Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1884-08-21
The Double Standard.
To The Editor of he Dispatch


In bis recent address before the Bankers
Association Hon. Hugh McCuloch rather
fiippantly remarks that eve are. or at least
have the means OF being, q creditor nation.r
And yet the whole question under consid-
eralion, so far as II relates to this country,
turns upon that very point.
so loose Use OF language on so grave an
occasion Is rs discreditable TO the speaker
rs II Is insulting 10 the common Judgment
OF his audience. The same observation
might DO applied to Egypt or Brazil. to
Portugal or Peru. The vast distinction
between tchdt is and chat mighibe Is quietly
ignored, or at best but bridged over with a
casual parenthesis, which serves to Gil out
the sentence rather than qualify lis mean
ing.
II we were indeed creditor nation we
should not be long in the vocatiye on a
question Of widening the metallic basis Of
the worlds exchanges. But unfortunately
the international balance stands against Us
10 the amount OF some eight thousand mil
lions, and decentralization OF either metal
at this time would simply result in our
p'aking a splendid gilt TO Great Britain
and Germany.
These are large figures, but they are our
correspondents.
This proposition Is so plain that were it
not disputed by accepted authority should
be ashamed TO argue it.
The real war Of the monometallists i
not against silver in its own essence, but
against broad basis for industrial and
commercial operations, their sole object
being dobasoment Of property values, or.
in other words, an enhancement in the
purchasing power OF money.
Were the true question plainly stated the
commercial interests Of tie country would
never lend Themselves 10 these mischlcyOns
schemes OF exploitation, and hence we see
the monometall.ts forever beiogging the
real issue with eXtraneouS matter.
For instance. they are fond OF declaring
that the worlds exchanges can be best eff
fectCd in the worlds money, which money,
in face OF the facts, they ImpUdently As
sumo TO be gold. The plain fac: t. that Of
the worlds ten thousand millions OF me-
iallic money nearly seven thousand millions
are silver coin. But suppose we cOncede
gold to be the sole foreign standard. their
other declaration still remains utterly mean
ingless, for foreign trade Is barter, even in
the adjustment OF its balances: and II the
precious metals move at all they move not
n coin, but ~ bullion. and simply because,
for the time being, they happen to be
cheaper than cotton, tobacco, petroleum,
wheat. cheese, or bacon.
Their other argument-thcy have but
two-is that the relative eXchangeable value
OF the precious metals must be kept In equi-
hbrium by the arbitrary enactments OF gov
eminent, or the fluctuating product OF the
mines will throw lis into constant state Of
financial disquictude.
This, upon the whole. is perhaps the
most grotesquely absurd theory that human
audaclty has ever launched on \ credulous
world.
Having gratutously assumed that dlsas-
ter will result from the operation Of natu-
raj law. they proceed to create disturbance
by doing violence TO that law. and then Use
the disturbance "a preteXt for continued
interference.
Looking only at the surface OF things, a
sloyenly thinker might perhaps imagine,
with Mr.. Henry V. Poor, that from the be-
ginning OF civilization to almost the pre-
sent time nature has held back silver and
gold with uniform resisting force which
may be relatively represented by the figures
| and -, and that now, for the first time,
she has relaxed her grasp on silver, and
thus created need for artificial restraint.
But, in point OF fact, nature has always
been tickle in this respeet-sometimes lay
ishly yielding gold and Withholding silver,
and at other times opening her boards OF
silver, while denying gold. And these
varied accessions have promptly passed
into the channels Of trsde-not rs disturb
ing factors, unsettling yalues and invoking
distrlIsi, but, rs beneticent streams, inyigo-
rating all the courses OF commerce, and
nourishlng every element Of progressive
civilization.
From 1919 to 1852 nature gave in ex-
change for labor, weight for weight, more
gold than silver. Under the monOmetaIlic-
arbitrary adjustment theory silver had now
become the more precious and therefore the
standard metal, and an eXigency had ,rlsen
which demanded, under penalty Of unyer-
sal ruin, either the deba,ement Of gold or
It's decentralization.
The chief creditor nation Of the time made
an effort in that direction, but the attempt
failed. Gold was not demOnetized, neither
did universal ruin come ON the contrary,
an era OF prosperity dawncd such as the
world had never known; and this pros
perlty, in all its fsr-reaching consequences,
the marvellous advance in the useful arts,
in manufactures, commerce, transpOrta-
lion, the development Of mine and forest,
the command OF the seas. the piercing OF
the spanning Of rivers. the hnk-
ing together Of oceans, the opening up OF
continents. and those still greater triumphs
Tho march OF mind in its own domain, the
advance in science, the progress in itera-
lure, the diffusion OF intelligence, the free
dom Of Thoughtful these things, on no
less authority than the author Of the HistO-
~ Of Europe, were directly traceable to the
vast volume OF specie which California and
suddenly began forcing into the
,rteries OF trade in ls40.
The doctors OF finance are working pretty
hard for patient Just now, and small en-
will serve their turn. They
ire somewhat in the position OF SCOTS |
lpothecsry-" Confound the lusty fellow, |
he fouts me and my art; but once let me
ret dose OF pbysic INTO him, and III have |
him by the hsels for season."
The singlestandard gentlemen induced
Us 10 try monometailic dose in 1878, and |
or five years they assured us. on their pro- |
'essional honor, that our writings were |
really symptoms OF redundant health. In |
he spring Of 1878 We managed to get hold |
II IN antidote in broken doses, and by |
isslduousy sticking TO II we got on our |
egs again in the fall OF the following year.
respectfully submit that it is yet little
90 early TO urge upon Us new draught |
rom the old bottle.
Nr. McCuloch now declares himself |
man, but he has been |
ashed TO that avoval by the logic OF ac-
facts. His aIlusion TO the !
United States a. the "pack-horse OF sill
ier" shows him 10 be substantially the |
NeCulloch Of ten years ago.
Bi-metalllc France is now jogging along |
Iuiie prospeTously with her tremendous
)ack OF three hundred and fifty millions Of |
liver coin, while monometaliic Great /
Britain, with her triiling burden OF eighty |
Millions. is stumbling at every step.
Re.upctfullv 4