The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-30

! meet the government obligations, one
of which is the redemption of its cut
| standing treasury notes, at least enc
! hundred million dollars in gold; anc
to secure 20 all forms of currency that
Circulate rs oney of equal value, the
custom has been extended SO as to in
clude the redemption of silver certifi-
Gates, that upon their face are made
redeemable with silver dollars.
Soon after the demonstration of sill
yer by this and other countries, the
two metals, gold and silver, began to
separate in value. and this has grad
ually increased, until now the silver
bullion in a silver dollar is worth but
little more than one half the gold in a
gold dollar
Since we demonetized silver, Con-
gress has at times made temporary
provisions for its coinage to a. linn
tied extent, and under these provi-
sions silver dollars have been coined,
so that we now have in actual circu-
lation, or on deposit in the United
States, four or five hundred millions
Of these dollars, that circulate SO far
| as they are in use at par with gold;
pay just as many debts in ordinary
business transactions of the masses;
buy just as much property, and an
swer every requirement in our daily
affairs that the same number of gold
dollars would do, and these silver
coins are neither by law nor custom,
redeemable in gold.
Their further coinage, however, has
been recently stopped, and there is,
so far as l understand, no provision
of law by which we are likely to add
TO our present volume of coined sill
Yer dollars, or to our silver certificates.
as part of the paper currency of the
country.
Indeed, a determined effort by many
leaders in both of the great political
parties is already being made to secure
the withdrawal from circulation of
both treasury notes and silver certif-
Gates, and substitute for them some
form of credit money, to be issued by
banking associations. the excuse for
this being that is is impossible for
the government to maintain the sur
plus of one hundred millions in gold
in the treasury, so long as every one
is at liberty to present these notes and
certificates for redemption, and de-
mand their payment in gold.
A Sound Currency.
Much is being said by financiers and
politicians about the necessity of
maintaining a sound currency of equal
eXchangeable value whether gold, sill
Yer or paper, and to accomplish this
the custom has been established, as [
have before explained, to redeem all
paper currency presented a the treas
ury with gold, although silver certifi-
Gates are by their express terms re-
deemable in silver coin Of that metal,
and so it happens that while we have
more than ten times as much out
standing paper currency as we have
yIrith hi pl1 to
deem it, it is all held up to the full
value of gold by the fact that the gov
eminent pays out gold for it to any
one in any sum for which it is pre-
esntedt for redemption.
This has led the government into en-
barrassing business complications. To
obtain the gold necessary to maintain
its hundred millions in the treasury, it
has been repeatedly compelled to bor-
row gold and issue government bonds
bearing interest, that by and by will
have to be paid in gold, and in its last
transaction of this character, it is said
a syndicate of bankers, part of the
mebmers of which are residents of
this country and part Of England,
took our bonds under some arrange
ment by which this syndicate was to
maintain the reserve in the treasury
for a given period, and under that ar
rangement it has at different times
within the last few weeks been COM
PEELED to furnish the government many
millions of gold in exchange for paper
currency.
Notwithstanding the depreciation in
the market price of silver, there has
certainly been no depreciation in the
value of gold, for the gold dollar is
just as large now and just as fine as
it was before silver was demonetized
and as you have seen that all forms of
paper currency are held up to the full
value of gold, by the fact that they
are redeemed with gold by the gov
eminent, it is apparent there could be
no depreciation in the value of money
of any kind, nor in the value of any
obligation against a responsible party
that is payable in money.
The Great Question.
The great question of the present
hour is whether or not the removal of
silver from our volume of standard
money has or has not enhanced the
value of gold, and hence. because all
paper currency is redeemed in gold,
the value of every form of that kind
of currency, and of all obligations
payable in money, and corresponding
diminished the price of every other
form of property and labor, of which
money is the sole measure of value.
If it is true that by legislation or Gus
tom we have largely increased the
wealth of the creditor class of our peo-
pie, and made the whole class of pro-
pepty owners of other kinds correspond
ingly poorer, and thereby increased the
burdens of all who must convert other
property or labor into money to meet
pecuniary obligations, it is certainly
true that we have been guilty of very
grave wrong towards a vast majority
of our own people.
The fact is fndisputable that since the
characterization of silver, there has been
a marked decline in the market price of
the great bulk of the products of labor
Nowhere has that decline been more
keenly felt than in the continued de-
preston of the price of farm products
1t cannot be denied by any one that
the great staples of agriculture every
where, that form the bulk of all our
exports, and maintain balance of for
eign trade in our favor have steadily
declined since silver was demonetized,
until today many of them bring less
than one-half the price they did in
1873.
What has caused this?
Some of the adherents to a Single
gold standard tell us 1T is over-produc-
ton. But the world consumes all that
is produced, as it always has done and
always will do. If we are to produce
less, we can accomplish this in but one
way, the number of farmers in the
country must be reduced. If driven
out of this calling by condition of
low prices that makes their labor I'M
H.