The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-11-13
ADVANCED VIEWS.


dent Of the Granite Mountain Mining Com
pany, has taken the most advanced views on
the silver question we have yet seen. He
suggests silver Is the standard metal, and
gold as the incidental additional money.
This proposition will astound Wall street,
but Mr.. Field, In support of his views, offers
some arguments that cannot be readily dis
posed Of We quote from his paper, as
follows:
Monometalists have so had the ear Of the
commercial world, that the people have i'm
bibed more OF less their views, and in their
thinking have thought of silver dollar as
bullion, forgetting that certain weight of
certain metals in definite proportions pith
the stamp Of the Government, constitutes coin
for money purposes, and therefore is heard
so frequently the expression-"an honest
| dollar" No one thinks of calling dollar
bill dishonest dollar, yet it has no intrinsic
value whatever. Put IL in the fire and you
have lost all 1t purported to be. Rats have
used 1t for bedding. A gold or silver coin
may be melted in the fire, but ii still has a
value as bullion.
Gold and silver should not part company
as metallic currency, but should in company
serve as the basis Of paper circulation, ade-
quate to the demands of our growing popu-
lation and industries.
As there has been in all ages a fiuctuation
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 value of coined
money, from the two royal metals, shall be
at all times approximately equal.
All parties seem to agree that but one
metal shall be the standard of value, and that
gold should be that metal.
For thousand years before Copernicus
the theory that the spheres moved In perfect
circles prevailed. So it may be that by some
seeming consideration we have come to be-
lieve that Gold is the proper measure of all
values.
What are its claims in this regard?
If it has remained in a perfect relation
with all the things it is intended to measure,
then it is a perfect standard, and the matter
is settled at once, and the Warner bill, or
some modification of it perhaps, must of ne
cessity become a law. The commercial
yes, all the world, wants invariable stand
ards. Every foot should contain twelve
inches, not thirteen this year, and fourteen
next; neither do we wish to shorten up the
length of an inch, to accommodate a stand
ard having the faculty of growing an inch in
year.
Now gold has proven to he just such
variable standard.
The London Economist published some
time ago some tables, showing the prices of
articles Of prime necessity on the first day of
each year since 1915, and also shows that the
price of silver TALL measured by the gold
standard) has kept pace with that of the lar.
ticles of prime necessity" In other words,
an ounce of silver, during the past forty five
years, would have purchased a given guam
tity of coffee, sugar, tea etc, which indicates
that the quantity of silver produced, during
the past forty-fve years, has been in about
the same ratio of increase as that of popula-
ton, breadstuffs, manufactures, etc.
Measured by It's power to purchase The
necessities of life the value of gold il shown
to have increased, and to be still increasing
Whether this proceeds from the growing
scarcity OF gold, some say, or from the |
greater abundance of all other commodities, |
as insisted by others. il immaierial. The |
result Is, that under the gold standard every |
man who owes money or who sells goods has |
TO give more, while the man to whom money |
is owed or who buys goods-gets more, by the |
difference between one hundred aud seventy |
nine, than be would under the silver stand |
ard"
Ifthese things be true land the truth of the |
tables can easily be Substantially, then, |
aside from the fact that the possessor of gold |
"has ring IN the nose" Of every other man
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 that metal standard that the
test of time has proven TO conform most
truly with all the requirements of all, or the
greatest number Of the people, rs the stand
ard 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 interna-
tional balances, and inadequate vaults for
storage purposes, are the veriest bosh. We
are not debtor nation, and most probably
never shall be.
IL is bullion that settles international bal
ances, not dollars, or francs or pounds sterling.
Current coin or paper Of the nation settles
domestic balances.
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