The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-07-11
FREE SILVER.
IMPORTANT HISTORICAL FACTS

|
III a recent editorial, entitled Give
Bimetalists." there are some asser-
lions not borne out by the observa-
lions and testimony of economists.
One is that "Legisla ton will work
no miracles. The market value of
silver being now about IS to ], an
agreement by all the world to make it
Is to 1 could not succeed"
The fact is that legislation has and
does work miracles. Legislation has
absolved gold bullion from all the re.
cognized laws of supply and demand
by legally enacting that every ounce
of gold bullion presented to the United
States mint shall have free and unlim.
tied coinage at $20.67 per ounce.
No matter what the supply is, the
price is unvarying because of the free
coinage of the metal. This means
that gold bullion has legal price set
upon every ounce; that unlimited
| quantities can be coined, upon presen-
| tation at the mint, into United States
legal tender money at the fixed price
OF $2O.67 worth of coined money for
every ounce of gold bullion.
| Prior to 1873 citizen had the same
free coinage for silver, so that metal
| could not fiuctuate in the sense of 60
ing below $l.29 per ounce, because of
the fact that legislation had fixed it's
price by allowing 16 ounces to be
coined and returned to the owner in
the shape of legal tender coin amount
ing to $2O.67.
While silver bullion enjoyed the
same mint privilege as gold in 1872, it
also was absolved from the law of sup
ply and demand so far as the price of
bullion was concerned, for no one
would sell an ounce of gold bullion for
less than $20.67, or 16 ounces of silver
bullion for less than $2O67, because
the law of the land in 1872 fixed the
price of the two metals arbitrarily by
allowing either the ounce Of gold or the
Is ounces of silver to be coined into
$2O.67 worth of legal tender coin of the
United States. This privilege fixed
the bullion price. in the United States.
No one would have been foolish
enough in 1872 to sell one ounce of
gold or 16 ounces of silver for less than
$2O.6l, because the United States
would coin it into 500 worth of legal
tender dollars, primary money.
Consequently when foreign nations
wanted our silver, in 1872, they paid
us a slight premium above ST. per
ounce before we would consent to sell
| it to them.
When we took away from silver bull
| lion the coinage right in 1873. it was
not worth anything to us as money, so
we were compelled to sell it to coun-
tries that used it as money, and they
made their own price on it. BY TAX
ing away its coinage right we took
away it's fixed price. Gold would fuc-
tuate the same wayif you passed law
preventing it's free coinage.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says:
1.-The great depression in silver result
ed mainly from its having ceased to be
money"
Legislation maintained the ratio of
IL to for more than rs years in our
own land and there is nothing to pre-
vent silver bullion keeping that ratio
il congress will restore the coinage
laws of 1872.
While those coinage laws were in
force up to 1873, silver bullion was
worth more than $l.29 per ounce, be-
cause If foreign nations wanted it,
they could not get any of it unless
they paid us more for it than we could
have it coined at, into money at the
United States mint.
While we could have silver coined
into money at the rate of ST. % per
ounce, we wanted more than that to
sell it abroad; hence silver in 1872 and
prior, sold higher than the ratio of IS
to in the market.
Although you can fix the price of
bullion metal arbitrarily. there is no
power on earth to fix the value of
money after it is coined, except by
regulating the volume Of money
1t is an axiom that 'the value of
money is regulated by it's volume"
The more units of money there are.
the less the value of each piece Of
money; the fewer units the greater
the value of each piece. In other
words, money, after being created
such, is subject to the law Of supply
and demand.
The greater the supply the less it is
worth, the smaller the supply the more
it is worth; the whole money and each
peace.
If you increase or decrease, the sup
ply of money scientifically, according
to the uses for money and the needs Of
the country for more or less money.
you can fix the value of money so that
it will not alter in value.
The great mistake your editorial
made, was in cOnfounding the price of
bullion with the value of money,
and in thinking that gold could be the
standard of value.
Gold cannot be standard of it's
own value. Uniformity of general
prices is the only standard of value,
and consequently of gold.
1t is an axiom. that all things being
equal the average value of cOmmodi-
ties will remain steady and uniform,
with a steady and uniform volume of
money.
What is the standard OF value above
which money is dear, and below which
it is cheap?
Uniformity of general prices is the
standard. The supreme court SAYS
that "Value is an idle thing. the coin
age act fixes its unit as a dollar: but.
the gold or silver thing we call dollar
is in no sense standard of a dollar
1t is preventative of dollar"
The standard of value, so far as
there is one, is the whole volume of
the currency.
If gold Is the standard of anything,
it can only be the standard of price.
Coined money is only the sign of the
thing signified-by this l mean that
coined money is the sign of the real
money sgnified, which are commodi-
ties.
Take scale, put money in one bal
ance and put commodities in the other
balance: as commodities are the crea-
tor and money the creature, whenever
tho n,onav balance shows tapIopcv