The eagle., September 04, 1895, Image 1

About The eagle. (Silver City, N.M.) 1894-1???

Image provided by: University of New Mexico

                
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VOL. 2, NO. 2.
SILVER CITY, N. JI., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1895.
PBICE 6 CENTS
NATIONAL BIMETALLISM.
All Would Favor It If the Question
Was Understood.
Preferable to International DliiieUillHin
1'lonty of Money Mean
Uood Money
We believe that many honest
American citizens, without sinister
motives or prejudices in favor of England,
have been persuaded that it would be
dangerous for the-United States to open
our mints to silver on equal terms with
gold without the concurrence of foreign
nations. If we are right in our belief,
when they know the facts, all such
persons will greatly prefer national to
.international bimetallism. There is no
material difference in the quality of gold
and silver which makes either a very
much better money than the other.
Previous to 1873 many financial writers
gave the preference to silver, because it
was more regular in production and
capablu of being divided intosuificiently
small coins for general circulation among
the nations of the earth. But since the
more civilized nations to a large extent
use paper substitutes for both metals,
the superiority of silver as a money
metal is not so apparent. The inde
structibility of both these meláis was
essential in the beginning before the art
of printing and engraving was invented.
The limitation of quantity which the
two combined furnished was also essen
tial on account of the want of knowledge
or power in governments to fix a
proper limit. Inasmuch as the value
of money, the same as the value of every
thing else, is governed by the law of sup
ply and demand, quantity determines
the quality of metallic money, and by
the quantity we ascertain w hether gold
or silver is good money or bad money.
The money in circulation and the pro
perty for sale are reciprocally the sup
ply and demand of each other. Money
in the instrument of swap whereby each
member of society may enjoy what
in hers produce by an . interchange of
commodities. It not only furnishes the
means of swapping things present
lor things in the futuro, but it is also
used in swapping things present for
things which . may be in existence at
some future day. The former are
rash transactions and the latter are
time contracts. With good money hon
est swaps of every name and nature can
be made, but with bad money some
body is swindled in nearly every trans
action in life. Under this test gold and
silver have sometimes been good money
and sometimes bad money,' depending
upon their quantity as compared with
population and business which created
the demand.
Among the ancients gold and silver
were good money when the mines
were productive, because their joint
quantity was sufficient for use in the
transaction of business without de
frauding either party. Every civiliza
tion which has preceded ours came into
existence while the mines were produc
tive, and prospered as long as gold and
silver remained good money ; but when
the mines failed and the quantity of
coin grew less, gold and silver became
bad money, and each of the ancient civ
ilizations perished under the blighting
effects of a contracting consequent fall
in prices.
Silver to-day is good money in every
country where the holder of silver bul
lion can have it coined at the mint with
out restriction or limitation, because
there is enough of silver in all those
countries to equal the legitimate de
mand. The supply of silver in the
Orient has corresponded with the de
mand so perfectly for the last twenty
two years that general prices have re
mained almost stationary. There is no
difficulty in swapping property honestly
and tairly in the silver using countries
oy the use of silver as medium of ex
change. Consequently, silver in the
Orient is the best money in the world,
because it performs the legitimate func
tion of money as a medium of exchange
and measure of time contracts.
Gold was good money in the United
States and Europe between 1850 and
1873. It is true that during that time
general prices rose from 18 to 25 per
cent., which gave the debtor about one
per cent, per annum advantage in time
contracts, but the creditor generally
provided agai nst that by the rate of inter
est. The Blight rise in prices stimulated
industries and increased the wealth and
advanced the prosperity of the civilized
world more in those twenty-three years
than had been accomplished in the pre
ceding century. It may be that the sil
ver of the Orient is better money tf'ay
than gold in the United States was in
the 59's. because it maintains a greater
stability of prices but no man can
say that a rise of one per cent. . per an
num in general prices has ever been .
pernicious ; but the decline of one-half
of one per cent, per annum is immedi
ately felt by every producer. The
quality of gold has not changed, and it
was good money in the ,50's, but from
its effect upon the United States and
Europe, it is the worse money which
has ever afflicted the human race.
The question is, Why is gold bad
money? The answer is, because its
quality, whether good or bad, depends
upon quantity, and the quantity or sup
ply of gold compared with the demand
is less today than at any time during the
century. The goldite will deny this pro
position and tell us that there is more
gold now than ever before. This may
be so, but the demand is much greater
today than ever before when compared
with the supply. Previous to 1873 it
took both gold and silver to make coin
good money. There was not in 1873,
and there has not been at any time since
a sufficient quantity of either gold or
silver in the commercial world to make
either alone good money. The goldite
tells us that new production of gold from
the mines will remedy the evil, and to
deceive the unthinking the director of
the mint shows an enormous yield of
gold. If we assume that Mr. Preston's
enthusiasm to serve the goldites has not
caused him to exaggerate, still the fig
ures he presents are absolutely inconse
quential. Suppose that the product
from the mines should be $200,000,000 a
year, and $100,000,000 of that should be
coined into money, how long would it
take to Bupply the deficiency in the
volume caused by the rejection of silver
without furnishing any new supply to
keep pace with population and business?
It must be remembered that silver
has been accumulating since prehistoric
times, and that the store of gold when
silver was demonetized. If it were pos
sible to produce gold enough from the
mines to supply the store of silver reject
ed, it would take centuries to accom
plish that result. The seat of empire
would be changed from the west to the
Orient by the advantages enjoyed by
silver using couutries before gold enough
could be produced to take the place of
four thousand millions of silver retired.