The San Francisco call., 1895-05-18

IetaIy cI the treasury lnlSnl peIlAil ~ W NC
coined. -
Let us have nothing more to do with the men
who assisted in tying the hands of this great
Nation and delivering its financial policy over
to the gold gamblers of the world. Inc pank
lof Rothsehilds in England is now behind the
United States Treasury.
They are our financial agents; our financial
managers; we are paying them the prlncely
salary of SIS, 100000 for each six months OF
their valuable services. We are in the hands
of the pawnbrokers of Europe. How long is
our reserve stock of gold to last2 How are we
to replenish it? There is only one way.
That is to borrow it from those who have it
and that means England. And that is what
we are doing. That means more interest more
gold annually to England. Where will it end !?
1t means the "dismal swamp" on sHell's Half
Acre" beyond.
This is what having gold standard means
amoney that is easily cornered. But how are
we to pay these debts to England? 1t is in this
. way Restore silver; put it in competition
with gold on q legal ratio of Is to l repeal all
laws allowing q discrimination between
the two metals; stop gold notes from
being taken, put silver in competition with
gold as quick as possible. We can show gold
that we do not depend on ii for money. 1t will
then be our slave. 1t is now our tyrant. 1t
will thea come back and beg us TO take it, as
in 1873, when it-one of these gold dollars
was worth cents less than a silver dollar.
When great Government like the United
States says, 'Here is equal change, 16 for 1,
gold for silver" q man in France is not going
TO part With his silver for gold unless he gets
that much for it; unless he gets as much for it
as the United States viii pay for it, less the
cost of exchange.
This is question of capital on one side and
humanity on the other; of sound money
the sound of the clod on the cofin-on one
side, and sound money--the sound that has the
honest ring of the peoples money in it-on the
other. 1t is the question. of an English or a
National policy: Which shall 1t be?
Professor Laughlin, replying for the
negative, said:
Apart from the ;well-understood use of money
as medium of exchange, money is used like
common denonlinator of value with which
other articles are compared. AS measure of
value it:serves in similar way as quart
cup may. serve as a measure of. capacity; and
as there isnot needed"a separate cup for every
quart of milk in existence no one can measure
hundreds of thousands of goods by comparing
with the same standard of value. There is ne
need of an amount. of money equal to all the
goods in, existence.
The measure of yalueis that in which prices
: are stated and debts are paid, provided the
measure of value is also made. a legal tender in
any country. 1t is evident then that the
:. uhvarying stability of the standard of measure.
= The absurdity OF supposing that money
is required in. order to have something with
which 10 measure goods is as absurd as to sup
pose community must have hearses in num-
: Der equal to the population. All goods are
neither exchanged at the same. time nor are
they offered in com parison with standard at
the same time.
What is importaRt to point out is that goods
when expressed in terms of Common denomi-
nator of value are daily exchanged in enor-
NOUS quantities 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 exchange.
The necessity OF an Increasing quantity of
money is growing less important with the de-
velopment of this system of exchanges. From.
80 per cent TO 95 per cent of the transactions
are performed by this machinery without the
use of money, and recent investigations made
by the Comptroller of the Currency show that
54 per cent of the retail transactions are simi-
larly performed without the use of money.
Some one might say. ''This vast system of
currency must be hquidated 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 stentirely by means
ofthe deposit currency. The transactions ex-.
pressed in terms OF money are based not upon
. COlH, put upon the SOOuS DOugnI ana sold.
=. The system, the1 efore, is as broad as the
transactions and is ultimately resolved into
goods anu is based on goods. The redemption \
is ultimately in goods and not inacoin. Prices
since 1873 have not fallen because of the lack
of money. Silver has fallen about SO per cent
as compared with very modest fall in the
price of commodities. Silver does not have
the same purchasing price in 1894 as in 1873
Hence free coinage cannot be urged as just !
means OF paying debts
. Since we undertook the purchase of silver in
1873 it has fallen about one-hsf in value, al
though we have purchased 5000 900 OOO 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 ofsilver at 1e to means silver
monometallism. To-day the market ratio be-
tween gold and silver is nearly "a to /. If we
had the free coinage of silver al 16 10 I there
would be the premium of about is ounces of
silver as. a premium on Withdrawing every
ounce of gold coin in circulation.
Q The free coinage of silver under such condi-
rfons as exist to-day would not mean the con-
current circulation of both gold and silver. 1t
would mean the immediate adoption of the
single silver standard.
Free coinage of silver would not increase the
quantity OF money. Since gold must be iney-
itebly driven out, the free coinage of silver
would result in diminution of the quantity
ofmoney. ;on May 1, 1895, the. official reports
OF the gold circulation are $56s, 900 ,OO0
To adopt free coinage OF silver at
s16 TO L when the market ratio is about "a
to /, would mean. the instant retirement
from circulation of nearly $500, ,O0O, 900 of
gold circulation. This would change the
price Of everything beeause reckoned
on cheaper medium than that of gold. For
example, pair of gloves now worth LOG. cents
in gold would exchange for about 2I0 cents in
silver. = =.
The first effect of the free coinage of silver
would be 10 diminish the purchasing power OF
all our wages: The man who gets $500 or
$1,000 year as q fixed rate: of wages or salary
will find he can buy. just half as much as now.
1t has been one of the undisputed. facts of his
tory that when prices rise the wages of labor
are the last to advance, and when prices fall
the wages OF iaboFers are the first to decline.
Are we willing to sacrifice the interests of the
lsboring class TO thedemands of eertainowner
of silver mines who are trying to hoodwink the
people with the cry of more money?
The proposition to adopts deprecated STAN
dard of value is simply an attempt to transfer