The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-08-22
'Put a Dollars Worth of Silver in q
Dollar"



Kindred to the notion of intrinsic yaue ), ;sno.
growing directly out of this aacy is the pIatitnds
so often heard, "Put dollars worth of silver
dollar" If the value of the metals was intrinsic
and did not depend on the law Of supply and do.
mand, then there might be some sense in srch a
demand; but the value of both these metals da
ponds on the law of supply and demand, and as
demand for them comes largely rommonetary use
to ask that given weight OF one metal should have
the same value with monetary use or the demand
for it for money, taken from it, that the other has
with the demand for it for money doubled by the
very act that took away the demand for money
from the other, is manifesty impossible that the
wonder is that any intelligent person should ne
peat it; and yet nothing is more often heard than
this absurd claim, and that, too, from otherwise
intelligent people.
1t ought to be manifest to any one, and is to ey-
eryone who understands the most elementary prn-
cipIes of money, that neither metal can possibly
have the same value, when denied monetary use
or the right of mintage; that is with demand upon
1t for money purposes takenawGy, as it would have
with the right of free mintage or the right to be
converted at the will of the holder into money
No one denies that the chief value of gold arises
from the demand for it for money. That demand
is unceasing, is from everybody; is from every
thing for this one thing" sis the sum of the de-
mand of all things for this thing and this demand
4 has been enormously increased by taking from
silver the joint demand for money and doubling it
| up on gold. This demand until silver was demon
etized was the chief source of the value of silver
as it is and always has been of the value of gold
Then, after having taken monetary from silver
and concentrated the whole demand for standard
money on gold, how utterly unreasonable to require
that the ratio of one metal to the other should be
/ fai-a fbair frtta In 9th
words, thar silver should have the value of money
before it is made money, which is manifestly I'M
possible.
The Vanderbilts have two lines of railroad be-
tween New York and Buffalo. Suppose they should
take Of from one of these lines all through Trains
leaving only few local trains to do little local
business, and double the trains on the other Pre-
sumably the earnings of the lines and the value
of the stock of the two roads would be in proportion
to the business of each Would it not appear on its
face absurd under such conditions, for the Wander
blts to say when the earnings of the line depleted
of trains and business shall equal the earnings of
the other line and its stock becomes as valuable
then we will put the through trains back it, but
not till hen" But would this be any more absurd
than to ask that the value of silver without none
tary use, or the right of mntage, should be the
same as with it?
orally demonetized, as it might be- and as silver
has been? At present rate of consumption in the
arts the stock Of god'now in the world devoted Il
money use would last about fifty years. Wha
would be the value of anything of which there wa.
fifty years supply hand? 1t is the restriction
which has been placed on the monetary use o
silver and the consequent increased work laid upor
gold, that has wrought the change in the value o
both.
Again there is no such thing as "commercla
value to either gold or silver, separate and apar
from its value money. Even with silver demon
etized in Europe and the United States, it is still
the demand for it for money by 9OO,OOOOOO of peOp
that chiefly determines its value, and there neve
was a time since these metals came into use a
money when they possessed value as eommodite
separable from their value money. This idea
IA relic of the "intrinsc value" iillaey
First then, restore TO silver the right of fire.
mintage, the same as is accorded to gold and tn
same that it possessed for indefinite ages prior t
1873 and then if the coins of the two metals do nc
remain at par on the ratio of l6 to l, there might
some reason for considering readjustment of tn
mint ratio, but not till then.