Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-08-06
81 Have Heard Many Such. Things


The silver question is not in the pres
ent campaign, but echoes of it come
back now and then. The latest of these
echoes comes from the Salt Lake Trib-
une in an explanation as to how the
silver question was settled. 1t is a
of reasoning; it reveals so
memory of not very remote
events that it should not be passed by
carelessly. The burden of it is that the
question was settled by the republican
party. That the reason of it was be-
cause it was the right thing to do and
thst it was done right. 1t insists that
the reason for all this was because the
republican party held fast to the gold
standard; that had the democrats been
successful in 1896 and had given silver
free and unlimited coinage, it would
have become the standard and all the
gold under the inviolable Gresham law
would have vanished away. That reads.
like an echoo from Wall street that has
been eleven years coming across the
continent,
1t is most strange. The gold has not
all vanished from France, though all the
time in that country silver has stood at
a rstio of Is II to gold.
The Gresham law is correct, but to
make an application of it, the monies
under consideration must begin on like
basis. For instance, prior to 1873 gold
and silver in Great Britain stood at
ratio of Is silver to one of gold on the
continent the ratio was Is 1-2 to 1, while
in the United States it was l6 to l. Be
ing an unlimited demand for both for
coinage, the coinage value made the
commercial value. But so sensitive are
the worlds financial balances that the
slight discrepancy between our ratio and
save what was used in the arts and for
subsidiary coinage, drifted away. The
reason was it was worth trife more
per ounce across the sea than at home.
That was merely matter of the mer-
chants. There was an unlimited de-
mand for the white metal. 1t went
where the most money was paid for it.
But suddenly and without warning
and by stealth the demand was taken
away in this country and little later
in Germany. Like any other product
treated in the same way, it began to
fall in price as measured by gold.
/ TO,.4 O+hnt. ,o,.Ofl11of
gold, it dragged down every other form
of property except gold and interest
bearing securities in the same ratio that
it fell.
The men who caused silver demoneti-
cation knew what the effect would be.
The government at the time owed
2, 500 millions in 'interest-bearing bonds.
Railroads, states and individuals owed
three times as much more and the pur-
pose was to make all this Indebtedness
payable in gold. 1t was done, but the
nations prosperity began to disappear
and it ended in panic, utter prostration
of business and the financial ruin OF
millions of men. 1t did just what would
be done now were half the worlds stock
of metallic money destroyed.
Silver men pointed out the truth and
insisted that nothing could restore pros
perity but mighty increase in the vol
ume of money. But it only partially
came through increased products from
the gold mines. 1t came in 1862
when a starving world came to us foi
bered and gave us balance of trade Of
. 2, 900 millions of dollars in those three
years, and with the increased volume o.
money prices were restored.
But now to the argument Of the rob
bers and idiots Of dozen years ago
which the Tribune revives and puts ou+
: as suddenly discovered truth. Tha
with silver reconciliation in 1896, al
the gold would have been spirited away
If that is true where would it haT
5 gone, ard what would have come bacl