The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-21
FINANCIAL ~LEGERDEMAIN.

o4udic 1dfutu, III WHICH ne NdlDly cUutdN-
ored to rise from the level of boy oratory
to the heights of craftsmanship. he felt it
necessary to ~refute. so far as he is able to
do. the charge that under the free and
coinage of silver the United
States would become the dumping ground
of all the silver of the world, and this is
the way he did it. He said:
If our minis are opened to free and un-
limited coinage, at the present ratio. for
eign silver cannot come here. because the
labor applied to it has made it worth more
in the form Of merchandise than 1t will be
worth at our minis
While his speech abounds in passages
that disclose the superficial character of
his acquaintance with a subject which he
pretends to know thoroughly, there are
probably as many elementary and funda-
mental errors in this statement as in any
that he has made. In the first place, the
value of any article is not determined by
the cost of it's production, nor affected
thereby, except as the future supply Of the
article may be Influenced by the cost of its
production. It's value is d determined by the
laws of supply and demand. The cost of
production has less influence upon the
value of the precious metals than it has
on any other commodities. These are the
settled and generally accepted views Of po-
liticai economists everywhere, and a man
might as well deny that one and two make
three as to contradict them. In a contro-
versy with the multiplication table a man
simply exhibits his ignorance. Labor once
SPENT says Professor Jevons, has no in
fiuence ON the future value of any article"
And President Walker. of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. who is the most
intelligent and scholarly bimetallist in our
country, and who has an established repu-
tation here and in Europe as a writer upon
economic subjects, says: THE value of the
precious metals, like the value of every.
thing else, depends wholly on the relation
of supply and demand. cost of production
being only important as it shall influence
the future supply"
So that Mr.. Bryan is at loggerheads with
political economy and the best authority of
his own school of monetary science. Ac-
cording. to the views of men who have
given their lives to the careful study of
those subjects which he is performing upon
for the delectation of curious sight-seers
in New York and elsewhere. it is, therefore,
untrue that the labor which has been APP
piled to the production of silver in foreign
countries will impart to it such value as to
prevent its coming here under a policy of
free coinage or can have anything to do
with it. On the other hand, it is an axiom
of political economy that every commod-
ity seeks the best market. Men buy COM
modities where they are cheapest and sell
them where they are dearest. Mexican dol
lars are now worth half as much as ours.
although they contain more silver. If our
minis were open for the coina"e of Mexican
silver into standard dollars we should re-
turn five and a half grains Of silver to
every holder of a Mexican dollar who pre-
scented 1t for coinage into our money and
stamp the remainder of it with our imprint
for his use. 1t would be equivalent to a
transformation of the bulk of a Mexican
dollar into a standard dollar of our money
a baptism of the bulk of a Mexican dollar
through fire and the melting pot into our
monetary system. A Mexican dollar would
tueTelOTc De WOTlu just WHIT cOuiu De Ludu6
of it by such a baptism. 1t would be worth
the price Of five and a half grains of silver
more than our standard dollar. Otherwise
there would be a complete parity between
them. A grain of silver in one would be ex-
actly equal in value to a grain of silver
In the other, for it would cost nothing to
change the stamp upon it. The value of a
# - Ill., - ~ I1xfo III -.-.t1
be either increased to the present value of
a grain of silver In our standard dollar or
a grain of silver in our standard dollar
might be diminished to the present value
of a grain of silver in the Mexican dollar.
In the former case the whole product of
the Mexican silver would be dumped into
our minis. but in the latter case it would
be Improbable to bring it here. If the
value of these coins should meet somewhere
between these extremes our minis would
still be the dumping ground for Mexican
silver unless our adoption of a free-coinage
policy should extend this value into Next
can territory and make 1T, in short. uni
versal. MIR. Bryan. of course. denies tina
our standard dollar would be reduced to the
value of the Mexican dollar. and he cannot.
therefore, predicate his refutation of the
charge that he is proposing to make our
minis a dumping ground for the silver of
other countries upon any such a PROPOSE
ton. He is unwilling to admit that it is
the design of his party to legalize the re-
pudiation of honest debts. or any part of
them, although he is constantly furnishing
reasons why it would be morally right to
repudiate them. He is, consequently, driven
by the sheer stress of his position to say:
I am firmly convinced that by opening
our mints TO free and unlimited coinage at
fer silver which will keep the price Of silver
bullion at S.23 per ounce measured by gold.
1t is the only other way that was left to
him whereby we can prevent our minis
from becoming the dumping ground of for
eign silver. But while We have been able.
with great difficulty, to maintain the parity
between gold and silver coins under our
present monetary policy. we have not been
able to uphold the commercial value of sill
yer. The devices for upholding it that
were provided by the -silver-purchase acts
proved to be wretched failures. While the
increased demand for silver made a tempo
rary increase In its commercial value. the
rise was quickly followed by a greater de-
cline than ever. According to Mr.. Bryan.