Government Must Control Mines

The Bankers' Magazine for March finds the origin of our present troublea about silver in the demand tbat the ratio of its value to gold shall be determined by the government. It is, however, no proper part of the duty of the government to try to fix the ratio of values of the two metáis. "Being, " says The Bankers' Magazine, "commodities as well as money, and being commodities before and after they are money, and being money simply and only because they are commodities, and being commodities becansa they have recognized and intrinsic value independent of any action of government, and even in the absence of government, and being therefore severally subject to all the laws of commodities, the law of variable supply and demand and value among others, and these variations not being uniform for both metala, it is impossible that government can ever 'fix' the ratio of their value. "If, however, it should be insisted that it is the function and duty of government to (try to) fix the ratio of their values, it vv-ould seem to follow as a logical consequence that, since their relative value depends absolutely on the relative supply of the frwo metala it ia the primary and plain duty of government to fix (regúlate) their supply by controlling and operating the gold and silver mines, the sources of their production. It should do both things or neither, and it is preferable that it ehould do neither. It is folly to expect il to do the former -without doing the latter." This is the truth of the matter in a nutshell. Unless the government first acquires all the mines in the world and decides how much silver and how much gold are to be produced yearly, it is impossible to maintain a ratio after it ia "fixed." France "fixed" it 156 times, but it vi-ould not stay fixed, and Franca has at length abandoned the effort. The United States has also tried the experiment several times without saccess. It is time the theorists were letting the matter alone.