The herald., 1896-06-12
THE FAIR THING FOR silver
Abbot Kinney Discusses the Sub.
ject Thoroughly
A MEANS OF EQUALITY
Is the Adoption Of the Old Venetian
System
The Two Precious netsls nay Do Duty Side
by Side and Without Breeding I'm
eertsinties and Panics

| SeItoiutieS enu Foutc&
The following ably written commune
cation on the silver question, by Alb
| bot Kinney, is worth close perusal and
| attentions:
There is much to be said for an un-
trameled and free use of the two pre-
cious metals as money. Gold is now used
as the standard of value in highly CIV
| iliZed countries like the United States.
France, Germany and England. Silver
is used as the standard of value in the
| less advanced countries like Mexico, In
| dia, China. Silver is used in the gold
countries but gold is not used irl the sill
yer countries. Both are used in interna-
tional exchange without any legal en-
| forcement. Money has for its sole util-
ity the facilitating of exchange of labor
| or product.
| Its foundation is confidence. Without
| confidence money has no value. Bread
meat, houses or labor have value. The
| labor to create has value; the thing Gre
ated has value, but money has only a val
| ue to assist in the exchange Of these. A
man makes note; its value will be de-
termined by the mans credit; the credit
others give that he will create real val
ue with which to meet the note. The
| note is a promise of value, but not a
real value itself.
A governments note is exactly of the
| same character and rests on the same
credit and confidence. A mans note
creates nothing. A governments note
creates nothing. Both are promises that
value will be created or produced. The
idea that a government stamp on any
thing. paper or brass, silver or gold, Gre
ates any other value than it may intrin-
sically have or as promise to pay value
is a mistake.
UOVprnn1onf'S a n fo l.
ue any more than mans fiat creates
value Labor creates value from ma
tural resources. Nothing else creates
value. If mans fiat could create value
man would not have to work. If a
governments fiat could create value
government would not have to tax
The need of taxation is demonstration
of the folly of fiat money.
A governments power over money is
then only two-fold. First, it may issue
notes promising to pay a recognized
value. These will be received accord
ing to the confidence that exists that they
will be paid-not otherwise. The most
severe laws fail to change their limita-
ton on government note values
Second, it may stamp the weight and
fineness of metal. The metal will then
circulate on it's own intrinsic or CONNER
cial value-and on nothing else. The gov
ernment stamp gives it no different or
additional value. The only advantage
is that weighing and testing are saved
to the user of such money.
These things. being So we can under
stand why the governments Bland
silver purchases and stamps on dollars
added no value to silver bullion. The
silver dollar is merely note partly Sc
cured bp its bullion value. 1t is fifty
cents worth of silver and fifty cents
worth of promise. 1t is evident also that
the Si1I-ar ra i6aa n
of silver would add value to silver bull
lion has in these formulas no support
The free coinage of silver at the pres
ent time will at once Danish gold entirely
and absolutely. Instead, then, of gold
standard of value with a large use of
silver, we will have silver only. The
inevitable confusion and general liquida-
ton that must accompany such a change
of standard onght to leave some very
large and certain benefits to justify the
change. What are these benefits? There
are two named. One is the increased
price of silver bullion that it is claimed
will occur and the other is the increased
price of things as expressed in silver. If
the value in things Of sixteen ounces of
silver should equal the value of one
ounce of gold then it is evident that
things would not go up. If, on the other
hand, the value in things of the silver
bullion in the dollar was not changed
then the nominal price Of things would
be doubled, but silver bullion would not
increase in value. In other words these
two benefits are absolutely incompati-
Bile and destroy each other. To the ex-
tent that one occurs the other cannot.
The dangers are plenty enough. Every
laborer and salaried man will struggle
long and hard to get his nominal wage
doubled The laborer with three dol
lars day will not easily get it raised to
six dollars hllt till he docs his 10
cut in two. Every merchant and sup
ply man will double prices of things on
MIN at once. The man getting one hum
dred dollars month will find it will buy
only what fifty did before.
Debtors will have a hard row to hoe.
Loans will be called as they always are
in uncertainty, panic and disorder. Lend
ers will be shy and difficult to treat with,
while business and enterprise must be
curtailed until confidence is restored. In
the mean time the debtor may not pull
through. In this state all debts are due
in gold coin.
This special contract is recognized by
the Bland-Allison law and has been in
dependently enforced by the United
States supreme court. Our debts must
be paid in gold. No silver standard can
cut them in two or cut them at all. But
all current credits, such as sold fruit,
products or merchandise, as well as all
=,
will be payable in lawful money, that ia
to say, in silver. All the debtors re-
sources will then be cut in two while his
debt remains the same.
man with a note in a bank for $10,-
900 and deposit of $4,000 in the bank
and about to pay it with another small
saving, would, with the silver standard,
find the bank deposit cut in two as ap-
piled to his note. That is, the $4,000 de-
post due him in lawful money, would
be worth only $500 applied to his $1O,-
900 gold coin note. The $4,000 gold note
would jump to the value of $50, 600 in sill
Yer. The banks would thus be given a
fearful advantage. Many merchants
doing business as nearly all do. on bor-
roWed capital, with their book accounts
thus cut in two, would be bankrupted.
All would be injured.
A remedy and means of getting both
metals on an equality before the people
is to adopt the old Venetian system.
Coin one standard in each metal and
either freely coin both metals or issue
certificates on the deposit of bullion as
brought to the mints and then let the
people take whichever metals they
wanted. Everyone could then do their
with fox