Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-07-12

"the will of legislative law" ANY COM
modify that could be easily, quickly and
largely raised would, or at least might,
get away from 1t. That is, there would
be so much more of 1t raised or provided,
at once or very shortly, that the new de-
mand would be supplied by the increased
supply. This would equallze the condi-
tions and leave the commodity at the
old price. Possibly the new demand
might act to increase so largely the sup
ply of commodity that it would become
still lower than before. But either of
these results can only come quickly
of a commodity that can be easily pro-
duced. OF one that could only be pro-
duced slowly, it would be a long time be-
fore the price would he again equalized,
if at all, and of any commodity, of which
an increased supply equal to the increased
demand did not exist, it could never come.
Mr. Edmunds remarks directly after
our last quotations "Those two metals
were taken for the chief money of the
United States, as they were the chief
money of all other countries, for the
simple reason that the production of
them was more limited, the metal was
more indestructible, and therefore if
coin was made of these metals, the varl-
alton in commercial value of the metal
in them would he less ltkely to change Jy
greatly increased product than any other"
! Tho irolfpc A,,e -,
Edmunds admits, and as every intelli-
gent person on these points percelves,
correctly admits that gold, and silver as
well, belongs to the catalogue of COM
modties that can be supplied, on an in
creased demand, slowly and with diff
Guilty.
Mr.. Edmunds in continuing his speech
says:
"Then Mr.. Jefferson said, in making the
paper for the benefit of Congress, in es-
tablishing the law of 1892, when the sill
yer dollar and the gold eagle were first
established, it becomes question Of
what ratio shall exist between the two
metals. And that ratio, he said over
and over again--and no man in those
days in any country ever disputed it
depended upon their commercial price,
the average of all the markets of the
world. And accordingly Congress pass
ed the act of 1892, establishing the silver
dollar, the average in weight of the half
dozen silver dollars that were in circula-
ton in Europe, issued by different
countries, and sometimes by the same
country. of different weights, and that
the ratio of the two metals-nOt the mere
names of the coins-shOuld be that -
pounds of silver should be represented
by one pound of gold, and for the reason,
as have said. that that was the market
ratio of the principal countries of Europe
where they were in use, and where they
were in the market
"NOw as | said before, if Thomas jeff
ersOn and Alexander Hamilton and all
the other great men of that day, agree
ing with the opinions and all the eXper-
fence of the civilized countries of the
globe, were right in saying that the
ratio which should exist between silver
and gold when it should be used as
money and made compulsory legal
tender depended upon the relative rate
of their commercial values, why is it not
true today? Truth never changes. The
truth of 1892 is the same truth that exists
in 1895. No man disputes that. The
effect of that was that the two coins.
although it was what we call double
standard-that is, both coins were legal
tenders and represented - to l--were
made that way because this is what they
did represent. You could 90 into the
market and buy one pound of gold for
10 pounds of silver, or you could go
into the market and buy u pounds of
silver for one pound of gold. just as you
can 60 down town today, suppose. and
exchange % barrels of flour for % pairs
of boots, or whatever any body wants,
because all the use of money as money,
as we all know, is "A mere means of eX-
changing things that we have for the
things we have not and that we want.
That is all there is 70 money rs money.
All the rest of it, so far as coin goes, is
metal, as we all understand, and metal is
merely thing to be bought and sold for
the uses to which it can be put. And so
our fathers fixed the matter on this So
called double standard in such a way
that Il SILVER dollar was worth Just one
tenth of a gold eagle, and gold eagle
was worth just ten times the amount of
IA silver dollar. Just as long as the
values of the amount of metal in those
two coins remain the same IA double
standard is just as good as a single
standard.
But whenever you have two commOd-
lties-even metals like gold and silver,
whose production was IN those days so
steady and so uniform-t only took a
very few years to have our fathers and
their descendants discover that gold and
silver as metals were drawing apart and
that gold had become less valuable in
proportion to what silver was, and so
early as 1906, only If years after these
l. al f~N, 1
as they then were, gold having become
less valuable i'm that proportion than
silver, Mr.. Jefferson, then president of
the United States through Mr.. Madison,
then secretary of state, was compelled,
as the law authorized him, to issue a
proclamation suspending the coinage of
the silver dollar at the mints, for the
reason that silver being more valuable,
all left the country as metal, although
it was in the form of a silver dollar, with
the imprint of the American eagle or the
head of liberty, or whatever the device