The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 35, September 15, 1894 Page: 5
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THE TEXAS M!NER.
THEN AND NOW.
\A/HEN a man contends that protection pays, tell him that
W 'hog stealing, if successful, pays also; but that it is almost
as dangerous in Texas as protection is—[Dallas News, Septem-
ber yth.
We answer this by the following common sense: "Abraham
Lincoln's first speech on the tariff question was short and to the
point. He said he did not pretend to be learned in political
economy, but he thought that he knew enough to know [hat'when
an American paid twenty dollars for steel to an English manu-
facturer, America had the steel and England had the twenty dol-
lars. But when he paid twenty dollars for steel to an American
manufacturer, America had both the steel and the twenty dol-
lars.' That was the sum and substance of the tariff question as
he viewed it."
And the following Associated Press dispatch from Berlin, Sep-
tember i: "The effect of the new United States tariff law has
been instantaneous in Berlin, Frankfort and other export centers.
The very day the law went into effect the invoices passing through
the United States consulate general increased go per cent., and
on the following two days the number was doubled. The indus-
tries most affected are decorative china, paper ware and chemi-
cals. The whole German export trade to the United States will
be increased owing to the passage of the United States tariff
measure some 100 to 150 per cent, for some months if present
indications can be relied on."
And the following from the London Daily Chronicle: "There
can be little doubt that the measure, partial as it is, will give a
great impetus to many of our industries. The effects upon in-
dustries in the United States cannot yet be profitably discussed,
but it is likely that there will be trying times when the period of
readjustment comes."
And we see from an exchange that in Laredo, under the new
Democratic tariff, four mules came in from Mexico and paid a
duty of $13; against, under the McKLinlev tariff, they would have
patd$i2o. They compete m puce with Texas raised mules.
We see m foreign markets wool has gone up in consequence of
placing it on the free list, thus having wool raised in any part of
the world come in competition with Texas raised wool. We see
that duttes being lowered has already brought into our ports mer-
chandise that would have paid fifteen or twenty million dollars
more duties into our Treasury under the McKLinley tariff. But
Grover Cleveland prefers to give this to foreigners, and issue
bonds to pay the running expenses of the Government.
S!N3LE STANDARD.
T^HERE can be but one standard. Shall it be gold or shall we
1 change to a silver standard?
We copy from the Dallas News of September 7th the above.
What folly it is to make the statement that there can be but' one
standard" for the medium oi exchange that represents the value
of our pn perty, regulates the rate of wages, when for more than
4.000 years gold and silver at a ratio of about fifteen and a half
ounces of silver to one ounce of gold has been used as a double
standard. And now, in the Nineteenth century, to state that
there can be but one standard of value, and that must be gold,
as the monometalist claims, is simply untrue. No one can tell
what an ounce of gold would be worth if it was demonetized; it
is making it money that gives it its present value. "Money is a
value created by law to be a scale of valuation and a valid ten-
der for payment of debts," says Henri Cernuschi, and that every
intelligent man knows to be a fact. From the "Pandects of J uas-
trnian" we quote:
The origin of buying and selling began with exchange. For-
merly money was unknown, and there existed no terms to differ-
entiate merchandise and price, but ev&ry one, according to the
wants of the time and circumstances, exchanged things useless to
him against things which were useful; for it happens frequently
that one is in need of what another has in excess. But as it sel-
dom coincided that what one possessed the other wanted, and
conversely, a material was "elected" whose legal and perpetual
value remedied by its homogeneity the difficulties of barter. This
material being officially coined, circulates and holds its power.
Gold, except for its being chosen as a metal to make money
of, would probably not have the intrinsic value that silver would
have if each were produced in the same quantity. As a metal
it has no better attributes than silver, but gold and silver were
the two metals chosen as the best for the purpose of making a
medium of exchange, and what we call "money." The values of
both are made because they have the stamp of the Government,
certifying to the weight and degree of fineness, and because by
the hat of law they are made a legal tender in payment of debts;
because they are universally used as the medium by which we
value property. It is the scale by which we gauge or weigh al-
most every service rendered to us for our necessities, comforts
and pleasures. It follows, as a matter of course, that that me-
dium (money) is a very important factor for our comfort in this
life.
Now we come to the fact that every one of our readers knows
as well as ourselves that upon the volume of money that is in cir-
culation depends the amount that they can obtain for their prop-
erty, whether real or personal, and if a man has nothing but his
daily labor to sell that is his property, and depending upon the
fact whether money is scarce or "tight," as it is often called, or
whether it is the reverse, the amount he will receive for his prop-
erty will depend whether money is scarce or plenty.
None of our readers are so ignorant that they do not know
this. Now, the fact is that even the goldbug does not deny that
for thirty-five or forty years the production of gold in this coun-
try, as well as the world's production, has been steadily decreas-
ing, until last year; and another fact is that the .world's money is
about equally divided between gold and silver. Now, is it not a
fact, and we assert that it is, that if we discard tne use of silver
as a legal tender money, as the Cleveland wing of the Demo-
cratic party (and the Democratic party m Te\<ts is following that
wing) is trying to do, can it have but one effect, and that is to
benefit the money classes, the creditor classes, at the expense of
the laboring classes? We assert that it will; that it will take more
of our property to pay our debts, and if we have only our labor
to sell will take more hours of our labor to earn our bread. Shall
we stand this? It is in our power to change it, and any party
that advocates this doctrine we should defeat. The Democratic
party in this state has declared for goldbugism, is working for a
single standard to represent values, and the able Dallas News, as
shown by the clipping at the head of this article, shows its hand,
when it knows that single standard money means the oppression
of the laboring man, means to mortgage our farms more deeply,
means that we shall obtain a lesser price for our farm products,
and that is done by making gold more valuable.
Well, if we will lie down like whipped curs and let the money
powers make our laws, we must suffer the punishment; but, men
and brethren, let us arouse and not be led into this trap. We
have had enough, and more than enough, of this decreasing our
money circulation to more effectually confiscate our property.
WHAT tT MEANS.
r^EMOCRAlTC policy in Texas is single standard money.
1 y That means to make gold the only legal tender; that means
to make it more valuable; that means that every man who owes
a dollar will have to part with more of his property to pay that
dollar than if we had free coinage of silver; it means the laboring
man must work longer to earn his bread; it means cotton must
sell at a lower price; it means that the holder of a mortgage will
take a larger slice of the farm, or the whole of it, to satisfy his
mortgage; it means to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
If you don't like it don't vote that ticket—anything is better than
that.
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McAdams, Walter B. The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 35, September 15, 1894, newspaper, September 15, 1894; Thurber, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200482/m1/5/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.