Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-10-06
AN ABLE ADDRESS.
Abstract of a Speech Recently Made
by Henry G. Miller, of Chi
cage, at Omaha.

| was instituted, money made of sill
YER is as suitable and efficient an agent
| as money made of gold. The great OBJ
| ject of bimetallists is to restore gold
and silver to a bimetallic par, so that
the great mass of these metals which
has been accommodating in thousands
of years shall again become a single
bimetallic money and that the
changes that take place in the annual
| production of either of them can only
affect the mass by increasing or di-
minishing it.
The relative value of gold and silver
is dependent upon, and is governed by
the demand for them for monetary
purposes, and the question is whether
| if the minis of this country were open
| to the unrestricted coinage of both
metals, our demand for monetary pur-
| poses would be sufficient to raise the
value of that metal to an equality with
| gold upon our present legal ratio of
sixteen to one, which is three per cent.
more favorable to gold than the
| Franch ratio of fifteen and one-half to
one. In that case the demand for sill
| Eer for monetary use would not be
confined to this country, but would
embrace all silver-using countries and
those nations in Europe which use sill
yer as token money, and in which, is
in France and Germany, silver is still
circulating for domestic use side by
side with gold upon the ratio of fifteen
| and one-half to one.
1t is said that rs per cent. of the in
habitants of the earth transact their
business with silver money, while
reckoned in our currency, the silver
used as token money and full legal
tender money in Europe amounts to
at least 81, 200, 900. 900. which must be
continually replenished.
What is tbs demand in this country
| for money for business purposes as
compared with that of other nations?
AS stated by Hon. Thomas B. Reed, in
a speech delivered in the house of
representatives, February 1, 1894, we
annually produce one-third of the
manufactured products of the world.
| The eminent statistician, Michael j.
| Mulhall in an article contributed to
Public Opinion, June 6, 1895, says that
the effective energy of this country
devoted to the production of wealth
| is nearly equal to that of the United
Kingdom, France and Germany col
lectively. Mr.. Chauncey NJ. Depew said
in a speech delivered in 1897: There
were carried last year on the rail
roads of the United States 6O,0OO,OOO
| tons more than on all the railroads
| of the world outside of the United
| States, and in all the ocean commerce
of the world put together" And h.
adds: "This internal commerce of the
| United States makes it the most won
| derful market in the world" We must
also take into account the great
amount of money that will be required
in the countries coming under our con-
| troll as a result of the war with Spain,
the money to be paid for pensions and
! the vast. amount of our public, mGu-
nicipal and private Indebtedness.
In view of these facts it is manifest
| that if this country with it's boundless
| capacity for using money should use
only silver for monetary purposes that
| metal upon our ratio would be worth
more than gold. But when there is
the unrestricted coinage of both
metals, the moment silver becomes
more valuable than gold. gold will take
standard will be impossible. In that
case the two metals will be on parity
with each other upon our ratio of six
teen to one, as they were for nearly
| 100 years upon the French ratio of
| fifteen and a half to one. Then both
metals would again be fully employed
| in the worlds commerce and interna-
tional bimetallism would be practical
| ~ established.
1t is said: "All our money should be
on a parity so that one dollar shall be
| asgoodas every otherdollar." All legal
| tender dollars of whatever material
composed-whether of gold or silver
are necessarily on parity. As money
| one legal tender dollar has the same
| power and is of the same value as
every other legal tender dollar. As
| Mr.. Cernuschi says: "The law of legal
| tender makes of them a forced cur
| rency and prevents any of them from
| falling below the nominal par" Legal
| tender greenbacks were always at a
| par and it was only when treated as
merchandise that gold was at
| premium. but the eagle-the ten dol
lar gold piece-was never legal ten
der for more than ten dollars, and if
paid upon a debt, the person making
| the payment would not in law be cred
| tied with more than that sum.
The fundamental error of gold
| monometallists is in supposing that
| the standard of value is the material
of which money is made. Upon this
| theory the report of the Indianapolis
monetary commission was construct
| ed, in which it was contended that as
gold is the standard money of the civ
| ilized world it should be our only
standard of value and all our currency
should be made exchangeable for gold.
To this we reply that money and not
the material of which money is made
is the standard of value. Money" as
Mr.. Cernuschi says, sis the scale of
va1ua ton" In our monetary system
the degrees in the graduation of this
scale are the dollar, dime. cent and
mill. and in the terms of this scale or
| standard, the values of all forms of
| property are expressed, precisely as
the weights and dimensions of objects
are expressed in the scale or standard
| of weights and measures. The dollar
| is the unit of this scale and is there
| fore the unit of value. The value or
purchasing power of this unit changes
as the mass of money in circulation
! changes, falling as the mass increases
and rising as the mass diminishes.
Money fixes the price of commod-