The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-02
THE CONCEALED PREMIUM ON
GOLD.


1t is well now and then to apply the
facts near home that we know about
to the general situation. We are told
that, according to the recent annual
reports of the % banks i'm North Caro-
lima, out of the $19,000.G00 of assets,
there were on hand in gold only 5000.
This is a very astonishing showing.
But it is in line with the claim this
year of the plain people that the gold
is somewhere far removed from them.
1t is all nested away somewhere in
the safety-deposit vaults of syndicates.
This being the case the effect upon
the value of gold has been the same
as it would be upon wheat when that
grain is cornered. The effect has
been an enhancement of the value of
gold. If it does not grow in value by
being quoted at a premium, it is no
less at premium when with one dol
lar, two dollars worth of product can
be bought 1t is this Elusive increase
in the value of gold that has caused
the people to be blind to the fact that
it is really, if not nominally at prem
ium, and all because it is going through
the cornering process, as shown by the
5000 in hand in North Carolina banks
with assets of S19,000,00O.
This premium is concealed by telling
the people that there was overproduc-
ton instead of an increase in the pur-
chasing power of the gold. The New
York Journal of Tuesday, in the midst
of an editorial, puts this phase of the
question tersely when it says: "a
dollar that buys 200 cents worth of
goods viii also buy 200 cents worth
of labor" This is the first time we
remember to have seen this important
truth touched upon in such a telling
way. And the truth is particularly i'm
portant to us now. For among the
McKinleyites in the State it has been
quite the fashion to appeal to en-
ployes, saying, under free silver, even
if prices are doubled, your wages re-
main the same" The answer hence
forth to this fa1lacious appeal can be
given in the epigrammatic sentence
quoted above.
For the dollar which now gets 200
cents worth of labor will, when that
dollar, under free silver, is worth only
100 cents, get only half that amount
of labor. IL other words, if prices
are doubled, wages will likewise be
doubled; just as now when prices are
halved, the amount of labor is doubled.
But, they ask how will the wages
be increased when the demand re-
mains the same? The answer is that
no matter how great the natural
demand there can be no adequate
exchange of labor for money when
the money is artifcially cornered
in safe-deposit companies. 1t is the
lack of the actual medium of money
of which the people complain. They
ask for silver as this medium in addi
ton to gold, because there will then be
no cornering and the demand that
exists will be able to make itself known
in a medium which is at hand for an
exchange with it's value in labor. Give
the people money, and they will spend
it in various enterprises. With the
increase of money will come the in
crease of these enterprises, with such
increase, win come the assertion of the
demand for labor, and with such de-
mand will come am increase of wages.
Thus the appeal referred to above of
the McKinleyites will be blown to the
winds. h