The true northerner., 1894-07-06


Gold is the money of the world, and
the whole world seems to want it to an
unusual extent just now, and is draw
ing its supply, largely, from this coun-
try, and we, in our efforts to save our
gold, are selling our wheat for shipment
abroad ut lower prices than ever before
known.
Gold and silver have been equally the
money of the world from the earliest
times, and they have been held in equal
esteem. If history shows that there has
been any preference, it has been in ia
vor of the latter metal. Through all
the centuries of the past they have both
been equally used as money and have
ever kept their relative parity of value.
But since the decentralization of silver
began the relative positions of the two
metals have changed; that is, the one
has become greatly inferior in value to
the other and has rapidly degraded in
| Importance as money
One of the reasons, no doubt, that led
to the demonitization of silver and
making gold the single standard was
that there was more gold in the world,
value for value, than there was silver,
and the annual production of gold was
in excess of that of silver and seemed
likely to continue to be so. After the
discovery of gold in California and
Australia that metal, for time, flowed
largely into the worlds Golfers. But
all this has again changed. The yield
of the gold mines has utterly ceased in
places and fallen off in others, while
the production of silver, owing to the
discoveries in Colorado, Nevada, Idaho
Montana, and other extreme weste
states, has expanded amazingly, until
now the proportion of the quantity of
silver in our hands is very far in e%,ess
of that of gold. The difference in value
has also become as wide apart as the
relative proportion in the quantities
possessed. The reason, of course, is
that in the past twenty years the annual
production of gold has fallen off and
the production of silver has enormously
increased.
One thing is certain if there is not
gold enough available in the world for
money there is of silver. If silver were
no shortage in the supply. And it cer-
tainly seems that this fact of itself con-
stitutes an important advantage. A
fundamental requisite of metal for
use as money is that there is, as to the
supply, enough of it; and certainly as to
gold this question is not clear.
The world absolutely refuses to con-
slider silver as measure of value, and
yet it cannot dispense with its use.
Vast quantities Of silver are in circula-
ton which cannot be dispensed with in
the way of business without immense
Inconvenience; and yet this use of sill
yer has only been allotted place from
necessity. We refuse to esteem it at all
as standard of value; when estimating
values we look only to gold.
The anomaly of this position becomes
more striking when we reflect on how
much silver is used, how much we de-
pend upon it, how important and indis-
pensable it is, and yet how cheap it is
as rated as a commodity with our stand
ard of values. The main use of gold in
this country, apparently, is to send
abroad and TO retain silver and keep it
at par at home. How infinitely better
it would be for the world to treat both
metals alike in all countries, or put
them upon some basis when they would
both be acceptable as money in all ma
tions. If few leading nations were to
do this, the others would follow of
course.
The question of the further employ
ment of silver as money and its rehabil-
itation on par with gold, as measure
of values, is of vastly more importance
to the people of the United States than
to those of any other nation, for the
reason the people here, in greater pro-
portion than elsewhere, are property
holders, the owners of farms, and shops,
and the employers of labor. They are
capitalists and require money con-
stantly to do business. We need, in this
country, more money in circulation
than is required in any other nation,
because the business is more generally
distributed-is done by more people
and because those employed get better
wages than they do elsewhere. 1t is
vital to our wellbcing as republic
that all men should be able to earn good