The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-15
CHAPTERS ON SILVER.
written for the Chicago Times by
Hon. II. G. Miller.

The parties to the present controversy
TOR the restoration of silver to its former
position as money metal are the owners
OF money and money obligations on the
one side and those who use money in prose-
cutting industries and giving emplov-
ment to labor on the other side 1t is
the interest of the former that the value
OF purchasing power of money should be
increased, and of the latter that the mon
ey value or prices of the products of in
dustry should be increased, or at least that
they should not be diminished AS the
prices or commodities and other forms OF
property are controlled by the volume of
money in use or circulation, and as they
accordingly occupy opposite scales in the
balance, exact justice to all parties in
terested requires the continuance of an
even scale; that the volume of money
should be kept commensurate with the de-
mands of increasing trade and commerce
nile this continues values created by Civ
ing utility to matter by changing it into
forms adapted to the sustenance and en-
Joyment of mankind will be fairly distrib-
uted to the agencies, labor and capital.
that create them; and the burdens of in
debtedness will remain unchanged; for
there will be returned to the lender of
money the exact equivalent of the sum
he parted with.
1t is said in the bullion report laid befora
the house of commons, England, June 10.
1910: The most detailed knowledge of the
actual trade of the country, combined with
the profound science in all the principles of
money and circulation, would not enable
any man or set of men to adjust and keep
always adjusted the proportion of the cir
cuating medium in a country to the
wants of trade" This problem can only
be solved by resortng to natures treasury
1t would seem that alWiSe providence
has designated the two metals gold and
silver, as the circulating medium of man
kind for the express purpose of accom-
plishing this object. During all the pre-
ceding centuries they have been money
metals, and for this reason they have been
known as 1.-The precious metals" The in
crease in their yield has never been stimuli
taneous. The subsistence of one of them
has been accompanied or followed by an
increase of the other, and their joint pro-
duct has been year by year charging and
has never exceeded the wants of the COM
mercial world.
During the excessive inflow of gold from
the mines of California and Australia
there was the same cutlery against gold
that there is now against silver, and the
utter worthlessness of the yellow metal for
monetary use in consequence of it's i'm
pending superabundance was freely pre-
dicted. The German states, including Aus
tria demonetized gold and adopted silver
as their monetary standard in 1857 France
was vehemently urged to also demonetize
gold. But she did not listen to these ap-
peals, but steadily pursued her course and
had the satisfaction of witnessing the
vivifying effects of this shower of gold up
on her own industries and the industries
of other nations.
1t is the uniform testimony of history
that no single agency has contributed so
much to the happiness and prosperity of
cur race the enlargement of the worlds
money stock by the inflow of the precious
metals from it's mines. The gradual ex-
haustion of the ancient mines was accom-
panied by corresponding decline in in
dustrial and commercial activity, caused
by steady and continuous fall in the val
ues or prices of the products of industry
During this period the volume of the
worlds money stock, reckond in our cur
rency, fell from s1,S0O,0OO,0OO to less than
0O,O0OO00, and we are informed by DR..
Adam Smith that in the year 1853 the price
of wheat in England less than pence
per bushe To this agency more than any
other is attributed by the historian Alison
the settling down upon Europe during the
middle ages Of the mantle of darkness
which separates the civilza ton of the an
Gent from that of the modern world.
owing to an increase OF its money stock
from the treasury of the new world West
ern Europe awoke from its profound leth-
argy and entered upon career of industri-
al prosperity and industrial activity it
never knew before. Jevons says, page 325,
Money and Mechanism Of Exchange"
that from 1909 to 1S49 gold rose in it's rela-
ton to commodities lin the extraordinary
ration of 100 to 245 or AS per cent, render
ing government annuites and all fixed pay
ments extending over this period about 2h
times as valuable as they were in 1907
OF this period Alison in his history says:
IF the circulation of the world had re-
manned stationary or declining, it was
from 1915 to 1S49 from the effects of South
American revolutions and English legisla-
ton, the necessary result must have been
that it would become altogether made
quate to the wants of man, and not only
would industry have been everywhere
oramped, but the price of produce would
have universally and constantly fallen.
Money would have every day become more
valuable, other articles measured in money
less sc, and debts and taxes would have
been constantly increasing in weight and
oppression. The fate that crushed Rome in
ancient and all but crushed Great Britain
in modern times would have been that of
the whole family of mankind All these
evils have been entirely obviated, and the