The advocate., 1891-07-08
tlons were conducted in coin, and Mr..
Stewart tells him thia.

Il DBOWMIJ v0AA1 0AAAA bubns
Many well-informed statisticans contend
that there is less gold coin in the CONNER
Cial world than there was fifteen years ago
The meagre reserves of gold in Europe ant
America corroborate their contention. Pop
ulation and business have expanded out o.
all proportion to the supply Of gold coin.
Your scheme Of checks and bills Of OK.
change as substitutes for gold has been tried
and found wanting. Paper devices faCili.
tate commerce as representatives of money
and not otherwise. The slightest doubt oi
failure Of payment on presentation under
the moneyed systems of the world destroys
their use. It is true that while confidence
can be maintained they are as good as coin,
but the want Of coin destroys confidence,
If checks and bills Of exchange would
answer the purpose of money, why use any
thing else! Nearly everybody can draw
checks, and if it were not necessary to have
q bank account upon which to draw them,
there would be no need of either gold OF
silver. If your theory of drafts and checks
be correct, the failure Of the Barings was
supreme folly, and your "wise, old bird" j"
England, is fool for paying a bounty on
gold to increase her reserves.
Mr.. Carnegie, the absurdity of your as
sumption that the value on gold cannot be
changed is excelled, il possible, by your ig-
norance of the silver question. You say;
"What, then, has raised this silver question
which everybody is discussing?" just this
fact: That while the supply, and therefore the
value, Of gold remained the same, great de-
posits Of silver were discovered, wonderful
Improvements made in mining machinery
and still more wonderful in the machinery
for refining silver ore; and as more and
more silver was produced at less cost, it's
value naturally fell more and more, one
ounce of it, worth $1.33 in 1872, being worth
to-day only $1.04."
Il is true that silver has fallen in value as
compared with gold, but it's value as COM
pared with commodities is as great as when
the gold conspiracy excluded it from the
mints of the United States and Europe.
The price of gold has advanced because
legislation has forced the money demand
for gold and silver upon gold alone. Il is
not true, as you would have as believe, that
an over production of silver was the reason
for its demonstration. Avarice was the
reason and deceipt and fraud the instru-
ments of it's accomplishment.
The worlds production Of silver in 1873,
when the United States took the initiative
in monometalism, was only S81, 800, ,0O0
while in the same year the production of gold
was 500, 100000. Nor is your assumption
that silver was demonetized because il had
deprecated in value true. The very day
that the act codifying the mint laws of the
United States, which omitted the silver dol
lar, passed Congress, the silver in the silver
dollar was worth 3 per cent more than the
gold in the gold dollar. It is true chat af
ter Europe followed our example and cut
off the demand for silver for coinage pur
poses, the price of silver as compared with
gold declined. The value of silver 10 nj
more exempt from the law of supply and
demand than that of gold.
No, Mr.. Carnegie, you cannot justify th'
crime of the nineteenth century, by which
silver was demonetized, by asserting that
either Overproduction or falling price Of
silver was tho cause. Silver was not de-
monetiEed because gold was the better
metal for use as money. On the contrary
the effort TO destroy one of the precious
metals TO enhance the value of money com
menced with an effort to demonetiEe gold