The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-08-22


CARLISLE REVIEWED.
Some Criticisms Upon His Late ChicaRat
| Speech to Labor Organixat Hons 81
Gold and Silver. s9 afssSl
In q lengthy review of Secretary. Cal.
lisle's speech to aboring men at Chi
cago the Memphis Commercial Appeal
refers to itas a curious mass Of eco.
|nonic fallacy, nnisapp piled and peryert-
ed history, erratic deduction, eccentric
logic and bald, dogmatic propositions
in conflict with the most elementary
principles Of economic science. S.
Let us take Mr.. Carlisle's initial
proposition, the foundation stone oi
his whole argument, says the Comme4-
cial Appeal He says that the first
effect Of the free coinage Of silver
would be the expulsion from the coun-
try Of all its gold, thereby diminishing
the volume Of money by one-third
The purchasing power of the remain
der, he says, would be reduced SO pei
cent; that is, commodities would com
mand twice as much money as beford
and we should have an immense initial
ton Of prices caused BY an immense
contraction Of the currency!
There would be, says Mr.. Carlisle,
only two-thirds the amount of money
now in circulation, and it would be ab
deprecated that it would require twie
as much money to transact the bust
ness Of the country. Let Us folloR
Mr.. Carlisle's fantastic logic to thb
end. The amount Of money every id
dividua1 can btain for the TRANSACTION
Of his business will depend on the
prices he can get for what he has til
sell. Mr.. Carlisle's proposition is thai
by expelling one-third Of our money
prices would be dou bled; or, in othea
words, every man in the country couls
command twice as much money as 3D.
fore, though ell combined would have
less!
Again, if it would require twice al
much money as the then existing vol
ume to transact the country's business
the demand for money would be 10o
per cent greater than the supply. PER-
sons familiar with the law of demand
and supply would be apt to say that
the value Of the money would certain,
~ increase under the tremendou lift
ing power of such a demand. Not sd,
Mr.. Carlisle. To him contemporary.
Gus decrease of 33h per cent. in the
supply and increase of 100 per cent il
demand is perfectly consistent with y
fall of 5O1per cent in value! Must vi
obliterate all the laws of supply and
demand when we come to reason about
money? Is it possible to make money
scarcer, make the demand twice y
great, and at the same time make 4
twice as easy to get money! Such il
the case if Mr.. Carlisle's proposition L
correct-if you can at the same time
contract the volume of money and i'll
crease prices; that is, the money-get,
ting power of commodities.
Again: All the gold would leave ths
country, says Mr.. Carlisle, because II
would no longer be in demand fdr
monetary purposes. All the nonetarN
demand of 70, 900, 600 of the most ACTIVE
money-seekers in the world, for paw.
ing many hundred million dollars OF
debt, for carrying on the vast industryS
trade and commerce of this greaE
country, would be withdrawn from
gold and concentrated on silver. Yeti
according to Mr.. Carlisle this stupen-\
dous influence would not affect the
value of either metal by the fraction.
of a cent! And this is monetary
science as expounded by one of its
most famous savants. Mr.. Carlisle
refers to the operation of the mint
laws Of 1902 and 1884 esta blishing the
ratio Of coinage in this country to
prove that legislation cannot affect
the value of money metals # any
thing is demonstrated by the operation
Of these laws it is that the value Of
the metals was fixed and controlled BY
coinage laws. The most learned and
the most candid gold monometallists
admit that the coinage ratio of the
French minis dominated the relative
values of gold and silver for three
quarters of a century. Throughout
the most extreme fluctuations in their
relative production the values of gold
and silver kept su bstant TALLY steady at
the French legal ratio of 1914 to L
When two countries open their mints
to the coinage Of two metals at vary
ing ratios the result will be that the
country whose law places the higher:
value on. gold will get the gold
and the country packing the high
er value on silver will get the
silver. But both countries will
have the full benefit of both
in regulating the volume Of their cur
rency. This was what happened un-
der the laws referred to- If gold Or
silver dollar went out of the country
it put another and as good dollar in
its place. That was substantial BIZ
metallism. Now, when a gold dollar
goes out, as they have been steadily
going for several years, there is no
way to fill its place, except by mort
gaging the country to buy back the
gold. There is the difference between
monometallism and bimetallism. Ant
other difference Mr. Carlisle ignored is
that prior to the characterization OF
silver the debtor always had the op+
ton to pay his debt in the cheaper
money if one became cheaper than the
other. Now he is compelled to paw iii