Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-10-15
MIR. CAGES MISTAKE.
TAKEN TO TASK BY A STUDENT
OF FINANCE.
Tho Secretary of the Treasury Ia I'm
doubtedly Skillful Money Changer
but Is Ignorant of the Science of
Money.

standard would give nearer approach
to stability, and hence honesty, in the
future than standard based on gold
alone, for the average fluctuations OF
two commodities is likely to be less ex-
treme than the fluctuations of one. But,
as We have said, measure Of value OF
strict invariableness in purchasing
power, and hence Of honesty, Is not to
be thus obtained Such invariableness
cannot be secured until the volume OF
money is regulated by it's purchasing
power, until 1t is increased just as an
| increase is shown to be needed by q
tendency of prices to fall and provision
is made for decreasing the volume OF
| currency IL a spirit of imitation is
evinced by tendency of prices to rise
abnormally. And no assurance can be
given Of this while we base the supply
Of money upon the fluctuations In the
| supply of two commodities. Still, the
making Of the supply of money depend
ent on the supply Of two metals, gold
and silver, instead of one, would be an
assurance Of greater stability, Of a
nearer approach to honesty, and this Is
what Is contended by bimetallists.
It is further contended by bimetal-
lists that the opening of the minis to
free silver coinage would fix mint price
for silver as the price is now fixed FOR
gold, and that this would be followed by
such equalization Of the demand for
gold and silver that the commercial
parity of gold and silver would be re-
stored to the mint parity. In short, 1t
is contended that under bimetallism
the demand for money would adjust
itself so as to restore and maintain this
parity; that the demand for silver
would be so increased and the demand
for gold for coinage so diminished that
the commercial parity between gold
and silver would at once be restored at
the mint ratio the purchasing power OF
silver bullion increasing with the in
creased demand and the purchasing
power of gold diminishing until parity
was reached. And after parity was
once reached it would be maintained,
impel debtors to make use of the money
of full debt-paying power that they can
most readily get, and so the moment
one metal became relatively abundant
for coinage, the demand for 1t
would become relatively greater,
while the demand for the other metal
would become proportionately less.
The inevitable result would be to check
any tendency of the most abundant
metal to fall below par and to keep the
relatively scarcer metal from rising
above par These are the results
claimed by bimetallists.
But now Mr.. Gage, who has been
drawn into newspaper interview,
comes forward and tells us that there
is no basis for the contentious of BIZ
metallists; that bimetallism, meaning
the free coinage of both gold and sill
yer into full legal tender money, is
really a very different thing from what
bimetallists contend. 'In the first
place." he asserts, there is, properly
speaking, no mint price for gold or
silver" But when we turn to DR..
Linderman's work on money and Le-
gal Tender in the United States" pub
lished in 1877. when he was director of
the mint, and which is first authority
on such matters, we find in the first
chapter of his work devoted to brief
explanation Of terms commonly used
in treating Of bullion, minis, coinage
and money" this definition of the
Mint price of gold or silver-the
rate per standard ounce at which the
mint converts bullion into unlimited
legal tender coins"
So it is quite clear that under free
coinage at which coinage rate is fixed
for the conversion of bullion into coin,
there is mint price as defined by the
first of gold authorities on such mat
tiers. And that Mr.. Gage is unaware
of the accepted meaning of the term
mint price" is not the fault of bimet-
allists.
1t is very true, as Mr.. Gage asserts,
that "all the mint does with the man
who brings to the mint certain num-
Der of grains of uncoined gold, is to
give him in return the same number of
grains Of coined gold, less enough to
pay for the metal alloy used by the
mint in coming" But this is equiv
alent to fixing minimum price for
gold for no man, when he can take
standard gold to the mint, that is, gold
nine parts pure gold and one part al
10y, and have it coined and returned
to him as gold coin at the rate of
$3.50 for every ounce deposited, will
sell an ounce Of standard gold for less
than this, the mint price, nor will any
man sell pure gold at less rate than
$20.67 an ounce, this being the amount
of gold coin that pure ounce of gold
will make. and what is true of gold
would be, under free coinage, true of
silver. The price Of pure silver at our
present mint ratio would be fixed at
$1.2929 per ounce and the mint price
per standard ounce at $1.16 ALL.
But Mr.. Gage asserts that this coin
age of silver would not make demand
for silver, that the government would
not buy silver, but would merely give
silver dollars in return for silver bull