The Portland daily press., 1896-09-01
To the Editor Of the Press:

To the Editor Of the Press:
There is an appreciation of money of
all kinds when prices fall; of gold, sill
yer, greenbaoks, silver certificates and
subsidiary coins, clean down to q five
cent nickel and copper cent can
see no reason why gold alone should
enjoy the distinction of being the sole
indicator Of hard times, or low prices, or
of good times and high pieces, when 1t ia
SO intimately allied in its nature and
purposes with money of all kinds. Even
the fact of Its being monetary standard
does not give it any special Significance
or Importance as an indicator" for
even depreoiated silver dollar or any
thing else, which has the power of pur-
chase or exchange for commodities, ap-
preciates in value when prices 20 down ;
that is, they will buy more commodities
when prices are low than when prices
are high. This is all free silverites claim
for gold-except that Its appreciation is
the cause of low prices-so that it is just
as sensible AID appropriate to say that
SAN~~o
aud paper money since 1873 as to say
there has been an appreciation of gold,
and both statements would be based on
the fact of low prices, while the fact
of low prices would not be based ON the
appreciation OF either. There Is no
doubt that low prices increase the pur-
chasing power of money; that Ia, low
prices cause the appreciation of money,
but the appreciation of gold, or any other
money, does not cause low prices any
more than the hands of clock cause
the Onward march of time. 10 say that
prices are low because there is an appre-
citation OF gold is simply to say that
prices are low because they are low.
Free coinage men ought to suggest some
better reason for bimetallism than that,
because, as suggested in former article,
the act OF demonstration has had no
effect on market prices because all the
silver that has been needed for business
purposes has been kept in circulation on
par with gold, and even If government
had continued to receive at the mints and
coin as much silver rs was coined under
the Sherman law, it seems consistent
with reason and common sense that no
more silver would have been kept In orr
culation than was needed for business
purposes. and that could have been kept
on par with gold. What difference
then, would it have made in the fall of
pricesp
Why do not free silver men place the
cause Of low prices where it belongs and
where every experienced bust CESS man
places it-in business competition, re-
sulting from cheaper methods and faoili-
ties In transaoting business, and in bust
ness men being forced through overpro
duction, improvements In machinery.
cheaper labor and the .overcrowdinR OF
business ranks. to smaller margin of
profitsP This Is really what free silver
men mean, ami all they mean, by ''the
of gold'; that prices have
been growing lower since 1878. Who dis.
putes it, and what of it? Why invent
purely factitious reason for this, or why
prescribe the remedy of imitation to an
overdosed patientp Free coin.
age" when reduced to It's normal propor-
itons, ia nothing but a bag of campaign
wind artfully bedecked with silvery stars
and spangles and sent aloft to dazzle the
eyes of political wayfarers who do not
see, or care to see, the difference between
gaudy tinsel and honest coin.
j. s. WHITE.