Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-09-10
CHANDLER ON SILVER
A CALM DISPASSIONATE VIEW OF
BIMETAuLiSM.

A CALM DiSPASSIONATE VIEW OF
BiMETALLISM.
hmm ediate ReSiOratiOn Of the Mon.
etary Rights of silver the Only
Means for Preventing IHjuries
Which Mankind Must suffer I'm.
der the Present clonOmetaliic
Policy.
Senator Chandler, who has been SO
long honored 10y the Republican party,
has given out to the press the follow
ing communication on the silver ques-
ton. 1t is so remarkable for its calm,
dispassionate and level-headed treat
ment of the question, and is such a
conclusive refutatiOn of certain hasty
assumptions connected with it, that
we give it in full in these columns.
Mr.. Chandler says:
Many are asking me what effect l
think the continued fall in silver will
have upon the prospects of bimetal-
lism; of the restoration of silver free
coinage by international agreement or
otherwise. l reply to them that l
think the progressive depreciation of
silver ought to expedite bimetallism,
as a means of preventing the full real
ization of the injuries which mankind
must suffer if all the commercial ma
tions of the world are to continue to
move toward and are to fully and
finally reach and permanently adopt
gold monometallism.
"One of the most important facts l
have learned in connection with the
study of this question is that the prog
ress of great economic measures is very
slow, and that the effect of the demon
citation of silver by the nations
which began in 1873, was only par
TALLY felt during the twenty years
prior to 1898, in which year the In
dian minis were first closed to silver !;
and that such effect has by no means
been fully realized at the end of the
four years since 1893. This slow prop
agation of the result OF economic
shocks is clearly depicted by Prof.
Francis A. Walker, in his works on
bimetallism, and is amplified by me
in my remarks in the Senate on Feb
ruary Is, 1897, copy of which I will
send to any person on request.
"This point is a most important, if
not a vital one. If the complete re-
suits Of discarding silver, which lowers
prices and thereby hinders trade, have
been already reached and no future in
jury from demonetization is to be ap-
pretended, possibly the world may be
held to the single gold standard. But
if the tendency of the last twenty
four years to fall in prices, caused,
as alleged, by stopping the coinage of
silver, is much longer to continue to
prevail, the nations of the world can
not be held to gold monometallism.
The renewed coinage of silver will be
irresistibly decreed by uncomfortable
popular movements. The temporary
conditions of to-day or tomorrow will
not settle question so broad and uni
versal as the issue between the new
gold monometallism and the old bi.
metallism.
"Under the present conditions it is
not strange that silver continues to
fall in price. There is no longer any
demand for the metal to coin into
money; SO every year $4,000, 600
worth Cat the ratio of 15a to y must
find its way into use in the arts; and
in addition the price is threatened by
81, 900, 600, 1000 worth of silver, now
constituting the worlds coined silver,
but which is likely to be precipitated
upon the market as a commodity, not
needed for money, if it is only money
because it must be redeemed at all
times and places in gold. Paper
money will be as good and even better
than silver, if the latter is not to be as
complete money as is gold. If there
is to be no retrograde movement to-
ward reconciliation, silver will fall
until it commands only its price as a
commodity to use in the arts. Where
the lowest price will be no one knows
and no man can ascertain. And here
is no argument against bimetallism.
The principal value of gold and silver
is derived from their use by the ma
tions as money; and the principal ar
gument in favor of the remonetization
of silver is derived from the continuous
fall in the prices of commodities since
1S73-greatly accelerated in 1898.
"That prices are still falling can
hardly be denied. The reference to
sporadic rises in the prices of certain
articles is not fair argument. For
special reasons particular commodities
will rise, even when the general aver
age of prices is downward-as wheat,
when there is q famine in India or
short crops in Europe. The bimetal-
list argument is based in the general
fall of average prices extended over a
series of years. Mr.. Wharton Barker's
table reprinted in the American of
Philadelphia, dated July II, 1897, gives
his index number based upon the