The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1896-09-19
COMMON SENSE ON THE
SILVER QUESTION.
Why Metallic Money Came
Into Use.
The Value of Gold and
Silver.
Result Of Free Coinage
OF Silver.
Portion OF tho Ably written Article on
the silver Question by Mr.. %. ID.
Ashley. President of the Wa
bash Railway Company.

Discussion OF the biiNci HuS'" 90
orally invests the subject with too much
mystery. tits made complicated ques-
tion. when. In fact, II is very simple
one. It requires neither profound
study of economical science nor OF met
allurgy. The only faculty necessary 70
a clear understanding of the problem is
common sense. Advocates of bimet-
aIlism or Of the silver standard viii,
NO doubt. concede this, because they
claim to be governed mainly by its ex-
ercise in support of their contention
The effort of the writer will be TO prove
that they are wrong on that basis.
Let us first consider why metallic
money came into use. and how the rela-
tive value of gold and silver became es-
tnblished.
Money. whether metallic or paper,
represents value in exchange; that
Is. II represents SO many units OF value
which people are willing to receive for
ANYTHING they have'to sell. With us the
unit of value is the dollar. Before
money was in general use value was rep
resented by cattle, sheep or grain. Cop
Der and iron, as metallic money. have
also represented value; and wampum,
beads and cowry shells have been made
units OF value in primitive times or 10
nations less advanced In civilization
than our own. These are well-known
facts. Thus, bushel OF wheat might
be the unit of value instead OF dollar,
or we might call bushel of wheat n
dollar. This would come about because
wheat as a necessary OF life would be
in universal demand. and perhaps as
unvnrying standard OF measure or
value of any article in general use. All
OF this, which Is the A, Il, C OF econ
omical science. is easily understood.
without money. trade would be
merely barter or the exchange OF one
commodity for another. and in such ex-
change or barter some one thing would
naturally be selected as measure OF
value for the rest; as. for example,
wheat or corn, or anything in general
demand. Such an arrangement would
be necessary 10 avoid the inconven
fence Of transportation TO and fro and
20 dispose OF surplus products.
Suppose, then, before adopting
money 10 represent value i'm exchange,
a community should agree upon wheat
as the measure OF value and express 10
in bushels instead OF dollars. Then sup
pose the government OF the community
should adopt bushel of wheat of
specified quality as the unit of value.
and enact law which made IL legal
tender for ali debts, public or private. u
would serve exactly the same purpose
as metallic money. The value Of every
thing would, therefore, be expressed in
wheat. Instead, therefore, OF saying
that house was worth $4,000 II
would be 10000 bushels OF wheat. sup
posing the normal or average value Of
wheat 60 be one dollar per bushel. and
n mans labor would be ono. two. three
or four bushels OF wheat per day, In
stead OF one. two. three or four dollars
per day. Fractions OF the bushel would
be expressed in the same way, taking
the unit of 100 and dividing il into 100
parts Of bushel instead of 100 parts OF
a dollar. The application throughout
all the processes OF trade or exchange is
easy.
Now, although wheat may be about
as steady in its market valuation from
year to year as any commodity, IT is yet
liable, as we know, TO considerable vara-
tion. according to the abundance or the
scantiness OF the crop; and consequent
ly IL would be subject to greater
fuctuation than would be desirable i'm q
measure OF value. Wheat itself would
not show this. as its nominal value
would be fixed by law; but all other
products would be higher or lower ac-
cording to the supply and demand.
That Is, the purchasing power of wheat
would be greater or less according TO
the surplus or deficiency OF that article
IL all the farmers had large surplus
20 sell they would compete in exchang-
ing II for other products or other prop
crty,and the holders of other commod-
tiles or other property would demand
a larger quantity of wheat than before.
The owner of house who had asked
10000 bushels before would now want
III 900 or 10000 bushels, and so on. The
change would not be uniform and might
soon terminate, but for the time the
disturbance would be inconyenient and
troublesome.
have selected wheat as a measure OF
value in a system of barter, not be-
cause IL has been used In the way de-
scribed, but because IL illustrates value
in exchange in "A familiar way. The
difficulties OF the barter system became
more and more pronounced as the
world progressed in civilization, and
this led to the adoption of metallic
money as the best and most unvarying
in value throughout the world. The
precious metals were obviously better
adapted to the purpose than any other
material. That was the universal
opinion when they were selected. aud
Il Is the judgment Of the world now.
What is the value of gold and silver?
and how was their relative valuation es-
tnblished? These are important ques.
tions. They furnish the key TO the