The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-13
Manila. P. L. Dec. IS. 1898.

10 the EDITOR OF Inc I1Gi
From observation and inquiry here
and in Japan and along the China
coast, 1 have found out a few things
concerning silver for myself, which,
though neither new nor original, may
yet interest some of your readers.
Silver is a true money metal-the past
and present judgment Of mankind IS
that it is both fitted and Indispensable
as such AS subsidiary coin it is used
the world over, while in the far east,
Mexico and South America, it Is prac-
tically the only metal in circulation.
Experience has thus demonstrated the
falsity Of the single standard argument
that it is neither designed for nor in
dispensable as a medium of exchange.
The conclusion is obvious-like Byron's
dog, silver is denied in the single stand
ard money heaven the soul it actually
holds in the earth.
The financially VirtuouS gentlemen or
Wall and Lombard streets force it TO
conSort with the yellow metal, not as
mate, but as mistress.
The attempted reductio ad absurdam
involved in the sarcasm, Why not coin
tin or lead and call that money? is
answered by the fact that the exper-
fence of all civilized and semi-civilized
nations has proven silver both service
able and Indispensable as money, and
mas GOuuGIllilGu lDG b4SCL 1llGNGlS eAG
both untitled and useless.
The coinage of the east is in a state
of exasperating confusion. In addition
70 numerous minor coins, the japanese
have the yen, Shanghai it's dollar,
Hongkong and the Straits theirs, the
Philippines the peso, India the rupee,
and all have the Mexican dollar These
differ in weight. The coinage Of one
city or nation is discTedited and dis
counted elsewhere. Silver coins pass
entirely according to their bullion
value. You know what your peso is
worth here today; only the banker can
inform you what il is worth in the
next town. or what it may be worth to-
morrow.
Why all this confusion? Experience
has shown it to be possible to maintain
gold and silver at n fixed ratio; even
the influence of distant America is SUI
hcient to maintain its silver dollars at
their ratio Of 1e to ] in this part of
the world. Gold is produced in inceased
quantities, it is true, but the increasing
population and necessities OF Europe
and the United States consume the in
crease and none of it finds its way to
the silvery east. That there is not suf-
ficient silver even to answer the needs
of mankind is demonstrated by the
paucity in circulation in civilized ma
lions, and by the fact that here in the
y
the actual silver money with millions
of dollars of bank notes redeemable in
silver
In Canton, Cnina's biggest city, bust
ness is chiefly done, not with silver,
but with the copper cash, ten Of which
equal one cent, and done at infinite in
convenience.
In searching for the motive for de-
monetizing silver. search the baskets of
the men who would be benefited by it.
A has a gold dollar, B a silver dollar.
G a yard of cloth worth a silver dollar
in a. land where only silver is current.
Now. a desires that yard of cloth, and
it Will cost him his gold dollar to Sc
cure it: but if A, by any nook or
crook, can secure the dollar OF Is for
so cents, he can purchase the yard of
cloth with the silver dollar and have
one-half his capital left. In looking
around for a method of doing this, he
hits upon the simple plan of destroying
the chief demand for silver by destroy
ing its chief use as money; the use
gone, the demand goes with it. and BIS
silver dollar becomes worth its weight
as bullion, to-wit, so cents. The cloth
is AS. he has 80 cents, gold. left: 3 has
80 cents gold. and c a discredited silver
dollar.
The story illustrates precisely what
has occurred IN the east The money
ed men of Europe and America having
all the gold, have demOnetiZed silver;
every man in the east having only silver
finds his fortune cut in two; every
species of prosperity in the east goes /
in selling at its silver price; every Ia /
boring man goes on laboring at his ol.1 |
silver wages, and thus has the pur-
chasing value of gold been doubled, |
and the value of eastern labor and pro- !
ducts, measured in gold, been cut in |
two. The prices OF labor and products |
have not increased, because they are |
the results of the fixed conditions of /
years; that they show a tendency to /
rise or may eventually (when. no /
one can estimate) adjust themselves |
to changed conditions, is not a suftic- ]
lent justification for the original sin.
LOSS OF A PILOT.
Let me illustrate the point with two |
or three examples, taken at random /
from eastern experiences. On a certain |
steamer running down the China coast,
met an elderly Englishman, who Cor
twenty-five long years had breasted the
the fierce typhoons Of the Yellow Sea /
as a pilot. The object OF his life here
had been to accumulate a fund which.
transferred 10 some safe bank in
Downing street, might support him and
his family during his afternoon and
evening years. He had been success
ful 10 the extent OF saving, say, $40 coo.
This he had deposited in q Shanghai
bank in silver gold, being unknown, is
not received or paid out as such at any
bank in the eaSO; the crash in silver
came; he had not been taken into the
confidence Of Lombard street. and for
a time stood paralyZed at the course of
events: before he could recover himself
silver had lost many points; then he
felt he could not afford to draw his
money cut, or, more properly, purchase
sterling or gold exchange and pocket
his loss, even then great; he consoled
himself with the belief that silver was
but temporarily below par, and con
Guided all too late that the white metal
had been dealt q body blow Then he
the disastrous result that ne received
only one-half as many pounds sterling
as he would have been able TO buy with |
the same silver before the closing of the
Indian lnints. Thus. by this little game
of localized highway robbery, did he
lose one-half the savings of a lifetime.
But while the pilot paced the storm
swept deck, the banker. where was he?
(The cashy- banker, if you viii permit
q horrible pun. AS a matter of fact,
he lived in London, as all these eastern
bankers do, having agents here TO con-
duct their houses. Their wealth is in
vested in gold securities-tney merely |
raceive silver and pay il out in their
current business. Should they have an
odd hundred thousand or two in silver
among their assets, the loss involved !
In a depreciation of that amount would
he but a small consideration compared
with the gains on their gold and on
The millions Of silver on deposit, which
7ouId be purchased on the open market
and paid back at one-half its value at
TIC time of deposit: ii would be as il