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

/ have selected, first, the years Of the
marvellous yield from the mines of
Potosi. about 1900, when Europe was
flooded with the silver of the New
World but even that fabulous era
turned out only about lib as much
per year as do the silver mines of the
present time. And today the annual
production of silver is about six times
as great as the phenomenal output
from the Mexican mines from 1880 to
1910. Yet in these two extraordinary
periods of the past so much silver was
added to the world as to produce
tremendous changes in it's value; IN
deed, economic history is full Of it.
Coming to recent years, when the act
of 1878 was passed, silver mines were
turning out three times as much as
in the best days of the Mexican mines
Q7S0-181O. That product was. up to
that time QS78) unequaled; nothing
like 1t had ever occurred in the history
of silver. No wonder silver owners
wanted the United States to buy some
of it and store it away out of the mark
ct. But the production. of silver has
gone on steadily growing; what was
marvellous In 1878 has been more than
doubled in 1894, and today the produc-
ton Of silver has reached a figure I'M
dreamed Of twenty years ago. These
are grave and important facts in the
silver question; they are not Opinions"
or beliefs" What IL the annual pro-
duction of any other article had been
similarly increased. Does anyone sup
pose it's price would not have been
cheapened?
Now that there has been this
phenomenal increase in the production
of silver, what has been the movement
of demand? To maintain It's value,
the demand for silver should have in
p6 IIv xxyffh ifc
Has that followed? No. Instead of in
creasing, the demand for silver has
fallen off during the very period when
the mines were yielding such great
new supplies. No one disputes the fact
OF this diminished demand; it has been
the burden of silver discussion for
twenty years. And the reason of 1t Is
not far to seek.
About 1850, generally speaking, the
minis OF the world Except In Great
Britain and some minor states) were
open to both gold and silver Free
choice between gold and silver was
offered to commercial countries Up
to this time silver had been largely in
use. But In 1850 began the most re-
markable gold production known in
history, resulting In the fresh supply of
So, 800, 600, 900 of gold in addition
to what then existed. This new gold
was at the disposal of the great com
mercfal states; in the evolution Of the
1ttest medium Of exchange and
standard of value. it turns out that
these states chose gold and gave up
their silver. Gold was adopted instead
Of silver for the same general reasons
which led to the substitution Of cleo
trio cars for horse cars. 1t Is as silly
to talk about the equal rights Of
silver to those of gold, as to talk about
horses having equal rights with cleo
tricity. If horses can do the work as
well and as cheaply as electricity then
horses will not be in need Of any
rights" So OF silver; 1t was dropped
solely because what the commercial
world believes to be better medium
had lately been added in enormous
quantities, and that had enabled the
great states to adopt gold (necessitat-
Ing. of course. the abandonment Of