The daily gazette., 1877-11-27
For the Delaware Gazette.l
GOLD AND SILVER.

MR.. EDITOR
We have seen that it cannot injure us to
have our bonds sent here for sale from
Europe any more than it would injure us
to have any other valuables sent to this
country for sale. Nor is there any bad
faith involved in paying interest on bonds
or the bonds themselves in silver coin,
unless the bonds and interest be expressly
payable in gold. Our bonds, as far as we
know, are declared to be payable in coin !;
the interest on.a portion of them is paya-
BILE in currency; on others in coin. And
coin in the United States, until within
few years, always meant both gold and
silver. or either. at the option of the payer.
Silver is to-day the current money and
virtual legal tender of nearly three fourths
of the population of the globe. In the
British East Indies the silver rupee is the
almost sole money of the market. Silver
is used almost exclusively by the Chinese,
numbering from four to five hundred mil
lions, In Eastern Europe 1t Is CONNER
cial money. Germany undertook in 1876
to cease the use OF silver as money. That
this was an arbitrary measure we under
stand very well. Ii was merely carrying
out u theory irrespective of consequences,
and the effects have been most disastrous.
The people in Germany cannot afford to
carry gold. Retail business is badly Grip
pied and is obliged to be done mainly on
credit. This Is fatal blow to domestic
trade, for every shop-keeper knows the
danger of selling small amounts to family
trade on credit. Nor can the banks do
anything to help the community, because
| the government prohibits them from issu-
| ing any notes of smaller denomination
than 100 marks, ($25.) This experiment
| amounts to contraction of money; de-
| liberate curtailment and sacrifice of real
resources as II farmer should deprive
| himself of half his machines and laborerS
on the edge of harvest.
These evil results have been brought
| about in Germany, and TO large extent
| here, by theorists who profess to fear in
! fiation and expansion. Now, while they
| may be dangerous, expansion ana infia-
i tion of paper currency, about which there
| Is always risk, and in regard 10 which 1t is
| certain the greater the amount the greater
| is the risk; there can be no expansion or
| initiation OF silver. In the first place every
silver dollar represents q dollars worth of
labor. Secondly, no one has to redeem it..
1t redeems itself, and is good wherever you
put IL. With pocket full of silver coin
| you can supply your wants and he well
come in any part of the habitable globe.
| If we should mine so much that the pro-
| duct would become burdensome like the
piles of pig iron that we have seen stacked
along by the railroads in Pennsylvania,
\ we have only to state our case to Asia and
she will send to us all her richness in ex-
| change; her rice, her indigo, her sugar,
l
| fumes. England wants our silver too; yet
we deprive ourselves of this superb advan-
| tage afforded us by nature in order to suit
| the whims of a knot of theoretical German
bankers, inhabiLing the provincial cities
of Berlin and Frankfort, who having ruined
the finances of their own nation, now en-
deavor to persuade us to join them In their
| folly.
During the war, when our Government
was SO shortsighted as to establish two cur
rencies, one paper to pay Its debts to the
pay their debts to IL. The German bank
| ers were the largest buyers of the U. =.
| bonds, at an average of SOC on the dollar in
| gold. Many of our people called this sym
pathy with the government. 1t was in
reality selfish clear headed, ,money-making
| science In principal and interest they have
been paid many hundred millions In gold.
| Now they want many hundred millions
more, because their currency being gold
| only, gold seems most suitable for them !;
| hut this is not sufficient reason why we
should rob ourselves of the use of precious
metal, dear To all the world except Ger
| many, valid payment to all the world ex-
| cept Germany, because Germany has
taken whim to show silver to the back
door. Suppose the Germans should return
| to the use of silver tomorrow? This would
be a sensible act. but it would not alter In
any degree the real right or wrong of any
payment in any coin. Such payment
must stand sanctioned by long use, and
/ the custom OF nations +; and there and thus
| stand payments in silver from the shekels
| of A braham to The rupees of East Indian
| rajahs and merchants. SteadineSs OF pro-
| duction is most desirable in the case of q
precious metal that is, when coined, a
| a money, in this respect. Silver is the su-
perior metal. Since the year of 1900 the
| population of Europe and America has
doubled. So has the amount of silver in
use and circulation. Now let us see how
it has Jared with gold In 1901 the yield of
the world was S l3 100000; in 1929 $4,000 900 /;
in 1852 1882 900, 900; in 1868 $l07 U00 900 in
| 1865 r130,0n0 900; in 1874 $90,000,000. What
| reliance can be placed upon uniformity of
value in a metal whose production varies
| like this? Gold Is a mere chance at best.
1t is hardly mined at all. Found in some
| 1neXplicable way In virgin Jumps, or rolled
by rivers into pure dust 1T is always a
| chance find, whether distributed in mug
gets in the clay, or honey-combing the hills
| OF quartz. But silver exists as an ore, and
| its reduction is as sure and legitimate as
that of iron. There is almost no gambling
in working 1t. dollar in silver is dol
in, and represents a dollars worth OF
labor the world over. A nugget OF gold
as big as your fist worth $5 900 is picked
up in second by lucky finder. while at
the same time twenty other gold-seekers
ply the pick all day In fruitless search.
No such lottery-prize metal as this can be
legitimately argued into use as a sole cur
rency JOHN BLACKBRIDGE.