Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-09-16
CLEARING FALLAclEs.
Crude and Unsound views From . Sound
 Money State.

Money State.
 Senator William E. Chandler of Now Hampshire declares himself as stead fastly opposed to the gold standard and in favor of free coinage under an inter national agreement at ratio of 16< or IS to 1. In letter in which he de- fines his position he says, .That man knows nothing who will deny that if both ceased to be money metals an ounce of silver would be worth as much as one-sixteenth of an ounce of gold. !" Senator Chandler differs from the other silverites only ~in believing that the United States cannot alone make the value of IS ounces of silver worth one of gold, but ill other respects he holds all the false doctrines of the cheap dol lar school His views as to the origin of the value of gold and silver are exactly those of the fiat money advocates when he says, It is the use of the two (gold and silver) as money metals that gives each all of it's value worth considering. !"
 That such glaring fallacies should be believed by a senator from state which has always favored sound money is an indication of the popular confusion as to the real nature of value. Senator Chan dler would indignantly deny that he wished to aid in the repudiation of debts or to establish the silver standard instead of gold But his arguments are exactly the same as those on which the Populists base their schemes for cheat ing creditors and debasing the standard of value.
 The bold assertion that if both met als ceased to be used as money 16 ounces of silver would be worth one of gold is purely guesswork on the part of Senator Chandler, and has no support in past history or present conditions. If what he save were true there must have been established by nature a fixed ratio be- tween silver and gold. Such supposi- tion is nonsense, as nature has no more to do with ratios than with the number of buttons on coat. Since gold is now worth 52 times as much as silver, it would seem that to deprive them of their use as money would affect both alike. Senator Chandler thinks that the result would be to decrease the value of gold twice as much as of silver, but of- fers no proof that such would be the case.
 The theory that it is the use of gold and silver as money which gives them nearly all their value is another fiat money fallaey, the source of the green back delusion. The facts are just the re- verse of what Senator Chandler says. Instead of being valuable because they are used for money, gold and silver are used for money because they are valua- ble as metals Before either was used as measure of value gold and silver had value of their own and would continue to be valuable if their use as money entirely ceased. Of this there can be no question, since in countries which have no metallic money these metals have a commercial value, which in the case of gold is equal to it's coin age value. If Senator Chandler were right, gold and silver would be practi- cally worthless in countries which did not coin those metals into money.
 There are other equally grave blum ders in Senator Chandler's profession of financial faith, but the above will be sufficient to show that he is an unsafe leader for Americans who want a sound currency and an honest dollar.