Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1895-05-02
SILVER
The fundamental fallacu al

The fundamental fallacy of tn
"bimetallists" is in the assump.
ton that the business of tn,
world is controlled and value!
determined by the action of gov
ernments. Governments hav,
often interfered with the natura
and healthful development o.
commerce, but they have always
fgot the worst of it in the end
Enlightened governments oil
late have given up meddling with
values. All they have to do is
to give formal recognition tc
facts already recognized in the
business world. The attempt to
alter the facts is always futile.
Tbs silver agitators and bime-
tallists simply ignore the history
of a century. Trade was origin.
ally by barter-so many measures
Iof grain for SO many sheep or
tcattle or heeces or hides. Then
tcertaln substances were employ
ed as a common medium of bar
ter-a given weight of bronze,
of silver, of gold-and N due
course it was found convenient
to have the weight of the piece
|of metal stamped upon it by
some recognized authority. This
was the origin of money, but it
was still only a form of barter,
the mint stamp simply indicat-
ing a certain weight of metal and
the exchanges being made for
so many pieces of gold OF so
many pieces of silver.
These two metals, for obvious
reasons, gradually became the
universal medium of exchange,
and efforts were very naturally
made to establish some fixed re-
lation of value between them, SO
that they should be mutually in
Interchangeable and a bargain
made in one metal could be con-
verified into terms of the other.
1t was here that governments un-
dertook to NEEDLE with the nat
ural laws. adding alloy to one
metal or the other in a vain eff
fort to keep their relation con-
slant. The worst effect of these
efforts was to give rise to the
misconception that the value of
money was given to it by the
mint stamp, whereas in fact the |
stamp is only the register of it's
value, which it is powerless to
change.
In spite of these misdirected
experiments, the world contin-
ued to advance. When mankind
had invented money, as a substi-
tute for barter, it was only a nat
ural development to invent al
system that would dispense with
the actual transfer of money in
current business. With a stan
.ard Or measure Of value once es-
tablished trade could be far more
conviently carried on by means
OF notes, checks or other repre-
sentatives of money, leaving
the final settlement to be
made in actual coin. Thus arose.
the modern system of banking
and credits. For this one fixed
standard was absolutely essential
and the usage of the civilized
determined upon gold as
that standard.
Governments had nothing to do
with the selection. They merely
a~cquiesced in it, Great Britain
irst and later all of the govern
nents of Europe, and that of the
United States as we'll. In Asia
md in Spanish America silver
Vas preferred as a standard, but
10 country has ever really main
"a double standard" for
he obvious reason that the thing
S impossible. Silver has been
Ind is still employed largely as
currency, but under such limita-
either as to the amount of
coinage, or as to the extent of its
egal tender quality, as will keep
t in relation with the Standard
>r measure of value.
If the silver agitators would be
content with this practical bime-
we could safely employ
our currency an enormous
mount of silver. The actual
mount of coin required in trade
relatively smaller year by
rear, and silver coinage is only
leeded for the minor uses Of
mall trade. More than one-half
'yen of ordinary retail business
S now transacted by checks, and
What the remote parts of the ]
country want is not more cur
'ency. but more banking facili-
les, which are only possible on
he basis of an unalterable stan
ard. A great deal of the present
currency discussion seems to be
'ased upon the conditions of
fly years ago. But this part of
he world has moved within that
ime.