The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1893-10-19
SILuER and GOLD
Bi-Metallism as Ancient as
Civilization.
THE PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD
Facts and Figures Which Cannot Re
Disputed - Interesting Review of
the Money Question "A Com
DarlsOn Of the Production of
the Two Precious Metals
Written for THE MAIL.

The advocates of the single gold
standard, through their un-American
agents-the foreign bankers of our large
cities, and would-be bankers handling
foreign capital-never tire of dining it
in the ears Of the American people
through hired writer's and metropolitan
press too much under their influence
(barring honorable exceptions like the
Chicago Inter-Ocean, the st. Louis Re-
public, the New York Press, the New
York Recorder, the San Francisco
Chronicle, and few others) that there
is an over-production Of silver as COM
pared with that of gold, and that the
''ratio" instead of being 16 of silver to 1
of gold, should be, if at all, away up in
the twenties; but, of course, they prefer
no silver at all Tin theirs" With silver
extinguished as a money metal, the pur-
chasing power of gold is correspondingly
enhanced and the price of all products
of labor, etc., correspondlngly depressed.
That is all we'll enough from the stand
|
a living by the cutting off of coupons
| lnterest slips) from bonds whose face
value represent 33 per cent. cost in labor
and 67 per cent, in cunning craft and
crime. reference is here made to the
hundreds of millions of dollars of
''watered stock" and fraudulent mort
cages piled layer after layer upon all
productive railroad and other property
for the last generation; also for U. S.
bonds exchanged for mere ''promises to
pay' the greenbacks at heavy discount,
now payable in go]d.) But where does
the interest of the millions of wealth.
producing labor come in In the end it
has to pay for all, and settle an unduly
inflated debt with an unjustly contract
ed money.
During the recent and still pending
panic, did any spokesman or writer in
the interest Of the single gold standard
urge that there was too much money on
hand? No; on the contrary they pro-
posed and still propose to borrow more
by issuing new bonds. Was any one
known to pay himself out Of debt by
running deeper into it? AT NO TIME IN
THE WORLDS HISTORY HAS THERE BEEN A
PRODUCTION OF GOLD AND SILVER LARGE
ENOUGH TO MEET THE WANTS OF TRADE
Some "credit" makeshift had always
been resorted to to supply this def
cheney.
The ratio" between gold and silver
has ever been arbitrary and mostly
against silver. From the year 521 before
Christ, during the reign Of the Persian
monarch Darius, when it was 1879 to l,
to the present time when it SHOULD BE
l5115 or 16 to one, or for a period of over
24OO years, it has not varied more than
"two points"
What are the facts affecting this ratio
during ninety years last passed? Let's
see. "For the 8S years between 1900
and 1885, say the statistics, ''the world
has mined 1912 tons of gold and 95,559
tons of silver. (Troy weight-2O0O
pounds to ton and IL ounces to the
pound is used to weagh these precious
metals). Hence during the period
named the WORLD produced 100, ,5O8,OOO
ounces of gold and 2,2934l6OOO ozs. Of
silver, or at 'sratio" Of 12 ounces of sill
yer to l ounce of gold. Ut should be
borne in mind that these 8S years in
clude phenomenally large production
of silver as we'll as gold, unequalled
probably by any like period in the
worlds history.)
Now, applying the U. S. standard of
52O67 to ounce of pure gold and S1.29
to ounce of pure silver, we get for So
years gross production of Sc, ,937 ,80O,36O
gold and 1858, SOC, $40 silver, grand total
Of $780, ,3O7 900, or an average yearly pro-
puction for 88 wears Of S78,367, ,l25. Is
any one sufficiently insane TO claim that
this would be too great an addition
yearly to the worlds coin in gold and
silver?
But not all of this, by far, IS avail able
for coinage purposes. According to
Mullhal, the annual consumption of gold
in the arts is As per cent. and of silver
27 per cent. of the entire product" leav-
ing 55 per cent. of gold and 73 per cent
Of silver available for coinage purposes.
Now let us see how this will affect the
ratio It leaves us in 88 years
years $2,159,71O,847, silver-nearly an
annual average addition to the worlds
stock Of redemption (not "credit")
money Of $47, ,436,375. Who is rash
enough to assert; that this IS sufficient to
meet the demands Of q constantly in
creasing population from stock of
100000 millions human beings with
their constantly increasing trade and ex-
panding commerce as civilization makes
new conquests? '"eo fr7e
In the foregoing it was my object to
show that the claim Of the .''gold bugs"
as to disparity in the production Of
gold and silver on ratio of l to l6 Is
untenable, and that the two metals com.
bined are inadequate to supply metal
lie foundation for the immense amount
Of ''credit'' or paper money atioat
And now, leaving the field of dry fig
lures, let one inquire Of the single stand
ard American what kind Of statesman
ship is it in Washington that aims
| through the characterization Of silver to
deliver not only the people of the United