was binding
and the new paper dollars were a legal tender.
Legally they satisfied the contract-but never-
theless robbed the quarryman. It is alleged that
Stewart enforced the contract and ruined the
quarryman. Whether or not the story be liter-
ally true we cannot say, but it illustrates many
thousands of cases which did actually occur and
LEGAL TENDER
99
which would be repeated if Coin should succeed
in his soft money crusade.
Legal tender means robbery whenever it
means anything.
DorM
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN DOLLAR HUNTER.
See "Coin's Financial School," page 134.
A ROCKY Mountain dollar hunter went forth
one day to hunt for dollars. Before going he
had borrowed twenty gold dollars from an Eng-
lishman to be used as ammunition. He hunted
long and earnestly, but found no dollars. Return-
ing with the ammunition intact he met his
creditor, who of course wanted his wealth
returned. He dodged the Englishman that night,
but the next day met him again. This time the
Englishman was on one side and the sheriff on
the other and there was no escape. The Rocky
mountain dollar hunter then prayed, and this
was his prayer:
"Oh Government!
I am a poor man and the
special subject of thy care. I have borrowed
from a bloody Britisher twenty dollars; it is all
100
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN DOLLAR HUNTER
DO
I have, and the sheriff is about to take it all from
me and leave me penniless. You have made all
the laws for the Britisher, and I beseech thee,
therefore, oh Government, to take these twenty
dollars and make forty of them. I can then pay
my debt and have twenty dollars left.
If you
will not do that, don't be on the Britisher's
side. Call off your dog (the sheriff); lay low
and watch me lick the beastly gold-bug within
an inch of his life.'
""

2
CHAPTER XIV.
A PARABLE.
See "Coin's Financial School," page 125.
A MOTHER quail with her young quail brood
had a home in a wheat-field, as had been the
habit with quails from time long past. The
wheat was getting ripe, and the mother quail
urged her children to eat heartily of the golden
grain while yet they could get it. "In the olden
time," said the mother quail, "our ancestors
had more time in which to eat and grow fa
on the farmer's grain, before the harvest could
be finished, but now the farmer uses a machine,
and cuts more grain in one day than he did be-
fore in five. Then, too, in the old time a large
part of the grain was shelled out and fell to the
ground, which made it easier than ever to get.
Now the new-fangled machine saves it nearly
all, and although there are not nearly so many
102
A PARABLE
103
of our family and much larger wheat fields, it is
now harder to live.
"In the time I am speaking of the farmer had
to call in many others to help him, but now his
machine does it nearly all, in a short time, and
when the grain gets fully ripe we shall have to
move at once; we shall then have to take to the
woods where there is little to eat, and great
danger from dogs and guns. Truly, my chil-
dren, our lot has fallen in an evil time, and unless
we can get a law passed declaring that half our
former rations shall make a full meal, I fear we
shall all die of starvation."
CHAPTER XV.
COIN AND REPUDIATION.
FACING page 64 in "Coin's Financial School,"
is a full page illustration which proves "Coin"
to be of a very spurious metal.
It
It is really an illustrated story in itself. It
represents the Eastern capitalist out West with
his grip full of greenbacks which he is about
to loan to the Westerner, who is represented as
an Indian. The Western man borrows the
greenbacks and gives his bond payable in gold.
The story thus starts off with a falsehood.
never was customary to take gold contracts for
greenbacks loaned until after the resumption of
specie payments, when the greenbacks and gold
were interchangeable at par. Gold contracts
are of a comparatively recent date, and have
been brought about by the demand for a depre-
ciated currency by men like Coin and his fol-
lowers.
}
104
COIN AND REPUDIATION
105
The next picture shows the Westerner borrow-
ing the money and devouring the substance.
Picture number three shows that the West is
being inflated. Picture number four shows the
East rejoicing at its "Easy Victory." This
period evidently must have been about the time
when the Westerner was paying his interest
promptly.
Pictures number five and six show the East
getting a "shaking up." The West is going up
like a kite and the East is consequently very
much demoralized. This is the truest part of
the whole illustration. Pictures number seven
and eight show the West in a meditative mood
and planning its revenge. Why it needs or is
entitled to any "revenge" is not shown.
Picture number nine shows the West boycott-
ing the East, "destroying" the bond by force
and mutilating the countenance of the man who
had loaned him his money.
