The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-03-18

! is not anomalous or unknown. Nv
have such a condition OF affairs pre-
vailing in South America, principally
in Argentina, even today.
Broaden the Basis of Money.
There must be a remedy. Though
it is only fair to state that various
other factors have an important bear
ing on present price levels. unsettle-
Iment of exchanges, and the economic
evils generally. the most important of
all is with reference to money. The
fall in the different exchanges is only
the symptom of the unacceptability
in varying degrees of the moneys Of
the different countries of the worlo
THE lower the decline in the rate of
exchange Of a country's money, the
less it is acceptable in the worlds
markets Such unacceptability is
shown even within the boundaries of
such countries by the advances in
prices of different commodities and
the premium paid for metallic money.
Therefore, the first effort in the reg
ulation of the present condition must
be made toward making money in all
parts of the world nationally and in
ternationally acceptable
1t is needless to state that the
moneys created out of whole cloth, as
it were. by simply printing paper will
never be acceptable Up to recent
times. gold has been internationally
accepted as the basis of money. The
only sound money available so far has
been gold money We have to create
more sound money. and the only man
ner in which it can be done is to
broaden the basis by making silver
also the basis of sound money.
Gold Alone Will Not Do.
The condition of the body polite is
serious and heroic remedies are need
ed Those who have been thinking in
terms of 1914 are still fondly hoping
to return to the pre-war gold stand
ard. The gold standard has failed
miserably. It was not success even
when it was generally accepted The
main reason why it was not possible !
to contest and prove the falsity of the |
gold standard was that it was adopted |
world and the debtor nations were
obliged to submit to the lniquities of |
such a standard. Today the creditor |
nations Of the past are no longer so /
Even the countries like the United |
States and Japan, which are really |
creditor nations, are faced by an in |
ternal situation nearly as serious as |
that Of other countries In any case, !
a large supply of sound money is ur-
gent it is the only way in which the |
evils arising out of the increase Of /
more or less valueless paper money |
can be remedied. 1t may be argued /
that the production of gold can be |
increased. Even granting that the |
of the gold standard |
would be a panacea for all ills, dt will |
take long time before there is suf-
fcient production to meet our needs.
will not go in detail into some of
the remedies proposed for the ad-
iustment of the monetary chaos of
today. Only the one proposed by
Prof. Irving Fisher needs even pass
ing mention. His proposal to stand
lrdize the dollar by varying the
weight of gold in the dollar from time
h. time on the basis of the Index
Numbers is not practicable. even in
ess strenuous times Il does not so
to the root of the evil and will not
serve the purpose of creating sound
money today.
7emonetization of Silver Practicable,
as Formerly All Nations Had
Double Standard.
No great effort is needed. to prove
hat the reconciliation of silver will
louble the quantity of sound money
n the world and we badly need a l
arge increase in sound money The !
of silver is not similar Y
n plant to the maintenance of the ]
.old standard, because of the fact :
hat the production of silver in the Z
world is decreasing just as much as {
hat of gold. The reason is simply {
his There is a large stock of silver :
money in the world which can imme- {
lately be made available if silver is
emonetized. This remedy is not one )
ropOsed for all time, and is not rev. T
either. Up to 1872 prac- R
cally all nations of the world had R
Maintained a double standard for CEN a
inies. The gold standard was an in G
ovation. Even granting that it was G
erfct-wheich it was not-the war =
as changed conditions so radically "A
lat it is practically impossible to A
aintain the gold standard, even by A
lch a well organized country as Eng =
nd. Further it must be remembered .
lat monetary as well as economic
langes must be based on actual con-
tions and not on any theory which
ay be advanced
Advantages of Bimetallisn.
understand that a proposal to the
turn of any kind of bimetallism may
, considered in many quarters that
ave been stepped in the superstition
the efficacy of the gold standard, ass
o absurd for words. Bimetallism
Is been mixed up with unsavory pol
ac in