The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-05-30
MORE REDEMPTION MONEY THAN
EVER BEFORE.

The argument that the reduction OF
prices is due to the appreciation of gold
is necessarily based upon the further as
sumption that the legislation in regard
to silver has produced q scarcity of redemp-
ton or metallic money in the world, and
that prices are fixed and regulated by
the amount of such money in circulation.
or available for circulation. Neither of
these assumptions is justified by the facts.
The most exhaustive efforts have been
made from time to time by the treasury de
-partment. through the director of the
mint, by careful examinations of the mon
etary statistics of other countries, by
correspondence with our diplomatic and
consular representatives abroad and with
foreign financial authorities, and other
wise, to ascertain the actual amountof gold
and silver used as money in the world,
and the result shows that there is now
more gold and silver in the aggregate, and
more of each one of them, in use as full
legal tender money than there ever was at
any other time in the history of the world.
The gold in use as money amounts to
So, 800 100000. the full legal tender silver
amounts to So 435, 10000 and the limit
ed legal tender silver amounts to $685.
100000. The policy of maintaining, or
rather attempting to maintain, the So
called double standard never succeeded
in keeping so large an amount of full legal
tender silver in circulation in the world as
there is at this time, and one of the princi-
pal reasons for this is that the effect OF the
policy was to drive first the coins of one
metal and then the coins of the other into
the Golfers of the hOarders or into the
melting pots. because they We're under-val-
ued in the coinage laws and would not re-
main in use as money.
A GREATER PER CAPITA OF GOLD.
| attach very little Importance to the
Der capita argument because the amount
of currency required in country depends
mainly upon the volume of business to be
transacted and the customs of the people
in conducting their exchanges, and not at
all upon the number of men, women ana
children residing in it, but, as there are a
great many who believe that the clrcula-
ton should be regulated by the census re-
turns it may be worth while to state that
the production f'gold alone in 1S9O-and
if is much larger now-was nearly two
and a half times greater than the average
annual production of gold and sll,
YER both during the decade which closed
with the year 1900. In 1900 the popula-
ton of all the countries in Europe and
America was 1917 ,5O5,S9o, and the produc-
ton of both gold and silver amounted to
S24.49 for every 100 inhabitants, while IN
1871 the lbOpuFdllbll VI llle St'li'N
was 466, 7S9341, ad the production OF
gold alone was S11S,S49,OOO, which
amounted to $2j.4G for every hundred m
habitants or 80 cents more for each hun
dred people than was furnished by both
metals during each Year in the former
decade.
In 1894 the population of these countries
was S4S5. 1SO,S41, and the production of
gold alone was $157, 22S,000, being So. II
for each hundred inhabitants, or $1.92
more for each hundred people than the
total of both metals during the, last. de-
cade of the last century. IT, therefore,
the people of Europe and America had
used as money all the gold and all the
silver annually produced in the world
one hundred years ago, they would not
have received as large per capita addl,
ton to their stock of money as they would
receive now by adding the gold, alone
In view of these facts. | submit thar me
silver legislation of 1871, 1873 and 1910
has not diminished the worlds supply OF
metallic money as compared with former
times and prevented the single gold stan
dard countries from making as great a, an
annual addition to their stock OF metallic
currency.