The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-13

efn currency. since Inen tnSIS hoo
been no substantial change, it is true,
in the price of locomotives, rails and
other European products, but the price
of the labor which built the splendid
grades and bridges, which constructed
the round houses and stations, erected
the telegraph lines, etc, has decreased
one-half; the fares have also decreased
one-half. Nominally the rate paid labor
per day is the same, but the same
amount Of gold will procure twice as
many days labor, and, therefore, would
build twice as long a railroad as Wnen
the T. c. NJ. d. was built; nominally
the fares and freight rates are the
same per mile as before, because the
trade would not stand an increase-the
people are receiving no more silver Tor
their products of labor than be-
fore the closing of the Indian
minis, and so the railroad, which
had risen to the occasion and put the
rates as high as the traffic would
stand, after the manner of railroads,
could not put them any higher after
decentralization Result: The road
could be duplicated for one-haIf its
original cost; the shareholders find
their shares correspondingly reduced in
value, and the profits on their invest
ment corTespondingly cut down.
Another Illustration: Smith, the mer-
chant in HonSkong, bought STOCK of
goods when silver was at its proper re-
lationship to gold. Before he had sold
the stock, almost before the goods mad
reached his shelves after their lcng
journey, down went silver. Smith had
been in the habit of charging 80 cents
a yard for a certain fabric--in silver,
of course, because gold is and was an
unknown quantity in HongkonS. Now.
what was Smith to do? If he should
maintain his old price, he would be
I.lfir7ad bacarr<e IN cents under changed
conditions meant % cents under the
old, and he would lose money on every
yard sold. To raise the price ID IL er
yard meant ruinatiOn, because the
price would be prOhibitive. His pat
rons were not receiving higher wages
and could not stand the increased
price. The result of such a condition
has been immensely to decrease the
market for foreign goods, and to in
crease the output. of local manufacture.
This policy has been to rem I'VE 80
tories from Birmingham to Shl l5nai.
In the latter place there is u splendld
crop of cotton mills, where the collie
laborers Of the country are now COM
peting with the workingm=n oil The !
Midland counties of Engl1ld.
These are but a few examples OF
thousands that might be cited. al |
along the coast line the disastrous re- |
suits of these financial tidal waves are !
apparent.
Nor are such results merely tempo
Tary. 1t will require generations TO !
fully settle the situation. There have
been fortunes lost that never will be |
regained, and financial wrongs done |
that will never be righted.
A DISTURBING FACTOR.
In the problem of eastern develop |
ment the present debased status of |
silver must prove to be a disturbing |
factor. l observed by the report OF |
the director of the mint, an abstract |
of which was published in your col |
umns, that silver varied during the |
year about % per cent in value, being |
higher, sometimes lower, /
but oScillating between extreme points !
removed one-quarter the maximum 1
price of silver one from the other. |
When one stops to think that the en-
tire commerce of the Indian ocean and
the China seas is done in silver, which
is determined in price as bullion from
London, he can imagine in part the
state Of confusion that must exist. In
stead of being able to contract and do
business on a stable foundation, with
an infleXible currency, the same yester-
day, today and for a reasonable time
in the future; instead of being able to
do business on the solid foundation of
a bimetallic ratio of Is to /, as they
were won't to do before this ruin was
wrought, the merchants of the east
live In a constant atmosphere of doubt
and uncertainty. Business, no longer
stable, ceases to be legitimate, and
sinks into undesired gambling. A
change in the ratio or exchange value
between gold and silver may, at mo-
ment, sweep away the profits of Ia
borious enterprise, and it is ever chang
ing.
Smith, the merchant, or ship-owner,
Or manufacturer is a matter Of in
difference what his business may be
has as capital Mexican or Spanish or
the local dollars, which he sells at AZ
cents gold apiece for London eX-
change, where he intends to buy his
goods, or ships, or machinery, as the
case may be. His competitor, a few
weeks or months later, gets, say, 90
cents (gold) for his Mexican dollars;
and, buying his goods, or ships, or ma
chinery at the same price, really gains
Is per cent on the increased price of
his silver, and thus is able TO under
sell or undercharge his competitor, and
to ruin him. Thus are mer-
chants compelled to calculate not only
IN changes in prices, due to ordinary
cases, but they must keep
L weather eye open for cyclonic condi
ions in the exchange.
The manager of an American COM
vas INDUCING in some vigorous criti-
ism over a feature Of the exchange,
oy which he is compelled to deposit his
American dollars at 500 pesos each
q peso is a Spanish dollar), and is then
charged $2.10 for an American dollar,
when he desires, perhaps the same day,
o purchase American exchange.
The only apparent solution OF the diff
iculty, the only available method of
Clarifying the monetary atmosphere of
he east is to provide a stable cur
ency; that currency must be silver
md the only means of making it stable
5 10 give it a fixed value as money {
in gold, and open the minis
o its free coinage. {
So long as this great, rich and I'M
developed area of the world is COM {
,elled TO use as money a metal which
5 treated as bullion, just so long will
IS progress be retarded. In my judg-
nent. the retention of the Philippines
y America, and the great interests of '
england and the growing interests of
France and Russia in the far east, will {
Don lead to the rehabilitation of the
White metal. The nation first Selling
he opportunity Will reap important :
rade advantages.
RICHARD W. YOUNG. :
The Liver keeps Peopie Well