Number ten is the center-piece, and represents
the West with arms interlocked on a seat with
the South and each about to take a drink of the
Kentucky extract, and for the evident purpose
of celebrating a union which means an all
around "getting even."
106
CASH VS. COIN
Our command of the "United States" language
is not sufficient to condemn the sentiment and
teaching of this illustration. It, and in fact the
whole book, breathes the spirit of dishonesty
and repudiation-a sentiment which cannot find
root in the minds of a great and patriotic people.
It is not in any sense true, and is a gross libel on
the people of the West and South.
s
ろ
​COIN'S PRECAUTION-COIN S NIGHTMARE
107


CHAPTER XVI.
CLIPPED COINS.
WHY did Coin tell his people that the law of
1873 made silver a legal tender in sums not ex-
ceeding five dollars, and not tell them that silver
dollars are now a full legal tender in unlimited
amounts, thereby creating a wrong impression?
Why did Coin tell his listeners that checks
and drafts do not to any very great extent facili-
tate exchange, thereby taking the place of actual
money, when it is a well known fact that more
than nine tenths of the exchanges of the country
are made that way?
Why did he say, on page III of "Coin's Finan-
cial School," that to cut the gold dollar in two,
and make each dollar 11.6 grains of pure gold-
one half its present weight, would double the
value of all the property in the United States?
If that were possible the government could
make us all rich by repeating the operation a
109
110
CASH VS. COIN
few times.
The proposition is too absurd to
fool any person of sense. We would, of course,
have twice as many dollars, but they would be
worth only one half as much each. Coin's
proposed money would be in high favor among
the plantation darkies of the South, who prefer
to have their pocket money in nickels, because
it looks bigger.
Why did Coin, on page 116 of his "School
book," in discussing price of corn, quote only
the figures for the crop of Illinois? The Illinois
product does not control the corn market. It
is not even first in production. This is a sample
of Coin's juggling.
On page 119 Coin says: "The total debts in
the United States, national, municipal, state,
county, corporate and private, are now estimated
to be about 40,000 millions of dollars. The
interest on 40,000 million at an average rate of
six per cent per annum is 2,400 million."
We admit that Coin is quite handy with figures,
but we would like to know why he did not
make his case stronger by "estimating" the
debts at 80,000 millions of dollars and the interest
rate at ten per cent.
That would make 8,000
CLIPPED COINS
111
millions of interest. Then nobody could tell
him how 1,600 millions could possibly pay it.
As a matter of fact Coin's "estimates" are
wild, and he further makes a mistake when he
presumes that the West sends its money East
to pay interest.
The West pays the East in its
products, and the actual money which is trans-
ferred from one section to the other represents
only a small fraction of the business done.
The same error is made by the excitables who
ask with alarm, "How can we ever pay Eng-
land $5,000,000,000 when there is only $1,600,-
000,000 in the whole country and only a little
over one-third of that gold?"
The answer is the same. We will send the
Englishman something to eat and to wear and
discharge the debt, keeping the money we
borrowed. If we act square with him he will
lend us some more money, if we should ever
need it.
€
CHAPTER XVII.
SIX TESTS FOR CURRENCY PLANS.
REJECT them:
When they propose a violent change of the
standards of value.
That would be disastrous to business.
When they propose to have unlimited coinage
of two kinds of coin money of variable value.
That means a monometallism of the cheaper
metal.
When they propose a paper money not
redeemable in a good standard of value.
It would be worthless.
When they propose a money good enough to
use at home but which the foreigner will not
take.
The best is none too good for us
When they propose by legal tender qualities
112
SIX TESTS FOR CURRENCY PLANS
113
to force an undesirable credit or low valued
money on to creditors.
That is dishonest.
When they propose to create value by govern-
ment fiat, or in other words make something
out of nothing.
It cannot be done.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE RICH GROWING RICHER.
"The rich are growing,icher, and the poor poorer."
THIS is the shibboleth of populism, the creed
of the discontented. If it were true it would
portend chaos for social order, and a war of
classes.
It only needs, however, a slight examination
of present conditions, and a comparison with
the past which most of us can remember, to
make manifest the untruth of the proposition.
It is not true. There never before was a time
since mankind began to wear clothes and eat
cooked food when honest effort would command
so much for comfortable living. The poor man
to-day eats as good food, wears as good cloth-
ing, reads better newspapers, rides in better
carriages, and can be as well or better educated,
than the aristocrat and nabob of a hundred
years ago. Babylon, Athens, Rome and Car-
thage were builded by the unrequited labor of
114
THE RICH GROWING RICHER
115
bondmen. The magnificent cities of our day
are the results of free and better paid labor than
the world ever knew before. The rich are
growing richer-so are the poor.
