The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-23
A BIG QUESTION.

as well as other industrial occupations, Is
directly traceable to the act of 1873.
Can you spare space in your daily to the
answer Of these assertions? The articles pub
lished in the G | o give assurance that the
subject will be fairly and candidly discussed.
Yours truly &C. C. Chapman.
Minnesota City, Mimi, July 81 1896.
The entire monetary stock Of the
United States in metal and paper, in
Guiding all in the treasury and in cir
culation, is given by Muhleman, in his
Monetary Systems of the World" as
$3.50, 900, 900 in 1893, and So, 421 100000 in
1894. Part of this, however, is a du-
plication; since the silver dollars In the
treasury are represented by silver GER
tificates in circulation. The actual
money in circulation, and therefore
available for use by the people, is given
by the Statistical Abstract, an official
publication of the United States gov
eminent, at $751, SS1, 800, in 1878, which
was per capita circulation Of $500.
For the year 1895 the same document
gives the aggregate circulation as
81, 6O1 1868, Alb, which is a per capita cir
culation of $22.97. 1t appears. there
fore, that, instead of currency contrac-
ton since 1873, the amount of coin and
paper money actually in circulation in
this country has considerably more
than doubled, and the circulation per
capita has increased by more than %
per cent.
There is absolutely no ground, as far
as we are aware, for attributing the
depreciation of silver and agricultural
and business depression to the act of
1873. On the contrary, all the argu-
ments which we have seen leading to
that conclusion are essentially want
ing in logical completeness. The act
of 1873 affected only the currency vol
ume of the United States, and that in
appreciably at that time; for it dropped
from the list of the coins the silver
dollar, none of which were be-
ing coined; and when the market
price Of silver became such that coin
der the act of 1878. AS the figures
which we have already given show,
there was no contraction. Not one
dollar of money existing was taken out
vast amount of silver was put into cir
culation under the acts of 1873 and 1890;
and the total active money stock of
the country was augmented at pace
prices of agricultural products and of
the great staples of the world in gem
eral are fixed in the markets of the
world. They do not depend upon con-
ditions in any one country, but are
governed by supply and demand the
world over. Thus, we presume that not
even the most ardent fiat money man
will deny that war in Europe, with
drawing million men from the cult
walton Of the soil, and calling for sup
plies to support them in the field,
would raise the price of every bushel
of wheat produced in the United
States, although the money supply
were neither increased nor diminished.
In the same way fluctuations in the
money supply, in order to affect prices,
must occur not in the currency of a
single country, but in that of the en-
tire civilized world, which is engaged
extensively in international trade. 1t.
follows, necessarily, of course, that the
act of 1873. which did not, as we have
already stated, take one dollar out of
circulation. and which applied only to
the monetary system of the United
States, could not possibly have govern
ed the market price of commodities
whose supply and demand meet and
fix prices on the broad theater of the
entire trading world
The partial truth which the free sill
yer men so exaggerate and turn to bad
| uses is that many economists who have
engaged in scientific investiga-
| ton Of the subject have concluded
that the action of the great CONNER
cial nations in general with reference
to silver has had some appreciable eff
| feet in lowering the general scale of
| prices. and causing certain limited ap-
probation in the purchasing power of
rived, not by jumping at some little
isolated fact, but by a study in minor
| detail of the course of all prices for GEN.
turtles past. An Investigation of these
appears to show that, while prices
| fiuctuated wildly from year to year.
according to local and special condi-
lions, there is a general level or aver
age through the years which rises and
! falls through a smaller number of de-
| grees with changes that are more gem
eral in character and less subject to
| analysis. A large number of modern
economists believe that the downward
trend of this line of price averages, as
| shown by the various systems of index
numbers prepared by statistical au-
thorities, may be due in part to the
| elimination by the world of silver from
| the metals admitted to free coinage at
their minis. We state this as the con-
clusion arrived at by eminent men, in
a spirit of entire fairness, although it
should be added that other high au-
! thorities do not agree with them; and.
/ for our own part, we are inclined to
think that the influence Of this cause,
if operative at all to affect prices. has
been very slight Within the period
| mentioned, the volume of credit money
has expanded so enormously, and the
function of cash has SO dwindled thai
we cannot conceive of the change In