Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-03-15
THE GOLD STANDARD.
Senator Stewart Points Out tho
Weakness of the Cause Com
tracing the Circulation.

What is meant by the hackneyed
phrase, 1.-THE gold standard" has not
been fully explained, says Senator
Stewart, of Nevada. When we speak
of standard weights and measures our
meaning is plain, because a yard is a
fixed length and a quart or a bushel
contains an ascertained quantity of
space. Money, to be a standard in the
sense of accurate measurement of
value, must be of such volume as will
always bear uniform relation to the
aggregate of property for sale. To con-
tend that money which is of greater
purchasing power at one time than it
is at another is just standard of value
is like contending that a yardstick so
feet long, if made of some particular
kind of wood, would be the same stand
ard of measurement as yardstick
three feet long. If money can be an
honest standard measure of value, and
the same money can measure five times
as much property in the aggregate at
one time as at another, why may not
gallon which includes five times as
much cubic space at one time as it does
at another be an accurate measure of
quantity?
The contention of the advocates of
the gold standard rests upon the as
sumption that the quality of gold is
the only question considered in COM
either the supply or the demand for
gold has any effect in estimating the
quantity of any particular commodity
which given amount of gold will buy.
Their contention also assumes that if
all the mountains were gold an ounce
of GOLD would buy the same amount of
wheat. cotton, or other products that
it will now buy. This is the intrinsic
value theory OF. men who look as wise as
Harrison, Cleveland or Bynum when
they announce to the world the necessi-
ty of money possessing intrinsic value.
The secretary of the treasury is not
so absolutely ignorant of monetary sci
ence as his contention that the value
of gold never changes would seem to
indicate. In his reply to the resolution
of the two houses of congress respect
ing his transactions with certain New
York banks he gives as reason for de-
posting the money of the government
in national banks that it is necessary
to do so to avoid contracting the circu-
lation, and that to keep it in the treas
ury would disturb the business of the
country.
1t seems little strange that the sec
rotary can understand that locking up
money in the treasury vaults disturbs
business and at the same time thinks
it is necessary to use only the COM
modify gold upon which to stamp
money, although every foreign finan-
cial trouble takes gold out of the coun-
try and deposits it in foreign vaults.
He contends that money to be good
money must be made of the same ma
terial that all other nations use for
that purpose, and he can see no in
convenience in its withdrawal from
in this country by foreign
ers, while he understands that hoard
ing money in the treasury is injurious
to business.
In his lectures on gold he confines his
arguments in favor of the exclusive use
of that metal to its peculiar qualities,
claiming that it possesses intrinsic
value, while in administering the treas
ury he regards the volume of money
lance. and deposits the surplus of the
treasury in banks TO keep it in use and
prevent contraction. Still, he contends
that no matter how much gold or how
little gold is produced, its volume when
used as money does not affect its pur-
chasing power.