The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-16
OLD TRUTHS RESTATED.

N
A communication, published else
where, from Mr.. Louis Nash asks GER
tain questions, the answers to which,
though already given many times dur
ing the recent discussion of the f1nan-
cial question, we willingly state again.
l. Value, being the relation existing
between two commodities in the pro-
cess of exchange one for another, is de-
termined largely by mental, as we'll as
material considerations. 1t is not fixed,
either in the case of the metals or any
thing else, solely by the cost of pro-
ductiOn. So we reply that, if the
same amount of human effort will pro-
duce, on the average, sixteen times as
much silver as gold. and no more, it
would not place the metals on a parity
at 16 to l. The reason for this is made
more fully apparent in the next para
graph.
2. No human being can tell at the
present time whether the same amount
of human effort will or will not pro-
duce, on an average, sixteen times as
much silver as it will gold. Mining
operations are so largely speculative,
and it is so impossible to trace the vast
amounts Of capital sunk in undertake
ings that never become remunerative
and to distinguish real values from
water and boom, that any conclusions
on this ground are little better than
euesswork. However, if the PROPOSE
ton were established, it would not, as
we have just said, fix parity. For
instance, the same amount of labor ap-
piled to machinery will produce a
bicycle of the pattern of 1890 and one
of the pattern of 1897. That does not
put the two wheels on a parity That
does not make them equally valuable in
the market. The same amount of labor
expended on constructing an old-fash-
Toned stage coach does not produce as
valuable product as if spent in the
manufacture of a Pullman car. No
study of economic questions which
leaves out Of calculation the decisive
element of human desire, reasonable or
unreasonable, ever present and ever
changing, can lead to reliable results.
3. Doubtless, if the nations of the
world were assured that silver dol
lar would purchase an equal amount of
American commodities with the gold
dollar, they would know no discrimi-
nation between them. That is exactly
what a silver dollar does now, because
the number of them is limited. 1t is
just what silver dollar would not do
under free coinage, and, therefore, it
would not be accepted either by other
nations or by our own people on equal
terms with the gold dollar
4. This question is a particularly
happy one, because it shows within it.
self the economic fallacy underlying
the free silver proposition eff the
United States government should issue
legislative edict that wheat should
no longer be used as a food product "
it would be doing very similar thing
to issuing an edict that silver should
be accepted by everybody on the ratio
of 16 to l as Of equal value with gold.
The same thing would happen in either
case. The people would calmly disre-
gard that edict. Nobody imagines for
one moment that an act of congress,
conceiVing it possible for such to be
wheat for food, would secure the slight
est obedience; or would, consequently.
affect prices to any extent worth men
toning. The history of legislation relat-
ing to prices for several hundred years
is available on this point And, equal
ly, if congress were to enact that six
teen ounces of silver should be equal
to one ounce of gold in the currency to
an unlimited extent, the people, who
do not believe it, would simply refuse
to exchange their commodities for
metal on those terms. Existing debts
might be paid, under compulsion of
law, with such currency, but there it's
efficacy would stop short. You cannot
make man give up something that
he has, whether it be a horse or a farm
or a bushel of wheat or a bale of
goods, until he is satisfied with what
he gets in exchange for it. A large
majority of the people of this country.
believing that sixteen ounces of silver
are not equal in value to one ounce of
gold, would not exchange on that basis:
and, therefore, the parity would be de-
stroyed. It would then be fixed on the
basis at which people were willing to
exchange commodities, and that would
be the ruling market ratio.
We are in favor of doing everything
that can be done to advance American
interests and to enhance the value Of
American products. We do not believe
in trying to do this by miracles. be-
cause we have no faith in the miracle
working power of any legislative body.
If it rested with us to make sixteen
ounces of silver equal in exchange value
to one ounce of gold all over the world
tomorrow by our individual flat, that
word would be spoken without a mo-
ments hesitation. Being under the do
main of economic law and within the
sway of the forces that operate over all
nations. we can find no profit in at
tempting impossibilities which all ex-
perience shows must react disastrousIv
upon ourselves.