The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-09
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.
Prof Colburn Discusses Che Effect of
Largo Increase in the Worlds
Gold.

Detroit. Aug. AT the session of the
American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, held here today,
t'Improvident Civilization was the
subject of an address by Prof. Richard
T. Colburn, chairman of the section of
social and economic science. Prof. Col
burn thought the controversy in re-
spect to a bimetallic money standard
and the other as to the limits of safety
for representative, or currency money,
are certain to be fully worked over
by the powerful vested interests con-
cerned in reports of commissions and
printed volumes.
His explanation was that these ques-
tons are but parts of a far greater
question of meteOrology. Prof. Col
burn added:
When we speak of value equivalent
cy, wealth, risk, trust distrust panic
prosperity we are dealing not with con-
crete substances not with gold pieces,
but with states of mind yet those ideas
lie at the foundation of comemrcial
exchanges and monetary science. Have
any of you ever imagined what would
happen if some modern Rosicrucian
should succeed in the turning of base
metals cheaply into gold. No one can
maintain that this is impossible Such
a discovery would introduce into the
world of commerce and indeed into all
fiscal relations of men, an appalling
confusion; first, by a general rise in
prices; and second, by a dislocation of
fixed payments of interest, salaries and
other wise.
Among other curious results we
should witness would be a change of
sides and tunes between the advocates
of gold and silver standards, with
general desire to shift over by the
holders of contracts for specific pay
ments in coin, or its equivalent. The
same thing would happen, only more
slowly, if a vast deposit of gold were
unearthed: and if, after gold was thus
fn1 nv ti7a1 IxVf T1o h
bic supply, the attempt were made to
put silver in its place the price of which
would be enormously enhanced by this
state of things, would be liable in its
turn to be upset by similar discoveries.
1 am not sure but that the after bene-
ntS to mankind and especially to labor
by precipitating the necessity of in
venting some more efficient tool of eX-
changes, a scientific and more stable
enumeratOr of values. would cOmpen-
safe for all the disaster it would tenn
pOrariIy cost. Shall we have to wait
for such an accident for the settlement
of a monetary system?
IF we would get creditor money or
the valuable substance that stands be-
hind money, we must own less and
have a greater store of the articles the
world needs. Whether the present es-
timatiOn of gold as the measure of
exchange values is excessive, or IRA
tional. it is a fact to be reckoned with.
1t follows that the surplus should be
concentrated in commodities, portable,
eXpOrtaDIe, ana not TOO fragile or per-
ishable in their composition, nor sub
ject to caprice of fashion nor of re-
stricted demand, and of these the prec-
ious metals and stones have by univer-
sal consent best filled the requirements.
Our present civilization is op-sided, its
contour is not symmetrical; it is not
abreast of the knowledge of the time
and is not yielding to mankind nearly
the amount of comfort and well being
it might be made to do.
From a great number of social
events, defects and shortcomings, due
chiefly to this overlapping of the child
hood of the world upon its adult
stages, I select a few of the more SER
ious. which will require many centur-
les to correct themselves in order to
raise the inquiry among you whether
it is not within the compass of human
endeavor to accelerate a better state,
not merely to crafty an altruistic i'm
pulse nor fulfllment of ethical ideals,
but as a deliberate choice of divergent
policies"
As examples of the improvident ten
denotes of modern life, Prof. Colburn
spoke of the waste of warfare and ar
nlament the decadences of races, per
ricious competition, spendthrift, lux
ury. the blight of parasitism, the rule
of superstitions and the diversity of
languages.