St. Paul daily globe., 1895-01-29

ton Ar. Wells was the COMMISSION
er of internal revenue under the first
income tax law, which also had it's eX-
emptions.
One of the most valuable contribu-
tions to the discussion of the metallic
money question is the article of MIR.
Garnett, 1.-The Crux of the Money Con-
troversy" In it he attacks the as
sumption of the silverites that the
price of gold has been steadily appre-
ciating and their conjecture that the
coincidence of the falling prices of
many commodities is the effect-of that
appreciation. While this ground has
been thoroughly plowed and narrowed
in the discussion OF the money ques-
ton, so that no writer can contribute
anything in the way of fact. the merit
OF Mr. Garnett's article is in the
novel marshaling and presentation of
facts and the argumentatiye use he
makes of them. The article is one that
should have a very much more general
circulation than the Forum affords it,
and its distribution in pamphlet form
would be a material aid in this cam
paign of education, which, in spite of
all the experience of centuries with
money and the substitutes for money,
seems today to be as necessary as
ever. Beginning with the admission
that for years the purchasing power OF
gold has greatly increased, he pro-
ceeds to his demonstration that it was
not due TO any decrease in supply of
gold, and that the increase has been
greater in proportion than has been
either the volume of trade or of popu-
lation. AS the conjecture of the sill
verites rest upon the assumption that
the increase in the output of gold has
not kept pace with either trade or
population, the value Of the facts pre-
Sented by Mr.. Garnett will be readily
appreciated. Space prevents any more
than a presentation of some of these
important facts, and we state them
here as completely as possible. In the
period from 1855 to 1898, including the
period of demonetizaticn of silver, the
worlds product of gold exceeded
S3, ZIG, coo, 600, or $116 900, coo in excess
OF the product for the 358 years since
the discovery of America, while the
product of silver aggregated $685.
co., 600. making joint output
of S6, ,339 000,0 900, or an excess
Of over 50. .781, 600, 0G0 or $50 per cent,
compared with the joint product from
1901 to 1855. Again, he takes the aggre-
exports and imports, of Great Britain,
France, the United States and British
India. which aggregate over - Ter, cent
OF the commerce of the world. for the
two four-year periods of '60-'64 and S.
'90, the one just preceding and the
other closing the period of falling
prices and industrial crisis. He gives
also the movement of specie between
these countries in these periods, the
per cent OF specie moved to merchan-
disc moved, and the product during
these periods of gold and silver. With
out repeating his figures, they show
in $3.50 an increase of so per cent in
the movement of merchandise, a de-
crease of Is per cent in the movement
OF specie, a decrease of 912 per cent in
the proportion of specie to merchan-
disc moved. and an increase of 81 per
cent in the product of gold and silver.
This increase in the movement OF nler-
chandiSe. accompanied by the decrease
in the movement of specie, shows an
increasing moving power Of specie in
the latter period of 125 per cent. Thus
we have" says AIr. Garuett, for the
periods covered by these movements
an actual increase of 81 per cent in the
joint product OF the metal, and 126 per
cent in increased Effectiveness, or 1SS
per cent in both volume and efficacy,
against 80 per cent increase of COM
merce, and less than 40 per cent in
crease of population" Extending his
computation to eleven Of the more i'm
portant counties not included in the
four, he finds that during the latter
period about the same amount of mer-
chandise was moved as in the four
countries named. That the specie re-
quired in the movement was but 2 6-10
per cent OF the merchandise instead
of 712 per cent as in the first group
we may" he says, therefore safely
assume that for the fifteen countries
designated, representing fully 80 per
cent of the commerce of the world,
the average movement of specie dur
ing the latter period did not exceed
per cent of the merchandise. Of this
about 80 per cent was gold and 40 per
cent silver, which would give us ABOUT
per cent for the former as compared
with the movement of merchandise
commerce. Another factor not usu-
ally taken into considera ton is the un-
limited self-repeating power of the
money both as a standard and as a
measure OF value. while the commodi-
ties soon reach the ultimate consumer
and disappear from the market.
P. J. s.