Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1898-09-01
Tho Dollar That Falls In Value wln, Ills.
ing Prices " Preferred to tho one
That Risen In Value With TaillDT
Prices.

circle. when pressed Tor u more Bpe'
c'lic answer they say that the gold
dollar Is honest because II Is worth one
hundred cents, or because II loses
nothing In value when melted, and Is
therefore stable In value, The law
says that the dollar shall be Of the
value OF one hundred cents How,
then, could IL DO worth more or less
than that? The quality Of being worth
one hundred cents is simply n law-giv-
en- quality. The whole is always worth
neither more or less than the sum oil
Its parts. But does that show that the
gold dollar has remained stable? Ger
tainly not In order to sec II stability
Of value has been maintained compar-
ison must be made with other things
Everything Is stable when measured
by itself or parts of itself. The gold
men who make that argument are
doubtless tho brightest men In tho
world, when measured by Themselves
but II compared with other people n
different conclusion might be reached,
Under the free coinage Of silver In In
dla up TO 1899 the silver rupee was the
standard OF value. II was always
worth itself-no more, no less--and II
was always worth the sixteen aunas,
which the law said should constitute =
rupee. But did not that alone prove
that the silver rupee, under FREQ COIN
age, was stable In value? To repeat
an illustration given In the first artl-
olc, the human body Is composed Of
certain parts In childhood, with the
foot constituting about two per cent
and the head, We will say, ten per cent
Of the whole person. But the fact that
in maturity the body is equal to itself
and the parts that compose 1t, these
parts bearing each about the same re-
lation TO the whole as In childhood,
does not show that there has been no
growth.
To lind out whether the dollar has
remained stable, or has, as bimetallists
contend, risen in value, comparison
must be made, not with itself or parts
Of itself, but with other things,
But II is said that the gold dollar Is
stable, because II loses nothing In
melting; that II is worth the same in
the shape OF bullion as in the shape Of
coin. This again 10 due solely to tho
law. II gold coin Is melted the law
allows the holder TO go to tho mint and
have II coined into the same number
of doll ars; but II silver coin is melted,
there is no such privilege. When free
coinage exists there cannot be differ
ence between the bullion and coin
'alue. Why? Because no one would
be foolish enough to sell his gold,
when, as now, there is free coinage OF
gold land tho same would be true Of
silver under the free coinage Of silver
nj less than the mint price and let the
purchaser made profit of the differ
ence between the price he bought II at
and the mint price. In other words,
no one will sell gold bullion for less
than one hundred cents, when he can
take IL to the mint and have 1t coined
into dollar worth 100 cents. Thus,
neither the fact that tho gold dollar Is
worth one hundred cents nor the fact
that IL loses nothing by melting tends
in any degree to show that IL remains
stable in value. II dollar was de-
signed primarily for melting purposes
the last mentioned characteristic might
be useful. But the object of the dollar
Is not for melting, but to effect pur'
chases, pay debts and measure proper
by by, and the best dollar Is the one
which keeps the most stable as meas
ured by property, so that u debt o.
800, for example, will represent, as
near as possible, the same amount Of
property when contracted and when
paid. 1t is just us absurd TO reason
that gold is the best because II loses
nothing by melting rs IL would be 10
say that paper money Is the best be-
cause It will float, when gold and silver
would sink to the bottom. The object
Of the dollar Is neither melting or
swimming. Tho best dollar is the one
which answers best the purposes 1t Is
intended for. A few illustrations will
make this clear:
Suppose all the nations OF the world
had the gold standard-the free coin
age OF gold--and the American dollar
was the unit. Suppose l owed you
81, 900 payable one year hence. Then
suppose that tho new Alaskan gold
fields developed such unexpected rich
ness that before the debt was paid, the
amount OF gold In the world had in
creased one-hundrcd fold, and all of IL
had been coined into dollars Dollars
would become so plentiful that they
would be cheap and buy very much
less than they do now, and prices
would rise enormously. Wolld you