The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1896-07-16
lis OF MoNoMETALLIsM.
: - Of the Single Gold Standard Tee.eIv
a'osed-Why Wait for EnRiandf

posed-why Wait for Eneiandf
% explanation offered by the gold
turs for the decline in the value O
silver is that the increase of produc
sion did IL. Wheat has fallen. the,
Say, beeause there has been q great In
crease in the crop. Cotton has faller
5rcause there has been an over.pro
;action Of it Silver has fallen sine,
-s73, not because 1t was demonetized
but simply because the product has In
ceased, and silver a. a commodit,
has experienced the same fate as cot
toG, wheat or corn.
II this reasoning be true as To silva-
1t oIght to be true a. to gold. II the
product OF silver has increased abou,
thr.efold since 1878, and this ha:
caused the tumble in price, whv ha,
tot thedoubling Of the gold produc,
resulted In depreciation Of gold2 1,
these metals are mare commodities
and their us as,g4Sne; In no ,yav af
tects their value. why has gold main
tained it's owns
There is only one answer To this
and 1t is that gold has maintained its
value because it has continued in use
as money metal II, then, this em.
PioEment of 1t affects its value, is il
not reasonable to suppose that the en-
pioyment OF silver on like terms would
cause the white metal to advance in
value and resume its old place?
Perhaps at this point the gold-bue
Will turn about and say that we have
used the increase in the gold produc
to meet the displacement caused h,
the withdrawal Of silver, and that the
amount OF gold is now just exactly the
right amount needed in the worlds
business We have recently shown
from the monometallist New York
fost that 1T is desirable we should pet
more capital from abroad to open nm
new enterprises and to give emplov-
nent to labor now idle. This is a con.
iession that there is not enough monev
IN TINS country. What is the cause Of
TINS dearth of money? Is it not gold
monometallism?
Mr. William A. Shaw will certainly
not be accused Of saying nlany things
in favor Of bimetallism, but the fol.
lnwiug admission from him concerning
tie evils of monometallism will be
'ound suggestive:
We are undoing the constructive
"':.' 81 centuries. Monometallism has
p1rilaity destroyed one prime postu-
is}e q International trade, namely,
frr, Ion Ia employ and miu,ing of the
precious metals; and it is equally tend
ih.' 10 destroy the other prime postu-
iti', aamely, freedom of trade, and
tia' hy means OF the exchange diff
hra'ty BY the two com bincd causes
w. are unbinding or nnloosening a
res t:'sernational system, one which
t4as he Whole world in one COM
!'e"e.; circle. and wa are thereby re.
verse; and letting slip all the course
81 nssytntage of the centuries of de-
vciopGent which Il has taken to build
tl'it sNatem. II the present situation
OF tAs currency question continues for
te;tsnry, il will sover the world into
i~G completely independent aud non.
communicating circles, silverusing
.dat und gold-usiug west. The east
VIII 20 its own way; and the west will
- left to reconstruct its shattered
system, how and with what friction
"ad loss u may. Tho one state to suf.
fer " such cleaving of the world
Rsunder will be England, by losing
hef eastern trade, and London by los
Ing her position as the center of the
exchanges"
Mr Shaw in this admission does not
eon lura up mere nightmare. On the
couisary, he presents very real dam
ger The London Times on November
20, 1905, showed that the manufacture
crs ~ silver countries have a great ad-
vantago over the manufacturers in
gold countries. This is the statement
as II appeared in the Times:
"Oae does not require to believe In |
binetallism in order to recognize the
advantages which the man. |
nfaeturers IN silver country enjoy in
competing with gold countries The |
cost of the necessaries of life has re. |
'nained absolutely unaffected by the
TALL in silver, and the workman is
therefore quite content to receive the |
'sme wages as formerly. But the
wages bill OF the employer in China or
Japan has remained actually the same;
L stands, in relation to that of his
0" competitor, at only half the
~ ~ ure 10 which 1t formerly amounted.
ne depreciation of silver might in
'act be said to operate as system of
protection in favor Of the industries of
ilver countries as against those of
yold countries"
Furthermore, Mr.. Shaw and the
Times are reinforced by the testimony
u the chairman Of the Hong Kong &
shanghai Banking corporation to the
ollowing effect:
Now that we have actually been
working for a considerable time on a
ow level Of exchange, we can see
plainly, as we have anticipated and
lave not hesitated to predict would be
he case, that its effect is to stimulate
Exports from all silver-using coun-
ries, and grievously depress imports
rom oil gold-using ones"
In order to facilitate speculation in
Grrency, silver has been demonetized.
md the evils of gold monometallism
ne upon us. There is no relief for the
'eople, save in the restoration of sill
'tr Just as one country took the
,.st step in demonetizing silver. so one
country must take tho first step in it's
estoration. England, single-handed
i"t alone, adopted a gold standard and
%"s followed by Germany, the United
's"tes and the Latin union. There
'ryer was a more dangerous step taken
. huance than that, but England bold.
took it 1t was far more dangerous
hsn can be the rehs hsbilitation of sill.
er Why, then, should this country
iesitate to take the step which will
'enedy the great wrongp The other
'ations would follow us, Just as En-.