The Winslow mail., 1900-05-17
The Currency Question.
CIVILIZATION AND MONEY.
Production of the Precious Met
als-SilVer Decentralization,

My investigation leads me, said SEN
ator Stewart of Nevada, the other
day, to the conclusion that every pre-
ceding civilization has come into exist
ence with productive mines and dis
appeared with their exhaustion. This
is because the volume of money has
been limited to the supply of gold and
silver. Prosperity and progress as in
variably follow an increasing supply
of money as night follows day; and
poverty and want have always fol-
| lowed the exhaustion of gold and sill
yer mines. Mining for gold and silver
| during the 1,400 years preceding the
discovery of America was an unknown
industry. The property of what was
once the Roman empire was gradually
drawn together by the deathly grasp
of contraction into feudal trusts. A
few feudal lords rioted in luxury,
while the great mass of the people be-
| came serfs and were sold with the
land.
Gold and silver from the new world
| revolutionized the old, and in 80 years
after Mexico and South America COM
menced pouring cut their treasures
Luther appeared, and all Europe was
| in the thyoes of reformation. The
new money gave new life and created
modern civilization. For 300 years and
until the commencement of the pres
ent century the product of silver,
with a little gold, continued to flow
without cessation. Then the Spanish
American wars interrupted mining,
and Europe suffered financial depres-
sion for nearly half century. In the
| United States the money famine was
| less disastrous than in Europe, be-
cause the great Mississippi valley was
| open to all who would come and make
a home. When the supply OF public
| lands was fast being exhausted, and
when Europe was in the throes of rev.
olution, the gold of California and
Australia came to the rescue and Gre
ated an era of prosperity throughout
the world which had no parallel in pre-
vious history.
The cupidity of the creditor class to
enhance the value of money and OBJ
| legations payable in money induced
Europe and America to cease printing
| legal tender upon silver and to print
it upon gold alone. The demand for
| gold was so increased by this legisla-
| ton that in 20 years an ounce of gold
would buy as much property in gen
eraI as two ounces of gold would have
bought in 1870. The United States OBJ
| tanned partial relief from this drastic
| contraction by the Bland-AIlison act
of 1878 and the so-cal1ed Sherman act
of 1890, by which over $500, ooo, 900 of
new money printed silver and
I"
HC0 lH0HCl Uus bIIHtCG OH pHtoI ana
put in circulation The repeal of all
laws for coming silver into money
took place in 1898, and thereupon the
business of the country was paralyzed.
In the last four years, according to the
director OF the mint, there has been an
output from the mines of the world of
over thousand millions of gold.
This enormous and unprecedented
output of gold has reduced its pur-
chasing power, or, what is the same
thing, has enhanced the price of prop
erty. The worshipers of gold call at
tention to the fact that the country is
more prosperous now than it was three
years ago, and argue that the gold
standard has accomplished this result.
They overlook our large war eXpendi-
lures and the fact that while the sup
ply of gold was shrinking prices were
falling, and that prices did not cease to
fall until the supply of gold was great
ly augmented. If they would give this
matter little thought they would see
that it is the quantity and not the quail
ity of gold which has given pros perity,
because the quality of gold during all
our years of adversely was the same as
it now is. The check in the fall of
prices and the advance already gained
by the new supply of gold proves the
contentious of the silver men. They
never pretended that there was any
thing in the quality of silver that would
make good times, but they did contend,
and do now contend, that an increase
in the volume of money is what makes
goo times, and that silver would ac-
| complish that desirable object as well
as gold.
will not elaborate, but will defy any
one to give an instance of great pros
perity in any country, in any age, when
there was not at the same time an in
creasing supply of money, and L also
| defy anyone to name a time of pros
| perity when there was a shrinking vol
ume of money. The limitation of the
supply of legal-tender money to the
commodity gold creates a ctuating
measure of value. If the gold standard
had been adopted on the discovery of
the precious metals in the new world
the feudal trusts would not have been
disturbed by the output of gold. Won
Humboldt, the best authority we have,
tells us that from the discovery of
| America until 1903, A ounces of silver
were produced to one of gold, and we
know, as matter of fact, that nearly
all the gold that was produced during
that period was found in combination
with silver. If silver had not been used
as money the silver mines of TIE new
w rid would have remained untouched
and very little, if any, gold would have
been produced. 1t was the silver min
iLg of the new world which quad
rupled the amount of coin in the civil
lied world during the first hundred
years after the discovery of gold and
silver in Mexico and South America. 1t
was silver mining that enhanced the
price of propert, during that same cen
tury more than 2o0 per cent, increased
4 L L.. L = n