The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-02

the extracts above, according to the
Tribune, England should be poorest and
France richest of the three Now notice
how the poor thing tries to crawl out:
The money that is in England is but 1.-THE
OF the money that that country has in use
Well, what about France and this
country, then! Do they not have other
money sin use''s
But that is quite beside the question.
The organ stated on that if the United
States would keep in this country
the SS0,000,OC0 yearly produced by our
mines, the money 'kept at home'' would
make this country the richest in the world.
Lest it should say we misstate its position,
we produce its exact words.
But now it says England is rich, not be-
cause of the money actually in England,
but because of that which she has sin use''
somewhere else. At this stage, the organs
argument seems to be that since England
grows rich by investing her money, by
keeping it ''in use,i therefore this country
would become rich by keeping its gold and
silver out of use by piling it up in
the treasury: that since England grows
their surplus, therefore this country
would grow rich by preventing our pro
ducers, especially our producers of gold
and silver, from exporting their surplus.
That the Tribune has never learned the
elementary fact that price and value are
not synonymous, is shown in the following
quotation, as well as in the one given
above.
| This contemporary admits that if the money
in this country could be doubled, the values Of
property, as it says, the prices of property"
would double, which would only De of use to The
debtor at last. Inasmuch as the debtor class
1 includes nine-tenths OF the human family, it
seems to us that such an arrangement as that
would be 4 good one.
| No doubt "such an arrangement" would
be very acceptable to the editor of the
! Tribune, and might relieve him of the I'M
pleasant experience of being sued in open
court, as he is to day, for the debts he
owes; but, without saying whether 'such
an arrangement" would be good thing or
not, we simply reiterate that the country
as whole would be no richer from it, be-
cause what the debtors would gain, the
creditors would lose.
For making the distinction between price
and value, the Tribune calls us a transpar-
ent Idiot. We think it will appear pres
emily who the transparent IDIOT is. The
reason we made distinction between the
terms price and value is that all writer's
make the same distinction. We open the
first standard work on the subject that is
near at hand and we find the following:
when the general value of commodity
declines, less of every other commodity
can be obtained for it in exchange; but il
this is SO, the value of all these commodi-
ties most rise as compared with it. These
considerations demonstrate the erroneous
nature of statement not unfrequently
made that there is d general rise or fail IL
the value Of all commodities. This is a:
impossible as it would be for each one o.
six rowers to row faster or slower thar
the other five. a cannot row faster thar
his five companions except by each o
these rowing slower than A.
IAN that is here stated may appear 81
simple that it will perhaps be supposed
, that time is being wasted in explaining
self evident truths.
THE price Of commodity may be de
fined as its value whsn estimated by com
; parison with those precious metals which
, by general consent have been adopted a
: money Although there cannot be a gen
: eral rise or fall in values there can be
general rise or fall in prices. "-Fdoeett
Pot. Ecan. page 81.
, Similar words can be quoted from ever,
economist of note, while no one but mer
; boy in economic discussion would think o
t confoundIng price with value. Thus
| FAwCETT, in the above quotation, almos
apologies Tor explaining the difference be
tween price and value; had he known, how
t ever. that he would have had to deal witt
people so dense as the Tribune editor, hi
apology would have been entirely unneces
sary.
a We stated that eff the government double
S the amount of money circulating in tn
country, the purchasing power of eac
d dollar becomes one half what it was before
r The organ twists this into meaning tina
e if the gold placers should double thei
e yield, as they once did, then THE HERAL
would hold that this would be a bad thin
t for the mine owners. This is Transporter
e trick. There is great difference betwee
n doubling the yield of gold mining or an
V other industry, and forbidding the expol
- of the gold, forbidding the miner to sell h
t surplus, so that in an overstocked marke
t its price falls.
: The only way in which the governmer
d can double the amount of gold kept in tn
Il country is by preventing any exportatio
;. of gold. If the miner can double h
S yield and is permitted to sell, h
e can find market for the who
e of it: but if the governmer
a confines him to the home market, prevent
o him from exporting any of his produc
then the extra yield will be of small use
t him, owing to the fail in its purchasiu
/ power.
e If the miners of California had been pr
\: vented from exporting their gold, wh'
y would it have been worth! Suppose, for il
IL stance, they had been compelled to keep
If in California, where itfrequently brougl
only its weight in tobacco, would not keel
q ing that gold at home have been ban
# ruptcy to them! Why, in thirty two year
g from 1S4S to. 1880, our mines produc,
O sos, OF, 034 more gold and silver than Il
4 total coinage of our minis from 1893 up
# 1880. Yet, in coming, the same metal
J. coined more than once, not only because Il
d government gathers in the old coins al
i melts them for recoining, but because Il
d gold and silver brokers often melt fu
al weight coins. What, then, are the miners
,e do with this gold.and silver, which exceed
e by the inconceivable sum given above t
q total coinage of our minis. The man wi
a says they should be prevented from sellir
n this surplus abroad, and sell it here a;