The daily gazette., 1878-02-26
THE SILVER DEBATE.
SPEECH OF MIR. MONROE.

A beautiful incident In the passage of
the Silver bill was the mastery manner
In which Mr.. Stephens. of Georgia, as
sumed the floor of the House and put the
bill through. He had but one hour under
the rules. He divided this time among
the members, In turn from half minute
to six minutes each, for speeches, until
he had left but two minutes In which to
make the closing remorlss and calling the
previous question. Those who remem-
Der Mr.. Stephens when he was the leader
of the Wings In the House, must have
felt a pride Unlocking upon him, although
the mere wreck of the "shadow" that he
was, while he guided the House with the
genius of intellect.
MR. MONROE, of Ohio, was given three
minutes, and got permission to publish
all of his speech, as did many Others
We give an extract of his remarks as
follows:
EVILS OF Decentralization.
Consider first the calamity which it
would be TO us and to mankind TO be de-
prived of silver as legaltender money, a
calamity OF such proportions that we
shall not find 1t easy to comprehend it,
Its magnitude may be illustrated by ref
erence to the coin debt of the world. The
aggregate of national coin indebtedness
is more than $4,000, ,OO0, 900. The coin debt
Of our own country, as you know, is ST.
0O0, ,000, 900. The corporate and private
coin debt of the world, although not ex-
actly ascertained, is known to be much
larger than the national. Hence $50, ,OOO,-
100000 Is a very moderate estimate of
the worlds total coin Indebtedness.
What means have ths debtor nations
and classes of meeting these burdensome
obligations There Is in the world to-
tai Of 81, ,750 ,000,0 600 in coin. or this S3,-
800, 600, 600 are In gold, and 50, go 200, 900
in silver. The stock at best would seem
scant enough for such vast uses.
Now what is the issue rendered us by
monometaIsts at this point? They pro-
pose in a word to deprive the world of
nearly one-half of the coin with which 1t
Is trying to meet its obligations. They
would substantially blot out the use of
silver as money from the world. They
sometimes shrink from admitting this,
but nothing less than this is what their
policy must mean. Their theory is uni
versal In its application. The reason for
which they have begun decentralization
W
two precious metals cannot be kept to-
gether In circulation in this country they
cannot in any. Ii two standards are more
fiuctuating and less safe than one in the
United States, they would be everywhere.
The arguments which would give us only
gold would give only gold to the rest Of
the world. Let the theory of the single
gold standard be logically applied, and
there would be no silver left to either
nnnftnnnf IN rnYah % ha aa1
as subsidiary com. The amount of silver
which can be so employed where the sim
gle gold valuation prevails is commonly
estimated at not more than per cent. of
the amount of gold. To make our esti-
mates az fair as possible let us suppose
that in the present case IL would be 20per
cent. This would leave to the world $780,
000,0 of silver in use after the general
adoption of the gold standard. Thus S2,-
65O, ,000, 600 in silver, or about 38 per cent.
of the coin money of the world would be
Withdrawn, and there would be left only
about - 200, ,0O0,0 900, principally gold, for
all purposes.
The Immediate result of this would be
that coin, having been diminished in
quantity by 80 per cent, would become in
proportion scarce and difficult to
obtain. Gold would steadily grow more
dear. Its price or value, that is, its pur-
sed. The law applicable In this case, as
held by all the great economists, is that
the value of money Is in the inverse
ratio of its quantity. When money Is
abundant it is cheap when scarce 1t is
dear. / am not aware that this Is any
longer disputed. A private library of
moderate extent furnishes the names of
Adam Smith, Stuart Mill, Ricardo, De
Quincy, Ernest Seyd, Jevons, the Walk
ar father nd nd 9th n q ottfh hnr ri
ty for this doctrine. A severe application
of this law would make the gold remain
ing in the world, after the single standard
had become universal, dearer by 80 per
cent. But, to put the matter beyond
cavil, let us call the rise in the price of
gold 30 per cent. Let the monometalists
succeed then in withdrawing the silver of
the world from use as money, and the gold
remain ming will become scarcer and dearer
by 30 per cent. This means that it will
take 30 per cent. more of the necessaries
of life and of all other commodities to
obtain gold than at present. 1t means
that there will be universal shrinkage
oil values to that extent in all commoni-
ties but gold: in labor, bread and meat ;
| in houses, lands, forests, and mines IN
the products of the farm, the factory, the
| shop, and the mill. That which creditors
are to receive will go up in value, while
Il
| go down. 1t means that all coin indebt-
edness will be increased 80 per cent The
national debt of twenty-five thousand
| millions would become thirty-two thous-
and five hundred millions. Our own debt
of two thousand millions would swell to
two thousand six hundred millions. The
total coin debt of fifty thousand millions
will become sixty-five thousand millions.
| We know what hard work the debtor ma
! tons, corporations, and individuals have
had to meet their engagements as it is
They sometimes fail to pay interest and
more frequently TO pay installments of
the principal. If 30 per cent. were added
to their Indebtedness, most of them
would become utterly discouraged. Such
system would give us general bank
ruptcy and would check the growth of
the worlds civilization for half century.
| The injury done to the world in the
loss of the value of silver, in consequence
of depriving it of its legaltender quality,
and the dispiriting effect upon all busi-
ness enterprises of continued contrac-
ton in the volume of coin, might be dis
cussed in further Illustration of this sub
ject. But it is not necessary. What has
been already said is sufficient to show
how indispensable it is to the general
welfare that the progress of demonetiza.
Il -. II. l. H..