Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-03-04
.u..- nnnstiol,.

at least twenty-five pei SNH
last thirteen years, which signines snae
there has been 40 average Correspondence
fall in prices of everything measured oy
gold during that time-which Is Wnat
has substantially happened. me double
standard nations 1.-THE United states,
France. etoI had a tolerably effective
remedy for ali these evils. When gold
commenced its upward movement In ~
or IA Of which they received prompt
notice bv nartinq company with its CO.
standard silver the logic of the situation
reouired that they should have adhered
to their leper specie, 50 lons a. ,i,s ~ ~,
NAMED the lower, and the ,osul' "ouiu
have been steady standard 1hu soires,
ponding steady prices oi properly anu
labor, or.--if anybody prefers 'nsI way
of putting it,-a falling standaro-ii sii,
var has fellen-anda a consequent general
rise ID the prices of all properly and
labor whieh IL on sound and healthy
basis. always means prosperity and hap
niness For as a writer in the N. T..
Svm Of the 10Th inst. pithily puts it;
ssNeyer in the history OF finance mas
tran s;t;on from a dearer to a cheaper
currency resulted in anything but rise
IN nrioes and consequent stimulus to
anternr;se After gold became the
dearer metal, and hence ceased 70 ne ene
true legal standard of these countries,
the eccentricity OF its movements wneth-
or upward or downward, would nave oeen
a matter of small moment 70 them, as
compared with the evils OF the
general fall in prices which they would
fbereby have escaped. As it was they
clnno Ia tbe dearer metal, and thus made
IL st;Il dearsr-l70, 900, 600 people could
certainlv make their influence felt In this
d;rect;on-and thus forced up gold
(which thew persisted in making their
actnaI standard above silver their true
IeoaI standard. about 80 per cent. ac-
coyding to the ratio ia to y Of the
United States. with the gold price OF
the silver in the silver dollar ATT cents
as lately quotedA and more than 81 pei.
cent. according to the ratio (l5t to u OF
the Latin union, with the almost certain
prospect OF its going still higher. So
long as these nations will persist in adj
herring to their dearer specie, in defiance
Of the laws of political economy and
common sense. By strange fafuity
they seem to forget that their own use
OF the higher instead of the lower com
modify az their standard, not only tends
powerfully to make the two go wider
and wider apart, thus rendering the pos
sibility of bi.metalism more and more
hopeless, but what is far greater mat
ter, the sending up OF their standard to
a higher level along with gold, which Is
the natural result OF their concurrent
ose Of that metal, causes the blight Of
falling prices to settle on the industries
of the people, like leaden pail.
President Cleveland, and others who
arree with him. profess much concern
lest silver and gold part company; and
then they straitway advocate the very
policy that must surely increase and
agprayate the divergence already exist
ing-wbich either shows their inconsist-
ency or lack of knowledge OF the fun
damental principles on which the theory
OF money rests. II PresidentCleveland
were really sincere in his desire for the
unity of the two metals or commodities
on which our standard is based. and If
be thoroughly understood the matter,
he would intuitiyely see that the adop,
tion Of our lower specie as our actual
standard, by the sixty millions OF people
whom it is his right to advise in the
premises, would do more towards bring
ing them together, simply by lessening
the demand for the higher specie and in
creasipp the demand for the lower.
II. when our standard was appreciat
ing to specie level, towards the end OF
the paper money era, it had followed, as
it ought to have done, silver, which was
then the lower specie, and therefore,
under the double standard theory, logl-
cally and rightfully the true legal stand
ard it would have been far steadier
than it has been; Of course gold would
not have been forced up as it has been,
but whatever altitude it might have
reached our standard would not have
followed it; all our property and labor
would not have been subjected to the
terrible shrinkage latter the solid
ground of a specie basis had been at
tainedD OF being measured by an appre-
ciated dollar; and finally the American
people would have dassee si strs,,snsss3 mat e. e.
wards relieving the p'eseth AZ. nar,rse,,;,.
iauons eA.1 ~ -s,-rr commodities, caused
Soid Sy snSy Sy diminished supply OF the for
mer and by the sudden aud combined
demand for it during the last thirteen
years of l70,000,000 Of people. Mr..
Bland and others think that il this
country were now to measure values by
the lower specie, silver, THAT is, il silver
were to be made freely coinable,) the
effect, immediate or prospective, would
be to cause the commodity gold to fall
to something like par with silver at
our American equation OF i6 TO /. The
throwing on the markets Of the world Of
5000, 600, 600 of gold. or nearly one-fifth
Of the entire stock in the hands of man,
would certainly have very powerful
influence in that direction. And il gem
uine bi-metalism. based on natural law,
is better than the sham equivalency of
the two species that is now maintained
by the double standard nations by
wholly artificial means, then such a
change would be long step towards re-
alizing the dream Of the bi-metalists.
NJ. Cernushi, Mr.. Dana, Horton and
other apostles OF bi.metalism insist that
the United States and the Latin Union
ought to coin no more silver unless its
coinage be made free, and not then un-
less England or Germany mites in this
policy. Can Congress follow their adj
vice so far as-the United States is con
cerned? Ii we propose to measure all
our values by the commodity silver, we
there are sixty millions OF us--will re-
quire good many more than the 200
and odd millions Of silver coins that we
now have. Suppose we were to throw
our 600 millions Of dollars Of gold on the
market, it would take all OF our mints a
long time, even if worked to their fullest
capacity, to supply their place with an
equal number Of silver dollars on which
to transact the business of the country.
II, when the Resumption act was passed
in 1875, free coinage Of silver had been
restored-this omission was the great
mistake after the greater mistake OF rs,
which latter was also great crime--the
transition Of the measure of the values
OF the country from the then appreciatipg
paper basis to the silver basis, would
have been easy and natural; our practice
would have then conformed to the true
theory Of the double standard, and from
that period ON our Industries, the labor
Of the poor and the capital of the rich,
would not have suffered the ssrangula.
tion Of falling prices that ever, with the
certainty Of fate, follows rising stand
ard. In the abs snce Of the free coinage
of silver then, and as the next best thing,
the arbitrary coinage of from twenty-four
to forty.eight million dollars per annum.
as an intermediate or preparatory step
towards furnishing the people the neces-
sary means for the measurement OF their
values by the lower specie by the com
modify value Of the metal silver and not
by the fanciful or borrowed value that
our silver dollars have under our present
artificial system--was probably the WIS
est policy that could have been adopted
to accomplish that end. Mr.. Horton
charges tsee N. A. Revie1 for Decem.
berl that the task for European money
diplomacy in 1878 was how to 'maneu-
YER the United States ''into the scheme
OF coming silver without limit alone.
In other words, Europe wanted to "man.
euver" or bamboozle as into doing bust
ness On business principles We could
not well measure values by both com
modities at the same time; the legal inn
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