The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-18
THE FUTURE OF GOLD AND SILVER

| Looking at the matter from a broad and
philosophical point of view it seems prac-
tically certain that the commercial world
will never reinstate silver as a standard
of value Revolutions do not go backward
ton is progress, not retrogresson. The op-
GRAFTON of the law can be traced through
the history of money from the beginning
All the metals have served in turn as
money, iron, tin and copper each yielding
when its time came to the law of evolution
as expressed by intrinsic value, conven-
fence, etc, until finally the civilized world
ures of value. For some hundreds of years
these were the precious metals" and the
commercial world made numberless inef-
fectual efforts to establish and maintain a
fixed ratio between them. 1t never sue
| ceeded for the simple reason that it is i'm
possible. Bimetallism may and does exist
but permanent or steady bimetallic stand
ard is an impossibility. 1t took the civil
lied world long time to find this out, but
it did at last. 1t discovered finally that "a
| bimetallic standard of value was a scien-
tific absurdity and that the law of evolu-
| ton required the adoption of single
standard. When it came to the discardins
of either gold or silver a measure of
value, of course the baser metal had 10
60 just iron, copper and tin did before
when their time came. Silver as a stand
ard of value has had it's day. There is no
more probability that it will be restored to
| it's former status as the disturbing factor
in a bimetallic standard than there is that
the commercial world will go back to the
use of iron as money or the agricultural
world to the use of wooden plows. The
| future of silver is, therefore, practically as
sured. 1t will continue to be used very
| extensively as subsidiary coin and will fill
a large and useful place in the monetary
| systems of all commercial countries, but it
will never again be recognized as standard
or redemption money in the sense that gold
is. AS it becomes cheaper as it is pretty
certain to do, it will be more extensively
used in the arts and manufacturing, and
many new uses may be found for it,
Will gold be able to hold its place as the
worlds single standard of value, and will
the supply De equal TO the QendnQ! AS TO
the first part of the question, what is there
left for a standard of value after gold? 1t
possesses all the elements in the highest
degree, and by the law of the survival OF
the fttest has proved itself the best stand
ard Of value. By common consent the
commercial world has agreed upon it, and
there is not the slightest probability it will
m,
other metal known that could take the
place of gold, and there is no probability
that any will ever be discovered. Gold will
abide. But will it be able to meet the
worlds demand as redemption money?
From present appearances it will. The re-
cent discoveries of new gold fields in the
Klondike region, in Colorado, California,
the Transvaal, India, Australia and Russia
VIII add enormously to the worlds stock.
1t looks almost as if it were part of the
law of evolution that just when the worlds
need of gold is greatest the supply should
be most abundant. The worlds gold prod
uct for 1896 was estimated at $205, 000 COO and
that of 1897 is estimated at $40, 5000. The
director of the mint recently published
statement showing the actual product in
1896 of the United States, Australia, Africa
Mexico, Canada, Russia and British India
to have been $3.50, $50, 0J0, and their probable
product in 1897, $219,OOO,OOO He thinks the
product of other countries will bring the
worlds product this year up to $40 900, 900.
There is no doubt" he says, that the
worlds product of gold will continue to in
crease for a number of years to come as
new mines will be opened up in all parts of
the world, and, with improved appliances
for mining and methods of extracting the
gold contained in the ores believe that by
the close of the present century TIE world $
gold product will closely approximate if
not exceed $500, 10000" At that rate the
supply of gold will easily equal the de-
mand. In fact, even now the world annu-
ally produces in gold alone about $50,000,00O
more than il did of both gold and silver for
several years preceding the beginning of
the depreciation of silver. "On the suppo-
siton that silver has entirely ceased to be
coined" says the director of the mint, 1.-The
world is richer in 1897 in material for the
coinage of full legal tender or standard
money than it at any former period
OF the worlds history, and the indications
| are that it will grow richer in this respect
in every succeeding year for decades 10