The herald., 1893-08-17
SILVER A srEADIER STANDARD THAN
GOLD.

| Senator Vest has done good puDilC
services in calling the attention Of con-
gress and the people to the indisputable
tact that silver really fiuctuates in value
much less than gold. This very impor-
tant statement Of the senator, or of the
English author whom he quotes. wheth-
er it applies to the last twenty years or
to the last fifty years, is strictly true, as
can be shown by statistics of the highest
character. For instance. Mr.. D. A.
Wells, a strong partisan OF the gold
standard, in his work, Recent Economic
Changes Up. 1922. published Ia 1889,
very frankly comedies that the estimate
OF M. Augustus Sauerbeck, of the de-
cline in the Wholesale prices of staple
commodities OF the worlds commerce,
from the period Of 1S66-'76 to 18S5-'S6,
Of the average measure or extent Of
thirty-one per cent, is not excessive; and
furthermore, that this decline was prac-
tically universal. In other words, the
same number OF tons, or pounds, or
Kilograms of staple commodities which
cost in gold 500, 900 in the former pc
riod could have been bought in the lat
ter period for 100000.
Now, if only siugle article had fallen
in that time 81 per cent, as measured by
gold, and all other articles had remained
on parity with gold, everybody, with
out dissent, would say that the changed
ratio of value between gold and the
article which had fallen in its gold price,
had resulted wholly from causes apper-
tanning to said article and not at all ap-
pertaining to gold; in other words, that
gold had not appreciated, but that the
single article in question had both rela-
tivelv and absolutely deprecated in
value.
But when not only silver, but all other
staple commodities synchronously and
persistently fall during period OF
twenty years, which is exactly what has
happened, all the presumptions are in
favor of the theory that the single article
(gold) by which these are measured, has
risen, rather than that many hundreds
of commodities of intrinsic and stable
value have fallen. Certainly we are justi-
fed in this conclusion purely on the doc
trine of probabilities. But we have
abundant corroboration from other and
independent sources. Something like
200, 100000 people, and they the most
active trading people in the world, have
gone over to the gold standard during
the last 20 years, thereby creating an
enormous new demand for that COM
modify, for gold is only a commodity
after all. and increased demand for that,
like any other commodity, means in
creased value. And as the monetary
standard or unit of value cushions on
the commodity OF which it is composed,
OF course, the rise or fall of that com.
modify, from whatever cause, carries the
standard with it, up or down, as the
case may be.
1t is not easy to measure the increased
demand for gold caused by it's adoption
as money by the United States, Ger
many, France, Italy, Holland. Scandi-
navia, Austria, ETC., when it is remem-
bered that the aggregate contracts for
the delivery of gold, daily, in those
countries must run up into the billions
if not into the trillions of dollars.
Again: billion. probably billion
and a hall dollars OF legal-tendsr or
standard silver money had been
"killed" as potential money by demon
etization and converted into what Euro.
peans cali "fduciary money!" or merely
impotent or token money, which does
not, since 1873 cushion" on the uni
versal commodity it is made of at all.
And the work it formerly performed is
now imposed on gold; and this also has
increased or intensified the demand for
gold. and has thus helped to cause the
latter to rise, relatively to everythin g
else. Finally, if we ccnrult Wholesale
prices in silver standard countries, we
find that the purchasing power of silver
has not greatly varied in those countries
in these last twenty years, during which
in gold-standard countries they have
fuctuated go violently and disastrously.
And to clinch all this, Mr.. Sauerbeck.
before referred 20, and one of the most
eminent OF living statisticians, since the
death O. DR.. Soetbeer. has brought his
computations OF the fall of commodities
down to September. 1892, which showed
an average decline from their par with
gold of 100 in 1S67-7S TO .66.8. or very
nearly the same gold price to which ell
yer mad then fallen. This shows that
silver and staple commodities main
tanned very nearly the same ratio to
each other that existed Wenty years ago.