Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1895-04-09

III DNNAANLA
Il is curious to watch and note
the Argument Of the gold man
properly 80 called, and those who
believe with him. The gold man
is not himself deceived in any way
by his own argument for he knows
too we'll the falsity Of it. If gold
is used solely for its intrinsic value
as a coinage, (who gives it It's in
trinsic value, except the minis by
their artificial demand on IT'D why
is il that men do not hoard plati-
nun? Platinum is a metal less
subject 10 the action Of the ordi-
nary conditions pertaining to use
by human beings than gold. It is
harder, will year longer as a coin
than gold for it does not abrade
so easily. II is heavier and is a
much more rare metal than gold
and is in every way from a purely
mercantile standpoint more cost
ly than gold both from the diff
Guilty Of working it and from it's
rarity. Yet men do not hoard it
as a medium Of exchange-money.
Why? Simply because the world
has not given it a special value de-
nominated money and thereby
created for it an artificial value by
the demand made by the minis.
platinum is quoted at SO to SO
an ounce). In all countries where
they have mints every man knows
that he can take his gold to the
mint, turn it in and receive its
value in coined gold, money. This
by law is a certain fixed, definite
weight and is based on the unit Of
value. This results in giving gold
an universal value on which it is
exchanged at less the freight to
the mint and gold remains fixed
except as it is bartered for some
other merchandise. 1t makes no
difference what metal is used as
the medium of exchange so long
as the world at large accepts it as
the basis of exchange. 1t has not
been many years since wampum
and abalone she'll were currency
in certain parts of the U. S. So
long as silver was a standard mon
ey with gold and by this 1 mean
that its ratio to gold was fixed by
law it was no more subject to va
ration in price than gold, for its
value, like gold, was fixed by law
and both were standard, and there
fore as the mints would take all
that came and pay the fixed ratio
for it, its price could not fall in
the market, because no man would
sell his silver to a dealer for less
than he could get for it at the
mint, while if the outside demand
was greater the mints could not
get it without paying the market
price which the law would prevent.
To take the present market value
of silver as its coinage value is a
mistake which simply means to
make permanent the loss which
the silver using people have suf-
fered and that the world will have
to remake its silver coinage in
case silver is remonetized, and yet
this is just what the gold holding
men viii try to accomplish, for the
greater this ratio the greater will
be the price of gold, and in conse-
quence the value of their holdings,
by the price of gold 1 mean its
purchasing power or its exchange
value for other commodities.
Place the mints of the q. S. open
to silver and the result will be
that in the u. S. at the mints sill
yer will be worth S1.2O per ounce
and it will be enabled to hold its
place for this reason. The silver
using countries which would nat
urally draw their manufactured
goods from the U. s. and other
countries as we'll, would throw all
Of their trade TO the U. S. unless
the merchants of other countries
also raised the price of silver, for
if they refused to accept silver at
Sl29, the price fixed by the u. S.,
aud would only accept it at Coo,
the present London price, they
would send their sugar. hides,
wool and other raw products to
the u. s. where their silver was
worth the coinage value, and we
would have all Of those things
which go TO make civilized life and
would get the advantage of the ex-
change. In other words would
Get the produets of our own labor