The Portland daily press., 1895-04-19

neigh borho0d of so per cent. Now that
is proposition which is vital to the
theory that the rehabilitation of silver
will bring relief to what is called the
debtor classes. If gold has been constant
and silver has fallen by reason of the
| demonetization act of 1878 it will help
nobody except those who have silver to
| sell. to open the 1ints to free coinage
and by SO doing push it's value up TO a
parity with gold But if gold has risen
and the effect of free coinage will be to
pull it down. to silver then of course the
emonetization of silver will make it
easier for man to pay his debts. 1t is
vital then to the theory of the silver
men that free coinage will bring relief to
the de ebtor class to maintain that gold
has risen and silver declined.
Now what is the proof that the silver
men offer that the apparent decline of
silver is really an appreciation, of gold ?
The public can't be expec ted to take it
for granted simply because it is essential
to the theory that remonetisation will
bring relief to the debtor class; it is
necessary that it be proved. The silver
men offer in proof the fact that the de-
mand for gold as money has been greatly
increased by the throwing out of silver,
while the supply has not increased in
proportion. Here, they say, are the con-
ditions that usually cause rise in price
and hence it is reasonabl to suppose
that gold has appreciated. But on the
other hand the demand for silver has
been greatly diminished by it's exclusion
from the money of the great commercial
nations while the supply has not been
correspondingly decreased. Here are
the usual conditions of a decline. Hence
is it not just as reasonable to assume
that silver has declined? Another proof
which the silver men offer is that the
price of silver bullion has maintained
steady and equal ratio to staple
products since 1S73-in other words that
an ounce silver bullion can be ex-
changed for just as much of the staple
products today as in, 1873-or that sill
yer and the staple products have really
remained constant and that their ap-
parent decline is due to the frightening
of the standard of measurement, the gold
dollar. But it is as easy to prove that
all these declines are real and not ap-
parent aud it is TO show the contrary.
Silver has been subjected to great re-
striction of market, and fora that
reason would naturally fall. The mar
ket for wheat and cotton has not dimin-
ished, but skill in the production of both
of them has increased and SO has the
acreage of production. Cheapened pro-
duction would explain their fall.
But let us suppose that the silver men
are right in their assertion that gold has
gone up, not silver down. Can the United
States. single handed and alone. pull it
down to the silver level? Gold has ap-
preciated, if it has appreciated, not merely
on account of the demonstration of sill
yer by the Uuited States. Germany and
all the states that composed the Latin
Union, and India also have demone-
tized it. A good deal of the apprecia-
tion of gold must have been due to de-
| monetization in those countries. They
assisted in putting it up. Can we with
out their assistance pull it down to the
level of silver? We may pull it down
some, bnt we must pull it way down or
all our gold will fee from us and we
! shall become, not bi-metalists, but
monometalists. The value of two dollars
need not differ but very slightly for one
to drive the other out. After 1884, when
we debased the gold dollar so that it was
of slightly less value than the silver
dollar, the former soon drove the latter
out, in accordance with the law that
| the less valuable money will always
drive out the more valuable, which, by
the way, is not SO much law OF finance
as trait OF human nature. Now, unless
our free coinage of silver brings gold
down to the value of that metal, OF
within very slight fraction of it, we
shall soon be without gold and be prac.
tically on silver basis. Do the bi-met-
alists want that result? Do they see and
can they point out any advantage oil sill
yer mononetalism over gold monome ct
alism? Do they think our position as a
CONNER cial nation would he improved by
our being on a silver basis, while all the
commercial nations of Europe are on @
gold basis?