The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1885-08-08
TIE GOLD STANDARD THE OBSTACLE.
New York sun

y great many people are fond OF
repeating that the coinage Of the silver
dollar is what kills enterprise aud makes
trade dan. Among others, Mr..
+ iward Atkinson of Boston is reported
in the New York IIcraIdaS discuursins
thus:
"Our population is increasing with
great rnpidity, yet little or nothing of
constructive character is in progress.
Can there be any other re; son than the
doubt aS to whether the standard of
value will remain the same: Every
one who holds Il share in this existing
surplus of capital is enucavoring to find
amy existing bond or any existing stock
in which he can maintain it at his gold
value. He viii not risk it in any new
constructive enterprise until the coinage
ofsiivcr is stopped. Therefore, although
our national conditions have become so
nearly adjusted that we might prcdi-
cate IL period Of the greatest possible
prosperity upon them, yet this purely
artificial obstruction of Il dollar of low
and uncertain value which has been
thrust upon the country mainly for the
private benefit of a petty interest in
silver mining, stops all constructive
enterprise"
Mr.. Atkinson fails to explain pre-
ciseiy how the coinage of the silver
dollar produces the mischief, and lust
why men do not undertake new enter
prises because Of it. He fails also to
the fact that in Great Britain,
where gold is the exclusive standard,
and where there is not the slightest
possibility OF its being supplanted by
silver, there is the same glut of unem-
ployed money and the same unwilling
ness among capitalists to embark in
new enterprises that there is in this
This fact alone, if he had
thought of it, would have been enough
20 show him the absurdity of his talk.
Tho real obstacle to enterprise and
he real weight that drags down trade,
both here and abroad, is the gold !
standard. AS Mr.. Atkinson truly
enough says, the doubt as to whether
sho standard of value will remain the
same dctcrs men from making new in-
vestmcnts. The gold standard, instead
If being fixed and steady, has been
Using higher and higher for the past
en- years, and accordingly prices of all
kinds of commodities have been fall |
ng. Whatever a man has bought or
produced, he has been obliged to sell
'or a little less than it cost him, and
both trade and manufactures have
therefore been Improbable. For all !
hat appears, gold will go on rising and
prices will so on falling for some time
o come, and until capitalists can be
assured that the bottom has been |
cached they naturally prefer to wait.
Their gold dollars, measured in MGR
are growing bigger ana big
;cr all the while, and they can gain
more by sitting still than they can by
.oing to work.
Conversely, the establishment of the
liver dollar as tho monetary standard
would break tho deadlock and cause
rado to revive. For, while gold has
'ccn rising in valuc silver has kept
Ompany with the other products of
human industry, and is therefore trucr
measure Of their value. The fall in
'riccs would be arrested, and mon
ould make Investments with reason
bic assurance Of profitable returns. If,
%, rs the enemies Of silver assert, the
doption Of the silver standard means
nominal rise in prices equal to the
Inference between SO and 100, capital
5,s ought to be anxious to invest their
old dollars now, at once, while prices
re low, 50 as TO get the advantage of
he rise when it arrives. We do not
elicvc that there will be any such rise
o long as the coinage of silver dollars
; restricted rs it is, to $500, 900 a
Month, but those who profess to see it ,
oming ought also to sec its inevitable
Consequence, and not talk about the
ar of it as check TO enterprise. .