St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-29
MORE QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

MORE QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
To the Editor of the Globe
L do not take much interest in the
money question" as rule, for L con-
slider 1t, at most, a question of only
second-rate Importance. But your edi-
torfal of Tuesday under the head
why Not Be Logical?" moves me to
make few comments. You argue
that it would be more logical, and the
easier thing to do, to reduce the number
of grains in the gold dollar instead of
demanding free coinage of silver at a
ratio which assumes that sixteen ounces
of silver are of equal value with one
ounce of gold, while in the world of
trade and commerce it takes from thir-
~ to thirty-two ounces of silver to get
an ounce of gold. L suppose you will
admit that, so long as as we must have
money whose value is inherent in the
material of which it is made the value
OF that material, compared with other
things, can be changed by legislation.
t1rSt-For instance: Dc you suppose
for moment that if silver could now
be coined on the same conditions and
hold the same position in our none
tary system it did previous to 1873 that
thirty or thirty-two ounces of it could
be had for an ounce of gold?
Second-Suppose that, instead of Sill
Yer, gold had been demonetized in 1873
isn't it about as certain as anything hu-
man can be that the gold dollar would
now be a '.ffty-cent dollar and
that the silver dollar would be
the honest dollar" and that any
body who advocated the remonetiza-
ton of the gold dollar at a ratio of 16
to would be promptly dubbed a fiatist?
Third-If the demand for an article
increases while the supply remains sta
tonary, the value. of that article i'm
mediately increases, and vice versa.
Silver and gold are no exceptions
to this rule; and if the demand for sill
yer should be doubled or trebled by a
law remonetizing it, and the demand
for and value of gold be thus dimin-
ished, how long would it be before the
gold and silver dollars would get
together again, the one by coming
down from its monometallic perch and
the other by climbing UP to where it
belongs? AS between clipping the gold
dollar and remonetizing the silver
dollar at the old ratio, the latter
process seems to me the more logical,
and L don't care whether silver is re-
monetiZed or not.
E. G. ERICKSON.
Minneapolis, March q.
Our correspondent seems to have
taken our suggestion that the sill
verites should logically ask for a re-
duction of the weight of the gold
coins, as a serious suggestion of our
own. What we meant is, that, if
they are logical and also accurate
in their postulate that silver has re-
manned stationary while gold has
been approaching, they would de-
mand that gold be pulled down to
silver instead of asking that silver
be pulled up to gold. That they do
not do this is the strongest evidence
of the concrete selfishness that turks
behind their sophisms.
L. We do believe that if silver had
unrestricted entrance to our minis
for coinage into standard dollars at
the ratio of 16 to 1 there would be
not only no increase in its price, save
the first short-lived squirt, but there
would follow a further decrease.
We conclude this from one fact and
a deduction. The fact is that the
cessation of the purchase of silver
under the Bland-Sherman acts, de-
creasing the demand, did not affect
the price at all proportionally, the
price now being about eight cents
an ounce less than in 1898. The de-
duction is that the increase of out
put would be so increased by the adj
ditional law-made price that all adj
vantage of the increased demand
would be lost.
2. Promising that it should not
be forgotten that silver had demone-
tlzed itself for forty years prior to
1873 by refusing to go to the minis.
we are not prepared to admit that,
had we then demonetized gold. it's
value would have fallen as silver has.
because it would have found a ready
market elsewhere. Desire is ALWAYS
a chief factor in making value, and
the world desires gold, and, would
II our government should deny. it
coinage.
3. So far from there being any
evidence that the demand for gold
is increasing faster than the sup
ply, the evidence is overwhelming
that the whole commercial world is
trying to use as little metallic money
as possible. Bank notes responded
| to this desire, and checks, drafts.
bills of exchange have followed in
| creasingly to displace money. To
such an extent has this grown that
| from 80 to 95 per cent of the ex-
changes of commerce are made by
| these representatives of money, and
by their cancellations or offsettine
in the clearing houses, but fraction
OF their amount is required in money
to settle final balances. It is this
great force that has prevented gold
from approaching, as it has been a
force in depreciating silver by OBJ
Waiting its use.
| Gold has not risen in value. tbe
wall of all the silverites to the CON
trary Notwithstanding. If it had. IFS
! effect as the single standard for
the measurement of all values would
be apparent in all prices. Tt wonld
appear first and strongest in the