Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-09-18
Tpr VIRGINIA FREE pRESS-~+HE OLD FAMILY J0URNAt
Sirgiuia FREE gress.
GLAZING PALACES.
Crude and Unsound Views From Sound
Money State.

Money State.
Senator William E. Chandler of New
Hampshire declares himself as stead
tasty opposed to the gold standard and
in favor Of free coinage under an inter-
national agreement at ratio of 1574
or 16 to /. In letter in which he de-
fines his position he says, "That man
knows nothing who will deny that II
both ceased to be money metals an ounce
Of silver would be worth as much as
one-sixteenth Of an ounce Of gold.
Senator Chandler differs from the other
silverites only in believing that the
United States cannot alone make the
value Of 16 ounces Of silver worth one
Of gold, but in other respects he holds
all the false doctrines of the cheap dol
lar school. His views as to the origin OF
the value of gold and silver are exactly
those of the fiat money advocates when
he saws, at is the use of the two (gold
and silver) as money metals that gives
each all Of its value worth considering.
That such glaring fallacies should be
believed by a senator from a state which
has always favored sound money is an
indication of the popular confusion as TO
the real nature of value. Senator Chan
der would Indignantly deny that he
wished to aid in the reputation OF
debts or to establish the silver standard
instead of gold. But his arguments are
exactly the same as those on which the
Populists base their schemes for cheat
ing creditors and debasing the standard
Of value
The bold assertion that if both met
ais ceased to be used as money l6 ounces
Of silver would be worth one Of geld is
purely guesswork on the part of Senator
Chandler, and has no support in past
history or present conditions. If what
he saye were true there must have been
established by nature a fixed ratio be-
tween silver and gold. Such SUPPOSE
ton is nonsense, as nature has no more
to do with ratios than with the number
of buttons on a coat. Since gold is now
worth 80 times as much as silver, 1t
would seem that to deprive them Of
their use as money would affect both
alike Senator Chandler thinks that the
result would be to decrease the value Of
gold twice as much as Of silver, but Of
fers no proof that such would be the
case.
The theory that it is the use Of gold
and silver rs money which gives them
nearly all their value is another fiat
money fallacy, the source Of the green
back delusion. The facts are just the re-
verse of what Senator Chandler says
Instead of being valuable because they
are used for money, gold and silver are
used for money because they are valua-
BILE as metals. Before either was used
as a measure of value gold and silver
had value of their own and would
continue to be valuable if their use as
money entirely ceased. Of this there
can be no question, since i'll countries
which have no metallic money these
metals have a commercial value, which
in the case Of gold is equal to its coin
ago value. If Senator Chandler were
right, gold and silver would be practi-
cally worthless in countries which did
not coin those metals into money.
There are otl,or equally grave blum
ders i'll Senator Chandler's profession Of
financial faith, but the above will be
sufficient to show that he is an unsafe
leader for Americans who want a sound
currency aud an honest dollar.