Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-04-17
The Silver Question.

Commissioners.
The Silver Question.
On the 9th inst. the Democratic caucus of the
house, at Washington, adopted resolution favoe>
lng Unlimited coinage of silver there being but one
dissenting vote. This is significant. The silver
question is an important one and regret that the
limited space in our columns prevents Us from civ.
Ing 1t the attention that desire to-. To the OBJ
server who has not taken the trouble to inform hm>
sea IN regard to this matter, the silver question
seems to refer merely to the convenience of silver
money as medium of exchange, or to carry in
persons pocket If this were all that is involved
the silver question would not occupy that deservedy
prominent position in the political affairs Of the civ
lzed world that 1t does at present. On the 9th
OF last month movement was put oa foot in the
English Parliament to have inquiry made into the
depression of English commerce and agriculture.
Lord Beaconstled acknowledged that the depression
IN the agricultural interest unprecedented and
That the cause was partly the depreciation of silver
1t Is a tact generally admitted that an abundance
OF money In any country stimulates industry and
makes good times. When money is scarce, dollar
is worth more than it is when money is peaty. It
Will bring more of any commodity, and will pay for
more labor. When the volume of money increases.
the value of each dollar decreases These are sin.
.
evident that bondholders and money lenders every-
where are desirous decrease the volume of money
IN order to increase the value of the obligations EN-.
bodied In the bonds, notes and other securities
which they hold The national debts Of the world
exceed the Of twenty billion dollars while the
debts Of the smaller political aud corporate divisions
such as States countless cities aud towns necessarily
reaches an enormous sum. Add to all this the in>
debtedness, secured by mortgage of railroad, man-
II fc0tn md othor
and persons, and the magnitude Of the bond holding
and money leaning interest is apparent. Now we
will undertake TO show what this immense money
power has done during the past few years. 1t is
we'll known that there was Of general pros
perity throughout the civilized world, extending
from about the year 864 to about 1875 For OBJ.
vlous reasons the hard times began in the United
States little ea|ie" than 1873. AS there can be
no good times without abundance Of money, let
us examine the causes which produced such general
activity III every branch of Industry and business.
The United States suspended specie payments in
1867, and issued paper money. This caused the
gold and silver money to cease circulating. and it
Was exported to countries where it still in use
Russia suspended specie payments in 1857 and It.
ally in 1866, and both countries issued government
p per money, which drove specie from circulation
the as it Gid the United States. In all
three OF these countries abundant volume of pa
that was driven out by paper money, went to other
countries and great augmented the volume of mons
ey there. Much Of the gold went to England, and
Vast amount Of the silver went TO British India,
and such general prosperity In all branches Of Brit
ish industry never known before. In 1868
Austria also suspended specis paymcnts. This gen.
eral movement Of gold and silver was also aided to
slight extent by the suspension of specie pay>
ments in the Argentine Confederation in 1857 and
IN Peru IN 1868. Money abundant in every
civilized country in the world during these years Of
unparalleled PROSPERITY. Money lenders and bond
holders saw that if the amount OF money in tho
world were greatly diminished, it would add inn
mensely to the value OF their bonds and mortgages.
Any man who, at the present time, pays note that
has been running during the past tw elve years.
if not for moro than hundr.d dollars is in a 20.
sitlon to understand why growing scarcity of
money robs the dubtor for the benefit ofthe creditor.
SO the money power set itself to work, backed up
by the influence OF its ubtold billions of dollars
worth Of bonds and mortgages. The most import.
aut work it undertook to accomplish was the de-
monetza!on .of siyec. large portion Of the spe>
Ee,e ions coasisted of silver money,
atdi1 this were denone!ized aad.a ar:ep from circus
atop :lsasiag gold iie s?sle ss,ndard ct value the
va!u3 a9d. pste3aslhg power Of money would be
greatly increased and the value of every bond and
note payable in money would be increased ia the
same proportion. Accordingly silver demonet>
lied by Germany in 1871, by the United States in
1873, and by the Scandinavian States ia 1874 In
1876 France suspended the coinage Of silver, ex>
cePt for subsidiary purposes in 1875 Holland in-
terdicted the coinage OF silver, except govern
ulent account; and Spain did the in the fol-
lowing year. and declared the purpose Of the gov>
ernmen to demonetize it fer all sums exceeding S28.
In the United Suites silver restored to its legal
tender quality In 1873, but not without much OPP
position in the ranks of the Republican party, and
the veto of President Hays And what has been
the result of this against silver? Hard times
prevail everywhere La !ng land whore all classes
of workingmen had enough to do, and got good wa
ges few years ago. failure, distress and starv alton
! now prevail. In every country where a shrinkage
Of money has been caused by this policy, hard times
| are experienced. The money lender alone is pros-
porous; his Golfers receive the iii gotten gains
torted from half starved labor and he reaps rich
harvest while all branches Of industry suffering
from the severest depression The great tall in the
price of silver bullion during the past four years IS
due to the efforts of the money leuders; for they
succeeded in having silver wholly or partially de-
monetized by the principal countries Of the world
and silver being thus deprived to certain extent
of one of its most important uses naturally fell ia
price And the influence that brought about the
decentralization of silver in the United States n 1873
was the same that brought about rapid contrac.
ton of the paper money previous to that time. AS
shown above, the bondhoders desired to create a
scarcity of money; and they desired to have the ra>
| per money contracted and resumption begin, be-
cause they knew that an immense amount of gold
would have t., be drawn from European countries
in order to- aintaio resumption here. and the with
drawal Of the gold would aid to bring about the terr>
Bile sringency in money matters that they onged for
Besides that. the stringency caused in the United
States by the rapid contraction Of the paper money
was directly in their interest. In view ofathe rev
markable legislation that these money sharks se>