The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-08-27


the two metals, gold and silver, as we
b=lieve Il will ais us III our investiga-
lions and Conclusions.
Gold and silver, it is well known. are
prodaced atthe cost of labor and CAPT.
tai, precisely in the same manner that
iron, lead and other metals are produced.
and in some states they are one OF the
most inviting products ofindustry. As
products. therefore, OF industry, they
possess an intrinsic value, dependent up
on the cost OF production. including the
amounts paid to iaborers as wages, IN
prospecting, digging, smelling the ores,
refining the metals, and the amount OF
ordinar. profits on capital invested.
Like other enterprises, the object in
mining is not to produce gold and silver
alone. but to produce gold and silver OF
a greater value than that OF the capital
expended in its production. 1t follows
hen. naturally. that gold and silver, be-
lug products of Industry, each possess
value as real and substantial as belong
to any commodity, not founded upon
the basis of sentiment or form, as some
people seen tn imagine, but upon the
cost OF production and their well known
utility of value, which no other metals
possess, and which makes them sought
Tor almost universally, OF the relative
valve of the metals, each have their own
peculiar value, founded upon the immu-
table law OF cost of production, in labor
and capital, and supply and demand, by
which all values are determined. Nature
nor natures law docs not saw, never said
and never tan or will say that sixteen
grains of silver are of equal value to one
grain OF gold. AS well might it be said
that sixteen bushels of oats are equal to
one Of wheat and if not SO can be made
90 nv legislation. What nature has LETT
undone, no viewer. in regard to the met
ais, man in his limited wisdom has seen
fit to attempt to supply. At a time
when the production and the relative
value of the metals seem to warrant it,
he enacts that 16 to IS about right,
and if it isn't just right he will make it
SO bv law. At the present time, the rela-
tive value of the metals is such that
what was formerly a silver dollar is
now worth trifle over fifty cents. And
the free silver advocate desires to enact
a law that even at that relation he
proposes to legislate to make it one dol
lar, The world has been looking for the
grass grow where only one grew before,
but it isn't quite ready to accept the
fnancier who offers to make two silver
dollars out of one and each one be OF the
full value of one hundred cents.
With our principle still in mind, and
remembering that both gold and silver
are products of labor, that trade is moth
ing more nor less than an exchange OF
the fruits of labor, we come to the ques-
ton. How can silver dollar, possess
ing but a trifle over fifty cents OF intrln-
sic value, and requiring but fifty cents
worth OF labor TO produce it, be honest
" exchanged for goods or commodities
which it costs one dollar in labor value
to produce. Labor, it is admitted by
all, enters largely, almost wholly, into
,verv article, and is the fundamental
measure Of all values, and how long can
A man give that which cost him one
1undred cents in labor Tor that which
cost another man but fifty cents in Ia
Dor, and how long can he continue to do
SO? No, it is contrary to common sense,
'oinmon honesty, and is directly at va
rance with the principles that we have
above drawn from honest business
And this conditionis pre-
.isely what the friends" OF silver want !
% bring about. The friend" of silver
will not, however discuss principles or
avs, excepting the 'law" he proposes
% have enacted to make silver equal to
gold at sixteen" to one. This is the
only law he knows or cares about. He |
will set up his opinions, conjectures and
* ures against the laws of nature and
The voice OF history. He will talk about
he "Crime of '73", the Gold Bugs OF
Wall Street, "the price of wheat" "the
all in prices" 1.-THE lack of money per
,apita," and tell you how silver would
advance in value, in his "opinion" were
t Consumed" by free coinage at sixteen
TO one. Again, he is careful to use the
word 'free" when speaking of silver.
The effect is what he wants. There is
magic to him in the word free, and he
tries to impress on his hearers that sill
yer will be free to them after it is coined.
He offers no proofs, he has none, and
an experiment. but even If it is, it wOald
be much better than the present de-
pressed condition of things. He forgets,
or cares not, that when you experiment
with the money of a country you touch
its life blood.
He tells US that, under free coinage,
silver will advance in value, and remain
stable. He does not, say exactly At /
what point it will be stable, but he
knows it will advance. We point to sill
yer countries and ask whv it does not
advance and attain stability there. We
know that it is constantly fascinating.
He complains of the appreciation Of
gold, as ne claims, yet tells as that sill
yer will appreciate. He is anything but
consistent. He sees disaster and is ter
rified at what he terms the appreciation
OF gold. bot in the appreciation OF silver
as he claims, he sees prosperity. He de-
nounces gold monometalism,a admits that
free coinage will bring silver monome-
talism and is satisfied. IA, !.
In 1890, prior to che passage of the
Sherman Act, good honest men, in Con-
gress, who favored silver, and to satis-
fy whom that compromise law was
passed by Congress, said eff you pass
this bill providing for the purchase by
the government OF 100000 ounces
silver, per month, virtually the who'll
American output, the price of silver will
go up to $1.29 per ounce. and remain
there at par with gold. What was the
result? For month or two after the
passage OF the act, silver advanced rap
idly and in August 1890, reached its
highest $1.20. But the advance proved