The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-09-11
THE RETIONETIzaTION0FS SILVER
One Of the Best Of English Writers
Discusses the Question.
From the National Bimetallist.I


Nothing gives the gold people in
this country more satisfaction than
to persistently claim that the silver
movement is merely a scheme Oh the
part of few INSCRIPTIONS silver
miners anxious to enhance the value
of their product; of a lot of thieving
farmers who wish to pay their debts
in cheap money, and small army
of wild eyed fanatics filed with
communistic notions and desirous
of destroying the very foundation of
society itself. Therefore, it is al
ways great pleasure to be able to
quote strong European writer on
the silver side. Not that he is high
er authority because of his birth or
residence, but because he is entirely
free from those peculiarly selfish
motives that are always laid at the
door of the American silver advo.
Gates.
One of the best and clearest of
English writers on this subject is
Mr.. Alfred Newton, of Savage Gar
den, London. The salient features
of the bimetallic controversy are
most admirably set forth in the fol-
lowing letter recently written by
him:
Savage Gardens, London, Aug. 10, '96.
l am greatly interested in yours of the
Both of July, in when | think you have
brought forward every possible obiec-
ton that can be discovered against the
principle of the rehabilitation of silver.
Your contentious may be shortly stated
thus:
l. Wage and salary earners will be in
jured by the rise in prices.
g 70 pay interest ON the gold debt in
silver would be partial repudiation.
3. Deferred payments would be paid
in deprecated currency.
1. A change in value of currency must
do injustice as prejudicing contracts.
5. Most contracts are of recent origin.
The remainder of your arguments 20
to show either that the gold standard is
not the cause of tow prices lin which
case, you will admit, the re-introduc-
tion of the joint standard will do no
harm, or, that the present gold stand
ard countries are not responsible for the
demonetization of silver, in which con-
tention you are quite wrong, for it is
the direct results of legislation, specific
laws, passed by Germany, United States,
France and other countries, all of whom
are now anxious to retrace their steps,
but somewhat unreasonably, delay do
ing so until England joins them.
Let me now reply seriatim to your OBJ
iections. First, wage and salary earn
ers have benefited each year for many
years past by the increased purchasing
power of money, though they have (un-
consciously suffered from low wages
and low salaries owing 10 that continu-
ed depression in trade which, year after
year, has been ascribed by ignorant
Journalists and politicians to any cause
but this self-evident one. There is no
question of justice here, it is purely eX-
pediency that must rule. Let them be
satisfied to know that rising prices will
bring prosperity, more employment
more demand for labor, higher salaries,
less competition for work and more
competition amongst employers. Let
them also cast u glance AT the terrible
condition of the farming classes Zone
half the nat1on), which applies also to
all the producing classes. Second, the
government deby was borrowed i'll pa
per and could fairly be repaid Tor inter
est paid) in paper or i'll silver. The re-
Gently contracted loans were borrowed
on the express condition that they
should be repaid in lawful money of the
! United States. The word gold was eX-
pressly struck out, and United States
realized many millions less than they
otherwise would by those loans in or
! der 80 preserve their freedom Iii the
metal they should repay in. | need moi
add one word more. Third, where con-
| tracts were made for repayment in gold
of course gold must be paidi otherwise
! there is no more hardship i'll the creditor
having to receive silver than there has
! been merit in the debtor having had tC
pay gold whilst gold has bee appreciat
ing all these years.
Fourth, ali changes in the PURCHASING
power of money are bad ii is necessary
to have the standard which changes
least; for this reason all economists
agree that gold is the worst standard
for its changes in value have been mos
extreme. Silver Is better standard
for its value ii. e., its value as expressed
in commodities, otherwise its purchas
ing power), has been very stable. YoI
will not, hope, reply that its fall il
value from l6 to TO 30 To from q
pence to 81 pence per ounce proves 1t tC
be unstable, for ii proves nothing OF the
sort; it only proves that gold has ap
preciated, not that silver has depreci
ated, for the above is only the gold pric,
of silver, not the true price, which is IL
purchasing power, or its value, in al
the tens of thousands of articles which
it is the province of money TO exchange
for. The fact that an ounce or golC
now exchanges for nearly twice a
much of everything as it did in 1919
shows it TO be an unfit metal for
standard But there is another stand
ard which experience has shown to b,
better than either gold or silver, ant
that is an alternatively gold or silve
standard which we call blmetallism.
Fifth, there is a real objection to leav
ing the gold standard: All contract
are now being made in gold because TIN
law virtually compels us TO do so; bu
most of those contracts can be ALTERED
as soon as the law introduces either
silver standard or bimetallism, anI
those which would then remain woul,
not, as far as can Judge, be tentl
part as numerous or as OnerOus as thOs
which have come down from 1870, anC
on which payments have been made n
an appreciated and therefore unjus
currency. The fanatics who speak o
'crime,' > "robbery" and "theft' in thi