The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-15

1t Is familiar argument to claim
that the fall in the value Of silver has
been due to it's decentralization in 1873.
And yet in the same breath advocates
of free coinage of silver claim that
silver is a just means of paying debts
because it has not fallen in value re-
latiyely to goods. 1t is clear that both
these positions cannot be logically
held. If silver is a just means Of pay
nent, because it has not fallen in value,
then it's demonstration in 1873 was not
the cause of a decline in value. One or
the other of these positions must be
abandoned; but the facts clearly show
that silver has fallen relatively to goods
in marked way. This has nothing to
do with the fall Of silver relatively to
gold, for some might argue that gold
has gone up, and that silver has not
fallen. What appears as clear as day
light is that silver has lost enormously
in purchasing power over goods. This
I have previously demonstrated at
length.
Having shown serious fall in the
value of silver, it now remains to point
out the cause of this fall. And we
shall find that there is a cause peculiar
to silver although one of the common
est fallacies of present monetary dis
cussion is to argue that there is one
general cause for the change in prices
of all articles. This is the more absurd,
because some things have not fallen;
while wheat and cotton, for reasons
special to each. have declined in price,
corn and oats and pork have not like
wise declined. Indeed, 1T is very crude
science to speak as if a common cause
had been discovered, as If sun-spots,
or the appearance of a new economic
bacillus, could account for good har-
vests or foreign competition.
This belief that some common cause
is at work ravaging prices like an evil
germ has it's roots in the wholly I'M
scientific delusion that, if known, it
could be destroyed by legislation. Now
all this is simple quackery. There is
no such common cause, even if the adj
vocates of silver do pirate about ap-
probation of gold; nor, if there were,
could legislation do much to modify it.
Law cannot grow figs from thiStleS; 1t
cannot control the shape or outline Of
an oak leaf. Neither can it control the
mental processes Of millions of citi-
Zens whose estimates enter into the
fixing of an articles value; nor can 1t
govern the chances of discovery, the
opening Of new sources of supply in
foreign countries as well within it's
own jurisdiction, the inventions which
lower it's cost, or in fact, the whole
complicated operation of the progress
of the age affecting the growth or man
ufacture of the article. A law making
a certain metal legal tender, and CIV
ing it free coinage, will not make it
valuable. That is fact which gets
appreciation slowly. We gave silver
free coinage and unlimited legal tender
power from 1892 to 1873, and yet only
8,031 ,238 of silver dollars were coined in
all that period, and of these only the
1,439,517 coined before 1906 were really
minted for ordinary circulation. (Since
from 1886 to 1873 the silver dollars
always bore a premium.) Moreover,
gold would be just as valuable without
the stamp of our mint on it, and would
buy just as much of goods abroad as If
it were In the form of our coin. Leg
islation can take advantage of value
determined by commercial facts; but
it cannot Great value in silver any
more than it can create brains in an
idiot.
In brief, the changes in the value of
silver must be sought for just as those
of any other. article, in the relation Of
supply to demand. If silver strongly
appeals to men for monetary uses,
states will rush to absorb 1t as fast as
produced, preferring it to. another
metal. Let US see how true this is.
First, let us gather the facts as to the
production Of silver; and afterwards
study the demand for 1t.
The production of silver at different
dates may be easily seen from the fol-
lowing figures, giving the annual aver
age weight per year in Kilograms: