, 1896-10-07

affect the value Of sW heat or cotton as my
thing e,se Here we get the meaning OF tile
Limitation "to . certain extent" The actions
ofsGoyemments may affect the values OF many
things. certainly, but this is u very different
thing from firing their values as | meant It.
1t was plain from the Whole context OF what
! wrote that what / meant 10 say was that
Governments cannot by u decree OF legiala-
tive enactment fix he value Of anything
whatever. That is a very different hing
from saying that they cannot Influence The
values, which Of course they c1n do locally, and
sometimes generally. by customs dues, boun-
ties, by wnr or what not. Gold is valuable,
not because Governments say 80, but because
mankind in general sly SO. The value of gold
Is determined, Ike tho value of everything
else, by the demand there is for it coupled
with the cost of procuring it. If gold were
as easy 10 procure as salt it would be of no
more value than salt, Notwithstanding its
beauty and durability. fit were as easy to
procure rs silver, lhen It's value would not be
much life! eut from that lot silver, notwilh-
standing Its superiority IN some respects 20
that metal.
Government Chat Of the United States
for example) may lay Town the rules which
shall regulate its coinage. They may FIX ON
a standard, say gold, and may say what the
weight and fuencsS of the gold COINS must be,
but they cannot fix the value of the gold.
They cannot say how much wheat, sugar,
wool or what not may be procured for 1t.
The gold, like everything else, will still go
up or down in value, according to the Difficult
ty or ease with which it may be procured
and the uses to Whicl it may be put. SINH
larly they cannot fix the value of silver. When
silver dollars were first made the amount OF
silver in them really represented u dollar, that
is to say five ~. Yer dollars were really wOrth.a
five dollar gold piece, ana that was why they
were accepted HA such, not because the Gov
eminent hal fixed It SO. BY and by the
discoveries in the Rocky Mountains made sill
yer more abundant, and cOnsequen fly cheap
OF. Hence em5arintsments arose, and to sur
mount these the United States adopted @
gold standard TINT is 10 say payments on q
large scale could he made III gold only. sill
yer was made legal tender only for small
amounts. This WAS Il wise step. All parties
then knew what hey were about, and the
Inconvenience of having transactions ia sill
yer, which was continually falling, was got
rid OF. The silver actually coined retained
it's face value, notwithstan ling tn. fact that
its intrinsic ralue wen down by nearly half,
and it retained it just because people were
not forced TO Ike il in any large bulk, but
merely used it az a convenience, just MS they
would use bank notes or any other paper
money.
1t was q wise step .of the q. s. Govern
mcut of the time, nnJ yet the 'Silverites'
speak Of it as if some w ong had been done
thereby to the people, and tn" same sug-
gestion perhaps Turks in the nom dc pIume
of my critic.
AS silver got moro and more abundant
the wealthy mine owners began to use their
influence in Congress to got a law passed
compelling the Government to buy a certain
quantity of silver every month at market
rute and coin it. In this they succeeded,
and thus got q sale for a quantity of their
silver. This was shrewd Of them, for they
thus compelled the public to buy their goods.
1t was a silly law, however, for the public
did not want he goods they were compelled
to buy. aid lie silver coin was slowed away
in millions III the vaults of the United States
Treasury. President Cleveland got the
Congress to soc the absurdity Of The thing and
the law was cancelled.
But the silver people are not at the end
of their IeSOu ces yet. They are now trying
to persuade the people Of the United States
til 1t it is in the power of the Government by
simply declaring that sixteen ounces of sill.
Yer are worth one of gold to actually make
it SO, notwithstanding the fact that in the
open market it takes about 80 ounces Of
silver 10 equal the vnlne of one ounce Of gold
Thav think that If tho E,~ov,,o.