The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-07

lldl COIllQeHc6 III LIE dDllIly VI +NTlCnl
| Britain to meet its obligations was
seriously impaired. During the pro-
gress of the battle of Waterloo there
was one man present who was not i'm
bued with any feeling of patriotism,
who was attached to no government,
was alike Indifferent to all, yet with
| the most eager interest viewed the
pending conflict He had his swift
messeng gers at hand. AS soon as he
perceived that the fate of the bloody
| day was decided in favor of the allied
| hosts his messengers sped away to in
form his agents in London. That man
was Nathan Mayer, of the House of
Rothschilds His agents in London
were informed several hours in adj
vance of all others that the British
forces had triumphed. They bought
up all the securities obtainable al a
! discount of from 80 to so per cent.
| and paid therefore in paper currency,
which then constituted the circulating
medium throughout the British nation.
The English had conquered the great
| Napoleon, the French nation was over
wheln1ed and it's people PROSTATE, but
Nathan Mayer. the money king, had
achieved more signal victory over the
English people, which was far more
enduring and disastrous in it's effects
than those which had befallen the
French At once the money power in
Great Britain organized to urge the
adoption by the British parliament of
the law by which the value of secur-
tiles bought up by the agents Of Mayer
should be vastly increased in value.
Such legislation was demanded in the
name of the public honor to preserve
the public faith and to ensure an hon.
est and stable currency. By a simple
return to the old system of specie pay
ments, the bonds and other securities
would have been redeemable out of the
available stock of both gold and silver.
Against the protest of the elder Peel
and others Of the able statesmen in
Great Britain i'll 1916, the English par
lament demonetized silver and adopted
the gold standard, thus providing that
all prior obligations, whether public or
private, should be redeemed in gold
alone. Why was gold adopted rather
than silver? The latter had been in
universal use as a standard of values
throughout all the world and in all pre-
vious history. The answer may be
found in the relative amount of gold
and silver produced at the time in
question. In 1916 the production Of gold,
as compared with silver in value, was
as 25.3 is to 74.7-that is, about three
times as mucn silver Ia value was pro-
duced as gold. If silver had
been adopted rather than gold
it would have involved one-third
the difficulty and sacrifice on
the part of the debtor to meet
his obligations as by the adoption of
gold. The pretended friends of honest
money were not satisfied to have cred
its paid in gold and silver, or in silver
which was more plentiful than gold, but
in the scarcestsevailable money metal
This legislation in England went into
effect in 1919. In this connection it is
proper to notice that there had been a
great falling off in the production of
the precious metals from 1900 to 1920
For ten years prior to 1901 the world
product of gold amounted to more than
eleven millions; for the ten years prior
to 1920 it amounted to less than $1,000
coo; for the same time the
production of silver fell off more than
$3.50, 900. From 1906 to 1926 the out
put of the precious metals declined
more than so per cent. This greatly
curtailed the supply of money through
out the world. 1t was greatly aggra-
waited in its depressing effects in Great
Britain by the legislation whose enact
ment had been enforced by the money
power. This dearth of the precious
metals, attended by an inadequate sup
ply of money, continued until the gold
discoveries in California and Australia
in 1S49
Changes in the value of money, es-
pecially in the direction of monetary
dearth, is one of the most disastrous,
though subtly operated evils, which can
befall the community. This is illustrat-
ed by the experience Of Great Britain
during the period mentioned, and to a
considerable extent throughout the CIV
ilized world BY the adoption of the
gold standard in 1919 in Great Britain,
money-the whole currency became
dear, and a fall in prices ensued The
banks contracted their issues, lessening
the amount of currency compared with
the amount of exehangeable commod-
tiles. whereby, Of course, the price of
all commodities fell, while-the value of
purchasing power of money increased.
In 1922, Mr.. Atwood, MP, in his speech
delivered in parliament, used this Ian
guage: THE fall of prices has been uni
form and progressive since the none
tary act of 1919 was passed, embracing
all commodities extending over the
whole period. Wheat, which in the
year 1918 was 81 shillings, is now sell
ing at AZ shillings, showing a reduction
of 45 per cent; iron in 1918 was f13 a
ton, it is now fS-a fall of 40 per cent;
cotton in 1918 was l shilling a pound, it
is now pence-a fall of so per cent;
wool. which in 1918 was selling at shil-
lings 1 pence now sells for l shilling /
pence-a reduction Of so per cent. These
are the great articles Of commerce, and
the average of the fall upon them is IS
per cent, being exactly the reduction on
the price of grain The fall is not Pc
culiar to agriculture; it is universal,
and has embraced every article of in
dustry. every branch of commerce"
Thus the change effected by the legis-
lation involved great gain to the ma
tional as well as the individual credit
ors, with a corresponding loss to the IA
ton and to the people, owing to the re-
payment of loans II {, more valuable
currency than that5n which these loans
had been contracted.
In the debate which took place in par
lament in 1880, Earl Stanhope, refer
ring to the prevailing depression said:
ct is not confined to agriculture;
it has extended to manufactures, to
trade and commerce; all these
great interests have never before
at one time been at so low an ebb.
Depression has been continuous and
ton act was passed. The fall of prices
has been so great that in the last
ten years since 1918 it has amounted to
SIS per cent. Such universal and
continued depression can be ascribed
only to some cause pressing alike upon
all branches of industry, and that cause
is to be found in the consequent con-
traction of the currency" The depres-
sion led to great political discomfort
1t famed the flames of the spirit of
revolution. The legislation enacted up
on the pretense that it was in the in
terest of the general welfare absolutely
impoverished and ruined the people.
Speaking in 1915, a distinguished his
torian uses this language: 1T is a re-
markable fact that the twenty-five
years which followed the close of the
great war was a dreary time of COM
meroial adversely and general suffer-
:: e