The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-08-18
The Gazette on Silver.

Ino GaZeJle on SliVefs
Inils ISSUE Of August 18th The Gazette
has this nDlab e p ragraph:
rs liver risen nearly fourteen per cent
in five weeks! That is the money IN al
for our standal d. We W n I'll tsIic
m me-. We want money that keeps
bobb ug around. IL III kes trade lively.
Farcy our merchants marking prices
of imported goods up VIII N toreig eX-
cnal ge is rising at This lively rate.
They are not so quick when 1t falls.
Fancy The marg which all middlemen
would req lire III the trade in importab e
and eXlOtab e articles 70 COZ er such
lively variations In the standard money.
Clearly, # we wanL stable currency
we must abolish greenbacks and come
TO the lrer basis"
Doub less the Gazette intended this
for fine specimen OF sarcasm at the eX-
pense of silver money. But handling
such financial weapons in a manner so
Banging is like an awkward handling OF
the hinder cad of a mule. There is great
danger of a "back action" The sneer
of the Gazette at 'elastic money" at "a
money that keeps bobbing arounl," may
possibly be fanny, but 1t can't have the
slightest application to silver
money. Intelligent men need not be told
that gold has, within the last few years,
shown itself "elastic" to degree never
known to silver; and that it kept "bob-
bing around" with measure of agility
infinitely beyond the activity of silver
money to keep pace with. If the Gazette
is really in love with money that bobs
around, gold should be its particular
charmer. This special propensity has
been known to carry gold up to 2S5, and
then it bobbed back again to only IL
above paper currency. Meanwhile sill
yer didn't s'bob'' at all.
The statement that "silver has risen
IA per cent. in five weeks" is simply
equivalent to saying that for some time
prior thereto it was not bought at all,
and that now it is in demand at its orig
inal value. But even when not bought
at all for speculative purposes, it was
nevertheless steadily performing all the
functions of money at par in its pur-
chasing power for all marketable COM
modities.
When it is considered that public legis-
lation had begolten a popular panic
concerning silver, both in this country
and in Europe, it is not surprising that
a depression OF silver should have oc.
CURED in the public regard. But this
was not owing to any fault in silver
money itself. The same effect would
have been produced on gold had it been
subjected to similar treatment, and per-
haps in even greater degree. It has
indeed happened that in certain Euro
pean countries gold has been demone-
tized by law, and in those instances
gold suffered even a greater rate of de-
preston than silver has here. Under
such circumstances gold went ''bobbing
around;" but not from any fault of its
own. 1t was simply on account of ad-
verse legislation. Adverse legislation,
such as our mischievous act of 1873, will
cause any conceivable thing known as
money to fiuctuate, because of the un-
certainty as to results that must infect
the public mind. 1t is the unknown that
people most dread in money standards.
1t is this, and not the nature Of silver
itself as money, that produces what the
Gazette calls "such lively variations in
the standard of money"
This kind of legislation, combined
with the stock-jobbing speculat1ons in
silver in London, spread alarm among
the people of this country, that amount
ed to panic on the subject of silver.
There have been bank panics on the sub
ject Of paper currency, when bank notes
deprecated by reason of the alarm; and
yet it was ultimately found that every
dollar was redeemed on presentation.
Of course the dollar note was just as
well worth par during the panic as it
was afterwards or before. So with our
silver money now. Its substantial
value has remained unchanged; and on
the subsistence OF the panic it simply re-
asserts itself, and rises to its original
value.
In succeeding paragraph in the same
Issue the Gazette makes other egre-
gious mistakes as to matters of fact. IT.
says:
"Tbus the country never had half sill
yer and half gold. 1t never succeeded
in having the two at all, until it reduced
silver to an Inferior relation In 1858.
Silver before was wholly demonetized
ir :aet by the act of 1884, which made
gold the standard"
Tt may be admitted that the propor-
tio1s of our silver and gold were never
exactly sshalEand-half." But it is not
true that we never succeeded in having
the two at all, until we reduced silver to