The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-23
There is no danger of the silver agita-

| There is no danger of the silver aglta
| ton dying out. 1t is interviewer with
every business enterprise and organi
zaticn within the organized Republic
1t will not only effect the bank, and the
grocery store. but the church and the
| school. and above all the history of the
| country.
In this history-making function, sill
yer is not new. To its influence Thor
! old Rogers, the great English ecOnO-
mist, ascribes the Reformation in Eng
land. England at that time was the
great producer of silver. The govern
ment of England" he says. made
strenuous efforts TO prevent the export
alton Of silver, and | am quite sure
that the payments made to the pope
and his court turned public feeling
against the supremacy of the Roman
Pontiff. and FASTENED the breach of the
Sixteenth century. Perhaps, had the
pope been acquainted with monetary
science. in 50 far as it is understood by
everyone now, and had grappled with
the economic heresy which treats il
as the only wealth. he might have miti-
gated the feeling But more than any
other sovereign Of the Middle Ages,
the pope spent wealth"
Mr.. Rogers continues: ''The opinion
of English statesmen was, that in order
10 secure and retain abundant wealth
il was necessary that on every article
exported. a balance in specie should be
paid TO the English dealer. The gov
eminent therefore limited the market
for certain important English exports
to certain towns. called staple towns,
of which Calais, for wool, the princi-
pal and most valuable Of English eX-
ports, was the chief. But as the mer-
chants might prefer their own profits
TO the theory of the administration, a
high officer of the state, called the
kings eXcequer, was appointed. whose
duty it was, by himself or deputy, to
see that balance of money was paid
on each transaction. The first of these
officials was De Ia Pole in the time of
Edward III. This official foOlery
went on till the time Of Charles |,
who appointed Richard, Earl of Hol-
land, to the office. But the London
merchants from whom Charles was
perpetually borrowing money, resented
the absurdity, declared that the patent
was illegal, and induced Charles TO re-
yoke ii. In form, the prohibition on
=, e Il
continued until 1916. 1t had curious
effect. People were allowed to export
gold in bars, foreign coin and bullion
the produce of foreign coin, and an
oath had TO be taken that exported
bars were of this character People
were hired to swear that they We're,
and sworn-off gold. as it wall called,
was worth three halfpence an ounce
not been subjected TO the ceremony"
The Eagles readers may read the
last two sentences over again and no
harm done. They must see, that con-
trary to the arguments of the gold adj
vocates, legislation does effect the price
Of money metal, even the rarest and
now most staple of all money metals
gold. The "sworn-of gohH' had n
wider function than the 'stay-at-home"
gold, that is, the demand was greater
for its use as a money and it went up.
Now the gold advocates hold that the
disuse of silver as a money did not de-
crease the value of silver metal; that
q return to the use of it as Il money
would not increase its value. At least
not until that fact is settled, will the