The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-05-04
THE SILVER PROBLEM.
A Correspondent Tells Why Silver shouia
10 Money.

THE SILVER PROBLEM.
A Correspondent Tells why silver should
Ne Money.
To Tho Independents:
While the financial problem 70 and logic
ally should be the all absorbing problem
for statesmen TO solve, il 10 less undsrstooo
by the masses than II should be. n IN
fact there appears 20 be . shade OF dense
Ignorance or ooncsitsd biGotry hanging
over the uttersnces of some Of our promi-
nent fnanoisrs upon the subject. II II
self evident that . rule OF exchange - q
rule in everything else must be essaoiisheo'
more prod uots (requirinR labor 10 produce
md being adequate a. q medium OF eA-
ohsure.) should ks arrived at. This ques-
tion Of t3at money unsecured should once
and for ali times BE- considered out OF the
ouestion. Nothing should be considered
valuable until ii has taken a eertain
amount Of labor to produce that value;
logically then labor should DO the
commodity upon which to base
value, but as labor itself cannot
be used as a circulating medium, ana as
supply and demand are conceded TO De the
auxiliary factors to base said value ana the
ndaptability of n commodity to ACT AZ .
circulating medium was -
and silver az o natural consequence we're
adopted to fill the need. But why were
thew selected? Because they are almost
non. destructihle metals, floods cannot Wash
eway or fire destroy them. because they are
the most beautiful of metals, because theY
require toll and deprivation to discover,
and labor to produce. because they nave
been the 70. erunnerso of civilization from
time immemorial; man in his search Tor
gold and silver, and esr ecially silver, mas
penetrated into primitive forests. disputlng
the rights Of aavaRes and beasts. The new
found prospect developes into a niue,
around il grows a CITY, the farmer sstt!es IN
the valley. and then follows the railroad
and thus many a desert mas Oeoh "aue ~
blossom az the rose.
To the discovery Of silver may be attrib-
uted tina rapid development of the west, the
opening of a market for the manufactured
PRODUCTS of the east, and the salvatlon d
the nations credit in the hour OF need;
Now let me ask. why was not gold accepted
as the single standard! simply because
the supply always was, and still IS, made
,ouate as a medium of exchange to faclli-
tate business; because the boarding OF gold
on account Of its scarcity has possessed
sueh a fascination thai q double standard
sufficient to facilitate exchange. and OF such
quantity as to make the boarding OF ltim-
possible, became necessary mus
silver has always as the douole s.anaalu
been designated as the poor mans money.
However. q decided change In the conditlon
Of affairs has taken place In the silver pro-
ducinp states since the ratio OF sixteen to
one became established. Then miners were
paid sc per day. -four was worth $5O per
hundred, and everything else IN proportion
and it was almost worth one life to reach
the silver mines OF the west; values were
ebuormally inflated and gold at an unrea-
sonable premium, but as unjust ~ has been
the great depreciation Of silver. as
equally unjust has bsen the endeavor
to maintain the premium on gold.
II is not at all surprising that the
internatiaIa al conference failed to establlsh
a ratio. as il is indeed q difficult matter to
place a fixed value upon silver. E,eiytnanR
connected with its discovery and produe-
ton can be termed as extremely hazardous.
First. silver is usually found in emote
mountain Businesses and away from water;
especially is this the case in Arizona anu
Nevada. In addition to this the enormous
depth attained by silver mines. and the
continued handling of the most dangerous
explosives. makes the production OF silver
20 much moro hazardous. Thus the aver
AGO wages paid tho miner is a mere plttnnce
compared to the character Of work and the
risks that are daily taken, and in my esti-
nation the highest wages ever paid a miner
we're vet too low TO recompense him for bis
toll. Another mistaken idea ls That mines
are found. Not so. Prospects it is true are
discovered. but muscle BRAIN ana cap.
ital are required to develop them
and whore one paying mine 10 opened up
thousands of prospects and with them the
hopes of the discoverer are abandoned. anc
no matter how ca, efully the statistics may
be compiled. they will always fall ia!
short of arriving at the correct amount that
it costs to produce an ounce OF silver. Take
80 f.--A:-=-e n -~syvotS0nA arFaYn1 IN
it's discovery, and of the the lives lost in its
production and 1t will be seen that its in
trinsic value cannot be computed upon any
other basis than that which a just govern
ment should set uron IL. Conceding that
when it's present ratio was established, tina,
IL in common with other products bore an
inflated value, it must be admitted that
from one extreme the other has beer
reached. Granting that its coinage value
is inflated, ia not its market value more
than equally depressed? 1t is a feet thai
cannot be denied that depression is thu
general rule to-day in the United States
and nil of this may justly
be attributed to the present ruinous
financial policy. Farm mortgages are &C.
cumulating, the price of farm products &C
depressed that a crop barely pays the cos
of production. Wag es in the cast arr
already down to the bottom notch, strik'
following strike in the endeavor to main.
tain the standard of American wages. but
the utter futility of these attempts cnn b.
seen when the root can be easily traced t.
a depressed and 1uctuating currency. ane
q scarcity even of that. Trne that GU
laborers are better fed and better paid thar
the average European workman, and j
should be our aim to see that this oondi
ton of affairs should ever be maintained
Conceding that other products in sympa
thy with silver nave deprecated go as +
make their production improbable an
%ruinous, does it not become imperative TO
the government that produces over one
half Of the entire silver of the world I
find a mean between the extremes of infa
tion and depreciation and restore the re
sources of the country once more to a mol
NAL condition? Give us a standard cur
rency, and enough of il, aud the tariff vii
adjust itself and capital and labor one
again become teconciied.
ADoLPH JACOBS.
Helena, May l, 1893.