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r
THE PRICE OF GOLD.
fiomo 1'uclH ltc-giti-dlng tlic 1'luctuntlon of
Money Values.
Ilns gold "appreciated?"
The advocates of the free coinage of
silver say that It has. Like the man who
thinks his own train in motion becnuse
the one alongside is moving in an op
posite direction, the silver men insist
that instead of all other prices (Includ
ing that of silver) having fallen, the
price of gold has really risen, and the
price of everything else has stood still.
They assert that there has been n steady
change in the ratio of a dollar in gold
to a given quantity of grain, cotton,
clothing, food and silver, and argue
that since one dollar in gold will buy
more of all commodities in the markets
of the world to-day than it did in 1S73,
gold has advanced in value, while the
value of other articles has stood still.
3Ience their constant assertion that
"gold has appreciated."
Let us see. To appreciate means to
Increase in value. Anything which ap
preciates In value, does so eithrr be
cause it has grown relativelj' scarce, or
becnuse each individual needs more of
it for his daily use.
Now has this happened about gold?
Fifty years ago the world had a billion
people in round numbers; now it hns a
billion nnd n half. The population lias
increased 50 per cent, in 50 years.
lias the gold in the world Increased
at the same rate as the population?
If so, have we any right to assume that
gold has appreciated? If it appears
that it has increased more rapidly than
the population, woidd it not rather de
preciate than appreciate?
Let us examine the figures from the
"best authorities of the world, Soctbeer,
Jtfulhall, Preston and others. Mulhall
indicates that the amount of gold in the
world, coined and uncoined. 50 years
ago amounted to $2,500,000,000. Taking
Ins figures for 1800 and adding the pro
duction since that date, the gold in the
world to-day, coined and uncoined, is
shown to be over $7,000,000,000. Thus it
will be seen that the world apparently
hns about three times ns much gold to
day as it had 50 years ago.
If there had been no increase In popu
lation in the ineantimethcrewotild thus
be three times as much gold for each
person 11077 ns there was half a century
ago. But the population hasinercnsed 50
per cent., so there is apparently twice
as much gold in the world for ench in
dividual as there was at that time.
, But that is not all. Fifty years ago
only 33 per cent, of the gold of the
world was coined into money. .Now GO
per cent, of it is coined. So it appears
that, while the per capita of gold has
been doubled, the proportion of that
gold which is turned into coin has also
been doubled.
x 4 This means that there is four times as
much gold coin for each individual in
the world to-day as there was 50 years
ago.
Docs this look as though there was a
Kcnrcity of gold? If gold coin is four
times ns plentiful for each individual
to-day as it was 50 years ago, it is rea
sonable to assume that the legitimate
need for more of it as a medium of ex
change is greater than it was then? If
not, how can it be shown that it has
"appreciated?"
There is another way of looking at
it. Of the total money of the world
50 years ago only 20 per cent, was gold.
Now nearly 35 per cent, of the money
of the world is gold. Had the demand
for money increased more rapidly than
the gold increased there would have
been a greater proportionate growth of
other kinds of money, either silver or
paper, or both, for botli are plentiful
nnd are constantly used for currency
everywhere. But their proportion hns
decreased while the proportion of gold
has increased.
( "But," say the friends of silver, "the
mere fact that gold money has in
creased does not prove that it is suffi
cient to meet the wnnts of business, be
cause since the crime of 1S73 in this
country nnd similar crimes about the
same date in other countries, the quan
tity of silver money has decreased."
Let us see about that. Preston., the
director of the United States mint, esti
mates that the world's siher money in
1873 was $1,817,000,000. lie estimates
the world's silver money to-day to be
$4,070,500,000, of which amount $3,410,
700,000 is full legal tender. Thus the
silver money of the world has apparent
ly more than doubled since 1S73. This
Cll"t4C1 4tin U J .... P.. 1 I f il
...u,,o iuu u 1. it: 1- lunacy 01 me argu
ment, 01 ine silver people that silver
money has been reduced since 1673. It
is interesting in this connection also to
note that the paper monev of the world
lias trebled in the past half century,
Laving been in 181S, according to Mul
hall, $1,300,000,000 and in 1890, $3,S75 -000,000.
There is still nnother light in which
this currency question should be con
sidered. If the value of n house "ap
preciates." the rent increases propor
tionately. If it depreciates in alue, the
rent falls. This rule applies equally to
the rent of money, u.Mially termed in
terest. This test ought to determine
the actual value of money and .show
whether it is scarce or plentiful. lu
the past 50 yeais rates of interest have
fallen from one-fourth to one-half, ac
cording to the locality, thus indicating
that there is less scarcity of money to
meet business demands than was the
case 50 years ago.
