The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-01
SILVER.
Written for the Chicago Times by
Hon. HI. G. Miller.

and commerce, or an exchange of the prod
| ucts of industries. These products when
put upon the market and made the subjects
of commerce are called commodities. AS
money is the instrument with which these
changeable relation to the commodity with
which it is compared. 1t has no other val
| Tie. Its value is wholly intrinsic and is ex-
pressed in the terms of the commodity for
which it is exchanged
The word value. when predicated of COM
modities, is called price; when predicated
of money it means the purchasing power
of money. The purchasing power of mon
ey and the prices of commodities are deter
mined by the law of supply and demand.
The purchasing power of money chat is,
il the unit of money! decreases as it's vo-
lume in use or circulation increases and in
creases as its volume diminishes, and this
without any regard whatever to the mater
1al of which money is made. The decrease
In the purchasing power Of money is mani
tested by rise in the prices of commodi-
ties and other forms of property, including
labor. While this process is going on mon
ey in idleness is diminishing in value and
eagerly seeks employment in productive in
dustries to share with labor the profits
IcdHZeU lTOH SuCn employment, ana lnlS
period is always distinguished as an era
of general prosperity. On the other hand,
an increase in the purchasing power of
money is manifested by fall in the prices
of commodities and other forms of prop
erty, including labor.
During this process idle money is con-
stantly increasing in value and this al
Turing temptation to idleness cannot be
overcome, but is rather intensified by the
cries of distress arising from general
prostration of industry. Money is selfish
and quick to discover it's real interests.
1t can neither be moved by eXpoStulatio
nor cajoled by fattery. Fattening in re-
pose it will hibernate in bank vaults or
venture into investments at a low interest
when the securities are ample, but it will
not engage in productive industries while
prices are falling. During this period of
falling prices the conduct of the servant
who should dig in the earth and hide his
lords money should be commended rather
than condemned for nothing could be gain
ed from the use of it, and when called
upon he could easily return the principal
sum with the largely increased value it
acquired while in retirement
railing prices cause constant shrinkage
OF profits, and as every dollar paid for
wages is a dollar taken from profits the re-
sulting loss must be borne by labor or cap
ital or both, and the insistance of capital
for it's accustomed dividends and of labor
Tor Its accustomed wages engenderS war
between forces whose friendly cooperation
is indispensable to the continuance of pro-
duction This is the cause of the social dis
orders we are now witnessing, the realities
of which battle description, and which
though they may be mitigated will not be
wholly averted until this cause is removed
The recuperative energies of our country
will enable it to endure the process of re-
covering from an unnatural or artificial in
crease of it's money stock by reduction
of this stock to its normal quantity if the
corrective is administered with a proper
regard for our industries, but it cannot
withstand the CONFUSION that must ensue
If, in addition to the administering of this
corrective, the process of reducing the
money stock-that is, the money of ulti
mate payment-tO far below it's normal
quantity is at the same time going on The
reduction of the money stock means a de-
cline in price until the value of other forms
of property, including labor. become adj
justed to the reduced value of money, and
when this is reached, to continue the then
ratio between money and other property,
constant additions must be made to the
money stock to cover the wastage by use
and casualties and to meet the require
ments of advancing population and produc
ton, otherwise the inclination of prices
must be continuously downward. In the
meantime, while this dismal change is GO
ing on, all debts and the interest accumu-
lating upon them, together with taxes, re-
main with the fiXednesS of fate at their
summit level, and they must be discharged
dollar for dollar with the dearer money.
AS to these debts the fruits of such policy
are vanishing equities and endless changes
for nominal sums in the ownership of prop
erty through the agency of judicial sales.
In such times the ravages of money can
only be compared to the waste of con-
f1agation.
The relation of money to other forms of
property can be best understood by regard
ing money as occupying one scale of the
balance and other forms of property as oc-
cupying the other scale AS the volume of
money increases it's value or purchasing
power falls, and this is manifested by rise
in the value or prices of other forms of
property; it's volume diminishes its value
or purchasing power rises, and this is man
ifested by a fall in the value or prices of
other forms of property. These scales new
er rise or fall together. but always alter
nately. 1t follows that the purchasing
power of money is determined by the mass
or quantity of it in circulation, and not by
the character of the substance in which the
unit of money is embodied. The ratio or
proportion of money to other forms of
property is about as 1 to 60; that is, for
every dollar of money there are $50 in other
forms of property; therefore, for every dol
lar that is given to the owners of money
by increasing it's purchasing power, $780, by
a fall of prices, are taken from the owners
of other forms of property. To say that
our money of ultimate payment should be
made of gold alone and that all our cur
rency shall be convertible into gold, is to
reduce the volume of our money stock to
the quantity of gold obtainable by the coun-
try for monetary purposes, subject to all
the fluctuations that attend the supply of
that metal.
AS the oscillations of the mercury in the
barometer indicate the state of the atmos-
phere so will the flow and outflow of gold
indicate the condition of the money supply
at all our money centerS, and this move
ment will continue as it does now to alb
sorb the attention of our business men and
control their conduct. 1t causes sudden
contractions and expansions of our money
volume and the credits resting upon it, and
when gold alone is the money of commercial
nations a disturbance at the money center
of one of them is quickly felt at the money
centers of all the others. This was strik-
ingly illustrated by the Barngs' failure in
the autumn of 1890, when the Bank of Eng
land interviewed and frantically appealed
to their countries for gold to save English
credit France and Russia literally re-
sponded to this appeal not from national
sympathy, but to prevent the catastrophe
which then threatened the commercial
world, and, as Chancellor Goschen said in
his speech at Leeds in January, 1891 Eng
land escaped "by the skin of her teeth
When gold alone is used as the money of
ultimate payment there is no limit to the
rise of it's value purchasing power and
the consequent fall of prices of other
forms of property. 1t is quite likely to
reach point when the property of the
world will not be sufficient to pay the
worlds indebtedness-when mortgages vir-
tually become deeds and there is rapid
transfer Of ownership from debtors to cred
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