Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-12-08


have the same debt-paying and purehss-
ing power, kept IN use SO large coined
STOCKS OF both as TO make her ratio prey.
silent. Gold, therefore, had II its proper
tlon IS n1on paying power wherever sill.
yer alone mad free coinage as where both
were coined. Silver, therefore, had In
W. proportion as much purchasing power
"nere gold alone had free coinage as
Wnere Doth were coined. The two metals
were thus joined practically In a
ui prices which II measured was identi.
cat, other things being equal, In Great
Britain and elsewhere. In other words.
the silver coinage which England shirked
In 1916 was elsewhere done; the free
coinage ate \ fixed ratio In fun legal.
tender money waich she had previously
Preferred, bota TO all the gold and all the
silver anywhere mined or melted, was
elsewhere actively maintained for sixty
years. She neither had different
standard nor sin lie gold standard; she
was merely factor in the general
| equilibrium OF monometalic coinages,
which France, by bimetallic coinage,
had power To keep stable. The depen.
dence OF Great Britain was absolute AZ
the time her independence was most
Wanted
Thus Great Bri,ain's exclusion Of silver
from mintaee into unlimited lea al.tender
money in 1916 did not at once promote
the disuse OF that metal In International
transactions, not ever those la which her
| merchants and bankers were themselves
concerned; nor did Il disturb the ratio OF
weight at which the two metals were
given and received as of equal value /;
nor did IL affect the range Of prices, the
resultant of the worlds industries and
exchanges measured against the eNtant
aggregate OF the two monetary metals, so
long as great mints were elsewhere open
ready to coin both into money that was
equally lawful tender In fultllment OF
every contract or payment Of debt created
In the daily course of those industries
and exchanges; nor until 1878 did Great
Britain's pursuit OF an illusory STANDARD
finally di close its pregnant mischief.
CRISIS AND COURSE OF TUE MONETARY
DIsLocArIoN.
The mischief pregnant in Grea. Brit
aims silver boycott Of 1916 leaped TO
light when Germany, In 1873, initiated
that Imperial blunder, OF the growth of
BRUSH commerce, one unlpnuential cir.
cumstance, one mere coucomtaut (her
exclusion Of silver from mintage into full
! legal-tender coins) was deemed cause
Called by the illusory name of the single
gold standard, Wanted by Great Britain
herself as "a monetary system under
which she has enjoyed much prosperity"
and thus accredited as a artial secret OF
the greatness OF her commercial empire,
II obtained the admiration of rising
power, then more exercised In the mill.
tarY than the industrial arts, and but re.
Gently consolidated into political unity
after gigantic war. Equipped with the
ransom paid into the imperial treasury
| by rich but vsnquished power, the
statesmen OF Germany determined, at
any cost, to possess her of the gold fetch.
Closing her minis to the further coinage
Of silver, retiring from circulation her
/ silver heretofore exclusively coined and
seeking TO effect Its substitution through
the open mints OF France for the gold Of
France, throwing large quantities Of sill
yer upon the English market at short In.
tervals and in unknown amounts for sale,
Germany, by her legislation OF 1871 rs
thus conceived Ia the likeness OF Great
Brltain's legislation Of 1916, and, together
herewith Immediately caused a great
monetary disturbance.
France, IN presence of the silver food
from Germany, distrusted the power OF
| her open minis alone TO maintain the ratio
of the two metals under free coinage OF
both, as almost alone she had done dur
ing the immensely greater inundation OF
| gold from the new mines of California
and Australia; and first restricting her
mintage (Which neither defeated the
purpose oil Germany, as prompt closure
would have done, nor deprived 1t Of Inn
| portance as continued tree coinage would
have done), at last closed her minis alto
getner to the further free coinage of sill.
yer for The public into money OF unllm-
tied legal tender; and thus, at last, was
subyerted the monetary peace OF the
world.
Since that date, nowhere In the world
has the mint Of any great government,
which coined either metal into fun legal.
tender mOuey, coined tine other metal
into fun legal.tender money at any ratio.
Thus was ended for time that legal
fusion, 20 to speak, OF the two metals
into one monetary measure, which the
free coinage Of both, and the legal-tender
quality Impaired TO both IN q Fixed ratio,
mad made a practically complete fusion.
Thus was ended the prevalence Of an
ancient acceptable blmetallic standard
snd measure Of commodity prices-the
mass OF the two monetary metals, fused
by free coinage, a liked ratio, and the fail
legal-tende power, into one metal money
and price measurer.
Thus began the confusion OF two un.
conj0ined monometallic measures,
throughout world all knit together Ia
commercial unity.
Thus began the great monetary dislo
cation.
Displaced for time was the worlds
normal use of one common standard OF
prices. The superiority OF gold and
silver Joined, as thing in kind and
amount, of All things best suited TO be
that standard, appear, as l have said;
"first, in this, that II Is an amount not TO
be varied by legislative wisdom; second,
that il is an amount not TO be considera-
bly, vsried by any single generation Of
men, for that the annual increment Is too
small In proportion to the total mass,
already huge, which slowly grows from
age to age. That total mass, by It's huge
ness, its invariableDess, its indestructl-
bility, Is miracle among measures.
Standing over against the vast aggregate
of human commodities, mostly perlsha
BILE, which sinks and sWells with seed
time aud harvest as the seasons change,
and Of which the unconsumed and more
or less imperlshable part is so small, the
monetary metals OF the world are the
most trustworthy attainable measure OF