The increase in the gold of the world
huj been something enormoU3 in the
past half century. Prior to 1S45 the
average production seldom exceeded
$10,000,000 a year. Since, thnt time it
has been from $100,000,000 to $200,000,
000 a year. Thus the rate of produc
tion increased ten-fold, nnd In some
years twenty-fold, nnd hnd hi 50 years
trebled the amount of gold in the world
and quadrupled the amount of gold
coined for each individual.
"But," says somebody, "the business
of the world has increased enormously
meantime, at a much greater rnte than
the gold has increased, and since the
amount of gold has failed to keep pace
with business, gold has naturally ap
preciated.
Let us examine that subject. It is
true that the business of the world lias
increased enormously. The value of
the industries of the globe is to-dny,
according to Mulhall, three times what
it was 50 years ago, and the commerce
of the world is six times ns great as it
was at that time. In that same period
gold has only trebled.
This would seem to give color to the
claim that the increase in gold had not
kept pace with the demands of com
merce. But another nnd very importnnt
factor comes into the problem just at
this point. Thnt factor is the matter
of banking facilities and the use of the
medium of exchange which passes be
tween them and their customers and
takes the place of the more bulky nnd
less convenient coin. Fifty years ago
the man who engaged in commerce car
rid with him the gold witli which to
make his purchases. He went by stage
coach and sailing vessel, and the gold in
his leather belt lay idle weeks ormonths
while the tedious journey was being
made. Now he deposits his money in
bank, the banker loans n given propor
tion of his deposits to those who desire
its immediate use, and it is kept in ac
tive circulation nicnntime. The owner
of the gold takes in ita stead a slip of
paper, a draft or bill of exchange, good
wherever he may present it, and if he
wants more, it is transferred half way
around the world on his demand by
telegraph, in the twinkling of an eye.
The banking facilities of the world have
increased ten-fold in the past 50 years,
and instead of most of the business be
ing done by a hand-to-hand exchange
of money for property, 05 per cent, of
the business is performed with that
comparatively new medium of ex
change, banking paper, whose elastic
ity, convenience, and power of instant
transfer, has revolutionized business
and reduced enormously the propor
tionate demand for gold or other metal
lic money in the great business trans
actions of the world.
The use of this new medium of ex
change grows nearer to the masses
every day. A recent investigation by
the comptroller of the currency showed
that nearly GO per cent, of the pay
ments made to retailers, such as butch
ers, grocers, clothiers and general deal
ers, are now made in checks instead of
tho use of money itself. The money
which these checks represented had
been deposited in the banks by the own
ers, but only a given proportion ot it
was kept in stock by the bankers who
know by experience that only a certain
percentage of their deposits will be
called for at one time, and are thus
able to loan out a large share of the
money deposited, and so keep it in ac
tive circulation.
Thus the stock of money, which has
itself enormously increased, is multi
plied many times by the fact that it is
used over and over again, with ten or
twenty times the frequency that it was
a half centitry ago.
This system which hns grown up dur
ing the period in which business has so
greatly increased, changes radically the
relations of ready cash to the volume of
business. It was a premonition of this
change in business customs which led
Mill in his "Principles of Political Econ
omy" Vol. II., Book 111., to say:
"The proposition lespeeting the de
pendence of general prices upon the
quantity of money in circulation must,
for the present, be understood as apply
ing to a state of tilings in which money,
that is gold or silver, is the exclusive
instrument of exchange and actually
passes from hand to hand at every pur
chase, credit in any of its shapes bt'iiig
unknown. When credit comes into
play as a means of purchase, distinct
from money in hand, the connection
between prices and the amount of cir
culatingmediumis much less direct and
intimate, and such connection as does
exist no longer admits of so simple a
mode of expression."
Under this system the commodities
whose value is expressed in terms of the
standard of uiiue are exchanged tor
other commodities whose values are al
so expressed in the same terms, while
actual money, apart from its use as a
common denominator of value, does
not enter into the transaction. As this
great medium of exchange increases
the need of coin decreases.
But there ib one more test of the ac
tual value of the gold, a test which docs
not depind upon theories or tedious in
quiry as to quantities of money or
methods of business tiansactlon. This
test is a simple one, but the most ini
portant, the most accurate and far
leaching of all those which have been
applied.
This most Importnnt of all tests is,
the amount of gold which a given quan
tity of labor will buy.
The real standnd of value In the
world Is Inbor. It Is thla which pro
duces all commodities, the necessities
as well ns the comforts nnd luxuries ol
life. The food we eat, the clothes up
wear, the houses In which we live, the
necessities which half a century ago
were considered luxuries, are all the re
sult of labor and the money which f
paid for them measures the hours ol
labor which produces them. Labor le,
then, the real standard by which c
measure gold. If a day or an hour ol
labor will buy less gold to-day than it
did fifty years ago, then it may be prop
erly said that gold has "appreciated."
