Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-11-07
STABILITY or VALUES.


tAoS.tl 0p VALUES.
Tho sophisfry OF . Gold STANDARD Writnr
Completely Overturned.
The sound currency committee Of
the New York Reform club, which is
busy issuing pamphlets to prove that
the less money there is in the country
the more the individuals of the United
States will have, has favored the Ex-
press with a document from the pen of
Mr.. Frank L. McVey. entitled 'sQual-
ity of Money and Wages" Mr.. Nc
Vey discusses the quality of money and
says. among other things, s.for obvious
reasons stability of value is an essen
tial quality of medium which is to be
permanently used. Indeed, it is con.
ceivable that a more bulky material,
such as iron, might for currency pur-
poses be on the whole better than gold,
provided that the value of iron at diff
ferent times and places was more
stable than that of gold In fact, how
ever, the very bulk of iron when COM
pared with gold of the same value
tends to make iron less uniform in
value than gold. A metal SO bulky
that given value of it can with diff
Guilty be transported from place to
place, and the local value of which
is therefore so largely dependent
on local demands is naturally
less stable in value than one of
which the same value can be easily
transpol ted that the relations between
the local demand for it and supply of
it are practically fixed by the relations
between demand and supply in a whole
country, and almost at once in the
whole world. Taking the world over,
therefore, for this reason alone land
there are others). gold is more stable
in value than iron, just as iron is more
stable in value than potatoes; and both
on account of the great bulk OF a given
value and the great variations in their
value at different times and places
Potatoes would be less acceptable than
either iron or silver or gold as stand
ard of value or as q medium of ex-
change"
Mr.. McVey is sound in his premises
but wrong in his conclusions. Every
one of us agrees that the more stable
and unchanged money is in value,
the more satisfactory it will be to do
business with. It is customary to say
that gold is OF stable value, while
the other commodities huctuate, but
as a matter of fact gold fuctuates
more than any other commodity.
The productions of the farm
and factories decrease in value,
compared with gold, because gold
increases in value compared with them.
1t is nonsense to talk of the intrinsic
value of gold. Probably none of the
more common metals has less intrinsic
value than gold. The intrinsic value
of anything is its value to sustain life,
to help man clothe himself, or to fur
nish him with more of the necessities or
pleasures of existence. Gold. aside
from its position as money, does none
Of these things. If either gold or iron
were to be banished from the earth,
mankind would not hesitate to retain
iron and allow gold to depart Lead,
copper. zinc, in fact all the baser peet-
ais, have intrinsically more value than
gold. Silver has greater intrinsic
value. 1t is harder and more durable,
and can be used in the manufacture Of
knives, forks, and other useful articles
much more easily than gold. The in
trinsic value argument therefore falls
to the ground and gold becomes vaIua-
Bile simply from a monetary standpoint.
The question then remains. has gold
huctuated in value, or is it the COM
modities that have fuctuated? If the
same amount of -four, of potatoes, or
other farm products are needed to sus-
tain life to-day, as formerly, then the
intrinsic value of -four, of potatoes,
etc, has remained stationary. The
same thing is true of the commodities
used in the manufacture of the articles
used in our business, or our home life;
intrinsically their value increases only
when they become capable of doing US
greater service. If this proposition is
correct, it follows that it is not COM
modities, but money, that has huctu-
ated in value. That kind of money,
therefore, which retains its value to
other commodities the most closely is
the most stable kind of currency. If
the production of silver has kept pace
with the increased productions of the
SATELLITES and luxuries of life, then we
will find the value of silver and the
value Of other products more nearly on
q par.
AS matter OF fact, this is exactly
what has occurred. Silver, wheat,
farm products and clothing have risen
and fallen in value together. OF
course, sometimes particular circum-
stances have tended to increase the
value temporarily of this or that article
of commerce, but taking the average
for term of years, the value of silver
compared with that of other commodi-
ties has remained very much more
stationary than the value of gold. 1t
follows, therefore, that If Mr.. McVey's
premises are correct, and we believe
they are. silver possesses in a far great
err degree than gold that very essential
characteristic of the best money
stability of value.
Mr.. McVey attempts to prove that
even if wages are lower on gold basis
than they would be on silver basis,
nevertheless the laborer loses nothing
because he can buy more with his gold
than he could if he were paid in silver.
The fallacy of this idea, however, be-
comes self-evident when it is seen that
in gold countries the wage-earner re-
ceives relatively less money. measured
by what he can buy, than he does in
silver countries. It is a notable fact
that while in the United States the
consumption of wheat per capita has
fallen nearly two bushels per annum.
it has risen in Mexico and other silver
countries. It is also worthy of note
that while the manufacturers in Mex
leo are rapidly increasing, and the
condition of the people is improving
daily, that the exact opposite of this has
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