Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-07-08

necessary 1OE the pay AnGnL Oh taxes a0O
of the principal and interest of debts
not to mention the vast sums disbursed
| as wages and salaries
Under bimetallism it is no more the
business of silver to be at parity with
gold than it is the business of gold to
be at parity with silver. When by
law ratio Is established between the
two at which they may be freely taken
10 the mints and, not exchanged one
for the other, but coined and given back
TO the one bringing them; and when,
after being coined, either may be used
| indiferently for any purpose for which
the other may be used, the person that
has a payment to make (for example,
| the debtor) being always allowed to
choose in which kind of coin he will
| make it, and nobody being permitted by
contract to discriminate against either
metal; the law has not fixed a price"
| lin the usual sense of that term) upon
| anything. 1t has simply determined
| the ratio to each other at which two
substances may discharge, not a com
modify function, but a new and added
| function which the law itself at that
very moment confers, prices will be
/ fixed by the relation between things
and these money units, as always.
Rightly viewed, then, as it seems to
me, the question of ratio is relatively
| simple matter. When we consider how
all-dominating the money function is
and how hmitless and constant the de-
| mand is for whatever will fully per-
form that function, it appears reason
l a no l4x in he ut of
| comforting on two substances inter-
changeably the right to discharge this
function and respond to this demand,
may have quite a latitude in fixing the
ratio each-to-eash at which they may do
so. The law itself in granting the pow
er to both imposes the condition on
| which alone either can exercise it.
When SO tied together they become, as
Cernuschi said, practically one money.
l venture to think that it has been
demonstrated that law has had meal
cuiably more to do with determining
the relation between gold and silver
used as money than all other influences
combined; has been in fact the almost
exclusive factor. Indeed. believe the
incontestable data of history prove that
this relation is susceptible of legal fxa-
ton for all practical purposes at any
convenient point within very wide
limits.
But can the United States alone &C
compIish this? have myself no doubt
of it. 1t is an established fact that
France from 1903 to 1873, with her mint
open to the free coinage of gold and sill
yer at the ratio of 1:15.50, maintained
the actual parity of the metals within
her own territory and practically even
on the London markets. The London
market quotations show no wide di-
vergence from the French mint rela-
ton, the greatest being, very naturally,
during the Napoleonic wars; but are so
close as to show that, making allowance
for cost of shipment, insurance, etc, the
parity must have been maintained in
France. Indeed, correcting the mint ra-
ito by allowing for the different charges
(nominaD for coming gold and coming
silver the average market ratio for 80
years (1792-1s73), by the London quota
tions, almost exactly tallies with it, be-
ing 1850 to 1. Of course, during part of
this tire the name of France embraces
the other countries of the Latin union
Italy, Greece, Belgium and Switzerland;
but as 1 remember it, they had nearly
all their coming, which was very small,
done in France and were of practically
no importance in the task OF sustaining
the system.
The actual operation of the system as
we should expect it to appear upon the
opening of our minis is exhibited in the
- he lo%n
ST. John, a practical banker and fnan-
cier connected with affairs for many
years, who began the study of the coin
age question as a gold standard man,
but ended as nearly all careful and thor
ough students do end, by becoming an
earnest convert to independent bimet-
allism, and whose untimely loss to the
cause and the country is deeply to be
deplored:
This, then, is what will follow the re-
opening of our minis to silver: The
gold already in the treasury will re-
main there, if common sense dictates
the treasury management, that is If
the treasury exercises its option to re-
deem United States notes in silver.
4 premium on gold (which, let US re-
member, is conceded for the sake of
argument, as a probable, immediate
and temporary result) will not occa-
sion a contraction of the currency, bank
boards of gold continuing to serve as
a portion of bank reserves against
their liabilities. a premium on gold
will tend to increase our exports by
causing a higher rate of foreign ex-
change, that is to say, by yielding a
larger net return in dollars on the sale
of bills of exchange drawn against
goods exported. Such premium will
tend to diminish our imports by in
with which to pay for goods imported.
The tendency of increasing our exports
and decreasing our imports will be,
first, to set our spindles running, swell
the numbers of paid operatives, in
crease their wages, thereby adding to
the number and paying capacity of
consumers, and thus enlarge our home
markets for all home products and
manufactures, with prosperity in gen.
eral as the result assured The ten
dency OF increasing our exports and de-
creasing our imports will be, second, |
to establish credit balance of trade |
for the United States. \ credit balance |
of trade means that Europe has become |
our debtor and must settle with Us in |
money. Europe's silver money is over |
valued in her gold. compared with ours, |
by from three to seven cents on the |
dollar. (He refers to the European |