Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1893-10-07
! THE.&GHANT FLEA FOR Sill
YER.

of silver by further paper in Dc
tober, which is in many ways one
of the most remarkable contribu-
tons to the literature of the subject
that has appeared. Mr.. E. B. How
ell aims to show in a concise arti-
Gle that gold has appreciated in
stead of silver's cheapening, and
that we should be speaking of the
$3.50 gold dollar instead OF the
sixty cent silver dollar. This state
ment has been made before, of
course, but we do not know that
anyone before Mr.. Howell has made
just such a logical and simple ar
gument to that end. He prepared
several interesting charts, in which
he places the production and the
prices of the cereal and cotton
crops and other staples since 1873,
and compares them with the pro-
duction Of silver. The chart shows,
with striking clearness and finality,
that the output of silver has kept
very much nearer these comm obi
ties than has the gold product.
From this Mr.. Howell argues very
plausibly that it would be far more
just, if we are going to have mono
metallism, to make it silver mono
metallism instead of gold. And
mark the injustice of this appreci-
ing standard:
"When the farmer has a mort
gage on his land, the approaching
dollar does him a threefold injus-
tice. 1t shrinks the. value of his
land, it augments his indebtedness,
and at the same time by lowering
the price of his produce takes away
his ability to pay. The land value
shrinks under the mortgage, and
the mortgage spreads out over the
land until there is no margin left
for the original owner, and fore
closure is inevitable. The money
brokers are entitled to their princi-
pal and interest. They are not en-
titled to the unearned increment Of
their wealth caused by the appreci-
alton of the money standard.
But the farmer is not the only
one who has suffered from this pro-
cess. The shrinkage in the values
OF railroads, telegraph lines and
manufacturing plants is everywhere
felt. Investors do not like to in
vest in stocks that are certain to
be worth less before they are worth
more. They will not buy on a fall
ing market, and there is no bedrock
below which prices cannot go.
If the monetary policy of the
country makes gold the most de-
sirable and only secure form of
property, it is to be expected that
men who have it will not invest it
but will either hoard or loan it..
Until the monetary basis is broad
ened, there will be no enduring re-
lief for the present depression of
trade and enterprise. All our mon
ey is now referable to gold, and ap-
preciates with the appreciation OF
gold. Even our silver dollars must
be represented by gold dollars
worth OF silver bullion in the treas
ury. Issuing new forms of curren-
cy, payable directly or indirectly in
gold, will afford no relief, but will
rather tend to accelerate the upward
course OF gold. The United States
could doubtless issue without limit
greenbacl;s payable in gold, which
would pass at par, for the faith of
the world is absolute that the
United States will redeem accord
ing to its promise, even though it
were in dodo eggs. The United
States cannot by legislation increase
the supply of gold in nature. Until
this is done, however, the issuance
of additional promises to pay gold
in whatever form will not relieve,
but rather increase the difficulties
OF the situation"
While Mr.. Howell doubts that it