The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1895-11-29
HON EST MONEY.

No Such Thing as Honest Money Is Possible
So Long as We Have Metal Money.
There comes from England an init
nation that the vast production of
gold in various parts of the world is
liable to lead to the closing of the
mint of Great Britain to the free coin
age of that metal. Mr.. R. W. Lawson,
of London, has just contributed an
article to the London Bankers Maya
zine, in which he declares that the
coming glut of gold is giving rise to
much anxiety among the worlds great
financiers. Here is what he says upon
that point:
Imitation OF paper money and over
abundance of silver money are mat
tiers of common knowledge, but a posi-
BILE plethora of gold presents itself as
a novel idea. 1t is, however, an idea
which may have to be reckoned with
shortly. y The right of free
coinage of gold may have to be sus-
pended in England as the free coinage
of silver was suspended in India and
under the Latin union. Behind this,
again, would stand the last resort of
all, limitation of its legal tender pow
er. If the gold shut out from the mint
be matter for the producers to adj
just, just as other producers do. For
the evil of excessive currency there Is
but one remedy, whatever the cur
rency may be; it is restriction, and for
metallic money the only methods of
restriction are, first, limited coinage;
second, limited legal tender"
Let the reader ask himself how much
gold would be worth with its coinage
suspended in England and it's legal
tender qualities limited. When that
time arrives, which it surely will, and
that too before many years should the
production increase, how much would
gold be worth per ounce in the mar
kets of the world? During his visit to
Denver last summer, Mr.. r. E. Pres
ton, director of the United States mint,
was interested in selecting a site for a
mint in that city. While in that state,
Mr.. Preston became convinced that
the production of gold in the United
States is destined to astonish the world
within the next decade. In a recent
interview he gave it as his opinion
that there will be such a food of
American gold that the price of that
preciating," but in the very next
breath he makes use Of the following
language: ''Gold has a fixed value all
the world over and the miners know
and investors know what they can get
for it whenever they present it at the
minis" He forgot to me ntion, however,
that the value given to gold is an arbi-
trary value and fixed by the Bank of
England, whose charter requires it to
purchase with it's notes all the gold Of
fered at the rate of s3. It's, Cd per
ounce 11-12 fine. Mr.. Preston estimates
the worlds production q gold for 1895
at 5000, 900, 600, as against $50, 0OO 600
for 1894. He does not make any pre-
dictions for 1896, however. In 1873,
when the white metal was deprived of
its remaining function Of full debt
paying power, by congress, the value
of the silver money of the world was
something like 50, 500, DOC, coo, and of
gold about the same amount At the
rate of 5000, GOO, 900 per year for nine
teen years the production OF gold will
equal the amount of silver in existence
as money in 1873, thus making the
total gold in circulation something
like 81, COO, 900, 900, or a trife more than
the mbiued gold and silver money
of the world in that year. 1t is not
hard to see what such an immense
amount of legal tender money metal
would have upon prices It would be
far greater than was experienced after
the original discoveries of that metal
in California and Australia. In all
probability the result would lead
to the demonstration of that metal by
the fnanciers of Europe the same as it
did by several European counties in
1867. Prior to that time both metals
were full legal tender in all Europe
except Great Britain. Since that time
continental Europe and nearly the en-
| tire western world has followed he ex-
ample of England by adopting the
/ single gold standard. The remarks of
Mr.. Lawson, therefore, have PECULIAR