The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-06
HOW MONEY GETS INTO CIRCULA-
TIoN.

/
Asked recently how silver is to be
put in circulation, Mr.. Bryan answered:
Now. here is the process: We have
the free coinage of gold. If any man
produces gold from the earth he can
take that gold to the mint and have
it converted into gold coin, and then
he can use that gold coin to buy any
| thing he wants But he does not spend
a dollar of that gold coin without put
| ting the money into circulation. The
! process is just the same as with the
man who owns silver mine that pro-
duces the silver: but instead of going
to find somebody who wants to use the
silver to make spoons out Of. he takes
that silver to the mint and has ii con-
verified into money; that money is his
pay for the labor of producing the sill
Yer and paying all his expenses of min
ing. and what there is left over and
above that IS his profit. But he can
not spend a dollar of it without put
ting ii into circula ton, where it will
be used to purchase the products Of
your toll and the toll Of all who labor.
Now, that Is where the money gets into
circulation.
The Kansas City Star, commenting
on this, says it is a fair statement of
the case, hut that 1T was not carried
far enough; that Mr.. Bryan should
have gone on to show that the men
who receive the silver and gold pay it
out for food and clothing, and thus, by
increasing the demand for commodf-
ties, they help to build up the prosper
ity of the country.
IA
differs from the process whereby any
industry, no matter what, puts money
in circulation and increases the pros
perity of the country. ANY prosper
Gus industry puts money in circulation
in identicalIy the same way that silver
mining or gold mining does il. whether
the product of the mine is, or is not
coined into money, free Of cost says
the STAR It then proceeds: THE
greater the wages of labor and the
greater the profits of industry, the
more prosperous win be the country.
The free coinage Of silver would not
increase the demand for commodities,
and thus widen the opportunities of
labor BY debasing the dollar 1T would
increase the profits of the manufacturer
or miner by reducing the actual wages
(measured by purchasing power) paid
70 Iaborers. This incre5s ed profit would
temporarily stimulate production. But
there would be no increased demand ex-
cept such as would arise from the
added Iaborers to produce the increased
output, and that would be offset by the
diminished purchasing power of wages.
Consequently, there would be, very
quickly. glut of products pressing for
sale a fan in prices, a renewed de-
preston Of industry"
Mr.. Bryan stated the case correctly;
there is no other way Of putting money
in circulation than the way indicated
by him. The Star asks wherein this
process of putting money in circulation
differs from the process Of putting 1t
in circulation in any other prosperous
industry Simply as the industry of
extracting the ores ard reducing them
to bullion. 1t is identica1ly the same
process of putting money in ci1cula-
ton otherwise, it is the employment
of labor by capital. But no other in
dustry furnished the product from
facilitate the exchange of commodities
there must be money, the days of bar
ter and exchange having gone by The
larger the volume of money the greater
the facilities for exchanging commodi-
ties. Making gold the sole money of a
country does not afford sufficient ia
cilities for the exchange. The demon
etization of silver reduced these IA
cilities. Free coinage would increase
them and cause all our money metal
to be used as money, thereby creating
demands on the part of those who
had it, which demands those who did
not have the money would supply
The Star says the free coinage of
silver would not increase the demand
for commodities, and thus widen the
for labor. The increase
of the volume of money always brings |
an increased demand for commodities,
while the supplying Of this demand
always widens the opportunities of I
labor
Would free coinage debase the dollar
as assumed by the star? That is, /
would free coinage at the ratio of is |
to 1 debase the silver dollar measured I
by the gold dollar? If under free
coinage the commercial value and the
coinage value of silver were not at a.
parity but were at as great a disparity
as they are today, then free coinage
would debase the silver dollar. To
say that this disparity would continue
IS a pure assumption without a single
fact to sustain it. The advocates of
free coinage can point to the historic
TACT that under free coinage the parity
between silver and gold, at the ratio
IF ls 70 l, always was maintained:
while every law of logic warrants them
IN saying that given the conditions
under which the parity of the two met
ais was maintained and it will be
The Utahnian OF yesterday (Nlo. IL, a