The herald., 1895-01-31
MA!00AAEEy! AM! AND SINGLE TAKERS
A Symposium of Ideas on Eco
nemic Measures.
Silver and Gold Subsidiary to the
George Theory.
Has Geld Gess Bstlooning ?-The Sing lie
Tax Plan said to BE . Psnscea
for Financial Ills.

club Monday night. Prof. ID ID. Bar
rones spoke ON the money question. ably
exposing the gold bug conspiracies" OF
the past 80 yeers, and earnestly adyo-
eating the frss coinage OF silver Then
followed general discussion. Several
speakers vino favored Tree coinage and
opposed the single tax spoke forcibly
aud pontedly. their remarks being we'll
recsived. Several single tax speakers
also presented their views.
W. S. Creighton said: II have never
had the interesting experience OF going
up in a balloon, but l am told by those
who have, that the sensation to the
ssronaut is not that OF ascending, but OF
re maining stationary while the solid
earth drops away from under him.
NOW the contention of those who
advocate the free aud unlimited coinage
OF silver, at the ratio OF 16 to l. as un-
derstand it, is that gold has cut loose
and gone balloonine and that only those
who are attached to it by cords OF in :
terest, in its aerial flight, excusably en-
terrain the curious hallucination that
gold has maintained its status quo while
silver and all other merchantable com =
modities have incontir emily fallen away.
'If one will only imagine the specific
gravity OF gold being neutralizsd through
the agency of a negative gravity ma
chine, suoh as Stockton the novelist de-
eoribas, he will rsclgnizs in this simili-
tudc Of gold balloon very happy
concsit. And confess like it shs bet
ter because it places the fIee silverites
in an amisble light.
Lat us take up the gold balloonng
theory and analyzs il little. What is
the prime condition precedent to the
appreciation OF commodities like gold
| and silver which are not con9umed but
receive constant accretions? | conceive
| il to be this, that their production pre-
supposing an increasing demand for
them-shsll fail to preserve their aver
age ratio OF increase. This dimiuution
of proportional production to demand
must be actual and Independent. not
relative, for it is the actual not relative,
enhances its price.
L claim /. to be demonstrable that
the production OF gold has more equi-
tably kept pace, pari passu with the
growth Of population over the globe, and
m ate demand for it, in every relation,
than any other commodity whatPosver
1t is this which fits it superlatively for
it's most distinctive utility-thst of q
standard of values.
ut is true. Mr.. President, that gold
has acquired in recent years a greatly
increased purchasing power over COM
modtes-aJme commodities-but that
this 10 due to any change in economic
conditions operating directly upon the
metal mas itself l can not for mo.
msnt ad NIT. If it were true that gold
had actually risen, been inherently en-
HANGED, its purchasing power must be
shown to have increased not alone as to
things perishable and hucsuating in
quantity from year to year, and which,
as q writer remarks, are affected by
such q vast numbe of contingencies aud
conditions that are purely fortuitous;
but il should bs compared with more
permanent forms OF property, such as
land. for example. But the increased
purchasing power OF gold has by no
means kept pace with the advance in
the value Of farming lands, and it is en-
tirely outclassed when it is compared
with the prodigious advance in city real
estate values. The average value OF
farm lands per acre in 1850 was sl1.14.
| In 1899 the average value per acre had
| advanced to $2l.3l. Gold will buy only
half as many acres for $1,000 today as it
would 40 years ago. But. you will say,
I Mat h not q fair comparison. The area
! Of The lands Has ret in0feasad; while
| gold has increased in quantity. 1t is
true that the superficial area OF the
country has not baen added to in 40
years; but it lie none the lsas true that
millions of acres have come into the
market in that time which were as
com pietely out of computation as the
gold in the California mines before the
advent OF the '49srs. All things con
sidered, | think it sminentlv fair to cite
the appreciation OF land values to
prove the stability of gold. For the
| ii rat so years of the present century the
average annual output OF gold for the
world was $l5 900, round numbers.
For the last % years it has averaged
| $40 900, 00G, and for the past four years
it has averaged $l43 100000 and the
sphere OF imperative demand for it, as
may be clearly shown, has actually con-
tracted.. Gold has not gone balloon
ing.
Ralph E. Hoyt spoke briefly, and
from the standpoint OF single taxer.
He osd: Compared with the great re-
form emb bodied in the single tax propo-
sition the whole money question is of
minor consequence. There is plenty OF
money in the United States. but the
trouble is it does not circulate sufli-
GENTLY. Money is nothing more nor
less than a counter OF exchange, q con-
venient medium to facilitate the
swapping OF wealth products.
at is one duty OF our government to
issue money but never its duty to give
or loan money to the people.
"Our present no On stary system 10 d oubt-
leas imperfect, and in need of improve.
msnt; but the overshad owing need OF the
people is a radical change in our taxa
ton system change that will re-
move all needless burdens from indus
try, from business, from wealth produce
ton, and compel lsndlordism to pay the
taxes This would result in the speedy
opening of natures prolific storehoaae,
and leave no excuse tor idleness among
those able to earn a living. The single
tax would produce this coveted c)ndi-
tiou."
Ira B. Wood said that apparently the
two most impor.an propositions in j.
volved in the silver mems arguments
were, first, that the allie Sed dem onetz..
tion Of silver by the United States in
! 1873 had produced the financial depres-
sion and indu strial distress we have
lately experienced, and second, that a
much larger volume of money is neces-
aarv for thu cnuutrv,s buainaae II ell =