The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1894-05-24
Gold Monometalists Claim
1t is Not a Fact.
PROMINENT BI-METALISTS' OPINIONS
The Appreciation of the yellow Me
tai Proved by an Overwhelming
Majority of the Foremost Econ
Omists of Both Hemisphere
Silver Standard Countries.

1t is strenously denied by certain gold
monometallists that prices Of staple com
modities have fallen because silver was
demonatized. In other words, they in
sist that gold has misrepresentation IN value
because OF the demonstration of silver.
IT, indeed, this contention be correct, one
OF the strongest arguments for silver re-
monetization will lose it's force.
On the face of things it seems likely
that rejection by the civilized world Of one
half of the stock Of metallic money would
have the result Of making the remaining
half more valuable-that is to say, that
more material, the product of industry,
would be required to buy a gold dollar.
This result Of the rejection Of silver was
prophesied in distinct terms before the
deed was done, by eminent economists,
among them Professor Jevons. in 1862
and by Ernst Seyd, in 1871, both of them
Engl shmen. Precisely the condition Of
persistentlY falling prices predicted by
them has existed and does now exist.
Since the phenomenon appeared 1t has
been attributed to the appreciation Of
gold, following upon the demopetization
of silver, by scores of economists, gold
monometallists as we'll as bimetallists,
among them Mr.. Giffen, statistician of the
British Board of Trade; Mr.. Goschen,
ex-Chancelor of the British Exchequer:
Professor Thorold Rogers, and, in our
own country, General Francis A. Wal
ker. It is safe assertion that the opin-
ion of an overwhelming majority of the
foremost economists Of both hemispheres
IN consonance with that of the persons
here referred to.
A striking proof that gold has risen in
value is supplied by the incontestible
fact that there has been no fall of prices
OF any kind in those countries whose
domestic exchanges are conducted Who'll
ly apart from the influence Of the gold
standard Mexico, Japan and certain
other countries are upon basis of sill
yer monometalism. They do NOT use
gold at all as measure of value or as an
instrument of exchange. In those parts
of the world as much of any staple com
modify can now be bought for standard
silver coin as could have been bought
twenty years ago. Indeed, an ounce of
silver bullion in our own country Will
purchase just as much wheat as it would
have purchased in 1873. Relatively to
silver, prices have not fallen in the Uni
ted States. This remarkable fact can
not be accounted for upon the theory
that prices have fallen Independently of
and without relation to gold.
Moreover, the greatly reduced purchas-
ing power of our farmers and planters
the widespread default in the payment |
Of mortgages upon Western farm prop
erty; the increasing and menacing diff
fuculty experienced by Mexico in paying
ner European debt and the enlargement
Of the burden of ebt upon India tosuch
an extent as to threaten general bank
demonstrate that the same
amount Of exertion upon the part of the
producers Of staple com modities permits
hem to pay much less debt. If gold has
1ot risen, it is strange, indeed, that ma
ions like Mexico, having greater pro-
luctiye power than ever before, now
,tagger under obligations which only a
decade ago we're discharged without diff
'uculty.