Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-02-04
"On Board the
Good Ship Earth
By Herbert Quick
Our World Wide Metal Of Worship--Gold
BY Herbert Quick

, Abandoned silver as a measure OF
value and adopted gold. l think the
| feeling of the bankers was that by the
use of gold alone the value-measure
would not be as apt to grow small
as If both gold and silver were used
Financiers are people who have debts
due them, and these debts are prom
Uses TO pay certain number of dol
lars, pounds kopecks, marks, yen or
doubloons at some time in the future.
These denominations of money were
all by law equal to so much weight OF
gold or silver. When The double
standard was in effect the debtors
would, Of course, pay in the one that
happened to be the cheapest. The
flnanciers put through their schemes
in the double standard countries TO
adopt the single gold standard, be-
cause it looked as if silver was going
to be so plenty that it would displace
gold entirely. Hence the cross OF
gold and crown OF thorns" speech in
So and the "crine of '7S' in many
campaigns.
Now dollars worth under the
gold standard is the value of the
number of grains of gold in a legal
dollar. If gold should get as plenty
as mud you could weigh out the same
number of grains of it for dollar
to your creditor, as now, and take
UP your note for a dollar. II region
, were discovered where gold could be
mined in unlimited quantities with
steam shovels as is iron in the Lake
superior country, everybody could
T. - 1.N14 - u.
equal to a universal act of bank
ruptcy. That is, a gold dollar would
not exchange for more cloth, luIn-
Der, meat, wheat or other commodity
than would an iron washer of thu
same weight; and the producers OF
other commodities besides gold would
be able to get gold enough for load
of hogs--for instance-to pay off
the mortgage on the farm. Prices,
as measured in the now base metal,
gold would go kiting as high as they
did in the South as measured in the
credit of the Confederacy when L
deprecated.
| Now. while We have not found any
such mountain of gold. we are pro-
ducing so much that it is depreciat-
ing as compared with other things.
In 1907 in all the world there was
gold to the amount of about seven
billions of dollars. Half of that had
been mined in the previous ten years.
and the other half in all the previous
history of the world
Just think of it-as much in
single decade as in all the time since
SnInrr1f,41 fS1f
gold for his tempiel No wonder tho
dollar won't buy muchi Now the
great low-grade silver-standard ma
tons like those of South America,
Mexico, India and China are most
| of them trying to place themselves
on tho gold standard. and are alb
sorbing this new gold in an astonish-
ing way; but when their wants are
satisfied, If the gold keeps pouring
/ in. we shall find that we squirrels
have piled up go many nuts that their
value is going down tremendously.
| We shall have higher prices. in
Ecreased cost of living-increasing fas
ter and faster for years. Laborers
will be obliged to struggle harder
and harder to keep their pay up TO
| the living wage scale. debtors Will
/ be able to pay their debts easier and
easier. there will be no more labor
| trouble. more freedom from debt,
more turbulent conditions than we
have ever seen-and | believe great
er actual prosperity, even if more
grief-all because the passengers are
/ taking from the bunkers great deal
| of a metal which is not very useful,
| but which is universally worshiped,
and which is used as measure VI
/ value.
! 1t is as if wages and prices and
debts were all payable in cloth meas
ured by an india-rubber yard-sticll,
which were growing shorter all tbs
| time. Good for debtors, bad for
wages and sure to boost prices.
| See tomorrow's Evening Star for
! announcement of the next article in
this great series.