The Monitor-register., 1896-06-12
Communicated
Published by request of j. Walter Pancoast
as one OF the monOgrams on the
silver question.
Put a Dollars Worth of Silver in a
Dollar"

as one OF the monographs on the
silver question.
Put a Dollars Worth of Silver in a
Dollar"
BY A. j. WARNER.
Kindred to the notion of ''intrinsic
value, if not growing directly out of this
failaey, is the patitude SO often heard,
Put a dollars worth of silver in a dol
iar." Ii the value of the metals was
intrinsic and depend on the law of supply
and demand. then there might be some
sense in such a demand; but as the value
OF both these metals depends on the law
OF supply and demand, and as demand for
them comes largely from monetary use.
to ask that a given weight of one metal
should have the same value, with none.
cary use, or the demand for it for money,
taken from it, that the other has with
the demand for it for money doubled by
the very act that took away the demand
ior money from the other, is so manifestly
impossible that the wonder is that apv
Intelligent person should repeat it; and
yet nothing is more often heard than this
absurd claim, and that, too, from other
wise Intelligent people.
1t ought to be manifest to any one. and
is to everyone who understands the most
elementary principles of money, that
neither metal can possibly have the same
value, when denied monetary use, or the
right of mintage; that is, with demand
upon it for money purposes taken away.
as it would have with the right of free
mintage, or the right to be converted at
the will of the holder into money. No
one denies that the chief value of gold
arises from the demand for it for money.
ina demand is unceasing, from every
body; is "from everything for this one
thing" sis the sum of the demand of all
things for this thing" and this demand
has been enormously increased by taking
from silver the joint demand for money
and doubling it up on gold. This demand,
until silver was demonetized, was the
chief source of the value of silver, as 1t is
and always has been of the value of gold.
Then, after having taken monetary use
from silver and concentrated the whole
demand for standard money on gold, how
utterly unreasonable to require that the
ratio of one metal to the other, under
these conditions, should be taken as their
true ratio as money In other words. that
silver should have the value of money
before it is made money, which is mani
testify impossible.
The Vanderbilts have two lines of
railroad between New York and Buffalo.
Suppose they should take off from one of
these lines all through trains. leaving only
a few local trains to do a little local bust.
ness, and double the trains on the other.
Presumably the earnings of the tive lines
and the value of the stock of the two
roads would be in proportion to the bust
ness of each. Wonld it not appear on
its face absurd, under such conditions. for
the Vanderbilts to say "when the earnings
of the line depleted of trains and business
shall equal the earnings of the other line.
and its stock becomes as valuable, then VIZ
will put the through trains back on it.
but not till then" But would this be
any more absurd than to ask that the
value of silver, without monetary use, or
the right of mintage, should be the same
as with it?
What would be the value of gold If it
were generally demonetized, as it might
be, and as silver has been? At the present
rate of consumption in the arts, the stock
of gold now in the world devoted to none
tary use would last about fifty years.
What would be the value of anything of
which there was fifty years supply on
handa 1t is the restriction which has been
placed on the monetary use of silver, and
the consequent increased work laid upon
gold. that has wrought the change in the
value of both.
Again, there is no such thing as "com-
mercial value" to either gold or silver,
separate and apart from its value as
money. Even with silver demonetized in
Europe and the United States, it is still
the demand for it for money by 900, OOO..
600 of people that chiefly determines its
value, and there never was a time since
these metals came into use as money when
they possessed value as commodities
separable from their value rs money.
This idea is a relic of the ''intrinsic value"
fallaoy.
First, then, restore to silver the right
of free mintage, the same as is accorded
to gold, and the same that it possessed for
indefinite ages prior to 1878. and then if
the coins of the two metals do not remain
at par on the ratio of 16 to 1, there
might be some reason for considering a
readjustment of the mint ratio, but not
till then.