Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-07-12
The SILVER QUESTION.
Speech OF MR.. EDMUNDs AT PHILADEL
PHlA REVIEWED.
BREAD LOAF Inn, Ripton, VT, I
June 81. 1885.

at Philadelphia on the Financial Issue
has recently been handed me. In most
of his speech Mr.. Edmunds is very care
full of his statements, but in some parts.
as it seems to me, a wrong impression is
conveyed and in no part is the whole
truth unfolded or in any sense a fair eX-
position given of the question that now
so largely occupies the public mind and
that the people are so anxious to under
stand
Mr.. Edmunds begins with handsome
compliment to Philadelphia, which is no
doubt well deserved. lie then refers
handsomely to the Romans, and this, too,
was well done. In the version of the
speech seen by us he closes the first
paragraph in these words: "But what
| shall have to say will be to tell you
some plain facts, historical in respect to
the progress of our own country on these
questions of money, and historical in
respect to the sad experience that others
have had by trying similar experiments"
As no experiments have as yet been
referred to IN this version of the speech,
it is impossible to tell what "similar ex-
periments" mean, and hence we have a
bad break in the speech, probably the
fault of a reporter.
In the next paragraph Mr.. Edmunds is
very thorough in his commentator of
the principle of honesty, taking for his
text a remark attributed to Thomas
Jefferson, that the whole art of govern
ment consists in the art of being honest.
No one, we think, is disposed to object
to this.
Mr.. Edmunds then quotes Mr.. Jefler-
son again as saying: "Ihat the difference
between the values of gold and silver as
money was purely a commercial ques-
ton; it did not depend upon the will of
legislative law; it did not depend upon
the fancy of man, but upon the same
laws of commerce that everywhere
regulate the price of every commodity"
We have quoted these words as from Mr..
jefferson, bat they are not quoted in the
article, and what exactly Mr.. Jefferson
did say we don't know. Mr.. Edmunds
now asks: "Was jefferson right or
wrong?" And having proposed this
conundrum, which he leaves unanswered,
he continues:
There is nothing sacred, there is moth
ing magical, there is nothing difficult to
understand about the metal that we call
gold; there is nothing difficult to under
stand about the metal that we call silver,
or copper, or iron, or zinc, or lead, or
the coal that in the mountains of Penn
sYlyania furnishes the motive power for
more than half of the industries of the
United States. 1t is like every other
thing that bountiful nature gives to man
at the price that he must pay of indus
trious labor. and it is in demand, and
carries its price just as everything else
does"
Now if Mr.. Edmunds means anything
that connects with this subject, by all
these excellent words, quoted or other
wise, he means that the value of silver or
gold is not affected by its use as money.
Inferentially it is suggested that the
value of it is the price of the labor used
to get it. But neither of these PROPOSE
tions is true. The use made of metals as
money, which is a matter of law, affects
at once their value. In the first place.
the law referred to, of demand and
supply, is directly involved. \ law
making either of these metals money
gives an increased demand, and, as a mat
ter of fact, very greatly increased de-
mand for that metal. Hence at once its
value is affected "by the same laws of
commerce that everywhere regulate the
price of every commodity" And to this
extent the difference between the values
of gold and silver may depend and does de-
pend largely upon the will of legislative
law.
The last edition of the British En-
cyclopedia, universally recognized as
the ablest work of the kind in the world,
in an article on silver, says "But the
crown retained the right to regulate the
nominal value of gold and silver coins,
the exercise of which has had the great
est influence on the relative market value
of these metals"
1.-The closure of the minis of all important
commercial countries to silver, while
they have remained open to the free
coinage of gold at a fixed valuation, has
enhanced the purchasing power of gold,
compared with either silver or other
commodities, about One-fOurth." This
was written in 1856. If written now it
would read 'one-hdlf."
The same authority, in an article on
Money" says: 1.-The proposal of the
Paris conference of 1867 for single gold
standard and a universal coinage on that
basis raised the question [of standard
to great prominence. Wolowski and
Courcelle Senuel strongly opposed the
recommendation, the former predicting
that disastrous appreciation of gold
would follow. This view seems borne out
by the result" The writer speaks still