The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1876-08-23
THE DOUBLE STANDARD.

li'iil'i'''' "''' ~ 'lI'''''''F1 INV
tho human race rs the de-
of silver throughout the
world" is the startling uttcrance OF
that accomplished and profound fnan-
cial thinker George M, Weston.
The interest that this question is ex-
citing in the United States, and its pro
found importance induces us to repro
duce some of the leading arguments in
favor of making silver legal tender
and of thus establishing what the con
stitution of the United States evidently
intended the double standard of gold
and silver. From the earliest periods
in tho history of the world says Mr..
Weston, gold and silver have been re-
cognized as money, and the prices of
property, in all ages, has depended in
the main upon the ratio between the
amount of gold and silver on the one
hand, and the population, wealth and
commercial activity of the world on the
other. Diminishing money and falling
prices are not only oppressive upon
debtors, but they cause stagnation in
business, reduced production, and en-.
forced idleness. Falling markets ami.
hilate profits, and it is only the cXpcc.
taton of gain which stimulates the in
yestment of capital and furnishes ado
quAte employment for laborers, On the
other hand, an increasing amount of
money, and consequently augmenting
prices, are attended by results precisely
the contrary. Production is stimulated
by the profits resulting from advancing
prices; labor is consequently in demand
and better paid, and the general activity
and buoyancy ensure to capital II wider
demand and higher remuneration,
The proposition to make gold the
solid standard of values for the world
dates no farther back than 1867, and
this brings us to consider the tunda-
mental difference between such prop.
osition and one to make either of the
metals standard for any particular
country. If we assent to the computa-
ton, which is probably correct, that the
values Of existing gold and silver money
are equal, and then conceive that hall
the commercial nations adopted gold NJ
the exclusive standard, and the other
half adopted silver M the exclusive
standard, the effect in maintaining
prices would be precisely the same as il
they all adopted the double standard
Both metals would be money in gen
eral sense; the laws of trade would reg
ulate the conversion of the currency Of
one class of countries into the currency
of the other class and it would still be
true that the prices of commodities
would be regulated by the combined
mass Of tho two metals
Hence it is that the adoption of on,
of the metals alone by any isolated
country for local, and perhaps tempo
rary reasons, rs of silver by Hamburg,
and of gold in 1916 by England, with.
out any desire or attempt to force itupon
others, oreven to recommend it to others,
has neither much affected the interests
nor fixed the attention of mankind.
But an organized propaganda to induce
the whole world to adopt the gold stan
dard, and thus entirely to deprive silver
OF its character as one of the two prec.
ious metals, is something of an entirely
different nature By demonetizing one
OF the precious metals, il reduces the
mass OF money by onehalf, with all the
inconceivable consequences of such %
reduction. That idea, as we have said,
dates no farther back than 1867. Eng
i"hu h"u ho huOh iuea III loio, NOT
since, and the proof of THAT is the fact
that in the greater part Of her domin.
ions, and among the overwhelming
majority of her subjects who are in In
dia, she has long acquiesced in the
policy of maintaining silver rs the sole
standard; and it is no secret that she
never entered heartily into the PROPOSE.
ton of the Paris conference of 1867.
In fact, her prime minister, Disraeli, in
1864, when that policy began to be put
into actual practice by Germany, mani
tested his repugnance to it in terms al
together unmistakable
The danger with which we are men.
aced is thus wholly new-not yet ten
years old, 1t is fundamentally different
from the movement ola single nation
to the standard Of gold, counteracted by
the movement of another nation to the
standard ofsilver, and rendered harm.
less by the general immobility of the
mass of mankind in the old way of the
double standard. What we are con.
fronted with is an avowed policy of de.
monetizing silver the world over, and a
series OF measures looking to that fatal
end, and demanding instant and ener.
getic measures of resistance.
The new German empire, under the
intoxication of Sedan" to quote the
brilliant phrase of the French writer's,
has commenced the ill-omened work,
and, although brought to pause by the
intolerable pressure upon her own sub
Jects, may perseverein it. All things
are possible to the pride of military and