The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-30
{HADLNG THE
SILVER FIGHT.
Continued from Page -

these notes, and for considerable
number of years coin of both kinds re-
manned at a high premium.
To meet the necessities of the times
the government was also compelled
40 issue its bonds payable in COIN,
which under the law as it then existed
A1eant either gold or silver coin, and
cell them in the money markets of the
whole world for whatever they would
bring in coin and the price obtained
bore substantially the same relation to
the face value of the bonds that gold
and silver did to the face value of our
treasury notes.
Not only were government obliga-
tions disposed of upon this ruinous ba-
sis of difference between the price re-
ceived for them and the sum it would
take to redeem them, but the whole
business of the country, state. munich
pal. corporate and private, was trans
acted upon the same plane of an in
flated paper currency which congress
had declared a legal tender in pay
ment of all debts.
To attempt to grasp the magnitude
of the figures which would measure
the sum total of all these debts, con-
tracteG before specie payne was re-
sumed, would be an utterly futile effort
of the human mind.
Creditors and Debtors.
Tt is sufficient here to realize that it
was great enough to divide our own
people INTO class of creditors upon
one side. and a far more numerous
class of debtors on the other, and yet
] believe that it Is true that a larger
part of our national. state and corpo-
rate obligations were held by resi-
dents Of other countries than our own.
oi,@
stance in the situa tion as it then eX-
listed. The great bulk of ordinary in
debtedness of the masses could be can
celled With the currency in common
use and the result Of this imitation was
a great enhancement of the selling
price of nearly all the products of la
Dor so that a man owing we will say
one thousand dollars. and having in
his possession property that would sell
for only five hundred in coin. could re-
alize one thousand for it in treasury
notes and with these could cancel his
indebtedness.
In 1873, more than ten years after
both gold and silved had disappeared
from circulation, and when the masses
of our people had ceased to regard
either as essential in the transaction
of their business, a bill WAS in some
manner got through congress- and re-
ceived the approval of the president,
that demonetized silver, that is to say,
that, provided, that thereafter gold
alone should be the real money of the
country, instead of gold and silver
alike as heretofore, and this was fol-
Bowed by another in the year follow
ing, limiting the amount for which
silver should be legal tender to So
Following these acts in 1878, the gov
ernment resumed what is known as
specie payment. that is to say. when
ever one of its pecuniary obligations
was presented for payment, if the hold
fer demanded gold instead of paper the
government paid him with gold.
1t was not until after the resump-
ton of specie payment that the coun-
try at large became aware of the fact
that silver had been demonetized and
that gold alone in our financial system
was our only real money.
Much has been said of the means
employed to secure the passage Of the
act demonetizing silver.
I have not the time nor is it neces-
sary to discuss that subject here
1t is enough to state a self-evident
fact; ii was not done in the interest of
the debtor class, for no rational being
largely indebted to others could be
made to believe that his interests
would be promoted by lessening the vol.
ume of money he must obtain to meet
his obligations: and it is equally APP
parent that it was done in the interest
of the creditor class, Tor the expert
ence of every age teaches that ma
lures law OF supply and demand large
ly regulates the market price of every
article essential to mans existence.
and it follows as an irresistible conclu-
sion that any act which lessons the
volume of a cOuntry's money would
necessarily increase the value of what
IS left. and to the same extent the
value Of every obligation payable in
money.
statistics, 1 believe, show that the
value of the volume of gold and silver
produced in the world. when reckoned
at a ratio of Is 20 1, has never largely
varied for any great period of time so
it would seem to be self-evident that if
both of these metals were coined into
money, the people of the world would
have twice as much of that kind of
money as they can possibly posses if
only one is used.
II was not in the United States alone
that silver found its enemies Before
the middle of the present century Eng
land had adopted the single gold stand
ard: we followed in the early '7O's:
Germany a half year later. and since
then a majority Of the commercial ma
tons of the earth have adopted that
standard.
But here we should not be misled into
the belief that the mint stamp of any
nation adds to the value of the gold
contained in any coin. when it passes
out Of the country in which it was
made.
As to Gold.
In all business transactions between
citizens Of different countries. it is the
weight ana finenesS of the gold con-
tanned in a coin, and not the name or
mint value that is given it by law. that
determines its purchasing power. Our
gold eagle would be worth just as much
for all purposes of foreign trade if it
were melted into an irregular mass
without the sign of a stamp of our
mint upon it. as it is in its more per-
feet form, and So in fact it would be
worth substantially the same at home
IN one form as the other, for if melted
down, the owner could take it to the
mint and haYe it re-coined without ex-
pense to himself.
The only practical purpose that is
secured by coming gold in any country
is TO determine the weight and ffneness
of seperate pieces without the neces-
sity of weighing and ascertaining the
degree OF their fineness each time they
are exchanged for something else. and
even this purpose in large transactions
is not wholly attained. for those on
gagged in them always insist upon
weighing the coins used. and give and
Ill :