ed with silver, having a big surplus
which we are in danger of having "dumped" on us? Didn't you know that they
are really suffering from a scarcity of silver? that altogether they have
not a sixth of what we have? One who judged from goldite talk only, would
conclude that silver is a burden in those countries, that they have to
carry it about in hods. Now what are the facts?

In all the Spanish American States there are 60,000,000 people, and they
have a little less than $100,000,000 in silver. Not $2 per capita! This is
a startling statement, I know, but it is official, and you will find it in
the last report of the Director of the Mint (1895). The South American
States have but 83 cents per capita in silver, and Mexico has but $4.50.
With a population nearly twice that of Great Britain, they have much less
silver, and less than half of that of Germany, though having a much larger
population. In fact, to give the Spanish American nations as large a
silver circulation per capita as the average of England, France and
Germany, they must needs have nearly $300,000,000 more, or nearly three
times as much as they now have. It looks very much as if the "dump" would
have to be the other way.

From these figures it would seem that the trouble, if monometallists are
right in saying there is trouble there, is due not to their having too
much silver, but that they do not have enough. Not having enough, they
have followed the usual course of nations lacking a sufficient coin basis,
and have issued a great volume of irredeemable paper money. By reference
to the authority above cited, you will find that they have in circulation
$560,000,000 in paper money. One fourth of all the uncovered paper in the
world is in those countries, though their total population is less than
that of the United States. Who will say that it will be a calamity to them
to coin $200,000,000 more in silver and retire that much of their
uncovered paper?

=Gold ought to be the standard metal, because, apart from its use as
money, it has a fixed intrinsic value.=

There is no such thing as intrinsic value. Qualities are intrinsic; value
is a relation between exchangeable commodities, and, in the eternal nature
of things, never can be invariable. Value is of the mind; it is the
estimate placed upon a salable article by those able and willing to buy
it. I have seen water sell on the Sahara at two francs a bucketful. Was
that its intrinsic value? If so, what i