New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-10-05
SELECTIONS FROM THE MAIL
GOLD AND SILVER AS MONEY METALS.
WHY THE MONOPOLY OF SILVER FOR CURRENCY
PURPOSES. MUST CEASE

| PURPOSES MUST CEASE
| To the Editor OF The Tribune
Sir Tho internal interchange OF country.
| for the purpose Of embracing Almost all means OK
livelihood. may be described under four heads:
| Cd Servces-Labor of the bodies OF men and
animals. and of the minds Of men,
| C2) Goods-Inc.udng animals. raw and manufact-
urcd animal vegetable, and mineral substances,
also motive powe. generated by wind. water. steam
or electricity, with or without an unearned mere
ment.
60 Titles TO Properties OF al descriptions. with
or without unearned Increment.
| CD Interest on Accrued Property-Under this head
might. perhaps. be ranked profits on banking.
financing stockexchange operations and the like.
pensions and charities
These present the following twenty exchanges:
Services for services. for goods. for tiles or
for interest: goods for goods. for services. for
tit.es or for interest titles for titles for serv
Ices for goods for interest. interest for inter-
est. FOR services. or for goods or for titles.
These interchanges in a country are practised
wherever a community is raised above barbarism
| The main ingredients OF the value-gving factors
In goods and titles properties past and pres
ent labor and interest. The basis OF the general
exchange OF goods for services is the ratio OF
the labor expended upon the goods. The introduce
ton OF Intermediary In the shape OF a measure
OF value. money. or one consisting OF currency
does affect current interchanges In country.
| If high price is obtained a high price has TO be
given. II a low price is realized low price has to
| be paid. There will be any relative alteration
in the barter value OF the goods services These
: are operative laws when there is monopoly.
A measure of value. like all other substances or
commodities has both cost value and sale value.
The tendency of both gold and silver is TO gravtate
to their respective cost values. Though a govern
ment scrupulously avoids all legislation which could
possibly confer upon the substance selected as the
standard and measure OF value anything III the
nature Of a monopoly, 1t is not conceivable that
that substance should preserve for two consecutive
years the same average cost value measured by the
yalue-giving factors in the things parted with in
payment for the same.
international in;erchanges between countries In
the comfy Of trading nations carry on some. If not
all of the twenty nterchanges above enumerated
in direct indirect manner. the standard sub
| stance II possessed by country, entering into the
| interchanges under the head OF goods as com
| modify.
| Now dlscarding all idea OF a monopoly, 1t is per-
| fectly true as expressed by Professor william
| Graham Sumner in 1885: IF legislation can AFFECT
value all the textbooks of political economy are
very faulty in their analysis OF value. Congress
| cannot regulate the value of coin more than II
can regulate a physical object TO make 1t longer or
shorter than 1t is" But cannot a government OF Il
combination of governments confer n monopoly
upon an industry? The writer maintains that
ronopolv in favor OF silver miners was in operation
from the imposition of legislation upon the hu-
ropean countries OF the Latin Union ana upon the
! United States OF North America for many years 10
the closure Of the minis OF the Latin Union against
the reception OF silver from the public In 1873 rms
,oo,o,olv was manifest in the proverbal wealth OF
| ,hosa connected with silver mining. The dherehce
between the cost value and the sale value OF s"'e'
is the sum Of the silver miners wealth. ana 'ne
legislative fixture OF ratio was the cause Vi lie''
! profits upon the cost value
| Seeing the tremendous dilemma the world Is IN
,,roch the wretched state Of its currencies. would
II not be the best thing possible for the chlel gov
ernments OF the world to make once for all IN'u'e
of ratio between gold and silver? But II 'a'ui"i
ratio cannot be found? II an unnatural ratio must
Issue in the operation Of the Gresham law anu the
certainty OF the world being leit WIN , oa. hv
measure OF value? IT, so far as can be }udseu ~,
and past th sS ro between the
metals eGqd sSaVe sl a and open their
minis TO the unlimited reception Of the two metals
at this ratio? Would even this action secure non non
there are 900 people whose prices 81 on
nconverble paper and thereby Eos esyS effective
| monetary systems through the operation Oh '"e eN
Covernmens could confer MONOPOLY value uP Fo
silver by comP,s 1 ton f9 n mSonopoy would
| end with reference to the currency: Assume INA
rate o s Ted at thirty pafs Gs MADE
unlimited legal -ender at the option OF the PAL
OF the two metals is at the ratio Of sixty parts OF
silver 10 one part of gold Under thsse cOnd mon,
|
prices. 1t would cost greater weight OF SILVER 10
produce the silver in ton OF ore. III misht De NJ
the ratio OF forty fortyhve fifty or more OF silver
| TO Of gold. Whereas one part OF goid taSei GU,
Of the currency would cost thirty parts OF 81 sy ,e
world and II could not be mined Tor currency pur-
poses VIII those who that the action or the
legislative fixture OF ratio gold and silver
between beginning OF the century and 1873 had
no power to hold these metals very near the nHed
ratio also affirm that there was no monopoly con
ferred upon silver and that silver miners did not
accumulate fabulous profits?
One word those who do not believe that the
change in ratio between gold ana silver In 1913
and onward has caused fall of prices In coun-
To the extent that prices did not rise in silver
standard countries cOrrelatively with the faH In
the price OF silver in gold-standard countries. the
fall OF prices in gold ndard countries is
able TO and measurable by the altered state OF the
monetary exchanges \ proof OF this is In the eX-
perience OF all traders here with slver-standard
countries During the last twenty years the prohi
goods imported from silver-siandard countries
has not been exceptional, they should have
been II the fall OF prices in gold-standard coun-
tries has been due alone diminished cost of pro-
demonstration OF this law has been fully forth
by the writer In his various publications and in
his lecture OF May last on Prices and Nonetary
and Currency Exchanges and Prices Affected
IS stated az follows There may be monetary and
currency international interchanges. without the
international interchange OF something for some
other thing. But there cannot be an international
without an international monetary currency in
terchange at the same time affecting the prices O.:
the things somewhere
London, Sept. 80. 1895.
THE CASE OF WILLIAM 8. ANDREWS
To the Editor OF The Tribune.