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

A description admirable for its terse-
ness and completeness is given in Prof
Laughlin's letter this morning of the
total net effect of the free coinage of
silver in any case. 1t seems to us that
one cannot get a better and completer
view of the situation than to imagine
that free coinage of silver has gone into
effect, and then, discarding all the fine
spun theoretical arguments of both it's
friends and its enemies, to look about
him and see what condition of affairs
he would actually find 1t cannot be
Inns own words:
The same human beings, the same climate
the same industrial organization the same
capital and labor would be producing the
same total amount of products to be ex-
changed against each other, the new level
of prices the old. On the new and
higher level of prices, the same goods will
exchange for each other at the same value
relatively 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. Moth
ing, whatever, will have happened to increase
the total wealth of the people. The same
wealth will be divided among the same pep
pie.
Men who get bewildered in the mazes
Of an economic argument can under
stand this simple fact. There are, let
us say, so many coats in the world and
so many men who need coats Now, It
is very clear that the world will not
be any better off, as far es coats are
concerned, until more coats are brought
into existence; until, in fact, there are
enough coats to go around. The increase
of prosperity as to coats means an in
crease in the number of them. On the
other side of the question, that of the
man who makes coats, the same is true.
His position will remain unchanged.
while the number of coats made an
nually is the same. Only when more
coats are brought into existence is
there a larger demand for the labor of
coat-making, and Is the economic posi-
ton of the coatmaker correspondingly
improved. The same holds true every
where. Increase of prices is not
only as there is more to divide. We
come back, after all. to the old familiar
illustration that is found in the primer
of political economy which shows ten
men, each possessed of certain num-
Der of counters redeemable somewhere
at 81 each. and all agreeing to make
themselves suddenly rich by calling
their counters SO apiece, although no.
body will give any more for them than
before.
That which alone can benefit labor is
a steady or increasing demand for Ia
Dor at present or rising prices That
which alone can benefit capital is a
safe and remunerative employment for
capital at fair rate of interest. That
which alone can benefit the commune
ity is an increase in the net total
wealth of the community: that is the
sum of all the things that it holds
which are valuable in use or can be ex-
changed for other things that are.
When man has mastered this simple
proposition it will soon come to seem
to him inconceivable that anybody
should propose to increase wealth and
stimulate prosperity by simply multi
plying figures all around, or that any
one could think he would be profited by
trading four units for four others.
where before he traded on the basis of
two for two.