*
From the slaves whom Cleopatra poisoned
to test her drugs, to a conference in Chicago
where capital and labor meet upon terms of
perfect equality before the law for the purpose
of adjusting and arbitrating their differences,
is a long step, but it measures accurately the
distance that labor has traveled on the road to
complete emancipation.
The writer of these pages concedes to no
man a more sincere sympathy for the toiling
masses than he, himself, possesses. But because
of this, he would warn them against the vision-
ary and reactionary schemes which would lead
*The Minnesota State report on the condition of the farmers
of that State issued recently gives the following figures:
Total faim mortgage debt...
Increase for ten yeais...
Increase in value of farm machinery in the same time.
Increase in live stock
Increase in land values..
•
Total increase in wealth.
Increase in debt………..
Net increase in wealth.
$ 39,000,000
4,000,000
3 826 000
26,860,000
1-18,000,000
$176.686 000
4,000,000
.$172,686,000
The mortgage foreclosures in 1892 and 1893 as compared with 1880 and
1881 show a decrease of 33.1 per cent in number, 84.4 per cent in amount
and 12.5 per cent in acreage.
Not a bad showing.
116
CASH VS. COIN
to their undoing. The complete freedom, in
which labor shall receive its full reward and no
man shall rob his neighbor, will be the result
of the processes now working, slowly but with
increasing momentum. Evolution always work-
ing towards the ideal and not revolution which
would plunge us into darkness and dishonor,
is the hope of mankind.
Step by step the problem will be worked out.
The foothold gained to-day will be the
vantage ground for to-morrow's struggle. There
is no royal road to wealth, and there is none
to the millennium. Honest, earnest men and
women, promising not too much, but demanding
the hard conditions of success, will lead the
way.
"God gives no value unto men
Unmatched by meed of labor;
And Cost, of Worth, has ever been
The closest neighbor."
HOLLAND.
ADDENDUM.
ADDENDUM.
A CURRENCY PLAN
FOR
A PRACTICAL BIMETALLISM
Keep as the standard of value the gold dollai
of present weight and fineness.
Let the government receive silver bullion
without limit, at the market price, and issue
therefor silver certificates, payable upon demand
in silver bullion or coin, but always at full value
as measured in gold.
These silver certificates, always payable in
full gold value, would float side by side with
gold coin or certificates. They would be of
equal value and readily interchangeable.
The government would lose on any decline in
the price of silver, and would gain by any
increase. The larger use of silver, thereby,
would probably enhance the price. Any prob
able loss from a decline in the price of silver
119
120
CASH VS. COIN
would be more than compensated for by the
advantage of a stable currency.
So long as it is necessary to issue a credit
money:
Let it consist of plain greenbacks—promises
to pay;
Let them be redeemable in either gold, gold
certificates or silver certificates at the option of
the government; or
Make them convertible into a two per cent
government bond-an interconvertible bond
which may be exchanged for the greenbacks
again upon demand of the holder.
Let the present subsidiary silver coinage
stand.
The advantages of this plan are:
It would preserve the present standard of
value, and produce no business shock.
It would permit the full and free use of silver
at what it is worth.
It would produce no flood of silver, since the
government would pay only market value there-
for-a rate for which the silver might be sold in
open market for gold.
The proposed credit money would constitute
ADDENDUM
121
a flexible currency which would always answer
to the demands of business. It would increase
and decrease according to demand, and no
currency famine could occur so long as there
were outstanding interconvertible bonds.
This plan would not suit free silver advocates
who want the 16 to 1 ratio, because what they
really want is to reduce the monetary standard
to fifty per cent of its present value. It ought
to suit the "hard" or honest money element, be-
cause it would be a full value money, and there
would be no chance for a depreciation so long
as the government kept its faith-the ability to
do which would long outlast any experiment of
this kind, in case it did not prove successful.
This plan is not proposed as a panacea; it is
given for what it is worth, in the belief that it
has some merits which can stand the tests of
sharp criticism.
THE END.
All those who are in sympathy with the
aims and purposes of this book, and who de-
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author, Edward Wisner, Monroe, La., or the
publishers, Charles H. Kerr & Company,
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BY
C. EDGAR SNOW
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""
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SISTER GRATIA
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