The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-17
MUST MAKE ANSWER.

| of account, a numerical conception by
| whether it is 25.S grains of gold, or a
promise to pay that much gold. or its
/ equivalent; or, whether it is a value
| less thing given eXchangeable value
because of its legal tender qualities.
which is but governments fiat. there
fore current and available, or what
not. we would be pleased to hear from
some of the sound dollar" harpieS as
TO their estimate Of the present COM
| merciai price of gold, how the price OF
gold is determined and what it would
be worth were it not made into dollars
| by free mintage, 81 for every 2o.S
| grains nine-tenths fine, and if the Bank
! OF England were not compelled by the
act Of parliament Of 1914 to buy with
! It's legal tender notes all gold offered
| for sale at the rate of q shillings and
| 8 pence per ounce 9l6 % fine:
In all the talk of the "honest bank
ers' in that great sound money con-
vention held in Saratoga, y. y, last
week. no man attempted TO answer Or
elucidate the seemingly simple ques-
ton Of what is a dollar" or what its
| value. if it has any outside of the COM
mercial worlds concurrent estimate
that so many grains of gold shall rep
resent an agreed upon eXchangeable
! power.
These ''honest' fellows must. answer
these questions soon, and in answering
must make it plain why more dollars
would not prove beneficial, and if so
| why silver is not he most available for
the increase of such currency metallic
| dollars which are held to carry their
face values in their bodies, or the peo-
pie will answer for them.
Touching the demand of the world
for more money and the demand for
silver money equalling gold as a cur
rency, Simon w. Hanauer, late bank
er Of Frankfort-on-the- Main, accepts
Mulhall's estimates of the wealth of
the nations as correct, the United
States at $4,000, 000, 600; Great Britain
at $4,000, 100000; France, S41. 1S6,000,
600; Germany, S31, 2S3, 100000; Euro
pean Russia, $24, 49,, 100000; Austria,
SIS, I35, 100000; Italy, S14, 400,0 900, 900;
total for the seven countries about
$242, 0OO, 100000. If we assume the
low estimate" that the wealth Of the
rest of the world amounts to an equal
sum, the grand total of the civilized
II al,I G
GOO. Taking but one-tenth of this
wealth TO be-in ordinary time-in 4
floating position seeking conversion
into money, it would require SIS, 400,-
100000 Of money to act as proxy or ex-
change factor for these values.
AS the world has but about four
thousand million dollars in gold and
about the same amount in silver, the
deficit of thirty-eight thousand four
hundred million dollars is made up by
paper promises, which are to stand
proxy for gold and silver. In times of
crisis the paper proxies are Of no avail,
and the amount of values seeking con-
version into money gold and silver
is at least twice as much as in Ordin-
airy peaceful times. If silver is de-
naturalized as money gold alone is
left; the current which was fed by
two streams has lost one-half its
volume by one of these having been
turned off into waste; yet this weaken
ed current is supposed to move and
carry as much as before
When it is further considered that in
crisis at least one-third of the stock
of gold is withdrawn from circulation
and boarded up-it will be found that
only 2,Io0,OO0,000 gold remain then to
convert, redeem or absorb about 81
0C0,000,000 dollars of the worlds
values.
The natural law 1.-The weaker the
current, the less the power" applies as
well to economies as TO physics.
BY the full use Of the greatest pos
sible amount of gold and silver the cur
rent of currency is increased, and con-
sequently its power to move and
carry is enhanced
The few bankers who control the
diminished currency gold find it to
their advantage to keep the govern
ments and the peoples in their present
state of ignorance on the nature of
currency and the law of economies.