Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1895-03-28
publican editor had better look up the
train service to Pierre before he tries to
throw ont amy mislakcn i.lcns.
MONEY! METALS.

| n;tNc lltely Sceli, III ldCt tlc hillu liliti
gets right nj the giSt of the whole
thing, is given by writer IN the last
number of the San Francisco Argonaut
lie says the interest in international
bimctaliism throughout Europe is be
coming marked. In France there has
/ ALWAYS been Il school of bimctalistS
more or less powerful. In Germany
| the cause of bimctalism hiss gained
strength us II result of the unfayorablc
experience with gold monomctallism.
England, however, is the stronghold OF
the single gold standard, and 1t is sig
niicant of the great advance that bi-
mc,a.lism has recently made that Eng
lish periodicals of high standing give
space to lis advocates. In the current
Nineteenth Century. MIR. Edward Tuck
combats the claim of the monomctallists
that the two metals cannot be made to
circulate side by side Mr.. luck makes
the important distinction that the BIZ
mctallSts do not ask that the two metals
shall be declared by law to be of equal
market value nj Il certain fixed ratio.
The distinction is an important one and
goes to the very essence of the dclin-
ition of money Money is not II com
modify. and has no price: j! is Il measure
of value, and is that in terms of which
the prices OF commodities are declared.
Gold was IL commodity before ii was
used as money, and silver has been
Il commodity since ii has ceased to be
so used. The value of an ounce of
gold bullion is invariablc, and remains
fixed nj the value placed upon it by the
mint. The law requires the mint to
give !, certain price for ii. and nobody
would sell it for less or buy it for more.
A traveller, passing from France TO Ger
many, will receive for his French gold
coins their practical equivalent in grains
of gold in the shape of German gold
coins; for his French silver coins he will
receive only the market equivalent for
their bullion value.
If the mint price fixes the bullion
value of gold. an international money
metal, why would no, the mint price fin
the value of silver, if it were made AN
international money metal:
Looking, then, to the vast changes
which occurred prior to 1873 in the
relative production of the two metals,
without any corresponding disturbance
in their market value, it appears to us
difficult To resist the conclusion that
some influence was then ut work tend.
ing to steady the price of silver and to
keep the ratio which it bore TO gold
approximately stable. Prior to 1878,
the fluctuations of silver were gradual
in their character ard ranged within
very narrow limits Now. undoubt-
edly, the date which forms the dividing
line between an epoch of approximate
iixily in the relative value of gold and
silver and one of marked instability, is
the year when the bimctalic system,
which had previously been in force in
the Latin Union ceased to be in full
operation.
The gold monomctalliSts have laid
considerable stress upon the fact that
the Latin Union was forced 10 give NJ
bimctallism, but the fact that different
legal ratios cannot co-eXist with alb
solutc success is no evidence that /;
single and uniform ratio for the inn
purtant commercial countries would no
insure practical parity. Two ratios en-
listing in different countries make fo1
each of the countries one dcarer ant
one cheaper coin and bring into OPP
Grafton Gresl,am's law, upon which tn,
gold monomctallists depend so strongly
Thus. from 1898 to 1884, the ratio in til,
coinage of this country was fifteen an,
onc-hulf to one. The result was tha
gold, being appraised higher III tn
French coinage, flowed to France
while silver, which was worth NOR,
here, came to this country. After 1884
an ounce of gold was made equivalcn
to sixteen ounces of silver in the coin
age of this country, while France main
tanned the ratio of fifteen and onc-hal
to one AS ~ consequence, Il rcvcrs
flow set in; as compared with TIL
French coinage, gold was worth NOR
in this country and began to flow i'll
while silver flowed out.
Were the ratio between silver an
gold the same in all commcrci
countries, this result would not be seel
There would be no advantage in ship
ping gold to any country or silver to an
other, because they would have til
same relative values In all countries.
That such arguments should be at
vanced in II leading English magazin
indicates that public opinion in Englan
is reaching point where 1t will be i'm
possible for the government leaders t
refuse to send delegates to the pro
! posed silver conference.