The Peoples Voice. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 3, No. 49, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 6, 1895 Page: 1 of 8
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HsruKE the law *at *ritten dowu with
parehrnentor with p u;
Before the law made citiaeut. the moral
law made men.
Law stand* for huiuan right*. but a hen
, ri|fht« to rive.
Then lit law die. iny brother, but let hu*
man beings live.
peoples
out.
"Our Republic can only exist
so Long as its citizens respect
ami obey their self imposed laws."
Labor T.v The Parent Of Capital, Encourage Labor. and You Build Up Capital
NORMAN, CLEVELAND COUNTY OKLAHOMA, SATURDAY, JULY, o. 18Q5.
IA K?y to the Financial Situa
tion.
HON. JOHN P. JONES ON FINANCE,
The UuuitltlT* Tlieury of Money-Value
of Dollars aa Compared lo the Number
Iaaued-If Mouey Were of t'nlimlted
Uunllty, It Would Hare No Value.
Political economy ium been called
"the dismal (science." "Mm mo«t dismal
branch of it, if men are to endeavor to
force conclusions to fit some precon-
ceived theory without reference to prii
ciples, is that which relates to money.
The persistent determination to make
the whole science subordinate to the ab-
surdities of the gold standard has oper-
ated like a Westinghouse brake on the
progress of the civilized world.
But there is one principle of monetary
science that, if held steadfastly in view,
will constitute an unerring guide
through what would otherwise be a path
of inextricable difficulty.
That principle is that the value nf the
unit of money in any country is deter-
mined by the number of units in circu-
lation. In other words, the valuo of ev-
ery dollar depends on the number of
dollars out.
The greater the number of dollars out,
other things being eqna], the less will
be the valuo of each dollar; the fewer
the number out, other things remaining
the same, tho greater the valno of each,
and this without any regard whatever
to the material of which the dollars are
composed. This is the key to the finan-
cial situation in the United States.
Much more, it is the key to the financial
situation in every land. Without this
key it is in vain that the student at-
tempts to unlock the door leading to the
arcanum of monetary knowledge. Un-
like many of the locks made bv man,
the lock on that door is unpickable.
The household of science is one that
thieves cannot break through and steal.
Ho who would enter must first find the
key. With this key in hand, the most
secret recesses may be explored with
Confidence. Without it, the student trav-
els in a circle, returning after much la-
bor to tho point from which he startod
upon his journey. Like one in a maze,
when most confidently expecting to find
his way out he but sees himself coming
up against impassable barriers.
If money were unlimited in quantity,
it would have no valuo whatever. Noth-
ing has value that is unlimited in quan-
tity. If instead of sand the ocean beach
were strewn with gold dust, it would
have no value whatever asacommodity.
Yet if that gold dust were taken up and
coined into pieces of money, the number
of such pieces being limited, they would
have value precisely as goldpieces have
value today. And, on the other hand, as
Adam Smith says, if gold should reach
a certain degree of scarcity, the slightest
bit of it might become as valuable as a
diamond.
So absolutely clear are the leading
writers that the value of money unit is
in every case, other things being equal,
determined by the number of units ont
and does not depend on the material of
which the money may be composed that
they have not the slightest hesitation in
asserting that the rule applies even to
uncovered paper money, so that the value
of every dollar of gold and silver in cir-
culation is diminished or increased ac-
cording as the quantity of paper money
is increased or diminished, and, recipro-
cally as to all of these, the increase in
the number of dollars of either kind di-
minishing tho value of each dollar of
tho others, while the decrease in the
number of either increases the value of
each of the others, without the slightest
regard whatever to the material of which
either of tho dollars is composed.
If this be so, if the value of the unit
of money depends not on the material of
the dollars, but on their quantity, what
becomes of the gold standard? If this be
so, inasmuch iis silver has been utilized
as money since the dawn of creation,
\\hy abandon it now, unless senators are
prepared to abandon the automatic sys-
tem altogether? If we must by legisla-
tion compel a change in the value of
money, why legislate so that it can
change in one direction only, and that
the direction which is always favorable
to the classes that lend money and live
idly on their incomes, tho direction most
injurious to society, most fatal to indus-
try, most narcotizing to energy?
