Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-07-31

owe aDTOIu, SeEenly-llNe mllllODS arr
needed for remittances to travellers
and absentees, and seventy-five mil
lions more for foreign ship owners
carrying our commerce. These fig
ures show the enormous demand fol
money to pay debts. But money i.
not only solvent of debts; it is 6
medium of exchange, and large sums
are needed to move our crops, to ef
feet exchanges Of product between oul
people, and to conduct our commerce
Our wealth is one-third in excess o.
that Of Great Britain, and equal tc
that of Germany, Austria and Spain
put together.
Our manufactures are nearly dou.
BILE those of England. In agriculture
We surpass Russia. including Poland
Our railroads carry more tons oi
freight than all the railroads and
ships OF the rest of the world Ac-
cording to Mulhall, the productive
power of the United States has trebled
since 1850 and is now by far the
greatest in the world. 1t has been
shown that We produce and consume
OF all commodities taken together
more than half as much as all the
balance of the world.
What capacity here to absorb vast
sums OF money! What power to as
simulate increasing amounts with
future growth! With such demand
for money to liquidate debts, to de-
velope our dormant resources, and to
carry on our marvellous trade, who is
wise enough to set the bounds to the
amount of money and credit needed
by our giant young Republic2
Second. AS to the supply. The
silver coin of Europe. minted at a
ratio of 15t to l, or less, and at par
with gold, and the silver money of
Asia and Mexico being only about
$3.50 per capita, and the only money
in use there, We cannot get. There is
no accumulation OF silver bullion in
the world, except that in our own
treasury, most of which is held for re-
demption of our treasury notes.
What silver we coin, then, must come
from the future output of the mines.
What that output will be can best be
estimated from experience. The larg-
est amount ever taken from the mines
in any one year was 167 1852 ,56I
ounces, of which the commercial value
is, according to our director of the
mint, $l06 ,522 800, and the coin value
$2l6,S92 200.
European nations took last year for
subsidiary coinage $30O0O,O0O; and
the. United States 100000. The
arts consumed $j0,OOO,OO0. India,
China, Japan and other silver coun-
tries used $70,000,00O. 1t will thus be
seen that with our mints open to free
coinage, the amount probably availa-
BILE would be less than $60, ,O0OO00 per
annum. This sum would be about
$50 per capita for our increase of pop.
ulation. But the volume of our
money is contracting under the pres
ent standard, and the reduction last
year in the United States was 81 per
capita; so that if we had coined $780,
100000 (more than the worlds entire
producO we would only have main
tanned the previous capita.
Take another view OF it. Mulhall
says the wealth OF the United States
increases 100000 daily, or more
than two and one-half billions year.
The authorities all say the volume of
money should increase in proportion
to the increase OF wealth. If no more
than the existing ratio between
wealth and money be maintained,
which is about 30 to /, there was
needed last year to add TO the stock
about one hundred millions of dollars.
An impartial consideration of the
material facts and figures, 80 far from
suggesting any cause for alarm lest
there be too much money produced by
the free coinage of silver, leads to the
conclusion that there would be no dif-
ficulty in absorbing into the circula-
ton all the silver that would be mint
ed and a great deal more.
The enormous amounts of money
necessary to pay debts and taxes, to
develop our resources, to carry on our
astonishing trade and to supply the
wants of our progressive people, and
the utter inadequacy OF our present
decreasing currency, all considered, the
demand for silver dollars as the basis
OF a greater circulation is actically
unlimited, while the quantity of avail
able silver is restricted within narrow
bounds, so that under the operation of
the economic laws above stated. the
United States should be able to main
tain the value of silver on the ratio OF
10 TO at par with gold, not only at
home, but in the markets of the world.
1t is well understood that England
will be forced to restore full coinage to
India whenever our mints are opened
to silver, and there is every reason to
believe that Russia, France, and per-
haps Germany are ready to follow our
lead. This done, the question would
be settled beyond all peradventure.
The reason that the coinage ratio
which has obtained for more than
century last past is 15i to l. or IL to
| /, that the relative Quantities of silver