The Winslow mail., 1900-09-06
NOT YET SETTLED.
GoIdites Hold in Reserve Withdrawal
of the Legal Tender Func-
ton of Silver.

Having taken another step toward
the gold standard, and having provid-
ed for the substitution of bank notes
for greenbacks, the republicans now
declare the money question settled;
but they have in reserve the with
draVval of the legal tender function
from the silver dollar and the estab-
lishment of the branch bank, neither
of which they now discuss, but both
of which they will attempt as soon
as they think it safe to do so.
The contest between monometallism
and bimetallism is worldwide con-
test-a contest which must go on until
silver is once more money metal
equal with gold, or until the gold
standard becomes universal. He takes
very narrow view of the subject who
considers merely the present volume
of money in this country. 1t is true
that we have largely increased our
supply of gold in the last three years
(the republicans neither promised
nor expected the increase), but the
action of England in placing India
upon the gold standard is likely to
cause a drain on the gold supply of
the United States and of European
countries. The gold blanket must
now be stretched to cover nearly 30O-
100000 people in southern Asia, and
China has yet to be considered. Aft
er 5000 years of search and saving,
the total volume of gold and silver
money is about eight billions, nearly
equally divided between the two met
ais. Upon this basis of metallic mon
ey rests a large volume of paper
money, and upon the various forms
of money rests the worlds indebted
ness.
Those advocates of the gold stand
ard who know the real purpose and
scope Of the gold standard scheme de-
sire to contract the basic money to
one-half it's present volume. This
would enormously enhance the value
of each dollar, represented by money,
notes and bonds, and would enormous
ly oppress the producers of wealth.
We cannot afford to throw the influ-
ence of this nation upon the side of
the gold Standard unless we are pre-
pared to accept universal gold mono
metallism with all that it. means.
The increased production of gold dur
ing the last few years will act as a
parachute to retard the fall in prices,
but there is no assurance that it will
be sufficient to enable us to dispense
with silver as standard money.
If anyone is tempted to listen to the
new arguments in favor of the gold
standard-presented by men who adj
vocated that standard for 25 years be-
fore the new gold fields were discov-
ered-let him take pencil and paper
and estimate, first, the annual prod
uct, then subtract from that sum the
amount annually used in the arts,
the amount necessary to cover the
shrinkage in volume of gold coin from
loss and abrasion, and the amount
necessary to keep pace with the an
nual increase in population and busi-
ness, and then see how much he has
left to apply to the retirement of the
uncovered paper and the four billions
of silver coin. Only a few years ago
Prof. Edward Suess, of the Vienna
university, issued pamphlet giving
his reasons for believing that, at that
time, nearly the entire annual out
put of the gold mines was consumed
in the arts. A still later argu-
ment in favor of bimetallism can be
found in section IA of the currency
law recently enacted. 1t specifically
declares that the law is not intended
to place an obstacle in the way of in
ternational bimetallism. The only
way to destroy the force of the BIZ
metallic argument contained in the
republican platform, in Secretary
Hays letter, in section IA OF the cur
rency law is to say that they were
all intended to deceive the public. 1t
is needless to discuss the ratio, since
there is no division of sentiment
among those who are actually trying
positive, earnest and active force be-
hind the present legal ratio of 16 to
1; there is no positive, earnest or
active force behind any other ratio
National Watchman.