The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1903-06-20
PROF. ANDREWS AND SILVER,


exulting greatly over dispatch
which read that Prof. Benjamin
Andrews recently said that he com.
mitted IAN astounding mistake and
an inexcusable error in predicting
a few years ago diminished pro-
duction of gold and disastrous fall
in prices in consequence thereof. If
Professor Andrews said that, then he
merely made clear that when Mr..
Bryan was defeated in 1896, he con-
cluded that the silver question was
dead and has ceased to consider
current events since. He forgets a
great many things among which may
be counted the following
That prices IN 1896 had been re-
duced to the level of 1S48 before
the first grains of gold were discov-
cred in the old Suffer mill-race.
That the advance in prices since
has not been due to the increased
product of gold, but of the fact that
a starving world bought of the
United States enough of food pro-
ducts to draw from the outside bal
ance of 1000 millions of dollars IN
the four years after 1896.
That while that gave to the United
States a volume of money sufficient
for our needs and raised prices ac
cordingly, it,was at the expense of
foreign nations and their dlstresses
have increased in the same ratio that
ours have passed away.
That Notwithstanding this great
Influx of gold the manipulators who
brought about silver decentralization
are still not quite happy, as instance
this sentence from the New York
Evening Post: Notwithstanding
this increase (S114, 600, 900 during
the past twelve months) in the guam
tity of metallic currency there is
perceptible uemor in the stock |
market every time that small ship
ment of gold is made to Europe or
to South America. >"
That while we are exultng over
the results of the adoption of the
gold standard God save the mark
we are just waking up to the fact
that IN the counties where half the
working hosts of the world are gath
cred, the people have no money.
They cannot use gold in their daily
transactions and the trade which our
trans continental roads and the ships
owned by those companies want is
not forthcoming. They can get no
traffic worth speaking of from those
countries, because they are so ab-
jeclly poor.
That had all the silver mined IN
the United States and Mexico, since
the discovery of the Comstuck Lode
in 1859, been loaned to China at the
ratio of 16 to /, 1t would not have
given the people of that country
So. 90 per capita, but with that
they would have given ourI
ships commerce enough TO enable
our flag to dominate the trade of
the Pacific.
That the insistence of silver men ,
from 1876 to 1896 that NOTHING
could stop the fall Of prices except .
a vast increase of metallic money ,
was indicated through the misfor.
tunes of the outside world which
had no harvests between 1896 and
1890.
That the old insistence that the I
reason that gold and silver were de. :
nominated precious metals was be- !
cause there could not be enough of {
both mined to answer the worlds \
natural demand for money was and \
still is true as Holy Writ.
From the foregoing only one ra- |
Iional conclusion can be drawn 5
namely that the sensible thing for {
'he great commercial nations to do a
8 to have their representatives meet '
and hX an international ratio between N
he two metals for the world To NJ. r.
'ept in its exchanges, that is to do n
what the silver men I