The idea that the value of a treasury
note issued by a government such as
ours is not based on tho number issued,
but. on something behind the note, or
upon the credit of the government, de-
forms the whole idea of money. It is
clung to because people have been accus-
tomed to look upon money as something
of "intrinsic" value, and on that theory
they have been at a loss to account for
the fact that uncovered paper dollars,
when sufficiently restricted in number,
have precisely the same purchasing
power as gold money, quantity for quan-
tity. There is no question of credit
about it. No man tu'tes a piece of money
of any kind, whether gold or silver or
paper, as a piece of credit. If it is not
legal tender, it is not, in the true and
full sense, money at all; if a full legal
tender, it needs nothing behind it but
the law which makes it a legal tender
for all debts and demands, and a regu-
lation of its quantity, to maintain the
monetary unit at any desired level of
value.
It is not the credit, but the power of ■ ...
the government that is behind it in the I ""instryand commerce are calculated
law of legal tender and in the right to I coue,'a' "le ev'' which the gold stand-
increase or diminish the issues. Taxes I inflicte nP"n •""'iety and afford to
are payable in money, and debts are I lutcree1oJ casuists and sophists us well
payable in money, and the only way
that people can get money with which
to pay debts or taxes is by competing
with one another for it iu all the occu-
pations of life. It is this universal com-
petition to get it that fixes the value of
all kinds of money, as it is competition
that fixes the value of all other things.
In this work of competition the number
bauds or those who did not produce
them.
What Ie an Honeet DollarT
The gold standard men tell us that
all they ask for is good money—honest
money. If that is so, then there must be
some monstrous juggling with words,
for the very pith and marrow of our
contention in demanding tho restora-
tion of the privilege of full coinage to
silver is for good money, honest money,
a money more honest than gold, a
mouey that shall be honest not merely
today, but in perpetuity. The acute
among the gold men very well know
that gold money under existing condi-
tions is not an honest money, but an
unjust and essentially dishonest money.
What, then, is an honest dollar? Is it
not a dollar which demands at all times
the same degree of sacrifice toobtain it?
Is a dollar "honest" only when it is
increasing in purchasing power, when
it is enlarging its grasp over the prod-
ucts of labor? Is it an "honest" dollar
only when it is exacting moro from the
debtor than he contracted to pay and
giving more to tht creditor than he
agreed to receive?
Is a dollar dishonest when, on the
date of repayment, it commands precise-
ly the same degree of sacrifice that it
commanded when it was borrowed?
In order that a dollar inav be entitled
to the designation "honest," is it neces-
sary that at the date of repayment it
should have a greater control over hu-
man effort than it had when it .was bor-
rowed?
Ono would naturally suppose that an
honest dollar would be a dollar that
would correctly register the sacrifices of
men, so that at the close of the term of
a loan the creditor, in addition to lawful
interest, would receive as pr'ncipal not
merely the same number • f dollars, bnt
dollars commanding .. tho average the
same degree of human effort as those he
had lent.
Are we to understand that after the
making of a contract requiring the pay-
ment of money a dolljr becomes more
and more "honest" in the proportion in
which its purchasing power increases, to
the advantage of the creditor and the
disadvantage of the debtor?
Waa the Gold Dollar an Hunrtt Dollar In
1873?
The gold dollar having today a pur-
chasing power GO per cent greater than
the same gold dollar had iu 1878, was
the gold dollar of 20 years ago a dishon-
est dollar, and is it today 50 per cent
more houest than it was then, it being at
both periods of precisely the same weight
aud fineness? And if it continues to in-
crease in purchasing power, will it con-
tinue to increase in honesty?
We have heard no gold standard cham-
pion attribute dishonesty to any gold
coin of any country at any date. Oold,
they say, is always gold, which in one
sense we grant, and therefore one would
suppose that acontract to pay gold would
be the same contract at one time as at
another. Yet at two different periods
time it means two totally differe
things.
The Demand That One Dollar Mint Be
Kept ah Good km Another.
