St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-02
THE MONEY PROBLEM.

| To the Editor Of the Globe.
| am aware that you have devoted
great deal of space i'll your popular
| journal to this topic, but so far the
| articles published have nearly all ia
vered the single gold standard. Per-
NIT an Old Democrat. therefore. to sub
init few suggestions on the opposite
sitte OF the question; or rather uppn The
| topic really at issue. You know,
L presume, that we used to
boast that silver was 1.-THE mon
| ey of the people," a truly
i democratic THAT the party
| policy. lii bygOne days. was antagonis-
tic to all forms of paper currency; de-
handing that, if any were used. it must
be redeemable i'll specie promptly on
demand. Notwithstanding that our
party is now charged with the paternity
| of the Old wildcat" banking systems,
you must certainly remember that they
were the creations of the old Wing or
| gahizatiOD, of which the Republican
party of today is the legitimate Off
| spring. But this is immateral to the
| question before the country at this
| time.
/ To my mind what we are now called
upon To consider is not matter of
paper or metals, but of money. Our
prime interrogalory should be: How
muci, money is required for transacting
| the worlds business without necessi-
| tating resort To debt and interest pay
ing?
SecOnd-Of what materials can such
money he made to become always ac-
| ceptable as final payment money for
property bought?
-Third-lf more than one kind of ma
terial may be used. how can their rel
ative ratios of value be determined and
| maintained?
| These are the questions with which
| we have now to deal. When they are
satisfactorily adjusted. other matters
| necessarily involved can readily be set
| tied.
| Were we beginning the establishment
| OF. "a commercial system. the answer to
| the first question might easily be ar
rived at, Tor the amount Of money
| needed would closely approximate that
| portion of the volume of trade which
cannot be carried on as conveniently by
barter, either immediate or in
direct. But, unfortunately, we have
| to deal with a situation COM
plicated with established values of com
moditleS and property, and with vast
! aggregations of indebtedness Justice
demands that these existing values
| must be disturbed as little as possible,
| and the debts neither increased nor
| diminished. There must, therefore, ue
| provided sum of money equivalent to
| the whole volume of trade QeSS the
| practical barter), plus the amount of
| Indebtedness requiring money in settle
| ment. Less than this will render the
| continuance of outstanding debts and
payments OF Interest thereon inevitable.
| A surpluSage beyond this will tend to
| unduly initiate values. and practically
| diminish the Indebtedness by increasing
facilities for its payment.
| 1t must not be supposed that the
| writer holds it practical to arrive at the
| exact amount of trade, or provide the
| precise Su!h of money needed, or that
| there are fixed quantities; but that the
| totals OF trade and money may be ap-
| proXlmatrd, and the mutations of the
| former provided for by the natural elias
| ITCHY Of proper monetary system, will
| will hardly he denied. Values of all
| commodities result from the combined
| influence Of labor 10 produce and GUAM
titles supplied and demanded Money
is also subject to this law. If the values
| of commodities and money were left
| free to act and react upon each other,
| without the interference of arbitrary
| laws, they would readily accommodate
| themselves to whatever changes might
| occur in their respective conditions OF
| abundance or scarcity. 1t is our con-
slant meddling with them. prompted bv
| greed or by insane desire to expert
ment with untried theories, which pro-
duces the frequently recurring periods
| of commercial prosperity and ADVERSELY
| Until the world learns that evidences of
| debt, /. e., paper money and money
| paper, cannot cannot take the place of
coin, i'll becoming the money of final
settlement, these unfortunate alterna-
tons Of good and ''hard' times will
inevitably succeed each other every few
| years, no matter whether the paper is
issued by governments or by banks.
But to return to my subject. Having
! ascertained about how much money is
| required, the next question will be: Is
there sufficiency of gold to supply il?
| The experience of centuries answers
this negatively. Thus far gold and sill
| yer together have proved inadequate:
and, while they are now procured in
larger quantities than hitherto. we must
| remember that the population and COM
| merce of the world have likewise in-
creased in more than equal propor-
| decentralization of either of these metals
| is grievous wrong to the worlds conf
| merce-a SIN against its people; and,
viewed from this standpoint, the coli.
| gressional Legislation of 1878 which
| demonetized silver was an outrage,
| The business depression which the
| country has suffered since is larg ely
| due to that mistake, to call it by no
| harsher name, and the full restoration
| OF commercial and industrial prosperity
need not be hoped for until that error
| shall be cOrrected.by the reinstatement
| of silver to the place it previously occu-
| pied In our monetary system.
| With your permission | will endeavor
| to give my opinion on the other points
| involved in this silver controversy in
| future communications, promising to
| stick closely to the subject. to advocate
| only Democratic doctrines and be as
brief as possible. Mine are no new
| theories, but such as have the indorse-
| ment of centuries of experience, and
cannot be overthrown by any newly
| discovered principles of so.called
Financial or ''politico econ omie''
| science. III. II. Young.