The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-05-29
FOR THE TWO METALS
WE MUST HAVE A STABLE CUR
RENCY.
J.:y. Farwell Says Standard Meas
ure of Values Has Been Bisected
and Wants the Former Con-
dition Restored.

G. v. Farwell, in Chicago Times: Gold
and silver have always been used as
money by ratio Of weight. and both have
been used in the arts. The, price for
such use has always been until 1873
the bullion value of each for
money uses. They are called
precious metals" because of their
special fitness for money purposes.
They are called precious metals" be-
When both were money in Europe at
given ratio neither was more valuable
than the other at that ratio, for the rea-
son that the owner could buy just as
much of other property with one as the
other, because the minis were free to
both metals, making them into money
at the fixed ratio, which was then legal
tender for all purposes.
When the law struck silver from
free mintage in Europe and the United
States, from that time gold alone became
the yard stick for measuring all other
values, and the whole burden of money
functions fell on gold, and its value for
exchange of commodities was vastly In
creased.
All property values, real and personal,
from 1873 were, therefore, registered on
a gold standard, influenced more or less
by the volume of credit money In use.
AS the general public thought and knew
very little of this change in the volume
of real and of credit money, the decline
in silver and commodities was quite in
significant at first, but grew with grow
ing knowledge on the subject, and with
growing trade in the marvelously &C.
CELEBRATED productions of labor since
then, especially in the United States
Let us look for moment at the United
States from these two outlooks-volume
Of real money and volume of trade, say
from 1910 to 1869, down to the present,
and see what increase there has been In
each, and then we can judge for our
selves the combined effect upon money
and commodity of these relatice changes.
It must be observed, first, that in 1875
and soon thereafter, when silver was
stricken out of money functions and
only gold was really left as a measure
of values, that the amount then on hand
was the accumulation Qess the waste)
from the time that Noah began to mine
gold and silver down to the present
time; hence the yard stick for Europe
and the United States had at that time
a fixed relation to property-not In
money-of less than one-half of It's for
mer length, and from that time on the
yearly additions of mines, less the
amount taken for the arts, and the in
creased volume of property, will by these
agencies change it's relations to property
as yard stick.
GIVE A REASON FOR DECLINE IN
PRICES.
Then the real elements to be consid-
cred are the relative increase in prop
erty and trade, as. compared, with this
increase in gold money up to the present
time, as all paper money was redeem
able in gold. A look at these two con-
stantly altering conditions of the yard
stick, and the work to be done by 1t,
should give us some inkling of why gold,
or gold promises, buys more than it did
in 1873, and by that much is not an hon
est yard stick, as the ability to obtain
gold is the ultimate requirements of
trade on such promises.
l will take the business of one rail-
road as an index of the increase of bust
ness in the United States. We had in
1910 practically no railroads. We had
in 1869, $4,000 miles, and we have in 1895
1870, 900 miles. We will take the tonnage
- ono ovctoy,o fo,. 1890 ond 1909 for 40
increase in business between those two
dates. In round numbers the Pennsyl-
vania railroad had tonnagesin 1869 of
5000, 900 and in 1892 IS 5000, 900.
The first date is near the time when
silver was demonetized, as there was
then-we will assume-not more than
seven-eighths of the amount of gold and
silver in existence that there is now, and
that one-half of that was gold, making
seven-sixteenths of the whole amount
then in use as money. Estimating that
the other one-eighth is now added to
gold and silver equally, we have one
sixteenth, or about per cent more
money in gold than we had in 1873, and
the increase in business, taking the ton
mage of the Pennsylvania railroad as a
basis, has been, LOO per cent.
Living men remember that in 1910
derness, and west of the Mississippi,
Indians and buffaloes had undisputed
possession, and Chicago was small viii
lage of some 5000 people.
STRANGE BANKERS ARE NOT b.
METALLISTS.
Now, west of Buffalo is the productive
and financial empire of the United
States, and Chicago is next to the largest
city in the United States. With these
figures and this picture before us, is it
fair to compare prices, now In 1873, with
gold, and not take into account the in
crease of property and trade as factor
In making prices with the real money
Of, the world cut in two, which before
1873 made prices for the world of trade,
when we realize that the increase in gold
has been only per cent on the whole
stock then in existence, and that the in
crease in trade in the United States is
LOO per cent? The thing is so repug-
nant to reason that 1t seems impossible
that it should; be done by any one who
looks at these figures and this picture
from business and not a theoretical
standpoint.
What is stranger still to my mind is,
that in view of these facts international
bfmetallism is not considered by bust
ness men and bankers, who desire to
facilitate home and foreign trade and
commerce, commercial necessity; if in
any practical sense they want stability
in our money standards, and, therefore,
In prices Of commodities to prevail. If
instability in BOTH and consequent de-
preston in business, followed by strikes
and their offspring, is what is wanted.
LAT ne continue RI ro1Vno tho uo1,,voo of