The Portland daily press., 1895-04-17

exist and be lived up to by all the ex
changers. Thus if A. 3. and C, agre,
that piece of copper of certain weigh
and size shall represent certain ex
changeahle value and all keep the agree
| ment, the piece of copper oirculates freely
among them and produces honest ant
fair exchanges, though the elements tina
constitute real value may be almost o.
quite wanting. But if one of the ex
changers G. declines to receive it at the
exchanged BILE value that was put upon il
when it was issued, it's circulation il
stopped altoge ther or continued at less
eXchangeab BILE value than WAS originally
put upon it. Between its reception by
b. and by G. it has declined in purchas-
ing power and B. of course has lost just
the amount of the decline For money
to prom ote fair and honest exchange il
is evident therefore that every body with
whom the exchange is made by its
means must put precisely the same
estimate upon it, and that estimate shall
remain constant.
Silver in this country today is not
strictly speaking money 1t is token
money. When man exchanges hat
for silver dollar he is really ex.
changing it for gold dollar; he doesn't
actually get the gold dollar to be sure,
but behind his silver dollar is the prom.
Use of the government to maintain the
parity of the two metals and as long as
the issue of silver is not excessive he
relies upon that promise and takes the
silver dollar on equal terms with the
gold dollar. There is practical agree
ment among the people that the silver
dollars exchangeable value shall be
equal to the gold dollars, and the coin
freely circulRtes at that value. AS long
as this agreement exists and is lived up
to by all the silver dollar promotes fair
and honest exchange. Nobody is
cheated by it though it's exchange value
is reckoned at nearly double the market
value of the bullion contained in it..
But the government instead of restrict
ing the mum Der Of silver dollars coined
now goes to work and opens it's minis and
declares that it will coin all the silver
that is sent to it from any part of the
world. Immediately "a great market is
created for silver. Our mines start up
with unusual vigor. Mines in other
countries start up also. There is an i'm
mense influx of silver bullion and an
immense outpour from the minis of sill
yer dollars. The mum Der becomes SO
great that distrust of the government s
ability to maintain the parity of gold
and silver is created; and because of
this distrust the agreement to take the
silver dollar at the same exchanged bic
value as tine gold dollar is unsettled.
Nearly half of the exchangeable value
of the silver dollar has tested OH credit
faith in the governments PROMISE
and this credit is now impaired. 1t will
follow then inevitably that men will begin
to break the agreement to accept the
silver dollar equally with the gold dol
lar, because one essential OF that agree
ment has been impaired. So much of
the exchanged BILE value as mas rested on
credit will disappear, not all at once
perhaps, but gradually, and finally the
exchangable value of the silver dollar
will drop to little more than it's market
value.
Now the most ardent advocate of
free silver coinage admits that under
free coinage we cannot expect to keep
the exchangeable value of the silver dol
lar much above it's market value. But
his claim is that the demand which free
coinage will create for silver will in
crease its market value SO that that will
rise. 1t must be remem bered that it is
demand and supply together that regulate
prices. The demand may be great but If
the supply is oorrespondingly great no
rise in price is likely. Opening our
minis to silver will of course stimulate
demand, but the supply is tremendous.
The opening of the minis of Europe as
well as our own might create demand
sufficiently large to send up the price,
perhaps to where it was before the de-
cline began, but it is hardly within the
bounds of possibility that the opening
of ours simply would affect the price
very much. 1t might some but not
enough to anywhere near close up the
wide gap which now exists between the
exchange value, and the market value of
the silver dollar. And if it did not great
loss especially to the laboring classes
would be inevitable.