The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-03
AN ARGUMENT FRoaI ANALOGY.


Without caring to anticipate or to
controvert the proceedings Of the forth
coming banquet of the friends of free
silver in this city week hence, it may
be proper to call attention to the fol-
lowing extract from the programme of
toasts that has been published:
Silver Republicans xponerts of Lincoln
Republcanism' THE who has pur-
chased any artiele-say a horse-on credit at
500 when there are 500 O00,C00 circulating in
the country if the quantity be reduced by
500. 600 ,010 by the arrival of pay day will
find the horse but sufficient to pay half the
debt john Lind.
1t is arguments like this which tell
most powerfully with common people,
who, without giving serious thought
to the matter, are made to believe that
the price of any commodity is depend
ent upon the amount of money in use
in the community in which that COM
modify is bought and sold Nothing
could be farther from the truth When,
in old times, a single community, say
city, manufactured and dealt exclu-
sively in all the articles that it's peo-
pie needed; when it furnished it's own
currency. and needed no other; when. in
word, trade with outsiders was prac-
tically nothing and any ether money
than that produced within the com
munity was unknown, the proposition
was pretty nearly true. All the bust
ness of the community had to be car
ried on with the community's money
and the price of everything would rise
and fall as the volume Of its circulat-
ing medium rose or fell.
In these times of free inter-
national exchange the proposition
has to be extended accordfnglv
1t is probably true that the
prices of all commodities in the world
today, including in "the world" all the
leading civilized and commercial ma
tons, depend upon the aggregate
amount Of the circulating medium in
that world. In that circulating medium,
of course, are included not only coin
and notes, but the representatives of
and substitutes for money which dis
charge so important a function in trade
and more as commercial processes be-
come more numerous and complex
Thus, we know that the price Of wheat.
TO take an Illustration. does not 20 Ut
or down in proportion to the huctua-
tons in the money volume Of a sing!e
country The production Of wheat and
the demand for it are both worldwide
The price Of wheat will vary on the
market, day by day. with favorable or
unfavorable reports from India. from
Russia, from France, from the Argen-
tine and from all four quarters of the
globe. Since demand and supply
thus balance each other over the whole
commercial world, that element Of price
which is determined by the money
volume varies correspondingly.
To say that you can change prices
by increasing or decreasing the cur
rency Of single country is true only
in the ratio which the currency Of that
country bears to the Currency of the
entire world. To use the analogy which
all bimetallists USE and not without
force, that Of a reservoir consisting Of
two tanks connected by a pine wa
have, in the case of prices, an enor-
nous reservoir. worldwide in IFS ex-
tent, consisting q rs many tanks as
there are peoples engaged in trade and
the currenc1es used in buying and SELL
ing. Add to one Of these tanks 2, GER
tain amount and you do affect thA
general level of the reservoir, but by no
means in proportion to the effect upon
the single tank. If tank contains q
thousand gallons and you make it five
thousand, you would raise it's level i'm
mensely; but, since it is connected NV
freely-f1owing currents with all the
other tanks in the reservoir, if their
aggregate contents are a million gal
Ions. you have raised the general level
only imperceptibly.
Applying to the text contained in the
toast the test OF further illustrate
let us say that the money volume Of
the country and the world remains sta
tionary, but that instead Of having 200 :
100000 bushels Of wheat for sale one
year, this country has only 100000 00O
bushels for sale another VIII any one
contend that this difference doubles the
market price Of wheat the world over?
That the proposition viii not stand is
evident at glance. The subtraction