The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1878-02-14

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the use of small notes, he would not
veat,reto predict; but if thev would
not, they must agree that with US me.
tallic moaey shan! be shorn of its func-
sions-that of a circulating medium.
Another set of reasoners argued
that silver would go out ci the coun-
try should the dollar of 412L grains
be coined that, as silver was UNDER
valued in the dollar o; 4l2H grains, as
compared with its valuation in tho
states of the Latin Union, it will leave
open mints to an unlimited coinage of
fve-trauc pieces. But he thought
they would not do SO.
Another objection to the bill was
that if it should become law, we
would be flooded with silver; that
Germany would pour her surplus sill
yer on US, and our mines would pro-
duce so much that we would have
more than we would know what to do
with. He had no fears from Germany.
1t was said that she had eighty mil
lions of dollars 10 spare. Suppose it
were all poured into the United States,
we could absorb it all without injury.
Bat it would not be poured into this
country Germany could not spare
her silver; but if she could, the great
er part of it would be moro likely to
90 to Asia, and to Russia, Austria and
spain, to say nothing of the Latin
States, than to come 10 the United
States, who undervalue silver rs COM
pared with the rest of the world. He
did not think we had any thing to fear
from all excessive product Of our
tnint.. lie had not been considered
an infiationist; but he knew of no
valid reason against enlarging our
specie basis, and if we are to haYe aud
maintain specie payments, it must
be enlarged.
Another objection to the bill was
The well known argument against BIZ
inetallism, aud the most gloomy pic
lures have been drawn of the ruin that
would beiaIl our country if we adopt
oi- m etailism. He argued til 1t it WAS
value was less variable in monome-
tallic tnan il was al bi-metaillc couu-
try. An absolutely u1varying stand.
ard of value was an impossibility. Had
there ever been q more prosperous
country than the United State. from
1889 TO 1861 ? did any nation ever ex-
ceed the progress we made in popula-
ton, wealth, education, refinement
and general well-being of the people
in these seventy-two years? And yet,
during all that period, we had bi-me.
,allism, for we gave no preference to
gold over silver, or TO silver over gold
Those metals f1uctuated then, Is they
nave done since, and probably ever
will do. But no American Statesman
of that period thought of demonetiz-
ing either.
And now let us turn to Europe for
u ulOihCut. W u0e Oo VIC HOoA uO
wailings of thousands of laboring men
women and children, thrown out Of
employment the cries of anguish Of
thousands of other mca who but
year ago were rich. but now bank
rupts. In a word, the same notes Of
sorrow that SO affect our ears in our
Int xzb>
countries do they mainly come =? Two
from gold monometal:ic England
and gold monometallic Germany;
while bi-metal!ic France, the land of
silver as well as gold, enjoys prosper
ity hardly exceeded by any people on
-o~s.sA--1k-haa been arrned that our for
eign commerce would be uestroyeus
would be disjointed by the passage of
the pending bill. Had we not carried
on business for the past sixteen years
with an inconvertible paper currency? f?
aud was not the balance of trade in our
favor now?
Again, it had been argued that the
national credit would be destroyed
How destroyed by US paying our bonds
as we promised to pay them? The
United States needs no such prop aa .
single gold standard TO support its
credit. The resources of this country
are too we'll known for her credit to be
injured. He longed to see our in
debtedness held at home, and not
abroad, so there would then be no an
nual drain from America 10 enrich
Europe. A telegram this morning in
forms us that $6OO,OO0 worth of our
bonds were on the way home from
England. They would be getting back
there soon, whether this bill passed or
not, as the interest upon our bonds is
greater than Upon any safe European
stocks. 1t our bonds should be sent
home they must find purchasers in the
United States, and suppose they
should find such purchasers, would
not every one in the land be CLAN that
our bonds were held at homer The
Enslisl, debt was held by Englishmen,
the French debt by Frenchmen, and he
hoped the day would come when the
American debt would be held by
Americans. Our currency would ba
small paper money, and the problem
for Congress to solve YVES upon whs t
basis it should rest. We could not
maintain paper currency convertible
ct all times into coin, unless we en-
p,oved silver as we'll as gold for it's
base-uniess silver should be made full
legal tender. The idea OF specie pay
ment in the United States would soon
&c abandoned. Every opponent TO an
irre.leemable paper currency. and eve
nv friend of specie currency should in
sist upon the full demonstration OF
silver. If this bill should become law
its tendency would be TO put stop to
| the decentralization of silver in other
countries Shonld we POSTPONE re-