National Republican., 1878-01-17
Ecccner on silver.

Hon. W. A. PHILLIPS, OF Kansas, has re-
piled to some points of Rev. HENRY WARD
BEEcHER's recent SILVER Sermon" which was
printed in the Christian Union. Mr.. PHILLIPS
shows that the revercncd gentleman was i'll.
informed upon his subject, so far rs his state
ments Of fact were concerned. lie says:
ON page % find cold Is the worlds standard.
Gold Is the universal measure of value" Tho
countries that have single silver standard arc
Russia. Austria. Egypt Mexico Central America,
Ecuador, Peru. China and British India. with mn
estimated population of seven hundred and sixty
nine millions. The countries that have n double
standard, or gold and silver are Greece. Roumana,
Columbia. Venezuela. Chill, Uruguay. Paraguay.
France, spain, Holland, Italy. Belgium, swtzcr;
one hundred and thrty.scvcn millions. The
countries having an exclusive gold or single stand
ard rrc Great Britain Germany, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, Portugal. and the British Colonies Of
Canada, the Cape OF Good Hope aud Aystrala,
with an estimated population OF nlncttytwo mil;
lions. So much for universal measure"
Again, on page y, he says "Othcr kinds Of
must ali conform to go!d and be measured by il"
In nearly all the countries In Europe. those ill.,
cuded In the Latin league, the standards Of law tx
the proportion Of gold one to ffteen and ahalf
Our old American dollar is rs to the standard OF
American gold coin under the coinage laws, since
ISIS, rs one part OF gold W sixteen of silver or
within a small fraction Of II: So the standards Of
gold aud silver nrc different In different countries
| are fixed by law, change, and have changed That
Is, as TO their relative weight and fncness
Again, OH page -, he says: Gold comes to lts
supremacy as u representative OF property by tue
longesta6lshcd custom OF mankf,d." So far is
this from being the fact that until very few years
age Sran M .S % ony aa,on una! b asPsa p,sa 70 q
| In 1916, not very much mOre than half century
| ago. The German empire ATTEMPTED, or did demon
| ctize silver so late as lS73 Since that time the
scandinavian nations have attempted the single or
gold standard II Will thus he sccn that single or
sold standard, so far from being the long estab-
lished custom Of mankind, rs comparatively re-
cent experiment. II Is an experiment, moreover,
the success of which is by no means demonstrated.
The whole history Of the movement shows that It is
n scheme OF the creditor class IN the world to keep
up aud push up the standard Of value by taking
away one Of the articles OF which 1t was composed,
and while everything else Is subject to vicssitihe
and dccne, that accumulated capital shall protect
itself against the inevitable accidents Of the law Of
supply and demand by using law arbitrarily
! to take away the f'lcicnt standard.
! / might 20 on and quote aud show nearly every
statistical point made by Mr. BEECHER to he inCOr-
| rect To bC brief let Us say that gold and silver
have constantly changed In value, and that since
tho European discovery Of America both have
steadily dccl!uc1 shortly nfcr the first discovery
| Of gold the plumber Of the ancient American ma
tions was srut tn Europe In such quantities s To
disturb The value ui everything. and several ma
tirns then drmGnet!Ird gold. When this tirst
golden wave subsidized aud silver was discovered IN
South America silver dccliuci rs tn gold. and then
capital attempted To dcmurctiZc silver. When the
| guld mines In California and Australia were dis
covered gold declined u to silver and again some
nations dcmouctiZed gold. Of late the discovery
Of silver in our own cuuntry.and the application OF
creased the silver production. wish to state here
that. owing to the vast amount Of gold and silver
On hand among the nations, the change In prices,
owing to sudden production, Is much less than
would be supposed. Our own country Is to-day the
greatest producer Of both gold aud silver
IL l. generally believed that the change In the
relative value Of gold and silver since 1873 is chiefly
caused by rise in gold For instance, Of the
standard articles of commerce fifty four pence to.
dsy would purchase more than sixty pence did IN
1873. There has been strong artificial demand fol
gold for the German coinage which would natu
rally appreciate IT, shall not amplify, but state In
general terms that the decline In silver or chang,
In its relation to gold, was caused not by produc
ton, but by laws TO reduce coin TO one standard
The London EcOGOHia states that when pressure
Is brought on gold prices and wages constantly
tend toward decline Germany demonetiZed gold
In 1877 and silver In 1873. Her purpose to force
up the value OF the standard by doing away with
one Of the metals. All such efforts are merely fol
the purpose of bolstering up the value Of capital
and It does this at the expense of labor and othe
property.
Gold and silver arc the recognized coin OF tn,
United States by the Constitution. The old silve
dollar Is the unit Of the American coinage Ou
laws since the first coinage act recognize gold ant
silver as our standards The United States cOulC
pay In either. our silver was not subsidiary coin
The dimes halves, aud quarters were u token coin
age merely like nlckeS and coppcrs, because the!
are puTpOsely made OF II lower standard TO proven
small change from going out Of the country. The!
are not the gold and silver coin.