The Washington times., 1901-07-19

the result was scarcity of money in
| every country that had adopted the
! gold standard. This scarcity manifest
! ed itself in Il general shrinkaSe of prices
and business stagnation. 1t was lnCst
severely felt in Great Britain. for, al
| though that country had long been
| nominally On the gold basis, when the
| countrfes previously using both gold
! and silver, or silver alone, stopped coin
| ing the white metal freely and began
| to reach out exclusively for gold. it
| necessarily reduced the amount of the
| yellow metal that would otherwise
! have been within Britain's reach. In
| other words, it increased the demand
for gold, necessarily increasing its value
| and lowering the prices of The things
which were exchanged for gold.
When the work of demonetizing sill
yer began. the annual production of
! gold was barely a hundred millions of
| dollars annually, of which nearly or
| quite two thirds was consumed in the
/ arts. For a few years prior to 1895
| there was some increase of gold pro-
| duction, but it was not enough to make
| itself especially felt. In fact, it did not
keep pace with the increasing demand.
| for more and more countries were being
constantly placed upon the gold stani-
| ard. But since that year the increase
! has been enormous, rising to two hun
dred and thirty-six millions in 1897.
| two hundred and eighty-six millions in
1S9S and three hundred and six millions
! in 1899
This increase was accompanied by
strong recovery of businessmen mere
ly in the United States, as the gold ad-
vocates would have US believe, but IN
Europe as we'll Prices went up and
the tide of prosperity rose with the
prices. Last year the gold production
fell off some forty millions, but as it is
owing entirely to the South African
war. it is plainly mere temporary set
back, and henceforth for many years
we may confidently expect supply of
gold fully adequate for the needs of
the gold standard countries in the way
of new coinage.
Thus. we see, the situation is essen
TALLY changed. If any man is so blind
as not 10 be able to see the financial
Significance of this vast increase OF the
gold supply. he ought to devote a Little
of his time to a study of the elementary
principles of monetary science. Those
who do see it will have no difficulty in
understanding what the business situa-
tion would now be if instead of having
an annual output of three hundred mil
lions in gold We only had one-half or
one third as much. In truth, as Mr..
Towne remarked the other day. the
gold alone now furnishes as much new
money as the gold and silver together
would if the gold product were no
greater than it was when the silver ag-
itation began. 1t was in recognition of
these obvious facts that the Ohio De-
mocracy acted in eliminating silver
from the list of issues and 1t is alb
surd to -constIue the action as an ad
mission OF error.
Suppose that instead of the gold prod
uct increasing from one hundred mil
lions a year to three hundred, the
change had been the other way. and the
gold mines had practically given out.
Is it not clear that the financial situa-
ton would be very different from what
it is now? There can be no question of
it. Gold would now be so scarce and
dear that even the most ardent Of the
gold champions themselves would see
thatit was no longer adequate to meet
in fun measure the worlds monetary
requirements. But the change has been
in the line of increase. and the well-in-
formed silver men thoroughly under
stand that it is directly in line with
their contention. What is more impor-
tant. they see that the enlarged supply
of money brought the exact relief which
they predicted as the result of such a
change. and brought the relief in ex-
actly the same way.