Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-02-01
"sILvER ON ITS MERITS"

"SilvER ON ITS MERITS"
There Are No Equal Merits When There Is
No Equality Before the Law.
The Chicago Tribune, which is one of
the most extreme single gold standard
papers in the country, has an editorial
in its issue of the 9th inst. entitled
''SilYer on Its Merits" 1t says:
a paper which takes every possible occasion
TO find fault with the Tribune says the latter is
not IN favor Of treating silver on an equality
/ with gold This is not true The Tribune te-
lieves in the fullest possible use of silver on its
merits The commercial world rates - ?,
grains of pure gold as being worth a dollar, and
just now it rates h7s grains Of silver as worth
the same KIN 4 of dollar Let both be treated
on preciselg the same terms of actual value.
This is all that the most ultra free
coinage men ask. In order to treat
these two metals on 1.-THE same terms"
silver must be remonetized or gold de-
monetized. Does not the Tribune
know that the worlds annual produc-
tion of gold is about 1926, 900, 900, and
that the amount required for the arts
| and manufactures is but about half
that amount, or S65, 900. 900? If it does
not know this, let it consult the report
of Mr.. Leech, director of the mint. And
does it not know that if gold were de-
monetized, as silver has been, and dis
carded as money metal, SO that hold
ers of gold bullion could no longer go
to the mints and have their bullion
coined and have an arbitrary and fixed
valuation placed upon the coins re-
ceived, gold would become a mere com
modify and would largely fall in price,
just as silver has fallen? 1t is true
that the Commercial world rates % %
grains of pure gold as worth dollar" :"
and until the perpetuation of one
of the greatest wrongs against the in
terests of mankind that has ever black
ened the pages of history, in the de-
monetization of silver, that same s'com-
mercial world rated 37lA grains of
pure silver as worth a dollar. In fact,
under the laws of most nations, whose
coinage was at lower ratio than ours,
that number of grains was worth more
than dollar. The Commercial world''
did not always so rate gold When
California and Australia were produc-
ing so largely, Germany, Austria and
some other nations demonetized gold,
and that metal sank below its coinage
value in those countries. In the opin-
ion of the monetary commission of 1876
| the movement would have become uni
versal in Europe but for the resistance
| of bi-metallic France If it had be-
| come general, what does the Tribune
| think gold bullion would then have
been worth? And, if gold were
treated as silver has been treated in
| these later years, and excluded from
the coinage of nations, so that it nc
longer had a fixed coinage value, but
only market value as a commodity
as something to be used in the arts and
manufactures-what does the Tribune
think would have been done with the
excess of $50, ,0O0, 900 in the production
of 1891 over the s65, 600, 900 that the di-
rector of the mint says was required for
| other than monetary purposes? And
with this excess of supply for such pur-
| poses, would not it's value have largely
declined? Will the Tribune give fair
| answer to these questions? Com
parative actual values" can only
be ascertained by putting the two
metals on the same footing as to
coinage. It would then be seen that
the world can get along very much
| easier without gold than without sill
yer. This is so for two reasons One
is that to-day three-fourths of mankind
use silver as their exclusive money
metal; and the other is that, as every
one knows, silver, by reason of its lesser
proportionate worth, is adapted to the
small payments which make up the
bulk of the everyday transactions of
mankind, and which require sums less
than IS in amount, while gold is wholly
unfit for use in such transactions Both
the metals are produced in excess OF
the quantities required for the arts and
manufactures, and, therefore, they are
alike dependent upon law, and law
alone maintains their values at the
| coinage rate. This is as true with gold
as it is with silver.-Kansas City Jour
nal