Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-09-25
Washin9tun Staudard
SIMPLE FACTS.


When free coinage comes We shall
not be inundated with free silver bull
lion. No bullion will eros, the Allan
Tic coming this way for the simple
Reason that forty millions i being ex-
ported annually from this country to
the other side Of the Atlantic.
The amount OF money in the world
exceeds in volume all the stock Of
silver and gold in the world available
for coinage. There il no excessive
production OF either which promises
to make any change in this fact. The
volume of gold and silver in the world
has been accommodating since the days
OF Tubal Cain. Nobody eats it or
wears it out. 1t stays. The addition
made to it in either metal in any one
year, or ten years, or twenty years
makes no influential change in the
volume OF the metals.
When gold was discovered in Cal
ifornia and Australia all the great
money lenders pretended to be afraid
that gold was going to be so abundant
that it would be worth no more than
pebble stones. So they employed able
financial writer's to write in favor OF
the demonstration Of gold. This
view finally prevailed in Prussia and
all the German States and Austria,
all Of which established the silver
standard in 1857 or thereabouts. But
gold has not yet become SO plentiful
as to be OF small value. There is no
more danger of any overproduction OF
silver now than there was OF an over
production OF gold then.
Gold is not international money.
American gold coin is not counted
when it is exported or when it is re-
ceived in London. 1t is weighed as so
much bullion and credited as such by
weight. Whoever promises to deliver
gold abroad does it with full knowl-
edge OF this fact. 1t is mere barter, in
which money has no part whatever.
When men give promissory notes they
agree to pay dollars in money, and
that means whatever is legal tender
money in the country. When they
expressly agree to deliver gold they
simply waive the right to use the law
full money of the country at their
pleasure and agree to furnish one kind,
which, by being thus designated in
money contracts, becomes commod-
ity difficult to obtain. 1t is no part of
the duty of the government to enable
an individual to keep any special con-
tract for the delivery of any kind OF
merchandise, whether it be wheat,
wool, gold or silver.
When the free coinage OF both
metals is provided for by law in this
country there will not be single gold
coin leave the country unless there is
an equivalent left behind it. 1t will
not be given away. If all the gold
could 60 out of the country it would
make it cheaper in the countries to
which it went, while silver, being made
to do all the work of money here
would correspondingly increase in
value. If any foreign nation felt dis.
posed TO stop trading with us because
her people disliked our financial sys-
tenn, We would try and get along with
out buying anything from them. But
the United States could not build q
wall high enough to prevent John
Bull from climbing over it to sell u,
his goods, under whatever financial
system we may choose to adopt. The
very pawnbroker will 60 right along
doing business just the same under
free coinage as they do under the gold
standard. In other words, commerce
and trade do not depend upon the
uniformity of money in the different
countries.