The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-23
THE FINAL RESULT.

Allies Will Become Our Bitter Enc
miles.
Says the Denver Road: 'The south
is in line on the silver question. They
understand the question better than
Coloradoans. Their idea of silver is
coin, a metal used in connection with
gold in paying debts contracted on a
coin basis About all Colorado man
can see in the silver question is profit
able mining and smelling. The legal
tender coin feature has troubled the
average Coloradoan mighty little"
The Road is in position to know
wereof it speaks and is undoubtedly
correct in its diagnosis.
Let us see what the result of silver's
reconciliation must inevitably be. In
the course of his speech in the senate,
in 1890, John P. Jones said:
''Thus by the universal competition
to get it the value of the dollar is made
to depend upon the number of dollars
that are out. This is a principle that
lies at the very foundation of the
science of money. The law, stated
broadly, is that the value of each unit
of money in any country at any given
time depends upon the whole number
of units in circulation in that country.
The larger the number of units out,
population remaining the same, the
less must be the value of each unit; the
smaller the number of units out, popu-
lation remaining the same, the greater
the value of each.
Notwithstanding the variance some
times found between the premises and
the conclusions of economic writer's,
there is no economist of repute who
does not admit this to be fundament-
al principle"
Now remember this rule applies to
all legal tender money units, no matter
of what material such units may be-
1t, in country which has in circula-
ton a certain amount of metallic
money, there is added to such volume
an equal amount of paper money, the
exchange value, or purchasing power
of each unit, both metallic and paper,
will be lessened one-half. Not that the
UNCONVENTIONAL or stamped face value
would be changed, but each unit would
then exchange for but one-half the
amount of labor and commodity that
the metallic unit would before the
addition of the legal tender paper
money.
Now suppose that silver is fully re-
monetized upon the ratio of Is to /.
Each 49, % grains of fine gold, or 371. Is
grains of fine silver might be freely
coined into one dollar. We have, under
these conditions, certain volume of
money in circulation and conclude that
such volume is only one-half enough.
We now desire to issue full legal tender,
inconvertible paper money, in volume
equal to that of the gold and silver
money in circulation. Immediately the
gold and silver men combine to defeat
this proposed action and fight to the
bitter end any action looking to the
issue of paper money.
Why would they do this? Simply
for the reason that, although they
could continue to get the same quanti-
ty of their metals coined into dollar
as before, the dollars would buy only
one-half as much labor and labor's
products as before. Under free coin
age acts, the government does not issue
money, but simply coins it for those
who own the bullion out of which it is
coined, and it is by these bullion own
ers that it is issued" or put in circula-
ton, in exchange for labor and COM
mOdities GEORGE C. WARD.