Iron County register., 1899-08-17
PENALTY OF ECONOMIC SIN.
Evils That Must Follow i'm the Gold
Standard Train Have But
Commenced.


may sweep over the ocean, causing the
waves to dash and foam, forming noun,
tains and valleys on the bosom of the
deep. The land may be ra'red by q
simeon or the waters agitated by q
typhoon, and yet the ocean will seek It's
level and the atmosphere its equiib-
rum, and the return of normal condi.
tions will cause no surprise.
Economically 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
nations and peoples, often causing in
| tolerahle conditions, results generally
| from either universal ignorance on the
| part of man or from the crafty few be-
| ing able to impose their viii upon the
| ignorant many for the purpose of plum
! dering them.
| No law of physics operates with more
absoluteness 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. A 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 it 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
unerringly 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-
81 ! Il I,
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-
IuptCd by famine, pestilence or war,
sEd 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 a 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 a 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 15h 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 1873 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 |
of the United States. The |
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. But this was not
all.
The nations that had 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 great adj
vantage over their rivals, who adhered
to gold alone. The period since the
of silver in the United
States has marked the concentration
Of wealth into the hands of the
classes at an ever accelerate
ing pace, and has enabled those whose