If it will buy more gold to-dny than It
did fifty years ago, then gold hns de
preciated, nnd if ench grain of gold
which an hour of labor buys will also
purchase more of manufactured com
modities than it did fifty yenrs ago then
the laborer has again multiplied the
Milne of his time nnd skill.
Let us see about that. A committee
of the United States senate, known a
thcAldrichcommittccmndc a thorough
investigation n few years ago into the
question of wages and prices, nnd nftet
n long nnd thorough research made a
report, the accuracy of which Is every
where accepted. That investigation
showed that a day's labor in nearly all
the trades would, in 1S00, buy nbout
double the innount of gold that it did
50 years earlier, and do i t with less
hour of work in-a day. For instance,
plasterers who, in the good old free sil
ver days of 1S40, got $1.50 per day were
paid $3.50 in 1SU0; blacksmiths who re
ceived $1.50 per day in 1840, got $3 in
1800; painters whose wages in IS 10 were
$1.25 in 1800 were paid $2.50; wheel
wrights who earned $1.25 in 1S40 got
$2.50 111 IS'JO; engineers who received
$2 per day in 1840 were paid $1.25 in
1800, and so on. Taking 11 representa
tive classes of workingnien, engaged In
the particular industries, as a basis, it
was found that the average rate of
wages advanced from $1.30 per day in
1840 to $2.37 in. 1S00, or thnt an hour of
labor would earn nearly twice as much
gold in 1800 as it did in 1840.
How then can it be nsserted that gold
has "appreciated?" It has depreciated,
and that highest and noblest of all
standards, human labor, will to-day buy
more of it than itdid 50 years ago, while
the depreciated gold thus purchased
can in turn be exchanged for more of
other commodities which linve still fur
ther depreciated by the improved meth
ods of production, manufacture and
transportation which the ingenuity of
the human mind has produced in the
wonderful age in which we are living.
Dunkirk (X. Y.) Observer.
HOW BAD MONEY HURTS.
Ono or tlio AVorat Kills I llnproclatlou
of tlio Unit of Vnluu.
The worst evil is depieeiation of the
lawful money or unit of value; all tlio
other adverse influences can be sur
mounted and the progress of the coun
try will only be retarded but cannot be
stopped. Tampering with the standard
or unit of value strikes at the very cen
tral nerve, and for a longer or shorter
time subjects the community to a period
of industrial paralysis in wliioli hun
dreds of thousnnds sutler want, while
abundant products waste for lack of u
market.
If there in any one point which lias
been absolutely proved, not only by the
experience of this generation, but in
the record of this country mid in many
others, it is that, in the exact measure
in which the standard of value or money
in common use is depreciated the work
man suffers want as the rich grow rich
er. On the other hand, in exact proportion
to the stability of the unit of value and
the assured redemption r.f nil obliga
tions in dollars made of old have the
wages or earnings of the great body
of the people been augmented. Under
the same rule the margin of profit is
diminished, although the aggregate
may be increased. The late of interest
on capital has been reduced and the
common welfare has been assured.
In 1SC0 when all the money in uso
was as good as gold a work man who
earned a dollar and a half a day could
buy as much food, fuel, and clothing
as a man or a woman or two children
of ten or under could use up in a day
for less than one dollar. lie then had
half a dollar left for other things.
In 1SG5 the money was ball. The
paper dollar was only worth about 50
cents. Thnt same man could then only
only earn a dollar and three-quarters a
day in paper money, but all that he
needed to live on cost twice as much;
when he had bought food, fuel and
clothing fur himself and his family
there, was little or nothing left.
In 1802 that same kind of 11 nun could
earn two dollars and a half a day in
gohl standard mon.-y. lie could then
buy more foed, fuel, and clothing for a
dollar than hy could in 1800, so thnt ho
had a dollar and a half left.
The silverites and the popocrats have
now stopped his wages and are trying
to put up the prices of food, fuel and
clothing by forcing people to take had
money which is only worth 50 cents on
the dollar. -Udw aril Atkinson, in Cin
cinnati Times.
CWhen they get through roasting
those Vale students, the Bryan organs
should turn their invective loose on the
old soldiers who howled down a free
silver orator at Lawrence for merely
calling Abraham Lincoln a "traitor and
nnarchist." Kansas City Journal.
Don't Tobacco Spit nnd Snioho Your Mfo
Away.
If von want to quit tobacco using easily
and forever, bo rondo well,strniip,iiinnetle,
full of new life and vigor, take NoTo-Bnc,
the woailnr-worker that makes weak men
strong. Many tfntn ten pounds lu tea days.
Over 400,000 cured. Buy No To-Bnc from
your own dnurplst, who will guarantee a
cure. Booklet mid sampler mailed free. Ad.
SterlhiB Heuicily Co., Chicago orNow York.
