The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-09-05
KHY GOLD Is srABLE

By way of refuting the claim of the
advocates of the single gold standard
that the value of a money metal cannot
be fixed by law the Virginia City New
Chronicle prints the following:
Here is point of value which has es-
capped general observation, and we think
is not mentioned in any of the "Coin"
publications. This is the fact that by
the Peel act of 1914, the price of gold is
fixed by English law. This act, passed
July 10, 1914, compels the Bank of Eng
land to pay G3 It's and Cd for every
ounce of standard gold presented at its
counter, and is what keeps the price of
gold stable all over the world at $1S 80,
less carriage and insurance. By the
provisions of its charter the Bank of
England is obliged to purchase all the
gold bullion brought to it at 1882 an
ounce.
This statement can be verified by ref
erence to Chambers Encyclopedia, Lip
pincotts edition of 1859, vol. 1, page 667,
or to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Amer
lean edition, 1883, XVI, page 4s5. On
the same page they Will find the case of
silver is somewhat different, the bullion
being purchased by the department at
its market value.
Now what becomes of the argument
so gliby pnt forth by Carlisle, Cleveland
& Co. about the price OF gold being
fixed by Providence or by tacit agree
ment among nations? It completely
knocks out DR.. Depew, who stated in his
Detroit banquet speech that there can be
but one standard of value, and that is
metal which will bring the same Price
whether it is in bar or has the stamp of
the government upon it. On the con-
trary, the Bank of Engl nd, which under
the prevailing system, regulates the price
for the whole world is compelled by
law TO pay stated amount for all the
gold brought to it
1t is as clear rs daylight that the law
by naming both the price and the buyer,
when the latter is responsible like a gov
ernment with practically unlimited re-
sources can tx and maintain prices. not
withstanding Secretary Morton's dicatO-
rial declaration that mere statutory en-
actment' can't do such a thing. The
British law fixes the price and names the
buyer. The buyer is the British govern
ment a corporation of unlimited credit
and resources pledged to pay 1892 for
every ounce of STANFORD gold presented
at its Tank of England counter. But it
does not pay that amount in gold; it
pays it in notes. Evidently, therefore.
the real thing, or power. or redeemer, be-
hind both the gold and the notes, is the
credit of the British government. Now,
the advocates of free silver coinage in
tais country are not asking that the gov
eminent should do for silver what the
British government has done for gold
force the payment of a specific price for
bullion by law. They simply ask that
silver be given the same chance with
gold in the market; in other words, that
it be not Disseminated against.
l. r
geles Express says:
The reason gold is more valuable than
silver is because those who have
control of the money market have de-
cided that it shall be so considered. If a
few men like the Rothschilds were to de-
eide tomorrow that silver should be ''the
money of redemption" as they are
pleased to call it,gold would be worth no
more, if as much. as silver is today. The
value of gold is purely artificial and the
creation of money brokers who have Sc
| lected it as the standard of value; first,
because they are largely English and
the British empire produces gold but
| practically no silver; secondly, because
| the supply of gold is smaller and there
| fore more easily controlled by few men
who own most of the gold mines of the
world.
But while the British government, to
| please the bankers which control it, has
| fixed a standard price for gold, and pre-
| tends that silver is a mere commodity,
! yet it buys this silver coins it in the ratio
| of 10 to and forces it on the Asiatics
| for that value, showing again the power
of government, and that the value of the
metals as money is arbitrary and artificial
1t is dishonest according to our English
creditors and their tools in this country
for the United States to pay its debts in
silver, because silver is only worth one
thirty second as much as gold, but it is
! perfectly legitimate and honest for the
| English trader to use silver dollars coin
| ed on the basis of 10 to 1 in the transact
| ton of his business with the Chinese,
| Japanese and other Asiatics.
If little island like England can fix
the price of gold for the world is there
any reason why rich and prosperous
nation like this, with boundless resources
and producing almost everything need
full, can not fix the price of silver for the
world?