The Portland daily press., 1895-07-01
THE SILVER QUESTION.
Over Production.


To the Editor of the Press:
The opinion, with which North ern and
Eastern journals have prepossessed the
public mind, is, that silver by it's over
production and consequent cheapness as
a commodity has become unfit to consti-
tute any part of the coinage basis of our
monetary system; and that the successive
measures adopted by different govern
ments to restrict its coinage and limit it's
legal tender, instead of being rash, revo-
lutionary, and destructive have been con-
servatiye and prudent and really neces-
sary to maintain the soundness of our
currency.
do not wish to say that both silver and
gold might not be produced in such
enormous quantities as to make them un-
ftsfor monetary uses. There is a scien-
tifio speculation that the vast interior of
the globe is molten metal, or metal kept
in solidity only by pressure, the earths and
rocks forming the crust being metal oxi-
died by the action of air and water and
the known approximate weight of the
globe, and the fact that the metallic base
of many of the earths and rocks of the
surface of the planet have been chemically
reclaimed lend some support to this specu-
possible achievement to sink Artesian
wells into the reservoir and pump up gold
in such floods as to require an immediate
assembling of Monetary Congress to re-
adjust the standard. Practical men, how
ever, do not regulate their conduct upon
such fanciful contingencies. 1t is enough
to say that there have been great and
sudden accessions to the worlds stock of
silver, like the opening of the Potosi
mines in the 10Th, and of the Nevada
bonanza in the 10Th century, and of gold,
like that following the discoveries Of the
placers of California, Australia and South
Africa in our own times, which expended
themselves in healthy stimulation Of
industy and production without serious
commercial disturbance, or were neu-
tralized by slight and gradual changes in
the equivalents of gold and silver in the
monetary system.
One of the weightiest authorities for
monometalism and an exclusive gold cur
rency-that under which the disastrous
the wrecks of public and private wealth,
that strew the progress-is that of John
Stewart Mill. Let us see exactly what he
says, and what are the practical lessons
of the principles he lays down.
"In state Of freedom Il. g. freedom
from governmental intervention, the
value of money, where no charge is made
1Oi COllldSc, Will COUlOIIlH w UllG Sdlu6 VI
the bullion of which it is made. POL
Econ. Oh. TX, p. 3S.
Bimetallists deny this proposition in
toto; but let us see whether the radical
conclusion and the rash policies Mr.. Mill s
followers justify on his authority ever had
his sanction or support.
What determines the value of bullion
out of which money is made? The
answer Mr.. Mill in common with all
economists give is: Supply and Demand
by which they mean that commodity
say silver bullion rises in value and price,
when there is large demand and small
supply /; 1T sinks in value, when there is
small demand and large supply of it..
1t is easy to see that any supply of silver
however great or sudden that was antici
pated by a corresponding demand for it
could not depress its price 1t is always
the relation to each other of the two fac
tors of value determines prices.
NO LIMIT POSSIBLE TO THE DE-
MAND FOR WEALTH.
However the metal silver may fall in
price for industrial uses-plate, utensils
&c.-by over production-and by being
disused or restricted as money it is de,
graded to commodity and becomes sub
ject to the laws that rule the prices OF
| commodities-while it's money attributes
dr6 lIlGluUdlQ6u du over supply OI III is
impossible Mr. Mill himself says: fsDe-
mand and supply in relation to money
present themselves in a somewhat differ
ent shape from the demand and supply OF
other things"
THE demand for money differs from
the demand for other things in this, that
| it is limited only by the means of the
purchaser. The demand for other things
| is for SO much and no more; but there Is
| always demand for so much money as
can be got. lib, PIP. %, 81.
We can readily understand how the de-
mand for specific things as food, houses,
clothing may be limited, and may be
reached and passed by corresponding
supply. Some men have five coats in q
| year; many more men have only one coat
| in five years. There are women who in
| tend never to show themselves in COM
pany twice in the same dress; many
more who never show themselves any.
where except in dresses that other women
have discarded. There are men in this
country who have luxurious houses in
each belt of climate in which they enter
tain in every season of the year, there
are more who never have house any.
where all their lives If they had money
the poorest would initiate and outstrir
! the extra vagance of the rich Even If the
production Of coats, dresses, houses &c.
might exceed the demands of the greatest
profusion of expenditure possible, how.
! can the demand for averVthing be caught