The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-10-23
DECLARATION OF THE BIMET'
ALLIST MEMBERS OF THE
GERMAN SILVER COM.
MISSION.
Aonendix TO the Record of the Twenty
First Session, Translated by E.
BENJAMIN Andrews.

Benjamin Andrews.
THE following document, no part OF
which has heretofore found its way
into our ne wspapers or into any Eng
lish translation, is regarded by Presl-
dent Andrews as one of the most tell
ing and weighty summaries of the case
for bimetalIism that has ever been
made. It's authors are German au-
thorities and scholars of high standing
and great learning, and it will have
many points of interest for American
students of the monetary problem
EDITOR OF THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS ]
The undersigned, members of the
German Silver Commission, believe
themselves compelled to draw from the
course of the Commissions proceedings
the following conclusions:
INCREASED PURCHASING POWER OF GOLD.
1. We consider it proved by science
and experience, and partly, in fact, by
the admission of prominent adherents
of the sole-gold standard, that the
power of gold to purchase goods has
risen since the general extension of the
gold standard Q87S is still rising to,
day, and must continue to rise.
Our grounds for this belief are:
/. The rise in the purchasing of gold,
that is, the general fall in the price
level of commodities, was predicted by
the well known monetary writer's, Wo-
lowski and Ernst Seyd, in 1868, before
the introduction of the gold standard.
Their prophesy was repeated later by
E. de Laveleye and Carey. Even DR..
Bambergeo said, in the session of the
Reichstag May 90, 1873, according to
the stenographic report: Son the con-
trary, gentlemen, 1 fully agree with
one of the speakers who have preceded
me, that a greater demand for gold
will result from our gold policy and
the similar policies adopted by other
countries. Gold will then rise, and a
Of our currency reform
will be that prices with US, if we once
go over to the gold standard, will de-
cline" Robert Giffen, recognized as
one of the best authorities of the gold
standard party, declared in 1888: IF
events are the touchstones of prophecies
no prophecy was ever more certain
than the increased dearness of gold.
That the fall of prices throughout a
compass so general as that in which
we now see it falling is to be referred
to an elevation in the purchasing power
of gold is generally, and I mightalmost
say universally, admitted"
2. The attempt to refer this lowering
in the general level of prices to other
causes, lying outside the coinage sys,
tenn, for instance, to ch~eapening and
improvement in means of communica-
tian, to the perfecting Of processes and
machines for the production Of goods,
etc., must be considered a failure, for
the reason that the same causes were
present in the same strength during
the twenty-year period before 1878,
though at that time there was observ-
able a gradual elevation in the prices
of goods in general; while, since 1873,
that is, since the beginning of the fall
in the gold price of silver through the
Introduction Of the gold standard in
Germany, a sharp and permanent
lowering in general prices has come in.
Moreover, the industrial develop
ment referred to is at present specially
strong in the lands having the silver
standard, yet without inducing any fall
of prices there. This is a direct proof
that silver has not lost in value, but
merely gone down in its gold price,
and that, therefore, the fact which con-
fronts us is simply an elevation in the
value Of gold.
8. The objection that many things.
as city rents, securities, and, most of
all, wages, have increased in price is
without weight, because in all these
things powerful special factors have
been influencing prices. City rents
must advance so long as the population
OF the country continues to be drained
away into the larger towns, evoking a
permanent increase in the demand for
houses. Securities advance in accord
ance with the increase in the purchas-
ing power of the income which they
yield. The prostration of productive
industry lessons the demand for capital
for productive purposes and increases
the demand for those securities whose
interest is certain to be paid. Wages
rise with the elevation of the standard
of life in the different classes of the
population, although the full satisfac-