Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-04-03
RATIO OF VALUATION
ONLY DETERMINED BY GIVING
BOTH METALS EQUAL CHANCE.
IL Depends Upon the Demand for
Either Metal When Coined Into
Redemp ptiOm MOneY-The Equal
ity Equal Cnder Equal COndi-
tiOns.

E1tner metal When CO1neO lhtt
| Redemption MOney-The Equal
ity Equal Cnder Equal COndi'
tiOns.
A J. Warner.
Kindred to the notion of intrinsic
value" if not growing directly out o.
this fallacy, is the platitude 80 often
heard, "Put dollars worth of silver
in a dollar" If the value of the
metals was intrinsic and did not de
pend on the law of supply and de-
mand, then there might be some sense
in such demand; but as the value ol
both these metals depends on the law
of supply and demand, and as demand
for them comes largely from monetary
use, to ask that a given weight of one
metal should have the same valne,
with monetary use, or the demand for
it for money. taken from it, that the
other has with the demand for it for
money doubled by the very act that
took away the demand for money
from the other, is 80 manifestly inn
possible that the wonder is that any
intelligent person should repeat it;
and yet nothing is more often heard
than this absurd claim, and that too,
from otherwise intelligent people.
1t ought to be manifest to any any
one, and ia to everyone who under
stands the most elementary princi-
Piles OF money, that neither metal can
possibly have the same value, when
denied monetary use, or the right OF
mintage; that is, with demand upon
it for money purposes taken away, as
it would have with the right of free
mintage, or the right to be converted
at the will OF the holder into money.
No one denies that the chief value of
gold arises from the demand for it for
money. That demand is unceasing, is
from everybody" ais the sum of the
demand OF all things for this thing"
and this demand has been enormously
increased by taking from silver the
joint demand for money and doubling
it up on gold. This demand, until
silver was demonetized, was tho chief
source of the value of silver, as it is
and always has been of the value Of
gold. Then, after having taken none
tary use from silver and concentrated
the whole demand for standard money
on gold, how utterly unreasonable to
require that the ratio of one metal to
the other, under these conditions,
should be taken 40 their true ratio as
money! In other words, that silver
should have the value of money before
it is made money, which is manifestly
impossible. The Vanderbilts have
two lines OF railroad between New
York and Buffalo. Suppose they
should take off from one of these lines
all through trains, leaving only few
local trains to do little local busi-
ness, and double the trains on the
other. Presumably the earnings Of
the lines and the value of the stock OF
the two roads would be in proportion
to the business of each. Would il
not appear on its face absurd, under
such conditions, for the Vanderbilts to
say when the earnings of the line de.
pleted OF trains and business shall
equal the earnings of the other line,
and its stock becomes as valuable,
then we will put the through trains
back on it, but not till then" But
would this be any more absurd than
to ask that the value of silver, without
monetary use, or the right of mintage,
should be the same as with it?
What would be the value of gold if
it we're generally demonetized, as it
might be, and as silver has been? At
the present rate of consumption in
the arts, the stock of gold now in the
world devoted to monetary use would
last about fifty years. What would
be the value of anything of which
there was fifty years supply on handf
1t is the restriction which has been
placed on the monetary use of silver,
and the consequent increased work
laid upon gold, that has wrought the
change in the value of both,
Again, there is no such thing as
commercial value" to either gold or
silver, separate and apart from its
value as money. Even with silver de-
monetized in Europe and the United
States, it is still the demand for it
for money by 9OO.OOO,OOO of people
that chiefly determines it's value, and
there never was a time since these
metals came into use ss money when
they possessed value as commodities
separable from their value as money.
This idea is relic of the "intrinsic
value" fallacy.
First, then, restore to silver the
right OF free coinage, the same as is
accorded to gold, and the same that it
possessed for indefinate ages prior to
1873, and then il the coins OF the two
metals do not remain at par on the
ratio of 16 to l, there might be some
reason for considering the readjust-
ment of the mint ratio, but not till
then.
loI0o Of Maaon. - ann, So ho