The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1894-03-15
uALUR OF SILVER
A Good Explanation by the
New York Press.
THE PRODUCTION OF BOTH METALS
If Part or the Demand Can he
Thrown Upon silver Its value
Must Advance. While the Value
Of Gold Will Naturally Re-
cede ~ AS Commodity.
THE PRODUCTION OF BOTH METALS

| cede Is AS a Commodity.
Discussing the proposal of the New
England bi-metalllc committee that an
effort shall be made to obtain interna-
tional cooperation for the remonetiza-
tion OF silver, the Boston Advertiser
manifests some want of acquaintance
with the general subject, says the New
York Press. 1t urges: ~ That 'the
price Of silver is regulated. like the price
of iron, by the relation between the
amount in the market and the condition
OF that market" (2) 'That coming
metal into money does not create any
new value except the very slight ad-
dition represented by the actual cost Of
coinage" The inference from these as
sertions is that q worldwide effort to
exalt the value OF silver by coming it
cannot succeed.
| But no account is made in this esti-
mate Of the fact that if silver coin be
clothed with full legal tender power in
this country and in England that single
act will at once inorease to vast extent
the demand for the metal. Every man
of all the civilized millions of the earth
requires money at almost every hour Of
every working day for discharge Of his
obligations great and small. Few OF
these millions are now permitted to use
silver for this purpose excepting in small
amounts. Gold, or it's equivalent, is the
legal tender. Thus the whole strain of
this great demand is thrown upon gold,
with the natural result that the value Of
the metal advances. If under safe con-
dlt1ons part Of the demand can be
thrown upon silver the value of the
white metal must also advance, while
the value Of gold recedes.
Silver as mere commodity may be
compared with iron and other base
metals. But silver clothed with the
powerful money function, clothed with
authority as a debt extingulsher, must
outrank any metal but it's coordinate
gold. If the argument be made that the
supply is SO large as to forbid the equality
OF silver with gold even under such cir
cumstances, the reply is that the worlds
stock Of silver is indeed but slightly in
excess of the stock Of gold. Here are
the figures from the United States mint
report: Gold, $3,901, 900 900; silver, $3,-
93l,1O0,000. Silver is in apparently re-
dundant supply, because it is largely out
OF use for money purposes. From 1901
to 1920 the production of silver and gold
was as to l. During the next twenty
years it was as 2 to L; from 1841 to 1860
the relation was reversed and the prod
uct was 21S Of gold to / of silver, and
yet during all these periods gold and
silver renamed close together, the
difference in value not exceeding or 3
per cent. No reason can be imagined
why they cannot be held as closely now,
under just system, when the supply of
the two metals is nearly equal.
It is true that "coining metal into
money does not create any new value"
in the sense that it adds weight or fine
ness; but if the coin be legal tender,
which the bullion is not, then the act Of
coinage gives the value that belongs to
availability for purpose for which
money is universally desired. There is
no more iron in q plowshare than in the
metal from which the tool is made, but
the plowshare has more value than the
pig iron, because it will perform funo-
tion which thu pig iron could not per-
form. Besides, If the ciyilized nations Of
the world should agree to coin all silver
brought to the mints at certain ratio
to gold, that agreement would fix the
price Of silver IN the bar and IN the coin;
for no man would sell the metal for less
than the mint prlce.
The whole purpose Of those who seek
for international action respecting the
matter is to attain this end. They be-
lieve that tire world needs SILVER money
and that it the great nations will act to-
gether in remonetizing the metal and in
coming it gold and silver will come into
equilibrium and will remain there. The
experience OF the past centuries appears
TO make this opinion warrantable.
THE BOULDER DISTRICT.