The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28

what VIII make trade active and profit
able for the merchant?
a medium of exchange.
Every man who is not an Invalid has
something Of value that he does moi
need. and needs something that some
other man does not need. How can the
exchange be made?
! A man may have nothing but his
labor. the value of when will be lost
to himself and to the world. if he can
not exchange it every day for some
thing he wants.
If the money of the community is
tied up or ''cornered" in banks. and nc
other medium of exchange can be had,
man must resort to barter. He must
work-if he find work-for some COM
modify. and after he has earned the
commodity. he will have to earn it
over again in exchanging it for some
thing he needs
If the gold of the world were sunk to
the bottom of the sea some other me-
dunn of exchange would be devised,
and the people would be Just as pros
porous and happy as they are now;
and is it not almost as hard to get gold
from the Golfers of the Rothschilds, as
it would be from the bottom of the
sea? Then why not devise some other
medium Of exchange now?
Free coinage of silver by the govern
ment would undoubtedly be the best
means: but while waiting for that the
people will suffer.
Then why not use silver now as
medium of exchange?
If some of our men of business stand
ing. mine owners. and others. would
organize a guaranty company, that
would mark the weight and fineness on
bars of silver. and pay them out for
labor and materials. they could be
made to circulate in this western
country, and thereby absorb large
amount of the bullion that is now
thrown on an already depressed mar
ket. If silver could be had in convent
ent form. say in ounce slugs of known
fneness. they would answer today as
well as gold coins as a medium of ex-
change. They could be paid out for
example. by mine owners to miners,
by miners to merchants, by merchants
to farmers and mechanics. who would
in turn pay them back to merchants,
and so on. through the whole round OF
exchange. They could be deposited in
the bank the same as coin: and, IN
fact. used in every way the same as
money. except where specific contracts
were to be settled. or government taxes
or duties paid.
ho CT
fixed value. end that no one would
know what profit he had made, or
what value he had received for what
he had sold: or. in case of contracts
to be paid in the future. what the sill
yer would be worth. But no one knows
that now: for between the time a con-
tract is made for gold. and the time !
when gold is used. prices have changed;
Or. in other words. the purchasing |
In the last twenty years, sill |
yer has been a more exact measure of
value than gold. Nor would the change
in the gold value of silver be noticed
by most people. In the days of green
backs not one person in a hundred paid
any attention to the gold value of pa
per money. yet the paper money varied
more when measured in gold than sill
yer does now.
Silver has lost all the qualities neces-
;ary to be a perfect medium of ex-
change as well without the stamp of
he government as with it. Then why
wait for prosperity. until the govern
nent can be changed SO as to give US
rec coinage? The chief use of silver
or hundreds of years has been as
noney-as medium Of exchange.
Then why not use it now? T. L.