The gold advocates say that one dollar
must be as good as another. But they
do not define what goodness means.
What is goodness in the case of a dollar?
Is not a just dollar a good dollar? Is
not a dollar of unchanging value a good
dollar?
If the dollar they take for their mod-
el is a swindling dollar, why should
they iisk that an "honest" dollar should
be as "good" or as bad as that?
If a dollar should get to be more val-
uable than tho dollar of the contract if
goodness means doaruess—then we want
a dollar that shall not be so good. Wf
\\ ant a dollar that shall demand no
more sacrifice to get it than the dollar
of the contract—than the dollar that was
agreed to be paid.
Premium on Oold.
When gold alone, or a money based
on gold, is the circulating medium of a
country, a contract calling for the pay-
ment of $1,000 on the spot would on its
face seem to be the same as a contract
calling for the payment of $1,000 at a
future time, because, the sum being in
each case the same and payable in the
same form of money, there would seem
to bo no preminm involved. If, how-
ever, men are obliged to give more of
their products for it in tho ono case
than in the other, are they not to all
intents and purposes paying a premium
on gold? Is it any less a premium bo-
cause the true character of the transac-
tion is not detected? Values being al-
ways stated iu terms of money, never
in terms of commodities, it is not easy
for the uninitiated to detect variations
in the value of the circulating medium
itself.
Anything that is measured by itself
alone can never present an appearance
of change. No matter, therefore, how
great a departure may be made by gold
from its value at any former period,
such departure is never denominated
as to siqierficial thinkers upon money, to
so called statisticians and would be
philosophers and economists an oppor
tunity much improved by them of dis-
puting as to the true nature of the
change that has taken place.
John P. Jones.
Norman. June the 28th. 1895.—Pro
ceedings of the Cleveland Co. S. S
Convention which was held in the
Chrisiittn church at Norman Okla. Ter
June 28th. 10. A. M. Scripture, Deut
0- 4 9, Song, blessed assurance, pray-
er hy Bio. Davis, for God's blessing on
the Convention,-What this convention
is for, Discussion led by Bro. Beane
followed by Bro's Henry. Brown, Davis
and others.
Mission,—Motive and Character o!
the S. S. teachers discussion led by
Bro. Bogges followed by Bro. Lane.
Bro. Bogges made a good talk.
Bro. Henry appointed as chairman
of committee on resolutions. Bro
Beane and Wails also appointed on the
committee. Motion to invite all visit-
ing delegates to accept seats on the
floor as delegates, song no .54 then sung
delegates then assigned and adjourn-
ment.
2. f. M. Convention opened with
song service folio ved by prayer by M.
McCollough report of committee on
resolution was accepted.
2,,'iO—Under what conditions are Un-
ion S. S. advisable. Discussion opened
by J. P. Lane, followed by Win. Davis
and Dr. Hawley of Okla. City, and P.
L. Wenner of Guthrie, (the O. T.
secretary,) and others, song no. 60.
then sung.
3,15—Sunday school work in Okla;
Present and Prospective b.v Wm. Davis
and others.
8,,4.5—Factors essential to successful
S. S. work, by Judge Hammer of Okla.
City.
4.—Music, prayer by Dr. Hawley.
4,15-Miseillaneotis reports of schools
committees and officers.
Song and benediction.
8,15—Devotioul services, scripture
reading by Rev. Beane. prayer by Hev.
Voss, song by congregation.
8,80—The model superintendent and
teacher, by Rev. F. W. Hawley.
9.—How to teach the Bible, by Rev.
J. T. Riley, song by congregation and
benediction by Rev. Brown.
Saturday morning June the 29th.
9,30 - Convention opened with song
service, remarks and scripture reading
by the chairman, prayer by R^v. Davis
song by the congregation, prayer by
Bro. Applegate, and song.
9.45 Unfinished business and reports
of delegates.
10,—Election of county officers,
f res. Rev. J. P. Lane ot Norman, per*
manent Sec. M. MeCullough of Nor-
man. Treasurer J. C. Wails of Norman
members of the executive committee,
elected, Rev. S. E. Henry, of Norman,
J. B. Cummings of Norman, W. D.
Krahl of Norman, song by the congre-
gration.
