The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-01-07
MONETARY STANDARDS.

The one question that agitates tlne'l
country at the present time is that Of
currency 1t will not down neither
will it be solved until it is solved In
accordance with natural laws. These
laws are those that the experience of
mankind has taught best conduce to
Ibis welfare and under which he enjoys
1.-THE greatest prosperity This exper-
fence in the past has taught him that
gold and silver are the metals that
furnish the currency that brings this
about There should be for this pur-
pose an increase of currency correspond
ing to the increase OF population and
business. But the disuse of silver as
money very materially disarranges all
this. 10 remedy this and restore a.
natural and healthy condition of bus
mess is the object of the currency bill
now before Congress.
| Bourl1e Cochran has been discussing.
the question and he discussed it ably
| in the main. Speaking of silver. he
said that for local and domestic pur-
poses he would not be afraid of it as
standard Of value, but his objection
to it was based on the fact that
throughout the world everything is
measured by gold, and even if we had
a national or. local standard, the pro-
ducts of the farmer and Of other pro-.
ducers must ultimately be measured.
by the universal standard
The debates on the currency bill.
show one thing more than any thing.
else-it is the need of an elastic cur
Tency and to provide this is now what
Congress is striving for. Any plan that
may be enacted into law must rest on
faith in the capacity Of those issuing
currency notes, whether the general
government or private banks, to re-
1 deem those notes. And in what? Coin.
iff there is but one metal out of which
this coin is struck then the capacity
for redemption must be just one-half
of what it is when struck out of two
metals. This viii also have marked
influence On the amount of notes is
sued. The elasticity of a note cur
rency eventually rests upon the afyan-
dance or scarcity of the coin metal
! Ii the two great money metals Of the
world, gold and silver, are both used
and have the right of unlimited coin
age there is a natural elasticity in the
currency that is guaged by the supply.
If that is greater at one time than an
other it VIII adjust itself by rise in
prices Just as there is a lowering OF
prices when there is a contraction OF
| the currency.
Mr.. Cochran says that for a, tiomes-
tic standard silver viii Co. What is
wanted in this country row is a do
mestic currency and not foreign one.
| IF our trade relations with foreign
countries are so extensive that we
must take cognizance of the monetary
standard of the world, the world must
also take cognizanee of ours. And it
would. Silver is so low because of its
decentralization and not because of its
abundance. Invested with monetary
functions it would not continue to sell
at its present price. The talk that if
/ there were free coinage people could
take a gold dollar and go and buy
silver enough to have two dollars
coined is all nonsense, because then
| the gold dollar would purchase just
half the silver it viii now. Nor would
our trade with foreign countries be
materially, if at all affected, for that
trade is an exchange of commodities
and not a cash transaction.
We fully agree with Mr. Cochran
when he says that he believes that all
the law and gospel of political econo-
my was revealed to the first man when
God told him that BY the sweat of
his brow he must earn his bread. -
And it is only by this method that
gold and silver, the money metals Of
mankind, can be got; they cannot be
legfslated into existence. Let the, coun-
try have the free coinage of gold and
silver and the currency question Will
be solved.