The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-10-14
A Plea for Silver.

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E. B. Howell, who aims to show
that gold has appreciated instead
of silver's cheapening and that we
should be speaking of a 81 SO gold
dollar instead of a 6O-cent silver
dollar. This statement is not new
but Mr.. Howell has made a logical
and simple argument to prove that
it is true, says the Spokane Chron-
icle. He prepared several interest
ing charts, in which be places the
production and prices of the cereal
and cotton crops and other staples
since 1898, and compares them with
the production of silver. The charts
show, with striking clearness and
finality that the output of silver has
kept very much nearer these COM
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.
GOLD AS A MEASURE OF VALUE.
If man were to measure his
field with a strip of rawhide, as the
Tyrians are supposed to have done
when they purchased the site of an
cient Carthage, he would discover
that he has apparently less acres
on wet day than on dry one. Yet
the difficulty would be, not in any
variance in the area of his land.
but in the stretching of his meas
uring line. The friends of silver
claim that something precisely sim
liar to this has happened to the
gold dollar. AS measure of value
it has been stretching ever since
the rich placers of California were
exhausted. Very little gold is now
produced by the cheap process of
washing it out of gravel. AS Ia rule
it is only produced by the expen-
sive but entirely legitimate industry
of quartz mining, in which about
forty per cent of the annual out
put is by product in the extraction
of silver.
The dollar that goes up in value
is no more stable than the one that
goes down. The depreciating dol
lar does injustice to one class, the
approaching dollar to another. To
speak as gold as stable" currency
is begging of the question to be
proved, of which the monometal-
lists are continually guilty, and of
which President Cleveland was
guilty in his recent message to Con-
5ress.
EVILS OF AN APPRECIATING DOLLAR.
"When a farmer has a mortgage
On his lands the approaching dollar
Toes him theee-fold injustice. 1t
,hrinks the value of his land, it
his Indebtedness, and at
he same time by lowering the
price of his produce takes away his
ability to pay. The land value
'hrinks under the mortgage and the
mortgage spreads out over the land
antil there is no margin left for the
original owner, and foreclosure is
Inevitable. The money brokers are
to their principle and inter
,st. They are not entitled to the
increment of their wealth
caused by the appreciation Of the
money standard.
"But the farmer is not the only
me who has suffered from this pro-
,ess. The shrinkage in tho values
If railroads, telegraph lines and
manufacturing plants is everywhere
'elt. Investors do notlike to invest
n stocks that are certain TO be
worth less before they are worth
more. Thoy will not buy on fall
ng market, and there is no bedrock
below which prices cannot go.
''If the monetary policy of the
country makes gold the most desir-
lble and only secure form of prop
.rty, it is to be expected that men
Who have it will not invest it, but
will either hoard or loan it. Until
he monetary basis is broadened,
here will be no enduring relief for
he present depression of trade and
All our money is now
'eferable to gold, and appreciates
With the appreciation of gold.
Even our silver dollars must be
represented by gold dollars, worth
If bullion in the treasury. Issuing
Jew forms of currency, payable di-
'ectly or indirectly in gold, will af-
ord no relief, but will rather tend
o accelerate the upward course Of
gold. The United States could
doubtless issue without limit green.
packs payable in gold. which would
pass at par, for the faith of the
world is absolute that the United
States will redeem according to it's
promise, even if it were in dodo
,gps. The United States cannot by
egislatlon increase the supply of
rold in nature. Until this is done
however, the issuance of additional
promises to pay gold in whatever
'orm will not relieve, but rather in
crease the difficulties Of the situa-
ion,