The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-05-14
Silver and It's Value.

/ A paper which few months
since professed to be friendly to sill
yer, but has since gone over body
and soul to the goldbugs, in an ar.
ticle OH the subject of the value oi
silver expressed the opinion that
the present low quotations of the
white metal are the result of over
production, and that "the schemes
of the silver miners to check a de-
cline in the value of their product
ignore the first principle of political
economy, which declares that the
price is governed by supply and
demand"
That is a curious accusation to
bring against the advocates of bi-
metallism, who are in all goldbug
arguments designated as "silver
miners" Any one familiar with the
subject knows that bimetallists base
their whole theory that free coinage
will bring the commercial and legal
ratios of gold and silver together
on the observed fact that the acts
of demonstration of Germany and
the United States and the absten-
ton of France from the coinage OF
silver, by greatly restricting the de-
mand for silver as money, have
caused its value, measured in terms
Of gold, to fall.
The evidence is abundant and
conclusive that silver has not de-
clined in value from oyerproduc-
ton. What our contemporary is
pleased to designate as fall in the
value of silver is merely an appre-
citation of the value Of gold. AS
we have repeatedly pointed out, an
ounce of silver bullion is worth as
much to-day as it was a year ago,
and can be exchanged for as great
a quantity of every commodity ex-
cept gold.
And right here is the nub Of the
whole contention, and all the soph-
istries of the goldbugs cannot OBJ
scure it. The silver men, those who
ask for an honest money, are per-
fectly aware that legislation which
is averse to free coinage can only
result in enhancing the value of
gold, thus defrauding every debtor
and every producer.
The men who denounce the stand
ard silver dollar as dishonest are
most of them rogues ready to take
advantage of every one in their
power. They know perfectly that
gold is the unstable metal, and that
so long as it is made the only stand
ard for the payment of debts its
value must 60 on increasing. Less
than twenty days ago (April II
the New York Tribune published
the following comment in its edito-
rial columns:
Much current complaint is doubtless
due to the fact that prices are low, the
range of 900 commodities being about 13
per cent lower than year ago. when the
effects Of the short crops of 1890 were
most felt
Does any one really fancy that
the men who compose the creditor
class do not understand the signif-
cance of this drop in prices? We
think not. Indeed, the known
shrewdness of money-lenders sug-
gests the idea that their solidarity
is due to their keen appreciation Of
the fact that money has had it's
purchasing power increased during
the year exactly as much as the
drop in prices amounted to, or, to
put it another way, they under
stand perfectly that their honest
gold dollars will buy Is per cent
more of almost everything under
the sun than in 1890.
Is it not a mockery to call dol
lar honest which increases in value
Is per cent in a single year? And
is not the man a hypocrite and
scoundrel who deliberately argues
that honesty demands that we
should have money of this kind?
Just look at the thing. Mr.. Cresus
last year loaned some struggling
devil of a producer $1,000 to be paid
this year in gold. In the meantime
the selling price of the commodity
which the poor debtor produces de-
clines 13 per cent, not because the
thing he produces has been pro-
duced in excess, or because he was
able to produce it more cheaply,
but simply because the scarcity Of
gold and the legislation making it
the only legal tender money has
increased its purchasing power. He
is therefore compelled to pay his
creditor Is per cent more than he
would have been called upon to pay
if we had really honest money,
which would have maintained pri-
Gee at fair level.
But it is hardly necessary to draw
upon the Tribune for testimony to
show that it is gold that is increas-
ing in value and not silver declin-
ing. The experience of centuries
proves that under the bimetallic
system there could have been no
serious disturbance of the ratio by |
What our conte1npo-
rary is pleased to regard as an ex-
ro ord;rarv ;noroo a. 3, .oro1ro<;o,,