The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1896-10-14

non reply JnhL tne ITee-COlDHge D
silver by the United States will, doubl,
the demand for silver bullion aud double
its price. Under free. coinage our cur
rency will be iucrt ased perhaps 800,
| 600, 900 year but the currency at the
gold-using nations of Europe will be
Increased with equal rapidity even il we
retain all our pr, sent stock of gold II
we export gold at all it will be slow
process. 1t is impossible for any one
who believes that the value Of currency
depends upon its volume to figure out
the complete disappearance of our gold,
or an appreciable premium upon it fir
years TO come.
1t is not my purpose to repeat the time
honored arguments showing the CORE CT
ness OF the belief that the value of cur
rency, other things being equal, does
depend upon its volume. That princi-
pie is not only accepted by the common
sense Of the unlearned classes, hut is
taught by every International bimetallist
and by every one of the classic political
economists. l merely wish to cite two
illustrations Of its truth. When Che
Napoleonic wars led to the employment
OF paper money instead OF coin in France
and England, the value of both gold and
silver fell TO one-half In other words,
pric. measured in gold aud silver doubt
ed. When at the end of the wars the
two nationsretired their paper currencies
and demanded coin the value of both
metals doubled. When the gold dis
coveries in California and Australia at
the middle of this century greatly in
creased the supply OF gold, thought with
out materially affecting the supply OF
silver, the value of money, whether gold
or silver, aAain fell with the increased
quantity of money. Nothing is clearer
historically than thai the value of money
depends not upon its material, but upon
its relation between its supply aud the
demand Of business. An illustration of
this principle, only less striking, has
been furnished by the recent experience
of the United States. In 1873, when the
Bland-Allison bill was passed, requiring
the coinage of s., 100000 of silver bullion
month at the old ratio of Is to |, the
monometallists with one accord predict
ed that we would have IAN eighty. cent
dollar" II the value Of money depend.
ed upon its material, and not upon it's
volume, the Bland dollar would certain
ly have been worth but eighty cents ia
gold. When the Sherman act was pass
ed the power of the government to effect
the relative value of gold and silver was
again shown. Not only was the price of
all coin silver raised to the old level
81 20 an ounce but the price OF lincoln
ed silver throughout the world was rails
ing from little over ninety cents an ounce
TO $l.2l. If the limited coinage OF silver
under the Bland and Sherman acts was
sufficient to raise all coined silver TO
81 20 an ounce and all uncoined silver TO
$l.2l an ounce, when the relative supply
of silver was FAR gre alter than to-day, it is
evident that unlimited coinage and the
doubling OF our former demand would
raise all silver to the old level.
For several years France, with less
than half our present population and
hardly more than half of our present
currency, received yearly at her mints
$780, 900 600 of gold Yet with this ex-
pansion of the currency came an expan-
sion OF business demanding more cur
rency. Prices rose but one-hfth in fifteen
years and prices in silver rose as rapidly
as prices in gold. There was a slight
premium upon silver at the bullion deal
ers, but this premium did not exist in
ordinary transactions. Writing in 1859
eleven years after the food of cheap
gold had begun to pour into the cur
rency, Chevalier, the great monometa-
list OF his generation, said:
zone is surprised at first that a pro-
duction of gold so vast, so colossal, las has
been noted, in comparison with what
had been seen before, has not yet caused
a lower ratio of gold to the other preci-
Gus metal. For a stranger who owes a
a certain number of francs
that is, a certain number of times Al
grams Of silver-acquits himself legally
by giving him a quantity of gold l5I
times as small. -. SO long as there re-.
mains much silver in France, p,ople resid-
ing there, to whom the pieces Of metal
come, ought to esteem them selves hap
ply to exchange it for gold at premium
very small over the ratio established by
the law of 1903, since for the payments
they have to make they cannot make
Ihsir creditors take it for more than the
Of gold indicated by the law,
| to l5l.
What took place in France in the fifth,
when the free-coinsge Of gold was contin-
ued despite the protests ofthe classes favor
ing scarce currency is likely TO take
place in the United States when the
fIee-coinsge Of silver is resumed, despite
the protests OF the same classes. The
increase in our currency will be relative
ly less and the rise in prices probably
less. The amount of silver that can be
brought to our minis is not likely to
exceed 500 000,000, even II the cause OF
bimetallism is too weak abroad to lead
any other nation to follow our example.
The relaxing of our demand for gold is