The herald., 1896-07-30
THE MONEY QUESTION
Grossly Misstated By the Los Angeles Times
Its Currency Catechism

about money!
The publication rsfsrred to is we'll cal
culated to mislead such as do not know
tnat many OF the assumed truths" of
the Times production are the merest
iabrications; while others are only half
way true
There never was sounder maxim
ethan the old saying that half a truth
is equal to whole lie" For example:
One of the questions that the Times both
asks and answers is this:
Q:-Are sixteen ounces of silver
worth as much as one ounce of gold?"
A.-No: it takes about thirty-one
ounce of gold"
Here isa good illus tration of the above
maxim. that half truth is equal to a
whole lie. Taking silver in it's present
demonetized condition, after having
been for twenty three years subjected
to the depressing and degrading influ-
ence of what Mr.. Carlisle in 1878 pro-
nounced the most gigantic crime
of this or any other age" and
it is true that silver is only
worth little n>ore than half as much as
gold, per ounce. But this is only half
the truth In order to ascertain the
whole truth as to the actual relative
value of gold and silver we must place
them both on an equal footing. We
must give them both an equal chance
We might as well attempt to test the
relative speed of two race horses by
hobblng the one while leaving the other
the free use of his limbs, as to attempt
to test the relative value of gold and sill
Yer by making the former a legal neces-
sity While degrading thet latteY to the
condition of legal nonenity. There
are chiefly two conditions that control
the value of all kinds of commodities,
namely:
First-The demand, and, secondly, the
supply.
Other things being equal. the greater
the demand and the less the supply the
greater is the value of the article.
Before the decentralization of silver in
1873, it was estimated that about three
fourths of the demand for silver was for
the purpose of coming it into money.
But between the months of February
1873, and the end of January, 1874. not
only the United States but all the lead
ing nations of Europe made gold the
unit of value and demonetized silver.
thus virtually destroying three-fourths
of the demand for that metal
Prior to this general conspiracy
against silver. and in favor of gold
money, it is a we'll known fact that
silver dollar was worth more than
gold dollar. And the silver bullion re-
quired to make silver dollar was worth
more than the amount of gold bullion
contained in a gold dollar. But by de-
stroying the demand for silver for coin
age purposes (that is to say. by cutting
off three-fourths of the entire demand
for that metaD it would have been a
violation of all the laws of political econ
omy for silver to have retained The same
commercial value as it had when the
demand for its use was four times as
great.
Not only did the decentralization of sill
yer and the stoppage of its coinage re-
duce its value, by thus cutting off three
fourthS of it's demand but the very
legislation that so greatly diminished the
demand for silver, and thus correspond
ingly deprecated its Value,' operated at
the same time to enhance the value of
gold. For it must be remembered that
the demonstration of silver in 1873 was
the virtual destruction of nearly half the
primary money in the world and the
same law of political economy that for
ces the value of commodity to fall as
the supply increases necessarily causes
the value to rise as the supply dlmln-
ishes.
1t is true that the supply of gold did
not diminish after silver was demone-
tized, but the supply of primary money
did diminish to little more than one
half its previous quantity.
A law for the destruction of silver
primary money and the stopping of the
coinage of silver just as inevitably en-
HANGED the value of gold money as would
a law prohibiting the use of beef as hu-
man food, and the slaughtering of beef
cattle, operate to raise the value of NUT
ton
Suppose that in 1873 the United States
and all the leading powers of Europe,
instead of demonetiZing silver, had de-
monetized gold, leaving silver as the
only primary money. Does anybody sup
pose that after having been thus dis
criminated against for twenty-three
years, as silver has been, one ounce Of
gold today would be worth thirty
ounces of silver?
test the relative value of gold and silver
dollars, we must put both upon an equal
footing. Place them where they We're
before the legislation of 1873. We must
open our mints equally to both. We
must make both a legal tender in the
payment of debts. Let the silver dollar
be again made the standard of value,
just as it was from the very foundation
of our government down to 1873, when,
in the interest of gold spectators, in
order to make multimilionaires of a
few and slaves of the masses, silver was
stricken down, and with it the prosper
ity, the hopes and the liberties of our
propounded and answered in the Cur
rency Catec1ism" of Mr.. Otis:
iQ.-Why has the price of silver fallen
heavily since 1873?
Ans-Chiehy because of it's increased
production. In the United States alone
this increased from q 7,651, 900 ounces in
1873 to &C, 100000 ounces in 1892.
In order to show the utter faAacy of
the reason here given for the present
great disparity between the value of
gold and silver, let us squarely face q
few financial facts of history.
From 1892 to 1900 the coinage value of
silver produced in the world was $685.
$50, 900. The value of gold produced in
the same time was $106, 407 00O (See re-
port of treasury department, bureau of
the mint, August 16th 1889 Thus will
IL be seen that during the eight years
from 1892 to 1900 the production of silver
was more than three times in value
that of gold. And yet at the end of this
time the ratio Of the value of silver COM
pared with that of gold was but Is 4S-1OO
to l. Then again if we come on down
to 1852 after the great development of
the California gold mines had raised the
worlds gold crop to $132, $50 600 a year
while the silver production was only
$40, 600 900, being less than one-third that
of gold, yet the ratio of the two metals
was Is 59-100 of silver to l of gold AL
most exactly the same as when the pro-
duction of silver was three times that
of gold. And so the ratio continued;
the disparity never once rising higher
than 16 25-100 of silver to l of gold from
1892 down to 1873, a period of over eighty
years. But In 1873 under the operation
of the law demonetizing silver, destroy
ing three fOurthS of the demand for tic