The herald., 1898-02-13

| been doing in the past fifty years, II this
| process is not stopped. This investigation
| mas shown. these past twenty-tour years
have shown, that whereas of olden time
and not so very long ago. either, only be-
lore lSi3-it made no difference whether
you discharged an international obligation
in silver or gold. because there was an
established par value between the silver
and the gold, and Is so declared by Rob-
ert Peel in his speech In the house or
commons on the oath Of May, 1874. So long
as the mint of France remained open.
coming forth all the gold or all the silver
that were offered from any quarter OF the
world, giving back fifteen and a half
francs of silver or one franc in gold. with
the same equivalent of silver and gold
respectively; so long as our great and man
| Hold commerce are Offering Tor the TWO
| metals thus freely coined, calling each an
equivalent of services rendered or trade
done or debt paid; so long in all this world
as fifteen and half ounces of silver were
worth one ounce of gold and one ounce
of gold was worth fifteen and a half ounces
| of silver, and therefore 1t did not make
any difference whether you remitted the
payment of an international obligation in
silver or RENTED it in gold. My friends
under those conditions commerce between
| the gold-using and the silver-using nations
was as easy commerce between the
for things which are equivalent to each
| other. Each was as common as the other.
1t was absolutely Indifferent to men which
| they employed.
A MONETARY CATACLYSM
But as soon as the using of silver began
! to be limited by law and the great mints
| were closed to the coinage of silver, as
soon as thereby, and as result therefrom,
a greater demand was thrown upon gold,
which had formerly performed the same
work, and which therefore it was neces-
lsariy bound to perform until gold be-
comes scarcer and scarcer, men had TO
offer more and more of their commodities
to get it, and as they offered more for il
it bought more commodities. Prices fell
and gold went up. This happened in the
Igold standard world, but in that portion of
the universe which was still using sill
yer the same quantities of silver continued
to buy upon an average the same average
lquantity of all other things in the market
| What was the consequence? The parity
was broken between gold and silver and
| silver and gold became split in the silver
and gold using parts of the world respec-
lively, and there being no certain relatio
between the value of the gold reckoned in
lsilver and the value of the silver reckoned
in gold commerce between the gold using
and the silver using nations became a
matter of hazard and of gambling. 1t in
troduced an element of chance that Is in
imical to the spirit of trade. In addition to
that after the fall of silver had become
so marked and its continued fall a mat
ter of predetermination. under the contin.i-
ance of the same conditions it amounted to
the presentation of constant export bounty
to all the producers and exporters for the
isilver using countries and is a clog and a
charge to the extent of the difference in
the exchange upon the shoulders of the
producers in the gold using countries
A DIFFERENCE OF RATIO
Let me give you an illustration of It. A
merchant in San Francisco, we will say.
is shipping goods to Shanghai at a time
when silver and gold on a parity and a
Chinese silver teal is worth 81. 36 in gold
The American merchant in San Francisco
Will be bound to receive $4,000 in Shangai
Tor his cargo, which will put back to him
his outlay and give him that profit which
his business demands, with which he will
continue his business, without which he
must suspend. If he sells at Shanghai
while silver and gold exchange is at a
parity he will receive little over S6S 900
for his cargo. If, upon the contrary, while
the ship is in transport silver drops 10
per cent he will receive something like
$62c0 less when he gets to Shanghai and
therefore he Is beaten out Of 5000 because
Qf the fall Of 10 per cent In the silver ex-
change, apd Unless he car" fand some way