The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-13


~ money will raise the purchasing
power of the Collar; SO we also apply
the law of supply and demand to silver
when we say that a new demand for
silver created by a law will raise the
price of silver bullion.
Gold and silver are different from
other commodities, in that they ere
limited in quantity. Corn, wheat,
me nufactured products, ETC., can be
PRODUCES almost without limit, pro-
vided they can be sold at a price suf-
ficaent TO stimulate production; but gold
and silver are called precious metals
because they are found, not produced.
These metals have been the objects of
anxious search as far hack as history
runs; yet, according to Mr.. Harvey's
calculation, all the gold coin of the
world can be melted into a twenty
twc-foot cube and all the silver in the
world into a. sixty-six-foot cube. Be
cause gold and silver are limited both
in the quantity now on hand and in
annual production, it follows that
LEGISLATION CAN FIX THE
RATIO
Between them. Any purchaser who
stands ready TO take the entire supply
of any given article at a certain price
can prevent that article from failing
below that price. So the government
can fix a price for gold and silver by
creating a demand greater than the
supply International bimetallists be-
lieve that several nations, by entering
into an agreement to coin at a fixed
ratio all the gold and silver presented,
can maintain the bullion value of the
metals at that ratio. When a mint
price is thus established it regulates
the bullion price. because any person
desiring coin may have the bullion
converted into coin at that price, and
any person desiring bullion can secure
it by melting the coin. The question
upon which international bimetalltsts
and independent bimetailfsts differ is:
Can the United States. by the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at the pres
ent legal ratio, create a demand for
silver which, taken in connection with
the demand already in existence, viii
be sufficient to utilize au the silver
that viii be presented at the mints?'
They agree in their defense of the BIZ
metallic principle. and they agree in
unalterable opposition to the gold
standard. International bimetallists
cannot complain that free coinage
gives a benefit 10 the mine owner. be-
cause international bimetailism gives
40 the owner of silver all the advan-
1ages offered by independent bimetal-
ism at the same ratio.
international bimetallisl.s cannot
accuse the advocates of free silver of
being bullion owners, who desire to
raise the value of their bullion, or
debtors who desire to pay their debts
in cheap dollars or 'demagogues who
desire to curry favor with the people
''They must rest their opposition upon
one ground only, namely; that the sup
ply Of silver available for coinage is
too large TO be utilized by the United
States. In discussing this question we
must consider the
CAPACITY OF OUR PEOPLE
to use. silver and the quantity of silver
which can come to our minis. 1t must
be remembered that we live in coun-
tyy only partially developed, and that
OR people far surpass any equal num-
Der OF people in the world in their
power 70 consume and produce. Our
extensive railroad development and
enormous internal comm cree must also
be taken into consideration. Now, how
much silver can come here? Not the
coined silver of the world, because al
most all of it is more valuable at this
time in other lands than it will be at
pur minis under free coinage. If our
nlints are opened to free and unlimited
coinage at the present ratio, merchan-
disc silver cannot come here, because
hne labor applied to it has made it
worth more in the form of merchan-
disc than it viii be worth at our
mints. We cannot even expect all of
HE annual products of silver, because
india, China, Japan, Mexico and all
lEle other silver-using countries must
patisfy their annual needs from the an
nuai product; arts will require a large
amount, and the gold standard coun-
RIes wild need a. considerable quantity
Dr. subsidiary coinage. We will be re-
rufred to coin only that which is not
heeded elsewhere: but, if we stand
ready to take and utilize aid of it. other
nations will be compelled to, but at the
price which we fix. Many fear that
he opening of our minis wiz be fol-
s,wed by the enormous increase in the
annual production of silver. This is
conjecture Silver has been used as
money for thousands of years, and dur
ng all of thar time the world has
pt suffered from an over production.
c, for amy reason, the supply of gold
II silver in the world ever exceeds the
euuirements of the arts and the needs
If commerce we confidently hope that
he intelligence of the people will be
efficient to devise and enact any leg
slation necessary for the protection OF
he public; 1t is folly to refuse TO the
feople the money which they need, for
Ear they may hereafter
AVE MORE THAN THEY NEED.
ST am fairly convinced that by the
nenirg of our minis to free and I'M
united coinage at the present ratio we
an create a demand for silver which
SiIl keep the price of silver bullion at
I29 per ounce, measured by gold. Some
# our opponents attribute the fall in
-, ---l,o,, moo r.,,ad hv GOLD fo fhe