The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-02-20


of coming silver dollars we will find that we
are in no Immediate danger of losing our gold
II gold be expelled it will not be 50 much by
one and two dollar notes tend 10 expel both
gold and silver, while the five and ten dollar
notes drive gold out of circulation. God cir
culates largely in England and France, but the
bank of England issues no note OF a less de-
nomination than 60 (S25) and the bank OF
France now pays out no note of a less denomi-
nation than l 0 francs NEARLY 500 Those who
argue against this bill because they want a
gold currency-not mere standard OF value,
but an actual, free and custom airy circulation
of gold cOins-lJse sight OF the fact that we
never have had, and never can have, such
circulation while we continue TO use small
notes of either the banks or the government
Metallic money is said to have two faculties,
namely, that IL Is a standard OF va ne ana an
instrument OF exchange. shall not go into
the much d sputed question of its merits and
dement's a standard of value, or whether IL
is possible TO esta lish any such standard that
will be invariabie; but IL Is obvious that 10
serve as an instrument for the eXcnang7 OF
property or service IT must circulate. But II
Will not circulate, except as suD>lulary coins,
in any country that uses small paper money.
Whether the people of the United states Will
ever give mn III use OF small notes / no not
venture u predict; but, II they will not, they
must agree that, with u.s. metallic money snail
be shorn of one of It's functions, that OF a cir
cuiatlng medium.
The Important bearing of this fact upon the
bill before us, aud upoL The question oil resum-
ing and malntaini. specie payments, shall
pr Sently endeavor 10 explain. -
~. In direct opposition TO those who say that
the doiiar OF 4l21@ grains If coined and made
full IL gal tender will pei gold from the coun-
try, another set OF reasOners say that il is sill
yer that Will go out. Their reasoning Is that
money flows 10 that country where Its par-
chasing power is the greatest, and that as sill
yer is underva ueu in the dollar of 4i2% grains
as compared with its valuation in the states OF
the Latin Union, it will leave our country and
flow into those states. And so l. uIdC ubtedly
would tend to do were those states 10 OPP
their minis To an unlimited coinage of silver
five-franc pieces. But will they do 500 L
| mink / think they will neither do tnal
nor will they demonetiZe silver. | think that
France, for instance, dare not demOneuze ill
a limited amount as TO preserve its p II with
gold. Aud III tuat shall continue TO be her
policy, We will be in little danger of losing our
silver.
V. Another objection to the biIl--the OPP
posite of that last conside eds that il it be-
come law will be flooded with silver that
Germany will pour her surplus silver upon Us,
and our mines will produce so much That we
will have more than We know what TO do
with.
have no fears from Germany. 1t is said
that she has eighty millions to spare. Sap
pose ii were all poured into the United states,
think that we could Absorb it without injury.
But Will IL be? Z rtainiy not, as it seems TO
me. do rot believe that Germany can spare
eighty millions of her silver. But Ii she could,
the gfeater part OF IL would be much more
likely to 90 TO Asia and To Russia Austria and
Spain, to say nothing of the Latin states, than
TO come To US who undervalue silver as COM
pared with the rest OF the world.
Nor do thiuk that we have anything to
fear from an excessive product OF our mines.
have not been considered an infationisi
but know of no valid reason against enlarg-
ing our specie basis, and If We are To have and
maintain specie payments 1t must be en-
larged.
known "A. gnment agai ST bimetalism. II is
said that bimetalism Is incompatible with an
unvarying tanda'd of value; that to have
such "a standard we must but one metal;
and that, tOr several reasons, gold is prefera-
bic to silver. and the most gloomy pictures
-
our country if we return to bimetalism.
1 shall not, Mr.. President, go Into an ex-
tended discussion of the bimetallic and
monometallic theories, about which so
much has been said and written, and upon
WIN Gu such opposite opinions are en,er-
tained. IpTefer To rest upon few facts that
can not be disputed anu ~ hich seem to ME TO
be a sufficient answer TO the objection.
promis however, hat 1t is by no means
certain that the standard OF value is less vart-
able in mOnOmetallic than il is in timetable
countries. An absolutely unvaTying standard
of value is an lmpo>sibility; and the thinkers
VINO have endeavOred 10 discover such a
standard have never been able to find ii in
any one thing. Neither god or silver, nor
any annual product If the earth or of n man
industry, nor the wages oflabor, (once insisted
upon as he best standard) have been found
To soiye the problem. And hence it has been
argued, with no little al, that the average
price or the average cost of production, OF
number OF commodities, some say as many as
% must be taken 10 find standard of value
even approximately correct
merely glance at these populations of in
geBiOuS Ins II and rely upon the judgment aud
expe fence of mankind, who, TOR thousands of
years haN e'cOnSidered and found gold and sill
yer to furnish the nearest possible approach
10 an unvarying standard, and the safest,
though not the InOSb convenient instrument
of exchange. L am content to rest upon
this experience, which has been full,
ample, enduring, until something better
shall be discovered, should that event
ever take place. But now, in answer TO the
gloomy forebodings we have heard, the predIc-
lions of Iuin should this bill become a law,
In
of history.
Mr.. President, has there ever been, so far as
we know. "A more prosperous country than
were the United States from 1889 to 81? Did
any nation ever exceed the pro- ress we made
tn populs ton, wealth, education, refinement
and the general well being of the people in
those ~ years? And yet during all that period
we had bimetaiism; for we gave no preference
10 gold over silver, or 10 silver over gold.
Those metas fiuctuated then as they have
done since, and probably ever will do, but ns
American state sman Of that period thought of
oemonetizing either. Great Britain had set
the example oil demOnetlZlng silver as early as
1916 and adopted the single gold standard, but
neither the American people nor the AmerI-
can congress thought OF following that exam
pie.
And now, Mr. President, let us turn to Eu-
rope r II moment, and what do we hear?
The wailings of thousands of laOOring men,
women a u Il children thrown out of employ
ment; the cries of anguish of thousands of
o-her men who but a year age were rich, but
now arr bankruptS; in word, the same notes
OF sorrow that so affilct our ars I'm our own
distressed land. But from what countries do
they mainly come? From two, sir from
GwO-from god, monometallic England and
gold, mon Ometallic Germany ;while bimetallic
France, the. land OF silver veil "a gold, en-
joys a prosperity hardly exceeded by that of
any people ON the earth.
Among The gloomy predictions that have
been uttered in this debate is the assertion
that if this bill pass our foreign commerce
will be diSjointed and the national credit be
destroyed.
Our foreign commerce disjointedl Why, sir,
81.
country for the last sixteen years upon an in
convertible paper currency, and has our for
export more than we ever before exported? Is
not the balance of tradeein our favor? And III
all this be true with "a home currency of in
convertible paper money, how can any man
who has the faculty of thought seriously be-
lieve that our condition would be worse with
a am nle basis metallic money 10 guDnOrf