The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-08
PATRICK EGAN'S VIEWS.

/ lnere seems 10 be a reluctance
among the Republican silver papers of
the West to notice the straddling of
Hon. Tom Carter on the coinage
question. So there appears to be a dis
inclination among the Republican gold
organs of the East to publish free sill
yer arguments of prominent persons.
For instance, the New York Mail and
Express, having printed in its columns
an article purporting to give the "a.
B. c. of the Silver Question" by Gil
Bonhurt, a letter was addressed to
that paper by the noted Patrick
Egan, taking issue with the Bonhurt
position. But the communication did
not appear. A Mercury reporter. how
ever, learning of the occurrence OBJ
tained a copy of the letter and it was
published in that paper. AS it will in
terest folks in these parts, we here
copy it in full:
Feeling, in common with the great
mass of the public, deeply interested
| in the serious financial problem now
absorbing the nations attention, and
being DESTROYS of obtaining all the
light possible on the subject, l read
with care the interesting paper in
your issue of Saturday last, signed Gil
Bonhurt, entitled THE A, 3, c of the
Silver Question" and while 1 have
found in it much valuable information,
[ also encountered certain points that,
for the better understanding of this
vital question, I should much desire
to see elucidated. Mr. Bonhurt states
very clearly the incontrovertible prin-
ciple that money is not alone a me-
dunn of exchange, but the measure of
value of the various kinds of property,
and that tits power in this direction
(as a measure of Values) is determined
by the ratio or relation of its volume
to the service which it performs" LAS
the ratio is high he says, $50 the unit
Of money VII be low, OF. in other
words, general prices will be high. AS
the ratio of money value to use is
low, so the unit of money will be high,
or, in other ords, general prices will
be low. All changes in volume of
money will be invariably followed by
changes in the expression of value"
and further on, after referring to the
fact that at certain periods of the
worlds history debasements of cur
rency were resorted TO by rulers when
short of funds, he says: 1T has re-
manned, however, for the advocates of
free and unlimited coinage of silver in
this country to deliberately propose
wholesale confiscation of a large per-
centage of the property of others by
a similar process"
Prior to the demonstration of sill
yer in Germany, NorwaA, Sweden,
Denmark, and Russia, between 1872
and 1876, and by the United States in
1S73 silver formed a part of the vol
ume of money as well as gold, the two
being in most countries, linked firm
ly together as one metal through the
medium of a fixed ratio, and, if I re-
member rightly, the silver and gold in
the volume of money represented about
equal amounts.
Now, it being admitted that <he pur-
chasing power of money is determined
by the ratio or relation of it's value to
the service it performs. did not the de-
of silver by the nations [
have named, which reduced the vol
ume of the worlds money about one
half, enormously increase the value
or purchasing power of the remaining
half-gold-and bring about the very
state of things described by Mr. Bon
hurt when, in stating his basic princi-
pies, he says: AS the ratio of money
volume to use is low, so the unit of
money will be high, or in other words,
general prices will be low; has not
the cutting-off of one-half of the
worlds money volume been followed
by the inevitable changes in the ex-
preston of value. Of which Mr.. Bon
hurt speaks, and have not these
tended steadily in the direc-
ton of the higher value or purchasing
power of gold and the downward move
ment of the prices of all other kip7J
of property, Including the iemoneti4ed
silver?
If the answer to my question be in the
affirmative, as think it must, then