The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-11-27

1900 DIV "ANi AZ AAtaAlo VI lhCds-
uring its probable ascent. Under
these conditions, prices, here as In
Europe, mean nothing, nor with q
fl%uctuating discount which we have
no means of quoting accurately, can
We tell whether a given thing is dear
or cheap, except by comparison with
other real commodities. Wages may
be doubled, but il the average cost of
necessities is more than doubled, the
wages are lower than formerly. You
may give labor any wage it asks; as
the prices of necessities will rise ac-
cordingly, 1t makes no difference to
as are tied down to the anchor of the
now inactive gold commodity stand
ard by investments in Liberty bonds
or other stable and fixed securities.
But u C a process OF raising wages
and prices Is confusion itself, and all
the rational adjustment between var
ious classes of wage earners and var
ious kinds of commodities, according
I lIiCli iCidtif tiu6 Ndlut, WHICH
came about when they were exchange
able m the basis of a real commodity,
vanishes in the effort to adjust prices
piecemeal to a great and sitting dis
count rate.
Europe Is truly bankrupt. She has
destroyed more wealth than she pos
sesses, and has bought the surplus by
promises to pay more than she will
have in the form of commodities of
any kind (to spare) for a long time.
But the United States is rich and
prosperous; although she has de-
stroyed much wealth in war, she has
produced enormously, and, even so, by
no means to such a degree as the
countries Of Europe But her plight
in this respect is getting worse in
stead of better. AS the governments
have destroyed the market for gold by
boarding it as theoretical reserves
for mountainous piles of / o U's, the
gold miner can not, as before stated,
trade his gold for other commodities
For his ounce of metal he can get on
ly 20 paper promises, secured mainly
by other promises, to pay one dollar
each--never; and those whose com
modities of timber or quicksilver he
must have, require twice as many of
these as If they considered them alb
solutely safe. In other words, gold
has hann nrlDtiralU Hnnnnnafiun ar1
no tangible substitute has been pro-
vided, The result is that its produc-
ton is growing less and less, where
as, If 1t were employed as an actual
larger and larger, on account of its
relative scarcity and greater demand;
and, with the dwindling production,
the golden anchor Of the balloon
grows less and less restraining,
Certainly no safe outcome of this
solution is indicated without some
new move. The gold miners are
striving to find a remedy by means of
which they may be able to live: the
nation, by which 1t may obtain more
gold and so weight its anchor. Sec
Rotary McAdoo recognized this and
it, in the thick of the war,
and gold mining was given the privi-
leges of a necessary war industry.
As one solution, 1t has been propos
to increase the price of gold from
$2o.67 per ounce to, say, $40 per
ounce, to keep pace with the other
That is to say, apparently,
that an ounce of gold shall be worth
forty one-fortieths of an ounce OF
gold; but the plan has this in it, that
II recognizes the discounted / o U
currency and proposes for an ounce
Of gold to exchange 40 promises to
pay one-fortieth of an ounce OF gold
some day, provided somebody else
somebody else the said gold, accord
ing to their several I o US; so that
the gold market is temporarily pegged
somewhere near the current valuation
Uncle Sans promises. But the
begging will not adjust itself, any
more than before. to the fluctuations
Vt the discount rate, and only adds to
confusion, If we are searching not
'nly for the relief of gold mining but
or a way to get upon a real COM
modify basis of exchange. Interna-
%ionally, it would o help; for the
;old miner in Russia, in order that he
night resume business, gold would
ave to be pegged at, say, $4,000 per
'unce, and so on.
Another plan proposed is not to
neddle with the gold standard, but
or the government to pay the miner
emporarlly, and while the initiation
.ontinues, a corresponding bounty
ay $50 per ounce-which relieves the
Amer, as above, giving him his 40
iscounted promises, This plan seems S
air. but we fear 1t may not be prac- :
=
The government must thus give it's t
without date for double the :
Of gold that 1t receives: it n
to pay 100 per cent commits I
on for the loan, but 1t is doing ?
lat on all other commodities that 1t !.
hrchases, and, of all these, gold is s
lie most valuable permanent asset. n
ut this practice would not help it to -
'duce initiation nor TO progress with ii