Kansas City daily journal., 1896-09-15
Gold and Prices.
From the Indianapolis Journal.

coinage claim that the so-called demoEe-
tization of silver has caused a great con-
traction of the currency which can only
De cured by opening the mints to the COIN
age OF 5O-cent dollars, and at other times
they claim that it robbed silver of half
its value and doubled the value of gold.
Both claims are equally unfounded, but for
the present let US examine only the latter.
The contention of free silverites is that the
so-called demonetization of silver has
caused an unnatural appreciation Of gold.
ana, by putting the country on gold
standard basis. has brought about univer-
sal low prices. 1t is claimed that free sill
yer coinage would strip gold OF its artifi-
cial value. and. by causing great appre
citation in the value of silver. would cause
general rise of prices.
In answering this 1t must be remembered
that silver has never been really demone-
tized In this country. The constant use of
the word characterization" In discussing
the subject is misleading. Not single
silver dollar has ever been deprived of its
full legal tender quality in this country.
The director of the United States mint, in
his annual report for 1885. speaking Of the
effect of the act Of 1873, said: The silver
dollars previously coined. of which there
were but few in existence, maintained their
quality as legal tender, but the coinage Of
new full legal tender dollars. whether on
government or private account, was dis
continued" All that the act OF 1873 did
was to discontinue the coinage Of silver
dollars, but five years later that was re-
sumed under the act of 1878 and has since
been carried on to a far greater extent
than ever before. AS all the silver dollars
coined prior to 1873 and the vastly greater
number coined since. are full legal tender,
1t Is evident that the volume of our legal
tender currency was not diminished by the
act Of 1873. and. therefore, gold could not
have appreciated In value on that account.
1t is evident that gold and silver have
become widely separated in commercial
value. The fact is palpable and can only
be accounted for on the theory tina. silver
has fallen or gold has risen in value. The
silverites take the latter position. There
are great many persons who scout the
idea that the apparent motion Of the sun
Is due to the actual motion of the earth.
They insist that ''the sun do move" and
they are able to adduce arguments on that
side of the question which are entirely
satisfactory and convincing to other per-
sons of their kind. The apostle Paul spoke
Of persons to whom God shall send them
strong delusion. that they should believe
moves around the earth and that silver
has remained stationary in value while
gold has almost doubled during the last
twenty years are not likely to be convinced
by any argument to the contrary. Some
persons. however. who are not wholly CIV
en- over to believing lie, may be.
The contention that the present low
prices Of farm products are due to the rise
in the price of gold is not sustained by
any proof whatever. On the contrary, all
the facts go to dsprove it, The single gold
standard has prevailed since 1853. and high
prices have prevailed during many years of
that time. They have prevailed during
many years since 1873. when the so-called
demonstration Of silver took place. There
Is fifty times as much full legal tender sill
yer currency in the country now as there
was in 1878, and II there were any sonnec-
tion between silver and prices the latter
should be much higher now than they were
then. On the contrary, there are much
lower. But there is also a great deal more
gold in the country now than there was
then. and more gold and silver in all other
civilized countries than there was then.
During all that time the market reports OF
the world show that silver has steadily de-
preciated. but they also repel TIE idea of
any connection between the prize of ether
products and silver. II the decline of
prices were due to the appreciation of gold
the decline should have been steady and
alike in all products. On the contrary. it
has not been steady, having been broken
by many periods Of high prices. and some
things have been very high. while others
have been very low. All the facts go to
show and the conclusion is Irresistible that
the depreciation in the price of silver is
real, not relative. and that it is due to
greatly cheapened production and i'm
mensely increased output. No legislation
could cure this. Free coinage. full legal
tender, fictitious valuation and government
fiat all combined could not restore silver to
its former place In the market reports OF
the world, ac measured by gold.