The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-11-07
BULLION, O COIN.
An Intelligent Discussion Of the Silver
Question hy q Practical Man.

All questions Of public policy should be
determined in relation to this bearing on
the maxim "the greatest good to the great
est number"
The ..silver question: being one of public
! policy, should be determined on this
principle.
To arrive at fundamental truth, it seems
necessary that a question must be studied
from every standpoint.
This question of bl-metalism does not
| seem to have been discussed from many
| standpoints as yet, and SO far as | know,
| not from the standpoint OF mOn0metaism,
+ with silver as the standard, and gold as the
incidentally additional metal money.
Monometalists nave so had the ear ofthe
commercial world, that the people havei inn
bibed more or less of their views, and in
| their thinking, have thought OF the silver
! dollar as bullion, forgetting that a certain
/ weight of certain metals in elm proper
! lions with the stamp of the Government,
J therefore is heard so frequently the express
! sion, ian honest dollar" No one thinks
| of calling q dollar bill a dishonest dollar,
vet it has no intrinsic value whatever. Put
it in the fire and you have lost all it par
ported TO be. Rats have used it for bed
ding. A gold or silver coin may be melted
in the fire but it still has a value as bullion.
Gold and silver should notpart company
as metallic currency, but should in COM
pany serve as a basis OF a paper circula-
ton. ADEQUATE to the demands OF the grow
ing population and Industries.
As there has been in all ages a fuctuation
in the purchasing power of the two metals,
it is claimed that either there should be one
standard by which all commodities should
be measured, or else some scheme devised
by which the relative bullion vafue o fcoined
money. from the two royal metals, shall be
at all times approximately equal.
The Warner silver bill is intended to &C
complish this result. and will be no doubt
thoroughly discussed.
All parties seem to agree that but one
metal should be the standard OF value, and
that gold should be that metal.
For a thousand years before Copernicus,
the theory, that the spores moved in per-
feet circles prevailed. So it may be that by
some seeming considerations we have come
to believe that gold is the proper measure
OF all values.
What are it's claims in this regard?
If it has remained in a perfect relation
with all the things it is intended to meas
ure, then it is a perfect standard, and the
is settled at once, and the Warner
bill or some modification of it perhaps,
OF necessity become a law. Thecom-
mercial, yes all the world wants. invariable
Every foot should contain
twelve inches, not thirteen this year, and
next, neither do we wish to shorten
up the length of an inch Ito accommodate
= standard having the faculty of growing
an inch in a year,.
Now gold has proven to be just such a
variable standard.
The London Economist published some /
time ago some tables, showing the prices OF
OF prime necessity on the first day |
If each year since 1845. and also shows
the price OF silver (all measured by the
,old standard) has kept pace with that of
The PARTICLES of prime necessity"
In other words, an ounce OF silver during
;he past forty-five years would have pur-
chased a given quantity OF COTE e, sugar, tea, /
,tc., which indicates that the quantity of
produced, during the past forty-five
years, has been in about the same ratio OF
Increase, as that Of population, breadstuffs,
manufactures, etc.
Measured by it's power to purchase the
necessities of life, the value of gold is shown
TO have increased and still to be increasing.
Whether this proceeds from the growing
OF gold, as some say, or from the |
greater abundance of all other commodities, |
as insisted by 9th RS is immaterial. The
result is that, under the gold standard, |
every man who owes money or h sells
goods has to give more, while the man to |
money is owed or buys goods gets
more, by the difference between one hundred
and seventy-nine than he would under the
silver standard"
If these be true land the truth of the
tables can easily be Substantially, then,
aside from the fact that the possessor of
gold has a ring in the nose'' of every other
who has anything to sell, be it labor, |
wheat, iron, or what not; the true policy
of this and every other Government would
seem to be to establish the metal standard,
that the test of time has proven to con-
form most truly with the requirements of
all, or the greatest number OF the people,
as the standard by which all commodities
should be measured. Gold owners cannot
be injured by making silver the standard of
value, and the balance of mankind will
certainly be benefited.
The minor questions of relative bulkiness
of the metals-their use in settling inter- !
national balances and inadequate vaults
for storage purposes, are the variest bosh. |
We are not a debtor Nation, and most
probably never shall be.
1t is bullion chat settles International
balances, not dollars, or francs Or pounds
Current coin. or paper of the
nation settles domestic balances.
In times of financial distrust in the
the same hoardingo of metal money,
be it silver, gold or copper, will occur, as
has been the history OF the past.
JNo. T.. FIELD.
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