Iron County register., 1899-05-25
NO PERMANENT PROSPERITY.
Under a Gold Standard-Vieyvs of
Banker YuIe, Chairman of the
Bank of Calcutta.

Under Gold Standard-Views OF
banker YuIe, Chairman of the
Bank of Calcutta.
It would scarcely be an exaggeration
to say that the gold schemes" sub
mitted by the advocates of gold stand
ard have been as numerous as the va
garies of the human mind. Many of
the schemes were mutually destructive
of each other, the advocates Of one pet
scheme denouncing others as fraught
with disaster. They have said that
/ there should be a gold standard, but
no gold circulation; that there should
! be a gold standard, and that it must be
accompanied by a gold circulation;
! that there should be a gold standard
and it did not matter whether there
was any gold in circulation or not;
! that every device should be tried to
get gold into circulation; that every
/ effort should be. made to keep gold
out of circulation. 1 might continue,
writes David Yule, chairman of the
Bank of Calcutta, the enumeration of
! the contradictions almost without limit,
! if | had less respect for the feelings
! of your readers. The whole thing
would be comic if it were not so grave.
| Very few of those who profess to be-
/ lieve in single standard are able to
| give an intelligent reason for their
| faith. They get their ideas second
! hand from some writer or money lend
er, who is either paid for what he
writes or is interested in the mainte-
nance of a system of falling prices, and
! they never stop to examine for them
selves into the philosophy and COM
mon sense of finance. They swallow
what is set before them, and ask no
questions. Hence the great diversity
of theories, all of them groundless and
untenable, that are advanced by the
advocates of this ruinous policy.
But back of it all stands the insuper-
able fact that those who inaugurated
the gold standard movement knew very
we'll what the results would be. They
expected and intended to produce the
conditions that are now prevailing.
They knew that a limited money sup
ply, constantly decreasing in proportion
to the increase of population, must in
evitably lessen property values and
gradually concentrate all wealth in the
hands of the few who were able to
manipulate the worlds money. 1t was
money against humanity, and for the
time being money is on top. What the
final result will be time alone can tell.
The teachings of history are plain
enough if people would only read them;
and nowhere have l seen the true prin-
ciples of finance more clearly set forth
than in the following extract from
"Alison's History of Europe" written
after the great discoveries of gold in
California and Australia had given a
new impetus to civilizations:
1.-The two greatest events which have
occurred in the history of mankind"
says Alison, have been directly brought
about by contraction and, on the other
hand, an expansion of the circulating
medium of society. The fall of the
Roman empire, so long ascribed, in ig-
norance, to slavery. heathenism and
moral corruption, was in reality
brought aboGt by a decline in the sill
yer and gold mines of Spain and Greece.
And, as if Providence had intended to
reveal in the clearest manner the in
fuence of this mighty agent on human
affairs, the resurrection of mankind
from the ruin which those causes had
produced was owing to a directly OPP
posite set of agencies being put in OPP
Grafton. Columbus led the way in the
career of renovation; when he spread
his sails across the Atlantic, he bore
mankind and its fortunes in his barque.
The annual supply of the precious met
ais for the use of the globe was tripled;
before a century had expired the prices
of every species of produce was tripled;
before a century had expired the prices
of every species of produce was quad
rupled. The weight of debt and taxes
insensibly wore off under the influence
of that prodigious increase. In the
renovation of industry the relations of
society We're changed. the weight of
feudalism was cast off, the rights of
man established. Among the many
concurring causes which conspired to
bring about this mighty consumma-
ton, the most important, though hith-
erto the least observed, was the discov-
cry of Mexico and Peru. If the circu-
lating medium of the globe had re-
manned stationary, or declining, as
it was from 1915 to 1S49, from the eff
fects of the South American revolution
and from English legislation, the nee
essary result must have been that it
would have become altogether made
quate to the wants of man; and not
only would industry have been every
where cramped, but the price of prod
uce would have universally and con-
stantly fallen. Money would have every
day become more valuable: all other
articles measured in money less so;
debt and taxes would have been con-
stantly increasing in weight and op-
preston. The fate which crushed Rome
in ancient. and has all but crushed
Great Britain in modern times, would
have been that of the whole family of
mankind. All these evils have been
entirely obviated, and the opposite set
of blessings introduced, by the opening
of the great treasures of nature in Cal
ifornia and Australia
1t is not probable that Providence
will again come to our relief through
new discoveries of gold deposits, and as
the known supplies are gradually ex-
hausted, and population continues to
increase, no mind can conceive the in
tolerable conditions that await future
generations. For, let it be remembered,
that in the past, through all the CEN
turies of civilization, we had the benefit
of both of the so-called precious metals,
while now we have but one; so that
it would require very remarkable new
discoveries of gold to work any mate
rial hoff in OI11 condition