r either of the
years since 1890, and you will find it to be something like this: the six
per cent. paid as interest has the purchasing power of at least ten per
cent. a few years ago, and the lender has gained at least two per cent. a
year, if not twice that, by the increased value of his money; so the
borrower will have paid, at the maturity of his obligation, at least
twelve per cent. per annum, and probably much more.

The silent and insidious increase of their obligations, by reason of the
enhanced and steadily enhancing value of gold, has ruined many thousands
of business men who are even now unconscious of the real cause or of the
power that has destroyed them.

I may add in this connection that the three per cent. now paid on a United
States bond is worth about as much in commodities as the six per cent.
paid previous to 1870, and at the same time the bond has doubled in value
for the same reason; thus, calculated on the basis of twenty-five years,
the bondholder is really receiving, or has received, the equivalent of ten
per cent. interest.

DEMONETIZATION OF GOLD.

Gold has an intrinsic value, says the monometallist, which makes it the
money of the world. It is sound and stable, while silver fluctuates. See
how much more silver an ounce of gold will buy than in 1873, but the gold
dollar remains the same, worth its face as bullion anywhere in the world.

But suppose there had been a general demonetization of gold instead of
silver, how would the ratio have stood then? Would not the same reasoning
prove silver unchangeable, and gold the fluctuating metal?

Oh, nonsense! it is impossible to demonetize gold, because the civilized
world recognizes it as an invariable standard by which all commodities are
measured in value. The supposition is absurd. It would be very much like
deoxygenizing the air.

But, my dear sir, gold has been demonetized, and not very long ago,
either, and very extensively, too. It was deprived of its legal tender
quality by four great nations, comprising some seventy million people;
demonetized because it was cheap and because the world's creditors
believed it was going to be cheaper; the demonetization, so far as it
went, produced enormous evils, and nothing but the firmness of France and
the far-seeing wisdom of her financiers prevented the demonetization
becoming general on the continent of Europe, which would have reversed the
present position of the two metals in the publi