The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-18
L.AUGHLIN's REPLY.
Special Favorite of the Cleveland
Idea Responds.

Professor Laughlin, replying for the
negative said:
Apart from the we'll understood use
of money as a medium of exchange,
money is used like a common denomi-
nator of value with which other
articles are impaired. AS measure
of value it serves in a similar way as
a quart cup may serve as a measure OF
capacity; and as there is not needed
separate cup for every quart OF nlIk
/ in existence, no one can measure nun
dreds OF thousands of goods by COM
pairing with the same standard OF
value There is no need Of an amount
of money equal to all the goods in ex-
! istence. The measure of value IS tnat
in which prices are stated and debts
are paid, provided the measure OF
value is also made legal tender in
any country. 1t is evident, then, the
quantity of measures is not 50 ma
terial as the unvarying stability of the
standard of measure. The -nbsurdlty
of supposing that mach money IS re-
uuired in order to nave something with
which 10 measure goods IS as absurd
as to suppose a community must nave
nearses in number equal TO the popula--
ton. All goods are neither exch anged
at the same time nor are they offered
in comparison with standard at the
same time.
What is important to point out IS
that goods when expressed in terms
of common denomination of value are
daily exchanged in enormous quaint
ties mainly without the use of any
money. For the exchange of these
goods, therefore, money is not needed
in proportion to the transactions. This
function is that of the medium of ex-
change.
The necessity of an increasing guam
tity of money is growing less import
ant with the development of this sys-
tenn of exchanges. From go per cent
to 90 per cent of the transactions are
performed by this machinery without
the use of money, and recent investiga-
tons made by the comptroller of the
currency show that 81 per cent of the |
retail transactions are similarly per- |
formed without the use Of money.
But someone might say: This vast |
system of currency must be liquidated |
in actual coin" Now, this is wholly |
untrue. We express the value of |
goods in terms of money but then we |
really exchange them almost entirely |
by means of the deposit currency. /
The transactions expressed in terms
Of money are based not upon coin but
upon the goods bought and sold. The
system, therefore, is as broad as the
transactions and is ultimately resolved
into goods and is based on goods.
The redemption is ultimately in goods
and not in coin. Prices since 1873
have not fallen because of the lack
of money. Silver has fallen about 90
per cent. as compared with very
modest fall in the price of commodi-
ties. Silver does not have the same
price in 1894 as in 1873.
Hence free coinage cannot be urged
as a just means of paying debts.
Silver Has Fallen.
Since we undertook the purchase of
silver in 1878 it has fallen about one
half in value, although we have pur-
chased about $500, 100000
1t is perfectly evident that there is
no use in the United States acting
alone to bolster up the price of silver
when we have failed even in concert
with the Latin Union.
Free coinage of silver at 16 to l
means silver monometahsm. Today
the market ratio between gold and sill
yer is nearly "a to 1. If we had the
free coinage of silver at Is to 1, there
would be the premium of about six
teen ounces of silver as a premium
On withdrawing every ounce of gold
IN circulation. The free coinage of
silver under such conditions as exists
today would not mean the concurrent
VI DOtlI SOlQ anu SILVER. 1t 4
would mean the immediate adoption
If the single silver standard.
Free coinage of silver would not in .
crease the quantity of money Since !.
gold must be inevitably driven out, :
he free coinage of silver would result
n a diminution of the quantity of !
money. May 1, 1895, the official re-
ports of the gold circulation are
$685. 000,0 600. To adopt free coinage of ]
silver at 16 to / when the market {
alto is about "a to 1, would mean the
Instant retirement from circulation of I
nearly $500, 900 of gold circulation. &
This would change the prices of every
hing, because reckoned in a cheaper 9
Medium than that of gold. For ex- <
nipple, pair of gloves now worth 100
ents in gold would exchange for :,
bout 210 cents in silver !.
Effect of Free Coinage. =
The first effect of free coinage of silver
gould be to diminish the purchasing ,
over of all our wages The man who
ets& $500 or $1,000 a year as a fixed rate d
{ wages or salary will find he can buy c
Ist thalf as much as now. 1t has been O
the undtsputed facts of history that
hen 1prices rise the wages of labor are .
ne LASH to advance, and when prices fall q
ne wa yes of labor are the first to de- l
Are w rIlllug to sacrifice the interests t t