value

show

this decline in itself? What would be the evidence of it? It might be brought as ballast in every incoming ship, and yet if the laws remained the same it could all be taken to the mints and every twenty-five and eight tenths grains of it, 900 fine, could be coined into a gold dollar, and in this shape, being a legal tender, would be worth just as much as it is to-day for the payment of debts.

What evidence then would we have that gold had declined in value?

To that the answer comes, from any one who for a moment reflects, that those possessing other commodities would demand more grains of gold, more gold dollars in exchange for them; which is only another way of saying that there would be a general rise in values—a rise proportionate to the increase in the supply of gold. In other words, it is manifest that there is only one possible way to measure fluctuations in the value of gold, when it is the sole standard of value, and that is by the fluctuations in the gold price of other commodities.

One moment of clear thinking would seem sufficient to show to any reasonable creature that if "the progress of science, art, invention, and discovery" had happened to be during the last twenty years in such a direction as to produce the chosen commodity-gold-in such increasing quantities and with such diminishing expenditure of the human labor unit as to keep pace with the increased

production of every other commodity, including silver, and also to keep pace with the suddenly increased demand for it created by the demonetization of silver, which made it the sole standard of value, then there would have been no decline in values, and "the march of human progress" would not have been in the direction of cheapness.

And, furthermore, if there had been the discovery of some new and richer California, all other things remaining the same, there would have been a general rise instead of a decline in prices, and we would have had the progress of "science," etc., etc., in the direction of dearness instead of cheap

ness.

So we see that the only sense in which "the progress of science, art, discovery and invention can be said to affect the cheapness or dearness of commodities-can be said to cause a rise or decline in their value measured in terms of gold, is by the inequality of its action, by its failing to operate upon the production or supply of gold alone, whilst affecting the production of all other commodities, in other words, by the limitation of its action.

1 The Nation and other papers that have criticised my plan without quoting its essential features, have caused some misunderstanding of the intent and effect.

contracts.

2 I am a Joint-Metallist, and I am proposing to apply joint-metallism only to future I am not a bimetallist in the sense of wanting to open the mints to silver at an arbitrary permanent ratio differing greatly from the relative costs of producing the precious metals.

Joint-Metallism would, however, enable us to arrive at substantially the true economic ratio which is the relative cost of production of gold and silver in the poorest mines that could be worked at a profit when both metals had equal access to the mints.

This economic ratio would not often change after it thus became established. A. P. S.

INDEX.

Act of Congress, November 1, 1893, 84.
American monometallists, 56.

Ammunition of the most deadly kind, 33.
Appreciation of gold, 39, 103.

Argentum, The Goddess, 45, 53.

Arts, use of gold in, 87.

Asiatic Journal, 91.

Atkinson, Edward, 56.

Attempts to persuade, 45.

Basal proposition, the, 29.

Basis, honest, safe, self-regulating, permanent, 4, 18, 38.

insufficient, 21, 55.

the only final, 39, 69.

66

a vein for the silver and a place for gold," 25.
can an Ethiopian change his skin? 65.

Boston brethren, 31.

Bullion, 90.

Business and currency, 9.

Capita, stocks of money (per capita), 108, 109.

Carlisle, Secretary, 73, 84.

Century, beginning of, 66.

Cerealism, Joint-, 70.

Changes in ratio, 5, 6, 22, IIO.

Checks, 58, 68.

China, 92.

message, 79.

Coinage, 19, 92, 93.

Commercial ratio of gold and silver, 110.
Commission, the royal, 94.

Commodities steady, money changes, 85.

Conference, monetary, 30, 86.

Congress, act of, 84,

Constitution of the United States, 80.

Constitutional position of gold and silver, 24, 80.

Contracts, future, 5, 38, 54, 118.

Conventions, national, 81, 82.

Countries, money used in, 108, 109.

Courtney, Leonard, 103.

Cow in India, 48.

Credits, 8, 68.

Criticisms, 17, 66.

Currency, must always be convertible, 70.

proper limit of expansion, 8, 24.

gold an insufficient basis, 4, 8, 21, 30, 56–58, 66.
security as to value of, 18, 24, 39.

question in politics, 20, 38, 62.

Dangers of the situation, 66, 68.

Debate, envenomed, 20.

Debtor, class, 31.

Debts, 4.

Debts, national, 66.

Decline in silver, 7, 21, 30, 38.

" values, 4, 21, 30, 38.

Delawarean, the, 113.

Democratic platform, 81.

Demonetization, 23.

Director of the Mint, 92, 93.

Discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, 67.

Discussion necessary, 40, 41, 65.

Economic ratio, 7.

Equal parts of gold and silver, 5, 6, 57, 72.

Equal power of every dollar, 81, 82.

Establishment of the mint, 85.