10,40 How to plant a Sunday School
and how to make it grow, by Fred L.
Wenner.
11,30—Remarks by Rev. J. P. Lane
on improvement in S. S. work.
12—Song and benediction.
2,20 -Song by the congregation, scrip-
ture reading by Rev. Scott, song, pray-
er by Itev. Davis, and song by the con-
gregation.
2,40 -Election of Vice Pres. of Town-
ship as follows;
Twp.—8. 1. R. Jackson. Hall, O. T,
—H- "• I. N. Little. Norman, "
0. 1, Bro. Dyer. Denver, •*
9. 2. T. A. Jones. Franklin "
9. 3. J. c. Wails, Norman "
g 10.1. Bro. Doake, Franklin "
10. 2. H. Lverette Norman u
" Norman Rev. Brown. " "
. " Moore Bro. Applegate Moore "
2,56— Sunday School as a moral fac-
tor in the community, discussed by Rev
H. W. Powers, Rev, Henry. Rev. Scott
and others, song by congregaliou.
3,40—Collection taken $2 93
Quesbion Box.
Resolved that we the Cleveland Co.
S. S. convention do hereby tender our
sincere thanks, for the kindness of tho
citizens of Norman, for the able and
generous manner in which they have
entertained the people of the conven-
tion. And also to the Press for gener-
oub notice.
As Flayed Continually by old
Party Tomcats.
HE HAS PUT IT OFF TO LONG
Known in Politics As Hfforts To
"Reform From Within."
An en-M'tiouri Democrat on Bland and Hit
Eleventh Hour New Party—l'ulled Under
the Wagon Like a Little Dog With a
String Around Hit Neck—Rank and
File of a Party Like the Hull of
a Ship— intlde |t the Ma-
chine That Runt |t—"Re
pairing" the Ship
Leavet the 8ame
Old Hulk and
the Same
Crew.
"Mr. Bland there has been a great I some Jackson- Denton life in it and
deal of newspaper gossip and sur- 1 raise a new one.
mise as to your intentions of desert-i m _> .i
Mans tissues in youth are springy;
ng the democracy and leading
iolt from its organization in favor
a new party in the next presidential
... . .. .... - as age comes on they become chalk v
bolt from its organization in favor of i \\
'aste no time in trying to make the
, , | nian y°l'ng; train his offspring. The
What have you to say to wom (irab may be reforn*(1( but
she cannot
n v ( Rev. S. E. Henry.
By Executive Com -' .1. B. Cummings.
( W. D. Krahl.
5—Song by the congregation, Bene-
diction by Rev. Scott.
M. McCollouoh.
Secretary.
We are in receipt of the first num-
ber of the "American Bimetallist"
Ex-Democrat of MinMmrl in June Arena.
In the journals of today (March
5, 1895,) comes the following:
Cincinnati, O., March 23.—The
Enquirer will publish tomorrow a
engthy interview with ex-Congress-
man Bland, from which the follow-
ng is taken-
Lebanon, Mo., March 23.—-Rich-
rd l'arks Bland, the great apostle
of silver, and one of the most intel-
ligent and forcible advocates of bi-
metallism in the world, is still a de-
mocrat, all reports to the contrary
notwithstanding.
'I he time has come when to those
who use the word "democrat" we
mi'st say in V oltaire's words, "define
your terms." ti it means one who
has certain fixed principles and be
liefs about financial policy of the
United States held by Jackson and
Benton and overwhelmingly endors
ed in their day by the majority, then
it is an unpardonable taking up of
busy men's time to make them read
that Bland is a democrat.
Some years ago certain ships in
our navy were "repaired" under a re-
publican administration. A newspa-
per said at the time that all of the
material was taken out of them ex-
cept the name. Around the name of
each one a ship wasbuilt (the appro-
priation could be spent only for re-
pairs, not for building new ships.)
But the ship only looked new; its
name showed it was the same old
ship.
