Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-03-17
THAT PROBLEM.

humor. "Gold is falling" in the Eastern
parlance,- =" Greenbacks are advancing"
in the language of the Pacific coast and of
every other country where those green
backs are not the circulating medium.
Gold is worth just as much as it was last
year, and no more while greenbacks in
stead of being worth only 80 cents on the
dollar are worth 81 cents. This is mat
ter of just congratulation not because
those who may desire to purchase gold
can do so at a cheaper rate; but because
in the Eastern States where the greenback
is the only currency, the greenback
dollar will buy nearly fifty per cent more
of the necessaries of life than it would
when greenbacks were quoted at 80 cents.
We, therefore, who have friends in the
East. who are daily at the mercy of these
fluctuations, rejoice when the fluctuation
is in favor of their pocket.
Our neighbor changes the tabular form
of the problem in the Eastern paper
from which we copied it, and states 1t
plainly and carefully as follows:
Suppose that on the lst Of january, 49,,
/ before the SUSPENSION of specie payments at
the East, and when gold and paper were OF
! equal value, man started IN business win
/ capital Of 3,500.0O0, and as the war pro-
! crosses he has increased his capital trom the
/ profits of trade to five millions the first year,
! lin currency, Of course,O seven millions the
I second. nine millions the third, and twelve
millions the fourth year. The $5,0OO,OOO on
! the LIST of January, 1868. If exchanged for
gold would bring but $685., 1888, owing to
| the rise in gold or fall in currency, which
ever YOU please to call it. On the LIST OF
January, 1864, the S7,000,000 will bring
s., 1865, 665 in gold on the LIST January, 1909,
the 50, 900 will bring but S3,sl2,3Uo III
gold"
Then our neighbor ingeniously and in
nocently says:
"But our man 1.-THE Unions many is not
broker or gold Spectator, and has no use tor
gold aud does not Icdnt Il, being ignorant OF
its possessing such peculiar value as some
people on this coast attribute 10 It.
We will state here that the individual
in the problem i, not the Cni0a'S man he
is the property of the Eastern editor who
made the problem, and the Lnio" has no
right to sobble him up and devote him to
new and untrled pursuits. The man in
the problem may not have been "a broker
or gold speculator," but he certainly was
neither blacksmith, miner, shoemaker, nor
editor of daily newspaper, or he never
would have made two millions a year,
even in greenbacks at 80 cents. He was
a "speeulator in something, if not IN
gold, and devil of speculation he made
of it, according to our way OF figuring,
We care not what line of business the
problem man was pursuing, but It is
as certain as preaching that on the day
when his pile of greenbacks amounted to
nine millions of dollars, he could not have
bought as much of whatever species OF
merchandise he was devoting his time and
talents to as he could with his seven mil
lions at the date when that was the size of
his respectable pile. If not "specu-
lator in gold" he was assiduously specu-
lating "ro increase his store" or to in
crease the stock Of goods IN his store; and
nasmuch as his goods Auctuated in value
exactly in proportion as gold rose or fell
in Wall street, we find that his stock of
goods, although it inyentoried nine mil
lions, was reduced in value from what 1t
was year previously, by exactly the
amount of the same kind of goods which
could have been purchased on the first
day of January, 1865, seven hundred and
ffty- four thousand three hundred and sirty-
sir dollars.
The Union editor, having gobbled ap
this man and appropriated him to his own
use, let US see what he purposes to do
with him. The honest man was no "spec-
ulator in gold" when the Union found
him; but no sooner is he conscripted by
the Greenback party than we find him
holding on to his greenbacks and speeu-
lating for rise" His captor says of
him:
Furthermore, he prefers greenbacks to
keep notc, because they are increasing in
value compared with gold, and he had rather
wait until he can get more gold for them. So
he continues in business until first January,
1856, when he has ST.. 100000, which, being
in greenbacks or Government bonds, will be
worth by that time, from present appearances,
SlO,0000O0 IN gold, if he shall want to ex-
change them. The question is, has he lost
anything by the huctuation Of gold and green
backs ?"
Under the tutelage of the editor of the
Union, our honest trader who whilom sold
dry-goods in Cedar street or leather in the
swamp, has found his way TO Wall street;
and if we find him some day waddEng out
of that with a long face and limping gait,
he will not be the first lame duck " who
has taken that promenade. The Union
has hattered him that he has got dead
thing and that he had only to go in and
win. The annals of Wall street. however,
furnish proof that men who have specula-
ted for rise have ere now been astounded
at beholding fall. The Union has been
accommodating enough to show US what
a fine thing the man in the problem would
have, if he kept on accumulating green
backs at his old rate, until he could count
his twelve millions and gold should sud-
denly fall to figure which should make
those greenbacks worth $l0,000,000. 1t
would be a big thing we admit. But
when we takeo off those magnifying glasses.
and look at the world as it is; when we
behold with the naked eye the darkness
and uncertainty that hangs over the future
of all mundane affairs, and especially those
affairs which are under the direct control
- aforementioned d;1looacv upa hacome