Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1897-10-22
ceeds the demands money will be
cheapened and the debtor will profit at

ceeds the demands money will be
cheapened and the debtor will profit at
the expense of the creditor. If the
supply falls short Of the demand money
will grow DEAR and the creditor will be
enriched, while the debtor is impover
ished; the profits of industry will be
cut away, incentive to production will
be destroyed and enterprise languish.
But that gold and silver together
would have formed more stable
measure of value, and hence more
honest one than gold has made, during
the past twenty five years is suscept-
ible of proof TO show this it is only
necessary to point out that the purchas-
ing power of silver has not deprecated
by anything like so much as gold has
appreciated, and that under bimetal-
lie standard resting on both metals,
the measure Of value would have laid
somewhere between the two extremes.
and therefore, of necessity, nearer
stability. And it stands to reason that
a bimetallic standard would give a
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 extreme than the
fluctuations Of one. But, as we have
said, measure of value Of strict in
variableness 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 its purchasing power,
until it is increased just as an increase
is shown to be needed by a tendency Of
prices to fall and provision is made for
%h0 oe r.
spirit Of imitation is evinced by ten
dency in prices to rise abnormally.
And no assurance can be given of this
upon the fluctuations in the supply of
two commodities. Still, the making Of
the supply of money dependent on the
supply Of two metals, gold and silver,
instead of one, would be an assurance
of greater stability Of nearer approach
to honesty, and this is what is contend
ed by bimetallists.
1t is further contended by bimetal-
lists that the opening of the mints to
free silver coinage would fix the mint
price for silver as the price is now fixed
for gold, and that this would be fol-
lowed by such equalization of the
demand for gold and silver that the
commercial parity Of gold and silver
would be restored to the mint parity.
In short, it is contended that I'LL der
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
that the commercial parity
between gold and silver would at once
be restored at the mint ratio, the
power of silver bullion in
with the increased demand
and the purchasing power of gold
until parity was reached.
And after parity was once restored it
would be main tanned, for it is evident |
5hat self interest must impel debtors to
make use of the money of full debt |
paying power that they can most resdi-
y get and so the moment one metal |
became relatively abundant for coin
lge, the demand for it would become
relatively greater. while the demand
:or the other metal would become pro-
oortionatelv less. The inevitable re-
'ult would be to check any tendency of
;he most abundant metal to fall below
,ar and to keep the relatively scarcer
METAL from rising above par. These
ire the results claimed by bimetallists
But now Mr. Gage, who has been
lrawn into q newspaper interview,
zones forward and tells us that there
8 no basis for the contentious of BIZ
netallists; that bimetallism, meaning
he free coinage of both gold and silver
nto full legal tender mooey, is really
cry different thing from what bimet-
lists contead I'm the first place he
;sserts ''there is, properly speaking, no
mint price for gold or silver But
vhen we turn to Dr.. Linderman's work
N Money and Legal Tender in the
United States published in 1877, when
e was Director of the Mint, and which
) first authority on such matters, we
md in the first chapter of his work
evoted to a "brief explanation of
erms commonly used in treating of
'ullion. miats, coinage and money"
his definition If the.