The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-27

day for the needs of trade" is like
asking IL the area OF the worlds land
Is sufficient for the existing popula-
ton OF course 1t is; because, Just as
the worlds population have adapted
themselves to the worlds land, so the
level of prices and the conduct of bust
ness in the gold-using countries have
in fact been adapted to the world $
gold. Throughout Europe and the
United States-that is, throughout the
great commercial centers of the world
all transactions are today based on
gold prices. The adjustment of prices
to the value of gold has already been
made In the United States, in fact
1t has been made in gold and remained
so since 1884 excepting 1S621S79).
There could not for a moment be a
gold currency in any country if there
were not already an adaptation of the
needed amount of gold to existing bus
mess To ask whether human beings
on this earth as now constituted have
air enough to breathe, is no more abb
surd than to ask if gold-using coun-
try has gold enough. If the people of
Mars are so made as to need chlorine
gas instead of our air, then they would
find it difficult to continue existence on
the earth; but human beings live on
this earth exactly because our air Is
the basis on which life is possible. A
country by the fact of having. a gold
basis is thereby proved to have the
gold necessary for its business exist
ence. 1t is not a matter of theory;
it is a bare fact. All that is necessary
iG h11G 10 "a at
going on with gold prices for a basis
In short, whatever be the needs Of
business, or the quantity of gold in the
world, an adjustment between gold
and goods, has already been made,
and on that adjustment we are doing
business and have been doing it since
1884 @@V sae Nt4
But some persons, when referring to
the fact that there is not gold enough
togo around really mean that they
do not like the present adjustment be-
tween gold and goods. Or, as they
express it, prices are too low, goods
do not buy enough gold What they
wish is to raise prices; SO that goods
will buy more gold. Such persons, of
course, do not thereby deny that, with
the existing quantity of gold and ex-
listing transactions, there Is gold
enough. to. exchange goods at existing
prices. The real contention is, not that
gold is insufficient for existing prices,
but that the general level Of prices
should be raised. We can quite I'M
derstand why some persons wish to
raise the level of prices; but it is equal
ly clear that wish to raise prices is
1-n dooo y
sufficient on,the existing level of prices
We may now see clearly the meaning
of those who speak of a scarcity of
gold;" they attribute the low prices to
an insufficient supply of gold and wish
to get to higher level of prices But
let us aSk,-even if we once get through
the difficulties of changing from a low
to high level of prices-how much
better off would we be than now on
that higher level after it is obtained?
The same human beings the same
climate, the same industrial organiza-
ton, the same capital and labor, would
be producing the same total amount of
products to be exchanged against each
other on the new level of prices as on
the old. On the new and higher level
OF prices the same goods will exchange
for each other AT the same value, re-
1atively to each other but they will
only be expressed in terms of cheaper
medium of exchange. Nothing at all
will have been changed but the value
of the medium; nothing whatever will
have happened to increase the total
wealth of the people. THE same wealth
will be divided among the same peo-
pie. ffa T
But the mere getting from the lower
to the higher level Of prices will help
no one but those who have debts to
pay. But what they gain is taken from
others. The same total of wealth is
divided among the same people; but in
changing the level, one class loses ex-
actly as much, as, the. other gains. (Of
the general question of Indebtedness
/ shah speakslater.t That is, the change
to higher prices leaves things no better
off than they are now; but on the way
up to the higher level some persons
lose property just to the extent that
others gain. The morals of legislation
which aims at higher prices, solely to
re-distribute property, 1 leave the
honest man to fifty characterize.
Yet to look the matter squarely in
the face, how does any one know that
there is an insufficient gold supply?
What are the evidences of it? why,
here they are all about US, says some
one, in the low prices Of goods" Now
let US decidedly assure everyone that
no evidence whatever or scarcity of
gold. If man dropping out of a boat
feels the water rising around him,
should he. think this fact incontestible
proof that 1t was the boat which had
gone.sup, and not he that had gone
down? The price of wheat or steel Is
the amount Of gold received in ex-
change. If new machinery, or new
processes are discovered by which steel
no he 1a o1.o 0y<Ixy ctr
to fall in price? Have not the wonder
full inventions in making steel lowered
its price per ton more than one-half?
Was 1t the scarcity of gold, or the Bes-
semer process which caused a fall in
the price of steel? Now no one is ig-
norant of the marvels of modern inven-
ton. Not single article has been I'M
affected by them; every one can see
their effects in reducing prices. Steam
ships take freight cheaper and faster
than ever from regions which now can
send wheat or wool to the markets of
the world in increasing quantities
There is not an article of daily use
which has not been cheapened during
the last twenty years, by cleverly-de-
vised machinery, or by the opening of
new and cheaper sources of supply
This is a fact which every one can
verify for himself. Consequently.
everyone knows certainly that there
are causes working to lower prices,
which have nothing whatever to do
with the abundance or scarcity of gold.
Now that We understand that ire
mendous forces such as mechanical
progress and inventive skill-unequal-
led in the history of man-have been
operating in the last few decades to
lower the price OF every possible COM
modify in use, we can be certain that
great changes may take place which
cannot be traced to the circulating
medium. Therefore let us turn to the