The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-05-17
Count RusConi, delegate Of Italy,

have happened just the same to gold, if,
adopting the idea of an illustriOus econO-
mist, whom We have unfortunately lost, il
had been demOnetized? [Page 1881
Mr.. Dana Horton, delegate of the
United States, says, on page 1872:
But for statutes, TO be read in the books
which have cited, gold would have been
where silver is to-day.
Mr.. CernusChi, presented a memo
randum Of Mr.. r. B. Chapman, Of the
financial department of the govern
ment of Iudia from which I'VE quote
the following:
During the last thirty-hv years the value
of each metal in turn has been seriously i'm
periled by threatened or actual legislation
of this kind. After the discovery Of gold in
California and Australia, one of the most
distinguished Of French economists (CheVa-
lier) and a well known English economist
(DausOn) ObliviOus as it would seem, Of the
effects Of their proposals upon the existing
standards Of value, and thus upon contracts
throughout the world, earnestly and per-
sistently advocated the disuse Of gold as
money. II the advocacy had prevailed, the
value Of gold would have been destroyed.
Now, again, within the last few years, sill
YER has been actually demonetizsd in
Europe, the stability of it's value being
thereby seriously impaired. Plainly, either
metal might be at any moment demonet-
lied, and its value indefinitely reduced by
human legislation.
And again:
If the conclusion be accepted, and it sp-
pears undeniable, that human legislation,
by causing their disuse as money, as 30 in
capaoitating them for the duty of storing
value, can deprive either or both of the
precious metals Of the greater part Of their
value, il follows, conversely, that the value
Of either metal can, by the same instru-
mentality, be increased at the expense Of
the other, and, accordingly, that their rels-
tive value can, within wide limits, be fixed
and defined. Pages 1876 and 1861
Count Rusconi said:
Do not the precious metals lose nine
tenths of their value, If they are deprived Of
the faculty of being converted into money!
What has happened TO silver, and what
would happen, if the mintage Of il was
everywhere suspended, prohibitedH Would
not that metal Immediately lose nearly all
Its value2 Page 299.l
Alexander Del Mar, in his history
of the precious metals, says:
Legal regulations, first, concerning the
ratio itself, and second, concerning money
at all, are next to quantity, the most potent
influences that determine the ratio Of value
between the precious metals. Page 227.
Again, page 227:
The monetization or demonstration Of
either metal, or a change of standard, as il
is called, will diminish the supply COM
pared with the demand, Of the monetized
metal. Such an act will enhance the de-
mand without increasing the supply, and
thus render the monetized metal dearer,
and OOntrariwise the demonetized metal
cheaper.
Professor Francis A. Walker, in
his work on money, says:
The extensive fall in the value Of silver
since 1873, which is often referred to as
proving the unftnsss Of silver to be joined
with gold in the Office Of money, appears to
me to show most strikingly the power Of
legislation in keeping the two metals TO-
gether. Page 266.l