Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-03-02


| tory of the rights OF the public cred
itof., The opinions OF the secretaries
Of the treasury from 1878 down
are referred TO a. authority.
The opinions OF secretaries are valua.
| BILE when supported by facts and sound
reasons, but ought not TO control unless
they are. IL cannot be forgotten, how.
ever, that some of the secretaries have
steadily predicted what has not taken
place. The friends OF silver concur In
the opinion that Ii Is more desirable to
maintain and continue the mass ofOur
gold coin as well "a the mass OF the
silver already coined. They agree, too,
that 1t In OF momentous importance
to prevent the coinage ofthe two metals
from parting company, but the two
metals have already parted company
under The influence ofsilver demoneti-
zation In other countries and the hos
tillty OF the treasury and banks TO sil-
yer In this country. That the contin-
ued coinage OF silver at the rate OF S2S,.
600, 900 O year will drive gold out Of
circulation in the near future does not
to them seem to be sustained
by facts or sound reasoning.
The total volume OF currency In the
United States outside of gold is less
than $3.50, 600 .000. II Is believed TO be q
principle Of economic science special
ly well settled that the volume OF
$3.50, 000. 900 Is not sufficient in itself to
maintain prices. "a evinced by the fact
! that there Is $500, 900 600 In gold cur
rency, considerable part Of which, at
most, Ia in circulation. This
volume will go away only when
prices become lower elsewhere than
they are here. 1t Is believed, there
fore, that no such crisis as has been
foretold can Overtake us under the ex.
listing condition. 1t in not believed
TO be in the power OF
all the banks in fhe
country, even II they were 80 disposed,
to take gold out OF circulation and
hold 1t for cny length of time ut a
premium. They must first lock up
the worlds money and ar
rest the worlds commerce. Nor
can the paper or silver certificates
now in circulation side by side with
gold, expel gold. The gold can be e1-
PEELED only by forcing into circulation
In addition to $3.50 ,000, 900, either silver
or paper equal to the entire volume of
gold now in circulation. In that man
ner under Gresham's law gold might
be expelled and probably would be.
1T Is doubtless true, too, that IL the
population and wealth In this country
were at a standstill, then the continued
coinage of silver In sufficient volume In
time would expel gold from circulation,
but as long as the population and
wealth go on increasing then the con-
| ditions of the problem are changed. In
fact, In order to preserve stable ratio
between the money volume and the
population and wealth, an annual
| increase of not less than
$40 ,000,0 600 in currency of some
kind IL now required In other words,
the Increase In population and wealth
calls for an addition To our circulation
at least of $40 100000 year. If while
these conditions continue silver
is coined at the rate Of only
$2S, 600 600 a year, there Is left
still n considerable void to be filed
with gold, This is the reason why
gold has increased In the country
steadily since The law of 1878 was
passed, aud why gold has Increased by
nearly $l4.0O0,000 during the last
year and Is now increasing AT the rate
OF nearly 81 100000 month, notwith,
standing the depression In business In
tho country, and.as a matter of fact
there Is to-day more gold
In the country than there ever was be,
fore I'm its whole history. Another
fact Is that 100000 900 in gold in
the treasury was put there in
exchange for silver certificates. The
immedateetlect ofstopping the coinage
of silver must necessarily be TO lower
the price oil silver bullion, and gradu
ally To appreciate the value of gold tht
world over. The difficulties in the
way of establishing an international
ratio 30 much desired or a re-
adjustment of the relative value
10 gold here, would thereby
increase. How 1t 10 possible for such
things to take place az are predicted In
the last paragraph OF the letter IL Il
diiMcult to see. Gold Ia to be withdrawn
to It's boarding places, followed by Mi
unprecedentedc contraction In the actual
volume OF our currency. Such con
traction. IL has been shown, must be
followed by great fall of prices
What them Would not gold
flow here as the tides How
Surely II would come as fast "a the
chips could bring it. What then?
What would those who have been
boarding gold do with it The letter
says:
Labor, already greatly depressed, would
suffer sun further depression by the scaling
down OF the purchasing power OF every M,
called dollar paid into the hand OF toll.
Here In one sentento we have gold
boarded and an unprecedented con-
traction, fall OF prices and
a scaling down OF the pur-
chasing power of the dollar.
But that was when these impending
calamities come, and prices are TO fall
everything to become cheaper and
money to become OF less value at the
same time. That is, both sides
6f the balance go down together,
Usually one side goes up as the other
goes down. Usually MS commodities
become cheaper, money becomes rela.
lively dearer, and vice :. versa.
usually contraction OF the
main volume results In fair value OF
money and not fall, The contradic.
lion involved in this para
graph OF the letter is hardly
/ calculated narrx, -