The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-09-05
A FEW THOUGHTS ON MONEY
Second Lottery

\SSlonu LGlleT.j
To the Editor of .The Jersey city News:
The decrease in the price Of commodi-
ties is attributed by the advocates of free
coinage to the appreciation of gold. De-
crease in price, through greater produc-
tive economies, is ignored. That the coun-
try is today girded with railroads, and
that ships cross the Atlantic in six days,
are nothing; that machines do the work
formerly done by hand to an extraor.
binary degree, n thus the productivity
of labor has been enormously increased,
is tacitly ignored. All of the necessarily
resulting decrease in price from these
causes is relegated TO but one factor,
and thus is carried on an argument of
great Ingenuity and much duplicity.
If decrease in price were due to APP
~pneciatlon of gold. rents would have
gone down as well. And the greater de-
crease IN price in his generation than
in former periods, is due ITO the greater
stability of communities, closer interna-
tional communication, almost universal
peace. and-greater than all-the unprece.
dented development of machinery. The
decrease in the price of farm products is
due to farming on a large scale, and the
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other countries. That men should ave
gained such a mastery of the forces of
nature as to produce in ever increasing
abundance. is. if we may credit the sill
verites, an event Of overwhelming and
universal calamity.
If decrease In price is a bad thing, and
If the forces hat produce II should be
removed, then increase Of price is a
good thing, and the causes that produce
it should be encouraged. Scarcity pro-
duces high prices; therefore, scarcity is
a good thing; among the things that
produce scarcity are fire and pestilence:
therefore fire and pestilence are good
things
Not only is decrease In price no proof
gold has appreciated. but increase
of production is itself no proof that more
money is required to effect exchanges.
And this very Increase in production,
which is urged as an argument that more
money is needed. may itself account for
that reduction in price which may show
that no more money is necessary.
Ever since we were a nation, our none
tary system has been giving us trouble.
Economic disturbances caused by it have
been attributed directly and By implica-
ton to reduction or proposed reductions
in the tariff. The panic of 1857 is espe-
cially alluded to as the disastrous cul-
mination of tariff reduction in 1916. The
panic of 1857 vas, however, worldwide,
the Bank of England being compelled, in
that year, to appeal to the government
for aid. Just how far the panic in Amer
lea was aided by State banking and the
era of wild speculation caused by these
institutions, is uncertain; but that they
were an active factor in bringing about
the disturbance of 1857 there can be no
doubt.
Economic authority had raised it's
warning voice, from 1878 down to the
time of the repeal of the Sherman act.
against law-making power to no purpose.
II warned the government that the con-
tinued coinage of silver would drive gold
out of the country; but because the credit
of the government was still 80 magnfh-
cent, gold did not Immediately disap-
pear Hence arose the contempt of eco
nomic authority in the heart of the bold
legislator-''the young Lochinvar come
out of the West"-that fearless scorn
with which every representative regards
the maxims of the schools" But the
continued coinage of silver, with increase
of the silver sentiment in the West due
to causes utterly remote from any oues-
ton of finance, went on, and finally
brought its inevitable result-loss Of con-
fidenee abroad n the sale Of our Sc
curities held by foreign holders, thus ne
cessitating their return to the United
States. and the consequent ehux of gold
to pay for them. 1t must also be said
that the growing distrust of our railroad
management produced the same effect
Upon foreign holders.
Some nations have a gold STANDARD and
some a silver one; zone a bimetallic one.
This is because 1t is absolutely Impossible
that any legal ratio could be sustained
between two metals of such varying COM
mercial ratio. The historical argument
against bi1netallism is 10 be found in con-
venient form in Dunning MacLeod's ex-
~celleryt work "Bimetallism.'' But the real
commercial nations Of the world have a
gold standard, and some nations that
2 tried silver nave abandoned it, and
those that have a gold standar are jeal-
Gus OF maintaining it; and no nation has
turned frcm gold to silver. Austria-Hun-
gary struggled from paper TO a gold basis
In the face Of tremendous obstacles and
great temptations; and this resort to a
sound system Of nance has been coinci-
dent with many constitutional reforms in
that country. Germany adopted gold at a
period of her history when she was rising
to migat and power, Holland, Norway.
Sweder, Denmark, France, Belgium ana
that dimlnutive but forward Little coun-
try Switzerland, employ gold. India has
stopped the coinage Of silver. Japan. the
England OF the East, has placed her cur
rency upon q gold basis. The vote OF the
nations is Tor the yellow metal; and IL
gold u the none Of barbardsm, as Il
sometimes said, Il Is finding ever Increased
favor 81 tate hands Of civdIixation.
JosHPH DANA xILLER