The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-01-29
THE ATTACK ON hE Standard OF
VALUE

snow that 1894 opened with worse prospects
than 1888. ana that 1895 opened
with worse prospects than 1884
The bank cIe4rances for 1892 were
So. 600 10000. those of 1893 were
Si.OOO00,oOO, those Of 1894 were 49,
0JO.Oo0.C coo. and what those of 1895 will fall
to no man can conjecture. Inc railroad
earnings of 1884 were Sl5O,o00,0O0 less than
their earnings in 1888. which were con-
siderabiy be.ow those of 1882. The mer-
camille reports Of Dun and those OF Brad
street, published yesterday, show that
there is no Improvement in business in
any part Of the United States, but on the
contrary, that it is duller and weaker
than It has been at any time yet. And
so IL will go on as long as there is any
vitality IN the movement for tree coinage
of silver There VIII be no improvement
in business whilst this movement
retains any force, but that is not
the worst part of it. We shall
continue TO grow worse off each
year. just as 1894 was worse than 1893,
and as 1880 viii be worse than 1894. We
snail go Oh down in the scale while there
is any vitality in free silver, until we dry
up ana perish of dry rot. and descend to
the level of Honduras and Guatemala.
The plain reason Of this is that the
movement for free silver is an attack
upon the standard OF value. 1t is move
ment to shove out into the channels of
business an unlimited quantity of legal
tender silver dollars, each one worth, in
fact, only fifty cents. So long as the
quantity of these is no more than the
Government can keep at par with gold dol
lars by receiving them in payment Of its
dues. they will do no harm. But just as
soon as they become SO numerous that
the Government cannot absorb all OF them
in payment Of its dues, and cannot give
gold dollars in exchange for them, no one
else will do it, and they will at once fall
to their bullion value of fifty cents each.
Then a person who has debt OF $l,O0O
due him will be compelled to take what
is in effect only 500. Gold dollars will
all disappear, and these debased silver
dollars will be the only money, and the
standard of value Will. therefore, have
been diminished by one-naf The man
then who has gone into an enterprise
which takes several years for completion
will find that he went into it making all
his calculationssturn on the dollar which
he understood TO mean the gold dollar.
That was his starting point, and the stan
dard TO which he referred every move
in the transaction. When he comes out
of the transaction he finds that the stan
dard with reference TO winch he started
has been cut down one-half, that the dol
lars on which ne has been counting all
the time turn out to be ony half-dollars,
and that instead of making a profit he
IS ruined man. Business absolutely re-
fuses to proceed with its operations while
there is the slightest danger of ca
lamity of this sort. so long as this
threat is held out business confines itself
to realizing what 1t has already made
ana 1t refuses to take a single step for
ward. The move for free silver being,
then, an attack on the standard OF
value, instead OF reviying business will
continue to shrink as long as it shows
any vitality. and we had as well make
up our minds to go on from bad to worse
until the misguided men who are making
learn something of the nature of the case
and give up their foray. more destructive
than all the waste and ruin OF war and
pestilence.
These people say they must coin silver
TO make a larger supply of money. But
money Is not what is wanted. The world
has as much money now as ii can use
proiitably. WHAT is wanted is a fixed and
immutable standard of value, and conf
dence that contracts will be kept In exact
accordance to their reiatlon with TINS, stan-
dard of value. Business is not done with
money. Business is done by transfers of
credits. most OF which are at bottom
granted upon the collateral security OF
the commodities which are TO be ex-
changed. Business wants little or no
money. The incOntestible proof of this
is that Great Britain, which is the bank
er for the world, ana which does as much
general commerce as almost all the rest
Of the world together. has only about
@0),900.o00 OF coin and paper currency com
bined. while We have more than double
that amount. Quantity OF money, there
fore. is net what business wants. but a
fixed and immutabIe standard Of value is
what II wants. and absolute confidence
that every contract will be kept exactly as
made.
We have on several occasions used the
following illustration but IL is art and TO
the point: The beautiful dome on the
Capitol al Washington was constructed by
referring every part OF it to the inch OF
measurement BY keeping the inch ex-
actly the same thing all the time, the
dome when finished was the immense and
perfect thing that we see it, II the inch
had been shortened during the construc-
ton OF the dome, IL would have been mis-
shapen. and would probably have toppied
over before II was done. The standard
of value has exactly the same place in
business that the inch has in construction
Everything in the progress OF business Is
referred to the standard OF value, and
whilst that Is fixed and immutable every
man knows exactly where he stands. But
IL that is tempered with every mans cal
cuiations are thrown out OF gear. and
he knows nothing of where he is going.