The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-05-21
THE SILVER QUESTION.
A Dissertation Advocating the Single
Money Standard.
The Sherman Act Should Be Repeatedly
Limited Coinage Wanted with SILVER
Redeemable in Gcid-Parity of the
Metals Only Temporary without
Change IN Production.

TIE HERALD has been asked to print the
following paper which was recently read by
Judge Robert Hardness before the University
ciups and which has given rise 10 considerable
uscdsslon. II is not necessary TO say that the
news OF the winter are not IN accord with those
o. thls 1ournal.-ED. HERALD
In paper to be read to a club composed of
graduates of the colleges and universities OF
this and other countries Oh the much vexing
and much vexed silver question, need not fear
TO 60 back TO the simplest elements which you
know very well, FOR you also know the import
ance OF carrying with US admitted elementary
principles, as standards of Values in seek
Ing solutiO.- OF things that may seem compli-
Gated.
The briefest uehnition of money that we can
give is thai it is a standard of values and me-
dunn Of exchange for other commodities. The
standard exercises both functions; but its ONCE
as medium OF exchange is divided in practice
ana partly fulfilled by paper and IL other ways.
Inc silver question IS a national one and of IN
teresS 10 the whole country. and you as citizens
q Ctan nave an especial interest IN II. because
the use and price Of silver affect one of our
principal industries, and silver is used in our
currencyi hence we meet nearly the whole
range OF subjects connected with money and
sound currency. / have long been believer in
q single international standard. and / have
thought that harm instead OF good has been
cone 10 the sIver interests by contending for
double standard or for free coinage, and l find
some who are IN favor of these agree with me
tRnt IL was useless TO ask them.
II we 60 back to q time when pursuits were
not diversified ana each man hunted his own
food, made his own clothing and house. and
when all trade was barter, we can conceive a
hunter had taken TWO bear skins and only
needed one; but he needed some smaller skins
which other hunters OF his tribe had taken and
when he wanted to exchange his bear skin for
what he needed he had TO Hnd some one who
wanted bear skin AMI also had small skins TO
exchange. II did not help him TO find a man
who wanted bear skin and had no smaller
skins 20 exchange and so II did not help him to
find man who had spare small skins unless he
wanted a bear skin; but when he fonnd the
right man they made the exchange. This
was great inconvenience to barter and
we can conceive that finally there grew the
idea of o middle term, or standard and medium
by which, in Two operations Instead OF one, the
barter was effected, and this is the idea of
money. The standard or standards had to be
something all the tribe wanted, and as trafic
extended and became inter-tribal. it had to be
something both tribes wanted, and as trade
further extended to confederacy or nation,
II would be something all wanted, and still
further, If trade became international ii would
be something all the nations wanted We see
further that this common want must have been
about equal in the whole district in which the
standard was used Tor our idea Of value is the
desire OF something for use or ornament, and
the intensity OF The desire or need affects the
value Thus at Sparta all wanted iron. and the
need Of iron was so general 10 the whole do
main that iron there was money, while in
Athens and surrounding nations other stand
ards were used.
In simple barter we might at first think no
standard or medium is used; but as 1t affects
py one operation an exchange which requires
two by our middle term, or money there must
be included in the barter all the functions en-
ployed IL the double. exchange, and barter is
merely bringing two things in direct comparison
instead Of through a middle term called money:
and the fact Is every barter has in it q standard
of value and medium OF exchange, for
our hunter must decide on the standard
on which he viii exchange his bear skin
FOR smaller ones and then his skin is also
the medium We cannot suppose that the adop
tion from time TO time OF more general stan
dards for larger districts excluded the more
local standards, for today we barter and
use the elementary one, and when the
tribal standard was made there may have
been several things used; also number. but
probably fewer things as inter-tribal stand
ards and so on 10 the national and inIerna-
tional. the number growing fewer as the terri
tory enlarged. because some districts might be
employed in fishing some in hunting, some as
shepherds. some at later period in agrcul-
ture, and hence in the larger districts il would
be more difficult TO find things all wanted
equally. In this way the metals were finally
reached, because there was common want for
them either for use or ornament. 1t is for these
reasons thatin the list of things used as money
in the history OF The world there is such great
number OF commodities used locally. and il
would probably be a mistake 10 suppose SO
many things were ever general standards.
SO we ina in the subject regular develop
ment from the standard IN each case Of barter
10 LuC lllUd1, luC llc ana
inter national, just as You start with your indi-
vIdual ana go 10 the species, the genus, the
family, and finally 10 the class, and The devel-
opment has followed the advance in civilization
and the extension OF commercial relations: for
IN this century find barbarous tribes scarcely
II at all beyond the barter age and using as
many standards as there are barriers. We now
have the question whether this evolution is to
stop with two international standards or 90 on
until one is excluded? This evolution from
particulars TO generals is at least limited If not
fuilV pXDFpGSpl. nv Professor .ipVOuG N his
work on Money and the Mechanism OF Ex-
change" when he says, in substance, that the
tendency among the most civilized nations is TO
the single inter national standard.
In the history OF a small part OF the earth we
can get back 5000 or possibly 1000 years, and
in the earliest accounts there were gold, silver,
iron. brass and bronze, and from this we know
our earliest point of history must have been
the latter part OF the middle age of historical
events. When was placer mining begun, when
ledge mining. and When were the smelling and
compromising OF metals first discovereds We
all know that bronze implies a knowledge OF
compromising metals in q way 10 make the pro-
duct more useful than either of the consti-
tuents. Because we find silver and gold in the
earliest times Of which we have any account
ana because they are now used as standards,
we cannot conclude they became standards
when first known. or that they were the only
standards, or were used on any fixed ratio be-
tween them. OF th6t in different countries they
had the same relative value, or that the con-
ception of the use OF money as middle term
was as clear as IL is at present any more than
that the full use of steam or electricity was
found at once.
All these things were matters Of growth an d
circumstances. II anyone should assert some
older record had been found showing silver was
worth fifteen and one-half times much as
gold, we would consider it inherently probable,
for the gold OF placer mines would naturally be
found first, and as silver rarely occurs free
there would be little silver until ledge mining
and smelling were practiced, there would be
perhaps fifteen and one half times as much
gold as silver. ana from the Oldest records the I
ratios OF value have followed quantity. II has