The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1896-05-06
THE SILVER QUESTION.

ton, Esquire Blagg is reported as
saying:
For my own part 1 am in favor
of readjustment of the ratio, and
after that the minis should be
opened to the free and unlimited
coinage of both silver and gold, re-
gardless of any international agree
ment."
"Would not free coinage restore
the parity of sixteen to one?" he
was asked. 81 think not, the pro-
duction of gold in the United
States has not kept pace with the
population, while there has been
an enormous increase of the pro-
duction of silver"
Esq. Blagg is evidently not a
believer in the golden standard or
in the so-called Sound money"
deceit. He has, no doubt, observ-
ed in the single standard, Sound
money" organs, the statement that
within the last decade, the produc-
ton of gold has increased enorm-
ously throughout the world, as
we'll as in the United States; and
those organs have remarked that
that increased production would,
if it continued, speedily restore
the parity. The fact is, that the
commercial value of both gold and
silver are governed by the law of
Supply and demand" and one
way to increase the demand for
gold or silver or anything else is
to increase its usefulness and null
tiply the ways in which it can
promote the happiness of man,
and add to his comfort and enjoy
ment.
There was no difficulty in main
tanning the ratio of 159 to 1, or IS
to 1, for 200 years prior to the de
monetization of silver by the
Unite.l States in 1878. The dis
covery of the gold of the Aztecs of
Mexico and the Incas of Peru, and
the volume of gold which poured
in an incalculable stream into the
Golfers of Europe, did not material
ly, and hardly perceptibly, dis
turb the ratio; and even the added
streams from Australia and Cali
fornia, from the rugged Rockies
and the arid regions of New
Mexico, did not disturb the "ratio."
Neither has that ratio been de
stroyed by tho enormous produc-
ton of silver, but il was destroyed
(rather very seriously and disas-
trously disturbed it was prncti-
cally destroyedD by cutting the de
mand for it in two by its destruc-
ton as fundamental redemption
money, and the unjust and crimi-
nal discrimination against it, in
the legislation of Congress from
1873 to 1895.
There is no other way under the
shining sun by which the ratio of
Is to 1 between silver and gold
can be readjusted or restored than
by the prompt, thorough, full and
complete restoration to silver of all
it's functions as the unit" as the
standard of values, coequally with
gold-its reconciliation, when
that is done, gold will come down
"off it's perch" and silver will go
up to it's natural and legitimate
plain. Then parity would be a
reality, not an irridescent dream as
it now is.
Suppose the great moguls of the
civilized, christian world, were, to-
day, to promulgate an edict or de
cree that hereafter, "from the pas
sage of this act" gold should be
used solely as money, and for no
other purpose whatever, with a
severe and relentless penalty for
its violation.
No more gold plate" and
spoons, no more gold watches, or
rings even for your intended"
no more golden vases or urns, no
more gold in picture frames OF
gold mounted equipages in which
the rich could ride rough shod
over the oppressed and toiling
people. Nothing for gold to do
but bear "the image and subscript-
ion of Caesar"
Surely Squire Blagg, and eveIy
other intelligent, sensible and can
did man will perceive and admit
that the demand for gold would
enormously decrease and its value
-rnLnnnL f,,lI,, kN ~. IL M. nnn1