The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-10-10

! 1t IS the law that fixes the value, til
legal tender of every coin issued, an
stamps upon its face its value. Secrt
tary Carlisle. in his report to the HOUSE
October 1. 1898, said:
) A is well known, on June 26, til
!; legislative councils of India enacted
/, bill closing their mints against the fire
coinage of silver. Upon this actiO
becoming known there was a great pres
sure to sell silver and the market becam
completely disOrganiZed, the price i
London declining from 81 to 304 penc
and in New York from 81 to 81 cent
per ounce.
Senator Sherman, in Il speech in til
senate July IL. 1876, said in referring t
Germany'S Law demOnetiZing silver:
"A struggle for the possession of gOl
at nee arose between the great nations
because anybody could s~tethatif $500
600 900 of silver coin was demonetiZed
and s., 500. 900, 600 of gold coin made tn
sole standard, it would enormously adj,
to The value of gold, and The Bank o
France, the Bank of England and tn
Imperial Bank of Germany at one
commenced graSping for gold i'll what
ever form. Therefore, what we hav,
observed recently is not so much a faI
of silver, as it is a rule Of-the inevita
BILE effect of a fear of the decentralization
of silver"
j. Harold Rogers. an eminent EnglIsl
economic writer and gold advocate, in
lecture on the commercial and indus
trial progress of England, said;
THE fall of silver is entirely II to the
cessation of silver minting, and TIN
abandonment of a silver standard. ac
cording to the law [ laid down in ~
earlier part of this lecture that the
dominant factor i'll any n of the pre-
cious metals which determines it's value
is its use as currency"
Robert Gitfen, an eminent English
gold standard advocate, said:
IF events are h tOuchstOne of prOph.
ecieS, no prophecy was ever more certain
than the increased DEAFNESS of gold.
That the fall of prices to an extent sc
general as we are at present experiencing
is to be referred to an increase in the
purchasing power of gold is generally
and, | might say, almost universally
admitted"
If these statements of record by Car
Isle, Sherman, Rogers and Giffen will
not convince gold advocates of the
falsity of their assertions, they would
not be convinced, though one should
arise from the dead and sc state.
LAWS MAKE THE MONEY.
Laws do affect the value of the
metals in the coins, and the laws against
silver and in favor of gold have caused
the fall in the commercial value of
silver bullion, measured by gold, and
the rise in gold in its purchasing power,
and the fall in the selling price of all
products and properties.
What gives to gold and silver their
value? The only thing that gives them
any value is the demand for them to use
in ornaments and manufactures and as
money. In all the ages past they have
been so used. The demand for their
rRon in nnnIlfnntnrQ Inh.nGtrin llxr 10 n
limited one, while the demand for their
use as money is an unlimited one, and
in all the ages has never been fully
satisfied and never will be. The desire
of mankind to get money-gold and
silver-will eve be fully gratilied on
this earth. Without laws authorizing
their use as money, they are simply
metals, like any other metal, with no
fixed or certain value, and no ratio or
relative value, and no legal tender for
paying debts.
Aristotle said 2 900 years ago: money
exists not by nature, but by law. .
Money is created or authorized by law,
which fixes the legal tender, the debt
paying power of gold and silver coins
and their relative values. The laws of
nations, authorizing the free and un-
limited coinage of both metals into full
legal tender money at a fixed ratio
create an unlimited demand and nan
tain their commercial value at or about
their liked relative coinage values. No
n would accept less for them as metals
than their coinage value as liked by law.
The laws closing the minis to the free
and unlimited coinage of silver into full
legal standard money destroyed this
demand for its use, made it a mere
metal, and increased the demand for the
use of gold. The result was inevitable,
and was a fall in the commercial value
of silver if measured by gold, and Il rise
in the value or. purchasing power of
gold. Had the laws Disseminated
against gold and in favor of silver, the
reverse result would have been inevita-
Bile. Silver would have risen, gold
would have fallen, and the decrease in
the volume of standard money would
have caused a fall in the prices of all
products and properties.
Restore the law, giving to silver the
same coinage rights into standard money
as gold has, at the old ratio, and gold
and silver coins become at once equals
in purchasing and debt-paying power,
and equals as metals in their CONNER
cial values at their relative coinage
ratios. No one would sell his silver
metal for less than its coinage value.
Secretary Carlisle in his campaign
speeches last year ridiculed bimetallism
the double standard-and declared it
failure here and i'll France. The records
of the minis will show this statement
not to be true Our records show that
from 1892 to 1873 our minis were open
to the free and unlimited coinage of
both gold and silver into standard
money ut the ratio of ID to !, and then
Is, 9SS to 1, or as usually called, Is to !.
During this whole period both gold and
silver metals were coined into our mon
ey, excepting no gold in 1916 and 1917,
and no silver in 1858.
1t is even charged that President
jefferson demonetized silver by stopping
its coinage. This is simply ridiculous.
On May |, 1906, President jefferson,
through his secretary of state, directed
the mint director that "all silver to be
coined at the mint shall be of small de-
nominations, 10 that the value of the
largest piece shall not exceed half IL dol
lar, " and assigned as the reason that the
bank director had represented to him
that silver dollars of our coinage were
being exported. Why expOrted2 Only
because of being Of more value in for
eign countries than here, and yet MIR.
Carlisle asserts we were during that
epoch, l792-lS34, on a silver basis, and
all our gold was exported.
Stopping the coinage of dollars did
not affect silver as money, because up to
1858 our half dollars, quarters, dimes
and half dimes were a full legal tender
for all amounts equally with dollars, but
they would be more difficult to be
bought up and transported by bullion
brokers, and up to 1857 many foreign
silver and gold coins were made by our
laws a legal tender just as our own
coins.
In bimetallic France, her minis were
open to the coinage of both gold and
silver upon equal terms at her ratio of
l5t to |, and both We're coined in every
year from 1908 to 1874, except no gold in
1872 and 1873. In both countries both
metals were coined to be used as money.
In conclusive proof that himetallism
was not q failure, | quote from the final
report of the English royal gold and
silver commission, organized in 1856,
composed of twelve leading English
statesmen. quote from the final re-
port signed by all the members unani-
mously in 1855;
Hooking then to the vast changes
which occurred prior to 1878 in the rela-
tive production of the two metals with
out any corresponding disturbance in
their market value it appears TO US din
cult to resist the conclusion that some
influence was then at work tending to
steady the price of silver, and to keep
the ratio which it bore l gold approx
mately stable. \ n X Now, undoubtedly
the date which forms the dividing line
wee an epoch of approximate tiXitV