Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-09
THE MONEY QUESTION
Discussed at Length in an Address
by the Silver Committee of
THE NATIONAL BI-METALLISTS.
Why They Think the Present Policy Is
Unsound and Unsafe.
THE KIND OF REFORM THEY ADVOCATE

NatlOnal Executive SOulultlttS ~
night issued the following address:
The National Executive Silver Commit
tee in session at Washington declares that
continued experience demonstrates that
there can De no adequate or final solution
of the money question but by re-endowing
silver with the money function and making
silver coins standard money coequai with
gold for all money uses.
The present policy of making subsidiary
money of silver to be redeemed in gold. and
of piling continually higher the fabric of
credit and credit money on constantly
diminishing basis of gold is unsound and
unsafe and must come to an end. The
enormous increase in bank credits and other
forms of credit currency in recent years,
relatively to the volume of gold in which
they are ultimately redeemable, imperils
financial stability everywhere, and it is
standing menace to all business enterprises;
for under this system panics must occur
more certainly and more frequently, and be
more disastrous when they do occur.
More Standard Money Wanted.
What is wanted is not more credit cur
rency relatively to standard money, but
more standard money relatively to credit
and credit currency-a broader basis of pri-
mary money, aud not higher superstruc-
ture OF credit devices. This can be secured
only bv making silver and gold coin equal
as money metals with the coinage of both
on equal terms.
The act of July Il, 1890, as interpreted by
the Treasury Department. under which
&, 500, 600 ounces of silver are bought and
stored as collateral security for notes re-
deemable in gold, makes no addition to
standard money, while it raises higher the
fabric of credit on foundation that is grow
ing narrower and not broader. This addi-
tion 10 the currency volume might as well
be of greenbacls as in the form now given
to it. 1t requires, therefore, no extraordi-
nary financial acumen to foresee that this
condition cannot long be maintained.
One Solution of the Difficulty.
The plain solution of the difficulty is the
full monetization of the silver accumulated
under this act. to the end that this and all
other silver that anybody may choose to de-
vote to monetary use, may go to swell the
volume of money of final redemption for all
other forms of currency.
The facts upon which bi-metallists base
these conclusions are undisputed and in
disputable. The arguments by which they
are established are unanswered and un-
answerabe.
These facts are that the supply of gold is
admittedly inadequate to provide for the
worlds needs for money; that many times
more people are now made to use gold ex-
clusvelv as standard money than in 1873;
that the production of gold is diminishing,
while population, wealth and commerce and
the consumption of gold in the arts are
rapidly increasing-the increase in the de-
mand for the arts and dentistry IN the
United States alone being sufficient to
absorb, according to the report of the Di-
rector of Mint, in ten years more the entire
gold product of this country. That the
value of gold under these influences has
largely increased, and must continue to in
crease, and prices as certainly continue to
tall, is too manifest to require argument
Scales That Are Not Admired.
What a fraudulent pretense, in view of |
these facts, tcr insist that gold alone is a i
staple or an honest money standard 1
Scales that measure equities with no |
more precision or fairness than gold regis |
tiers the value of products and the equities |
between debtor and creditor and in deferred |
pavments would be tolerated nowhere out |
side o. a robbers den.
In view of the glaring facts which no one !
pretends to deny of the change In the money |
standard through the increase in the value |
of gold, as the direct and necessary conse |
quence Of demonetizing silver and restrict |
ing the money function to gold-alone what |
else than foolish homa e to knaverv is the |
babble about "honest money and |
''short dollars, which constitutes so large n |
part Of the stock answers 10 the demand for |
free bi-metallic coinage.
Nothing could be more absurd or ridicu-
lous than to. claim that a shapeless lump of |
silver, to which monetary use is denied, |
measures the value of silver coins which |
have monetary use added to whatever
other use silver may be applied. Gold |
same way.
Enough of Both the Metals.
If. since 1873, both metals had been ac-
ces>ihle for money uses, as for indefinite
a.es before, the annual addition to the me-
tallic stock of money for the world would
have been somewhat less than from 1S49 to
1873, but would, probably, have been suf-
ficient TO have maintained reasonable sta
hilitv in the value of standard money. So
now, while 1t Is as certain SIS that time will
continue, that under existing conditions,
through inaIequacy of supply for money
purposes, gold will continue to increase in
value and prices measured by gold con-
Iinue to fall, it is reasonably certain that
the supply of both metals will be sufficient
TO maintain fairly stable relations between
the industrial world what it has sorely
lacked since 1873.
The bugaboo of foreign silver coming
here no longer alarms intelligent. men.
nder free coinage, silver would be 81 %
an ounce here; it is 81 SO in India, and with
open minis would be 81 So in the States of
Latin Union, which is the value of all the
coined silver in Europe
The Greatest Influence on Wheat
The requirements Of England and of the
continent tor silver to pay balances to the
East would not be materially changed |
whether a profit of the difference been 95
cents and 81 IS were made on the silver sent
there, or only the difference between 81 30
and 81 jS India absorbed quite as much
silver in the years before the fall of silver
here as since then, and will continue to alb
sorb both gold and silver. But whether our
sllyergo abroad at % cents or 81 90 is quite
material to this country, not only from the
direct loss on the exported silver, but in the
lar greater loss sustained on the price of
wheat and cotton and their manufactured
products which have and will follow closely
the rise and fall of silver bullion for reasons
SO often explained. If wheat at the present
time Is less influenced by the price of sill
yer bullion than cotton, it is due entirely
10 the failure Of the wheat crop in Europe.
When Production Would Be a Crime.
II the value Of silver here should fall to 80 |
cents an ounce, as it probably would if de-
nonetlzed as gold monometallists would
would have 1t, while its purchasing power
among tWo-thlrds Of the population of the
rlobe continues at from 81 SO to 81 So. then
he production of silver in this cnuntrv