1 he rank a nd file of a party is like
the hull of a ship. Inside is the ma-
chine that runs it; and so there is an
inside "machine" in each political
party that runs it. I he machinery
can be taken out and other put in,
and it can be put in wrongly; or run
improperly even if put in property.
We need not lose time in deter-
mining whether the democratic ma-
chine is wrongly put into the hull or
whether enemies of Jackson-Benton
democracy have reversed the engines
but no one will deny that the ship is
going sternforemost away from the
harbor towards which the old demo-
crats directed her course. When
one says "democrat" now, we must
ask him if he means that men who
want to run with the machine, away
from the Jackson-Benton goal, are
democrats.
The interview closed in these
words from Mr. Bland and his inter-
viewer:
I he party can gain no victory in
the future without utterely repudiat-
ing Cleveland's policy on the money
question. The party must get back
its old principles of equal rights to
all, and special privileges to none;
demand the restoration of the old
democrat bimetallic standard that
existed for eighty years in our history
1 he rights of the sovereign states
and the liberty of the citizens, as I
taught by our democratic fathers, |
must be maintained. We must aban- !
election.
that ?
Mr. Wand answered promptly and
frankly: "I am a democrat and ex-
pect to do everything in my power as
a democrat to bring the party back
to its old principles. It is a critical
period in the history of the democra-
tic party. I have refused heretofore
to follow Mr. Cleveland on the mon-
ey question. If the democratic par-
ty puts up a candidate on a platform
in harmony with Mr. Cleveland's ad-
ministration, 1 could not consistent
ly support hitn. I don't say this in
any spirit of bolting or threat, but
simply speak my honest convictions
of duty, and I believe voice the in-
tentions of two thirds of the demo-
cratic voters, especially in the south
and west.
The meaning of this is that the
hull of the democratic ship must re-
sist the force of the machine and go
in the opposite direction.
"I have refused heretofore to fol-
low Mr. Cleveland on the money
question." 1 beg leave to correct
Mr. Bland. He should have said:
"I have refused to follow Mr. Cleve-
land willingly," etc. For, with the
greatest respect for Mr. Bland, I
must tell him that he is following
Mr. Cleveland, but he is doing it like
the dog tied to the hind axle of the
"mover's" wagon (a familiar sight in
our state) by a rope that drags him
if he does not use his own feet. I
advise Mr. Bland to do as I did after
years of service in the party in hum-
bler circles; chew the rope, get free,
and take the back track toward the
Jackson Benton goal.
I have for years said that if the
democratic party in this state was
sincere in its professions it would
have long ago shown it by putting
Bland in the Senate. Such was the
wish of the hull, but the machine ar-
ranged it otherwise. And so the
party who is like the "dead-head"
mule in the freight trains with which
we used to cross the plains—in the
pinch his shoulder never presses the
collar. On a level or down-hill road
the "dead-head" mule or senator
makes a promising showing. But it
is everlasting promise and never-ar-
riving fulfilment. At the pinch it is
the "commercial-ratio" dodge.
be made into a vestal
virgin. The Cleveland-Sherman
drab can never be again the Jackson-
Benton virgin of anti-bankbill, hard
money democracy. But there may
be a daughter living who can be sav-
ed from degradation.
Our fathers found that they could
not change the England which they
had left across the sea. (The cream
of the race of Freemen had risen and
poured off into America, and Eng-
j land has been going down hill ever
since.) So they had to seperate.
I he party of Jefferson became so in-
fected with pro-slaveryism that
Douglass could not change it. The
French nobles were children of old
northern freemen, but they came to
be gross oppressors. No earthly
power could change them. Luther's
ideas were widely different from
those of the Catholic hierarchy, and
his efforts to change them were idle
breath. He had to get out. When-
ever we look, into whatever branch
of science or history, the analogy is
all against the success of Mr. Bland's
plan to stay in the party and move
it.
But alas!
