The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-10-28

nave Deeu IOr ages UcVOtcO uOTc u
the processes of boarding than to
consuming. 1t is as if the squirrels
paid so much attention to the
boarding of nuts as to forget Il he real
object of saving is eating. We human
squirrels do eat gold and silver
when we consume them in arts
but mostly we have boarded them uI
In bars. or ingots, or round pieces call.
ed coin, and by this boarding have
created a permanent scarcity of the m
which appears to have a great deal
of effect upon tn cir value as compar-
ed with other things of value. These
gold and silver nuts we human squir-
rels store in mints and national
treasures and banks and safe-deposit
vaults and use them as things by
which to measure the value of other
commodities.
In past ages gold and silver were
both used and still are in some coun-
tries. But latterly the world at the
request of some of the financiers has
rapidly abandoned silver as meas
ure of value and adopted gold. l think
he feeling of the bankers was that
by the use of gold alone as a value
measure silver would not be as apt
to grow small as if both gold and
silver were used. Financiers are peo-
pie who have debts due them, and
these debts are promises to pay
certain number of dollars, 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 stand
ard was in effect, the debtors would
of course pay in the one that hap
pened to be the cheapest. The fin
anciers put thru their schemes in
the double standard countries to a.
dopt the single gold standard, be-
cause it looked as if silver was 60
ing to be so plenty that it would
displace gold entirely. Hence the
cross of gold and crown of thorns"
in 90 and the crime of '73" in
many campaigns
Now a dollars worth under the
gold standard, is the value of the
numbe of grains of gold in legal
dollar. If gold should get as plen-
ty as mud, you could weigh out the
same number of grains of it for a
dollar to your creditor, as now, and
take up your note for dollar. If
a region were discovered where gold
could be mined in unlimited quanti-
ties with steam shovels as is iron in
the Lake Superior country, every
body could pay his debts easily
it would be equal to universal act
of bankruptcy. That is, a gold dol
lar would not exchange for more
cloth, lumber, meat, wheat or other
commodity than would an iron wash
er of the same weight; and the pro-
ducers of other commodities besides
gold would be able to get 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 60 kiting as high
as they did in the south as measured
in the credit of the confederacy
when it deprecated.
Now, while we have not found
any such mountain of gold, we are
producing so much that it is de-
preciating as compared with other
things. In 1907 in all the world
there was gold to the amount of
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 a
single decade as in all the time
since Solomon went into the market
for gold for his temple! No wond-
er the dollar won't buy much! Now
the great low-grade silver standard
| l.. Al.