The Winslow mail., 1899-09-14
PENALTY OF ECONOMIC SIN.
Evils That Must Follow in the Gold
Standard Train Have But
Comm enced.


waves to dash and foam, forming noun
tains and va.;eys on the bosom of the
deep. The land may be raked by
simeon or the waters agitated by
tvphoon. and vet the ocean will seek its
level and the atmosphere its equilib-
rum, and the return of normal condi-
lions will cause no surprise.
Economic law is as immutable as any
law of physics, and disorder in the eco
nomic forces is no more permanent
than in the physical, Disorder of either
the physical or economic forces may,
however, produce great havoc while
they last, the former causing great de-
struction of life and property, and the
latter interfering with, and often sus-
pending, the work of production and
defying justice in that of distribution.
The disorder in natural forces that
call into existence the hurricane or the
simeon as the medium of restoring at
mospheric equilibrium is beyond the
power of human control. But the dis
order in the economic world that de-
ranges the work of production and dis
tribution, entailing untold misery upon
tOlerable conditions, results generally
from either universal ignorance on the
part of man or from the crafty few be-
ing able to impose their will upon the
ignorant many for the purpose of plum
dering them.
No law of physics operates with more
assoluteness or immutability than the
law under which the money metals dis
tribute themselves among the nations
and people of earth, giving to each ma
ton its distributive share. \ nations
Gistributive share of the money metals
is that portion of the whole stock which
will produce the commodities of the
nation at a point which will prohibit
similar articles being brought in from
other nations and sold at profit. The
instinct of gain is universal in the race,
and without cOmpulsion men will al
ways sell where they can sell dearest
and buy where they can buy cheapest.
In response to buying and selling the
money metals distribute themselves,
money always seeking the market
where Ii can be exchanged for the most
goods and commodities always seeking
the market where they will exchange
for the largest quantity of the money
metals.
Under this law, which operates as
unerringiy as the law of gravity, or
that of the equalization of the atmos-
phere, international price levels are
made. The burning sun may heat the
sands of the desert until a simeon oc-
ours, after which an equilibrium is re-
stored. The winds may disturbth sur
face of the ocean, causing waves to rise
mountains high, but the law of gravi-
tation will restore the ocean to its level.
So may the law under which the money
metals distribute themselves be inter
rupted by. famine, pestilence or war,
and the international price level for a
time be disarranged through one nation
gaining more than its distributive share
of the money metals while other ma
tions are forced to accept less than their
share, but such condition is only tenn
porary and when the causes of the dis
turbance pass away all nations will
again receive and retain only their dis
tributive share, and in the end all debts
must be liquidated upon, and all settle
ments must finally conform to valu-
alton of property based upon the inter-
national price level.
The harmonious working of the law
that distributes the money metals
among the nations may be disturbed
by legislation of the different nations.
When such happens and the legislators
are either ignorant of the law or for
any reason pass statutes that set it
at defiance, evil results are sure to fol-
low.
Prior to 1873 the stock of money
metal that fixed the worlds prices con-
sisted of gold and silver, but in that
year the United States suspended the
coinage of silver, which was followed
the next year by similar action by
France and Germany. Prior to this
time the coinage ratio between the
two metals that ruled throughout the
world was 1872 ounces of silver to one
ounce of gold. But the denial of free
mintage TO silver, by the great COM
mercial nations mentioned, broke the
parity between the two metals and
caused an economic disturbance in the
affairs of the world that has continued
to multiply evils in its train from that
time to the present. Prior to 1878 sill
YER constituted the principal coin of
Germany, Austria, Russia, France,
Italy, Belgium and Switzerland, be-
sides all of Asia, and played more than
an even part with gold in the metallic
circulation of the United States. The
suspension of coinage by the nations
mentioned and the breaking of the
parity at which the metals circulated
created an enormous demand for gold
which has caused the general level of
prices in the nations of Europe and
America to continually fall from that
time to the present. B~< this was not
ALL
The nations that hal discarded the
use of silver were the principal silver
producing nations, and the silver prod
uct became greatly deprecated be-
cause it had to be transported to Asia
before reaching its final market on ac-
count of the mints of America and Eu-
rope being closed against that metal.
The constant increase in the value of
gold and the corresponding disparity
between gold and silver disturbed the
exchanges of the world and gave the
nations of Asia and such other coun-
tries as still adhered to silver a great ad-
vantage over their rivals, who adhered