Mr. Bland must stay
in. He made the fatal mistake of
staying in it too long. He could at
one time have left his political gold
bug bedfellows and carried all the
blankets on the bed with him, and
left the others to shiver or run to the
republican bed. But it is too late. If
he were able to forsake the demo-
cratic name for democratic princi-
ples now, and take the stump, the
Cleveland-Sherman drab need only
to follow hitn around and say in re-
ply to him: "He stuck to me till my
favors were withdrawn. He stayed
in the party as long as he could get
an office. Mr. Bland is effectually
sewed up in a sack. He is ham-
strung. And nobody regrets it more
than I do. Not because he is a
through student of the science of
money, for he is not, but for his
faithfulness through almost a lifetime
and 1 hope there is a resurrection
for him through a party he cannot
join—a party not yet born. Threat-
ening to leave a party is like drawing
a pistol on a man when one does
When in the party, I often, in the j "0t. mea" '° shoot" Mr* Bland 0,lSht
columns of the leading democratic
papers, named Bland as a presiden-
tial candidate. The only notice ever
taken was by another democrat (my
brother) who cut out that portion of
the paper and mailed it to me after
writing on the margin, "madness of
the moon."
When the party machine had no
patronage with which to influence, it
used Bland as a pack-horse, to carry
congressional district that no one
else could certainly carry. When it
needed him no longer it dropped
him. Possibly he was in the last
election lixe "Poor Tray, who was
sadly beaten for no other fault than
being found in bad company." But
had the party machine in this state
been democratic, it would have made
a special appeal in his case, and the
voters in his district would not have
acted with the 1,300,000 who refused
longer to believe that Jackson and
i Cleveland are both democrats, as
j showr. by our last fall's election,
j An almost unbroken line of histor-
ical precedents shows the uselessness
of trying to change a body, an or-
ganization of human beings, after it
is set. A period of growth is growing J
one way, that of decay the other.
When decay has set in we ought not
to waste time trying to turn the body
again into the direction of growth.
to have said less and to have done
moreintheway of seeing that the
party that strikes the pick and shov-
el out of the miner's hand and takes
from him his natural rights "shall
not live."
I cannot keep from thinking of the
case of Giles Bland in 1668, one of
the foremost in Bacon's Rebellion in
Virginia. It seems to me that he and
liacon might have made this are-
public a hundred years before Wash-
ington did if they had been more
energetic. Instead of losing their
lives they ought to have laid about
them with fire and sword, and arous.
ed all the colonies.Major Robert Bev-
erly, (iovernor Berkely'sinstrument,
put down the rebellion, and Bland
was murdered under form of judicial
proceedings. Barring the fact that
all of Beverly's decendants are now
iny kin, and that they and the Blatids
have long been blended in marriage
I think that Bland and Baoon ought
to have hanged Berkley and held
Beverley as a hostage, with the same
fate threatening, and if unable to
hold Virginia, fallen back into the
wilderness of Kentucky and founded
a new Switzerland. Just what the
Bland of two centuries ago failed on,
the Bland of today failed on. There
is not enough of Blucher in him.
I look back now and wonder at
in the Ozarks, Mr. Bland's home I '°T sta-vi"K an hour ina l,arty
"the land of big re.I apples," the hat' A"gUSt Belmont lt
j chairman or national committee.
change in the value of gold, but always ] Publ'shed at Huntington Indiana, I don our fight for money and moni- I "t
a change in the prices of commodities. I a!)d it promises to be - * I ■ • - I ot
It is thus that even the everyday phases 1 the cause of silver.
a hummer for I
ed interests,and take up the tight for • 1 . , , .
... . , , h 1 mg democrat tree infested with ver-
i man and the interest of the people." 1 1 . . 1 • .
1 F c nun let us take a switch or seed with
orchard men do not try to make an U
old tree young again; they set out a I,",*3 °nce for<u"e <° go from
new tree. But the new tree is a part . Men'° Hendr,cks wlth a o.t
an old one. From the old decay-1 lm|,ortant oral communication. It
' point with which nature ends an in-
Continued on page Four
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Allan, John S. The Peoples Voice. (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 3, No. 49, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 6, 1895, newspaper, July 6, 1895; Norman, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc116722/m1/1/?q=aRCHIVES: accessed June 10, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.