Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1895-04-09

AANuh NuANA tANNNo AoAg hHNNH A|Af
and stores ivory, because he has
found in IL the greatest storage
value; that is he az keep this
material longest with the least
deterioration and can obtain for It
the greatest quantity Of glass
beads, powder and balls and such
other articles Of merchandise as
the traders carry. In other words
he can collect up and hoard a
larger amount Of accumulated La
Dor in this way than he can in any
other way. Thus, it, the ivory,
becomes to him currency, a mon
ey, a medium Of exchange and it's
value viii change as it becomes
plentiful or scarce. Gold and sill
yer are exactly in the same posi-
ton as this savage's ivory-as
they become more and more scarce
in the commercial market, are
withdrawn by the money market,
the mints, their price goes up.
Their price will not go above that
Of the money market, for then the
commercial market will not sell to
the mints aud the coin itself is
melted into bullion and the price
comes down to that set by the
minis. On the other hand should
the price fall all sellers leave the
commercial market and take their
bullion to the mints. The result
being that the prices for the mon
ey metals remain fixed, because
certain definite weights Of these
metals constitute the unit which
IN the United States is called a
dollar. Most people lose sight
of the fact that when there is a
general loss of value that it simply
means hat while the general
market has remained steady in
the production and in the general
amount of labor used in produc-
ing, hat the money market has
become cornered, or that there is
an actual scarcity of gold and sill
yer in the market, and hat there
fore from the law of supply and
demand that silver and gold must
go up in price. In other words
every thing else must be depressed
in value; for when We use gold as
a fixed point to reckon from, and
call 25 grains of gold a dollar and
say hat wheat is worth so cents
per bushel, we mean that wheat is
worth 129 grains of gold per bush
ell. So, as gold or wheat becomes
more or less scarce in the market
the ratio between them changes.
Which ratio in commercial trans
actions is not reckoned in grains
of gold but in dollars and cents,
in 6, S. and d.
Now, gold without the coinage
value given it as a medium Of ex-
change-money-by the mlnts of
the world, will be worth less than
$40 per ounce in the mercantile
world. For its intrinsic value in
the arts Is not over this. Plati-
mum, for which there Is a larger
demand in manufacturing inter
ests, is a rare metal and only
worth $40 per ounce. Silver is
worth a larger proportion of its
coin value in manufacturing. Fol-
even now when shut from the
minis of the world it is worth fifty
per cent of its coin value. Who
believes for an instant if the arti-
fetal demand made on gold by the
minis we're removed that it would
hold fifty per cent of its present
mintage values? There is an al
most universal cry from the gold
men that if we remonetize silver
at the former ratio, we simply rob
them of fifty per cent of their val
ues; that we have contracted our
debts on a gold basis and to pay
in silver is wrong; that such a pro
ceedure is dishonest. What are
the facts? All Of our 1.-THE United
States) indebtedness up to 1878
was contracted on the basis Of
our then existing unit of ex-
change, the dollar. The dollar Of
the United States was one of two
things at the option of the gov
eminent; either % grains Of gold
or 4l2 grains Of silver. To say
that the bankers and others who
bought the government bonds on
the faith that the government
would pay them Ia gold is to at
tribute a lack of sound sense to
this very astute body of men.
They knew the law and what tba