Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-29

silver district had been found, though
the ratio of values in the ores was A
per cent gold and 56 per cent silver.
The flow of treasure was continuous
and wonderful When the great war
came on it was the bullion from Ne
Vada, going east in regular shipments,
that enabled the government, in all
it's stress. to meet it's interest and
fairly maintain its credit.
Meanwhile other districts had been
discovered in different parts of Ne
Vada, Idaho and Utah, and after
period of depression on the Comstock,
the Crown Point and Belcher bonan-
zas were uncovered, and a little later
the royal bonanza in the California
and Consolidated-Virgi
The great war was fought through,
and despite the mighty wreck it left,
the people were hopeful, for the treas
ure that had been, flowing from the
west in steadily swelling volume since
1S49 had so advanced the general cred
it of the country that railroad com
panies were able to float their bonds
in England, Holland and France. so
railroads stretched in all directions
over the mighty middle west, and the
harvest became so valuable that they
would bear shipment to foreign coun-
tries.
Wisdom of Bi-MetaIlism
Before written history had turned
its first page, gold and silver hao
been set aside as measures of value,
for two reasons. They possessed eX-
actly the attributes essential in money
and all the cupidity of man had never
been able to obtain enough OF both
metals to supply the worlds need 1or
money. Silver had tensile strength
luster lnalability. d1ctility, 1ndestruc-
tibility alike with gold-all the prop
II had al
WAYS been the steadier money OF the
two. for quite one-half of the world
inhabitants knew no other money.
Among enlightened nations silver
stood at ratio of from 10 to l TO 10
to 1 of gold. Their money Value es-
tablished their commercial value III
every market of the worlds Inc Two
metals at the ratio of 15 to to l6 TO
/ represented the wisdom Oh the ages
in dealing with them
But in 1870 when specie payments
had long been suspended, and When
the, neonle of the United States, all
save the few on the west coast ndu
nothing in the form of money on Whicn
to do business save greenbacks' Win
the promise Of the government 10 re-
deem some time in specie, there was
outstanding an interest-bearing debt
AGAINST the government of $4,000 OOO,0UO.
while states and cities and corpora
| tions owed perhaps twice. as Hluch
more. A., =
A law was passed by congress that
the debts should be paid III specie,
that is, in silver and gold II was was
ostensibly done to hasten the day
when it would be safe to resume specle
payments. But there is law, ac-
cepted by every writer on polltlcal
economy, that values are established
bv the amount of real money IN CIR
culation among the people. AL the
time values were so high, for all the
buying and selling were done with
greenbacks and they were at heavy
discount.
Den1onetizes Silver
The interest bearing bonds had been
bought with greenbacks when they
rated at from 40 to 10 cents on tne
dollar The law which made these,
interest and principal, payable IN
specie advanced their value greatly,
but still the holders were not satisfied.
So after three years of jock1ng, under
a. disguise and cheat, a bill was
pushed through congress and became
a law which, in an obscure cause,
demonetized silver. That bill caused
more property loss and more suffering
| through that loss than was lnf1lcted py
| the mighty war.
The recognition being withdrawn
from silver, it, measured by gold, be-
| gan to fall in value. So did every
| other form of property, save interest
| bearing securities in the same ratio,
| for half the money of the world being
| destroyed the inviolable law at once
began to reduce values and the result
| was that every man of small invested
capital, who owed 80 per cent of the
honest value of his capital and who
| hoped, through his capital and labor
| TO live, pay his debts and accumulate
something, after a struggle of from
| five to fifteen years, was made
bankrupt.
But the men who had wrought the
| iniouity, taking advantage of their own
wrong, through their press pointed out
to the people the fall of silver Gas
| though it was not really the lnf1atlon
of gold) and to the demand that the
| old recognition should be restored to
silver, advertised that the men making
the demand wanted to pay their debts
| in light weight dollars, or desired to
sell their bullion at twice its real value,
| and though the producers of the land
saw their property falling in the exact
ratio that silver had fallen, when
measured by gold, they wrapped them
selves around with the mantle of self
| righteousness
| that the west had so many dishonest
men.
| After a twenty years struggle, the
destruction of silver as primary money
was finally consummated. How 1t was
done is not yet remote history. To
give the then president an excuse to
violate the platform on which he was
elected and to call congress in extra
ordinary session. in order to bulldoze
demonstration into law, the bond
holders and national bankers of the
eastern commercial centers precipi-
tated a mighty panic on the country
which prostrated business everywhere,
which nearly crushed the banks them
selves, and with the senseless cry that
the country was going to a silver basis,
which would be ruin, accomplished the
assassination of silver as money
metal The depression was pitiahle to
see, but in the meantime the bond
holders were collecting their interest
and principal in gold, which at the
time, in purchasing power was equal
to five times the amount they had paid
for the bonds.
-. Silver Countries Prosper
All through this deplorable period
France, which had maintained silver
at a parity with gold, and Mexico.
which had no money but silver were
prospering exceedingly. In our country
there was no relief until failure of
crops in India, in southern Europe, in
Argentina and Australia sent the world
to us to buy bread The engineers