Titn man who soils what ho does not own
cannot cheat tho ninn who never pays him
for It. A great deal of business is dono on
that basis. Toxns Blftcr.
Piso's Cure for Consumption has no equal
as a Cough medicine. 1 M. Atinorr, 1&3
boneca St., Buffalo, N. Y., May 0, lbOl.
... ... 1 . ,
Somr men become bald quite onrly In
llfo, whilo others dio ami have their wills
offered for probata holoro their heirs fall
out. Texas Sifter.
CAso.vunrs stlniuhito liver, kidneys and
bovvols. Never sicken, weaken or gripe.
Motiikii (to her boy slldiug down tho
haulnteia) "Fritz, what are you doing
thcrcl'' Ffitr.-"Miikhur trouseiy for or
phan boys." Fllcgoitdo Blnetter.
Jt'sT try a lOo box oT Cascarcts, tho finest
liver and bowel regulator over made.
iMi'ossim.i:. Ho "They say thcro In n
skeleton in tlio IlniniltotiB' ulosot." Sho
"Bosh I They llvo lu a flat.'' Brooklyn
Lite.
Tin: next tinio you are tempted to buy an
article on credit, remember tho impudent
collector wno will call on you. Atchison
Globe.
Tin: MtxisTr.it "I suppose, thoso times, a
man has got to keep Ids eyes opfliit" Tho
Ueacoii " Yen, Indeed ;oxecpton Sundays."
Yoakcrs Statesman.
"I don't quite bco why you call Mr.
Biggs lantern-Jawed!'' "Why, hecaitsn Ids
fact) lights up so when ho talks.'' Brooklyn
Life.
Jon innintaliied that ho was tried in
ovory possible wnv. But then Job lived
and died bororo tho fountain pen was in
vented. Texas Sifter.
Everything'
(CX.
churns,
to
to do is to use Pearline.
.
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Ar 1.1 i "V -i' iin nivn i -i iryTwi i n yr. j-:'fl'r ttm lir-.- -' -aa.
. n? MlM KSS&aS
roi ? ' Lfett v . "T -sse i
W '' JZT-ssf fif,fert I
.Im. W.l b . jj f jl T- . - bl II III 1 M. M I I I II
p "It Bridges You Over."
"Battle Ax" bridges a man over
many a tight place when his pocket
book is lean. A 5 -cent piece of
"Battle Ax" will last about as long as
SJ a JO-cent piece of other good tobaccos,
(fy This thing of getting double value for
W your money is a great help. Try it and
save money.
lU
P'
rrn:
"yif"i
OUHLS WHtllE ALL fl.SE FAILS.
I IJcit Couch Syrup. Tunus Good. Uso
in tntitt Horn djt (iminnstA.
m
"v
fly'vmii&xtia
Gladness Comes
With n better understanding of tho
transient naturo of tho many phys
ical ills, which vanish before- proper ef
forts gentlo efforts pleasantcflorts
rightly directed. Thcro in comfort in
tho knowledge, that ho many forms of
sickness uro not duo to any actual dis
ease, but simply to a constipated condi
tion of tho Byfitem, which tlio pleasant
family laxative, Syrup of Figs, prompt
ly removes. That is why it is tho only
remedy with mlllionsof families, nnd fa
everywhere esteemed bo highly by all
who valuo good health. Its beneficial
effects oro duo to tho fact, that it is tho
ono remedy which promotes internal
cleanliness without debilitating tho
organs on which it acts. It is thcroforo
all important, in order to get its bonc
llclul effects, to noto when you pur
chase, that you liavo tho genuine arti
cle, which is manufactured by tho Cali
fornia Fig Syrup Co. only and cold by
all reputable druggists.
If in tho enjoyment of good health,
nnd tho nystcm "is regular, laxatives or
other remedies are then not needed. If
alllletcd with nny nctunl disease, ono
may bo commended to tho most skillful
physicians, but if in need of a laxatlvo,
one should have tho best, nnd with tlio
well-informed everywhere, Syrup of
Figs stands highest and is most lurgely
used undgives most goneralsatisfaction.
connected
with Butter
patters, tubs, firkins ought to
be washed with Fearhne. 1 hac gets
at the soaked-in grease as nothing
else in the world can. Things may
seem to be" clean when you've
washed them in the usual way ; but
use Pearline, and they really arc
clean. It might make all the dif
ference, sometimes, between good
butter and bad. Wherever you
want thorough cleanliness, or want
save your labor, the best thing
j
a
co
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ffjnjBSRIl "" WHISKY ImliltH cured. Hook Rtot
J fr IU M MM:!!. "lir. ,11. JUVoolloy, Allantn. Ua..
A. N. K. D.
IG2G
WlfSX "VKITI TO AUVKItTISKZlg
pii-iiHo Mnfo Unit yon mtv tin- n(,ertUt'
incut in thli. uuvtr.