46 



IV. G. Langworthy Taylor 



The desire to 

 raise prices 

 inconsistent 

 with the desire 

 to raise the 

 price of silver. 



Bimetallism 

 would have 

 little effect in 

 steadying the 

 foreign ex- 

 changes, for 

 the fluctua- 

 tions are 

 largely due to 

 credit. 



That was not the idea of men like Chancellor Andrews or Pro- 

 fessor Ross, or others who sincerely desired to introduce an 

 impartial standard. The political support of bimetallism, how- 

 ever, came either from the mine owners, who were interested in 

 selling what they were producing, or from the populace which 

 desired cheap money. The selfish interests of these two naturally 

 inimical classes could hardly coincide. It was a solemn jest for 

 the politician to promise that bimetallism would raise the value 

 of silver, when he, in almost the same breath, preached the 

 doctrine of high prices and really expected that it would carry the 

 country over to a silver standard. Behind the main campaign 

 sober citizens perceived an unsound theory which was willing to 

 go to the length of government paper money inflation. 



The politician tried to show (probably this was for the benefit 

 of the mine owners) that the value of silver could not fall 

 below a certain point. " Coin " Harvey said, in efifect, " The 

 government can keep the price of cavalry horses at $60 apiece," 

 with the further implication : " just as long as vendors ofifer horses 

 to the army."'*^ But a rise in the value of silver, if it were the 

 standard, would mean a fall in prices, just as surely as a rise in 

 the price of cavalry horses would be followed by a restriction of 

 the number accepted. This argument, however, suited the mine 

 owners on the Hill in Denver. That its consequences were, on 

 their own platform, evil to the " debtor class," did not occur to 

 them. 



§ 12. Another argument advanced in favor of bimetallism is 

 that it would " steady the foreign exchanges." But in the first 

 place, most of the fluctuations of prices are to be ascribed to 

 the state of credit; and for this and other causes, the deviation 

 from par of foreign exchange is also due to credit influence and 

 not to changes in the value of the metallic standard. But it has 

 been said that the silver standard nations have an advantage in 

 international trade. The fall of the value of silver has stimulated 

 exports enormously, if certain theorists are to be believed. Silver 

 orators asserted that if the United States wanted to stimulate 



' This is not quoted : but cf. Financial School, p. 47. 



160 



