The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1897-12-30
The Official Paper Of San Juan County.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER a0th, lss
WHEAT, GOLD AND sILEER

IT must be rather humiliatlng as
well as discouraging to Congressman
Wheat Chart Jones and his compan-
ions in political distress to be called
upon to bear witness for so many moons
to the exceedingly strained relations
existing between wheat and silver.
According to the Jones idea they should
be as inseparable as the Siamese twins
and rise or fall together in joint obedi-
ence to the great law of supply and
demand, which more or less learned
Whateom reformer declared during
last years campaign the Populists
would repeal at the first opportunity.
Happily, however, there is very
strong probability that the law will
continue in effect, along with the law
of gravitation, for some centuries yet to
come, uninfuenced by POpulist or
other legislation.
Wheat reached the dollar mark
months ago, and within the current
month it has sold in the Chicago mar
ket as high as $1.O9. At the same
time the bullion value of the standard
silver dollar was only about forty-two
cents, or ten cents less than it averaged
when the political campaign was at its
height in 1896. The India minis have
not resumed the coinage of silver and
the demand for the white metal in the
Asiatic countries for other than None
tary purposes has declined rather than
increased. The United States govern
ment has ceased its great monthly pur-
chases of silver bullion; Japan has
adopted the gold standard as the basis
of its monetary system, and there is
strong probability that its example will
soon be followed by other countries.
On the whole, the outlook FOR the early
Rehabilitation of silver" and the
"restoration of it's ancient function"
etc must be very discouraging to the
extremists who continue to advocate
its unlimited coinage as a money metal
at an arbitrary and fictitious ratio with
gold. The new japanese ratio is 81 to
/, or just twice as high as the Ameri-
can ratio at which the silverites de-
mand "free and unlimited coinage"
The actual commercial ratio Of the two
metals, however, is nearer 40 to l, and
this, too, in the face of an enormous
recent and prospective increase in gold
production.
1t is estimated that the worlds gold
output for 1896 was $2O5, 600, 900; that
the aggregate for 1897 will be approx
mately $24O,0 900, and that within
three years the annual production will
have increased to $500, zoo, 900, which
would mean a more than doubling of
the worlds annual product of gold
within period of ten years. Phese
are the estimates of the Director of the
Mint and are undoubtedly based upon
the most reliable data Obtainable. AS
for silver, its product will continue to
be large whatever it's position as a
money metal. Much more than half
the silver product of this country comes
from mines in which silver is found in
connection with lead and copper, for
which the mines are chiefly worked,
and the many and remarkable improve
ments in recent years in processes of
mining and reduction have vastly con-
tributed to the enlargement of the out
put.
More than ever before it seems clear
that the free and unlimited coinage of
silver by the United State, "independ-
ent of any other nation,n at the ratio
of 16 to /, would occasion unparalleled
financial disaster both to rich and poor,
and the practically barren results of
our able silver embassy to Europe
leave scarcely any room for doubt that
dreams of international bimetallism,
however desirable it may seem to be,
are long way from realization. The
Populist and fusion leaders generally,
who can read, have read the "hand-
writing OH the wall' and are already
preparing to execute their war dances
in the next campaign around fat
money banners, and drop their '96
slogan of i'l6 to In