Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-05-15
Owings Poses as a Gold bug.


to promised speech of Col. Owings
on the gold standard. SO few OF these
speeches have been made IN this COM
munity, that it is surprise the at
tendance was not larger, especially as
the Republican party has, by formal
vote, in It's county convention, shown
itseli to he about evenly divided upon
this important question.
The Speaker said that some time
ago it had been given out that he
would deliver gold standard speech,
and he had been taken i'll, and could
not fulfill the promise. This had al
forded occasion for Somebody to say
that "Col. Owings had lodged the
subject because it was unpopular"
and that Somebody was probably as
much responsible for his appearance
Mt this time as any one else.
The Colonel went on to state that
the proportions of redemption and
credit money in the United States
were $700,O00,0OO of silver and paper
Credit money! to $l0O,OO0,OOO of gold
redemption money! or that there
were about seven dollars OF credit
money depending upon each gold dol
lar for final redemption. 1t was this
great disparity, he thought, that was
destroying the confidence of the peo-
pie in our monetary system and max
ing hard times, and the proposition to
increase the ratio of seven to one by
the free coinage of silver was what
was destroying all efforts to restore
confidence and open the gates to pros
perity.
1t will be noted that the Colonel
has, probably unintentionally, greatly
enhanced the true proportions be-
tween the different kinds OF money in
the country. The true proportions Of
the $1,6O0,O0O,0O0 of all kinds of
money in the United States ia about
equally divided into redemption money
(gold), token money (silver) and credit
money (paper), which would give a
ratio Of only about 2 TO instead of
the to used by the Colonel, and
that gentleman seemed to be totally
oblivious of the fact that all that is
necessary to wipe out the disparity en-
tirely would would be simply to rein
state silver as redemption money.
But then the Colonel showed, later
on, that this could not be done, be-
cause of the great disparity Of value
between silver and gold. He illustrat.
ed it by the claim that it has taken
sixteen times as much labor to pro.
duce an ounce of gold as an ounce of
silver, and that it now takes about 80
times as much labor to preserve cor
responding value. He did not admit,
however, that this disparity is caused
by taking from silver the function
it enjoyed down to 1873 of being pri-
mary or redemption money, as is
shown by the remarkable parity main.
tanned as long as silver was the unit
and unlimited coinage was open to
both gold and silver on ratio estab-
lished from time TO time, and which
varied, from the establishment of our
monetary system up to the act of de-
monetization, only about two points
at any time. That it is the want Of
this rudimentary power that has de-
based silver is shown by q variation OF
16 points in the past % years, since
the act of demonstration. So the
Colonel made the best possible argu-
ment for silver at the outset when he
deplored the inadequate volume of re-
demption money that is available for
public or private use on. the single
metal standard. The Colonel claimed
special credit for the gold policy that
silver passed at par with gold in the
every day transactions of life. He
said it was simply because there was
q gold dollar behind each silver dollar
to redeem it. The Colonel has too
much brains to believe any such non.
sense, if he has not enough to keep
him from attempting to palm it off as
truth on his hearers. The fact that
silver passes at par in the busy marta
is simply because it is an essential fac
tor in all minor monetary transactions.
1t, or something else, must pass cur
rent over the counters of the trades
men, or all business would stop. AT
one time last year, when the 200 per
cent. dollar Was at the zenith of its
glory, silver went to premium in New
York, to "make change" for payment
Of wages, and to keep the surging tide
Of busy life in motion. Silver is, by
far, the most useful money; we might
do without gold, by the use of paper
in making large conveyances, but
without q resort to shinplasters," a
device deepised by everybody, there
could be no way Of maintaining the
steady trend OF trade without the sub
sidiary silver coin which enters into
almost every transaction of the busy
world.
Then the Colonels illustration OF
the steers was subject to just as good
An adaptation for the other side of the
argument. He said, suppose steers, in
some of the Southwestern States we're
q legal tender for SO, and that
their intrinsic" value was but S..
Wouldn't man be a fool to pay bis