St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-09
THE GOLD SUPPLY.

conclusions DaSGu On GIIOIo VI IaCI
are worthless. Everywhere i'll their
own affairs men recognize this. NO one
builds house on sand. Nowhere do
sensible men invest their accommodations
without careful inquiry into the secur-
ity. No prudent farmer but tests his
seed corn to see if it is fact that it will
terminate. The carpenter wants to
know it to be a fact that his timber is
of the exact length and width and thick
ness before he begins the framing.
Everywhere the search is for facts.
Except III the domain Of economics
and finance. There most men look for
and accept faneies for facts and go on
and build their cOnjecture3 about trade
and money and the uses OF government.
Facts are hard and stubborn. They are
refractory, and iusiSt that men shall
adjust themselves to them and refuse
to be adjusted to men. They are the
best Of building material and the poor
est. They are not pliaDle, cannot be
nodded as fancieS can at the will Of the
builder. They are suited only for plain
structures built to endure, and are i'll
adapted for the gorgeous creations of
a morbid architecture serving only the
present.
So, among the many fancieS used as
facts, we md the assertion that there is
not money enough in the world; money
is something governments can create ::
that the supply of gold is inadequate
and that it is approaching in value; that
this is demonstrated by the falling
prices of the products OF labor. And so
on. And then, on these assumed facts,
disregardng the real facts, denying
them when pointed out, they go on and
build their economies and monetary
schemes, and exploit their merits and
attempt to palm them off on the pub
lie. And, strange to say, men to whom
the truth of these things is of the
utmost Importance, whose welfare de-
ponds on their truth CT falsity, accept
them, swallow them whole, without
thought or inquiry "if eating words
wont compromise the organs Of diges
tion." Farmers, wage earnerS, men of
all men most vitality concerned in get
ting for THAR labor or its products-low
enough in price without being cheap
ened more by being paid for in cheap
money-the very best money, that whose
purchasing power is the greatest and
surest, these men fall easy prey TO the
| scbemer6 and the demagogueS, ana JOIN
| in the clamor for cheap money.
The facts are plenty and easily access
sible. There are the weekly reports of
the operations of the clearing houses OF
| the commercial centerS Of the country
| showing how much in value the ex-
| changes of the country are made by
! to ninety-fve substitute dollars are al
work to every five or ten money dollars
used in the transactions. They elamoI
| for more silver dollars, and the utmost
capacity of trade for their absorption
! has brought into use less than dollar
for each head of our population. II
they searched they would find that sc
far from the supply of gold being mad
| eQuate, it never was so great even in
| the palmy days of the discoveries OF
| that metal in California and Australia
| Large quantities of it go annually into
the arts in spite of this assumed i'll
creasing demand for it for money.
Mr. Preston, director of the mint, III
the North American for January, gives
the facts of supply that demolsh the
fancy of a decreasing quantity. Since
1886, the year of the discovery of the
South African deposits, the output oil
the United States has held its own stead
| ily: that of Australasia has Increased
yearly from $26, 900, 900 in 1886 to $50, OOO,,
! 600 in 1898; Russia advanced from
$40, O00,0OO to S26,OOO,0 900, while Africa
has raised the yield from 81, 43S, 600 in
1886 to 800, 3O5, 900 in 1898. The total
output for each Of the years is as fol-
| lows:
1886. $50, SO2, 6OOl1S00. 500, ia, 2Oc
1857 3d. l02 1891 .....,.. no. 14 lOC
1888 ........ So, $50 30 1892. -. 1913 Is BOZ
1880 .. 101, A. SOC 1898 ....... l35, 496, 80(
Mr.. Preston believes that "the output
of 1894 and of a series Of years to come
will be successfully and progressively
greater" Another fact which he en-
phasizes is that 1.-The output of gold in
1898 was only SIT per cent less than
was the average aggregate value of bOti
gold and silver In 1SG1-65." Agains
these facts the sophisms of the dream
erS burst like soap bubbles. 1t is no
the want or the scarcity Of money tina