"A Possible Solution of the Silver Question."

The first of the series of lectures arranged by the Harvard Finance Club was given last evening in Sever Hall by Professor Andrews of Brown University. The speaker began by describing the great evils arising from fluctuations in the value of money. He said that falling prices may cause as much loss in the wealth of a nation as a national war. It is the inevitable tendency of gold and silver to increase in value notwithstanding the immense quantities added every year from the mines and the substitution of credit systems for money. The metals are subject to the law of diminishing returns, while all other commodities are free from this law, or at least not nearly so much under its influence as gold and silver. The commercial world must be forced from the damaging fluctuations in prices. This can be done only by securing a perfect steadiness in the value of money. If international bi-metallism could be established some good might be wrought, but there is no hope of obtaining an alliance of the nations. A more hopeful scheme would be to keep prices on a level by swelling or contracting the amount of money in circulation according as prices tend to fall or rise. A composite standard of value should be adopted in order to ascertain any change in prices. The coinage of the country should be based upon gold, but silver could be made to play an important part in the form of legal tender tokens. The amount of gold in circulation could be kept the same, all changes in the circulation being made by adding or subtracting the silver tokens. An international alliance would be necessary to make this scheme successful, but the alliance need be much less formal than in the case of bi-metallism.