The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-02-06
THE SILVER AHSURDITY.
What Two Experts Have to say About
the Effect of Unlimited Coinage
Upon the Business Interests
of the Country.
iWnshington DiSnatch. !

|
The silver hearings were continued by
the House Coinage Committee to-day.
Director Lccch Of the mint was questioned
by members of the committee. He said
that the exchange value of silver had
been kept equal to that of gold because
the Government would exchange silver
for gold 4 refusal to do this would in
jure the credit of the Government. He
did not believe silver and gold would cir
cuatc together if bimctaiSm were cs-
tahlshcd here He did not believe that
silver could be kept at par with gold until
there was al international agreement.
The effect Of the passage of a free coinage
bill, he thought, would be that foreign
nations having stocks of silver on hand
would ship them here; but before these
shipments could arrive the alarm would
be so great that gold would he withdrawn
from the Treasury and boarded by the
banks, so that the Government would
have no gold with which to pay for the
silver The effect of free coinage would
| be contraction OF the currency, but how
long this would last he could not tell.
Mr.. Edward Atkinson said that credit
depended not upon the quantity of money,
but the quality. In the business OF the
: world credit was the factor to an extent
twenty or thirty times as great as that OF
actual money. He declared that free
coinage would stop credit, which would
stop business, as business had already
been restricted very largely by the fear
of such legislation BY natural selection
gold, Mr.. Atkinson said, had become the
standard the world over and it could not
be helped. Whether YOU would or not,
trade was measured by gold, because
prices depended upon what the excess ex
ported brought. He had no theories about
the selection Of gold; he simply accepted
the fact. He thought there had never
! been so much gold available for CONNER
cial purposes as now. He thought Eng
land was on the safest financial basis Of
any country in the world, and this was
due to her adherence to the gold standard.
Mr.. Bartine asked, if this were so, how
ii was that the Bank of France had never
needed to call on England for assistance,
while the Bank of England had been
obliged to call on France for aid.
Mr.. Atkinson said that there were more
financial crisis in England, because Of the
world wide magnitude of her enterprises,
which she was attempting to transact on
too small reserve. He objected to silver
being made legal tender, because it was
n
any business man might, however, get on
gold basis by restricting his business,
which had already been done to some cx-
tent That would lower wages, and he
thought the fear of free coinage legisla-
ton had already lowered wages.
Mr.. Atkinson gave the following as his
view Of the recent financial furry: The
pinch was NOT due to a natural scarcity
of money, but to i scarcity Of money in
the right place; to reduction of the bank
reserves, that obliged the banks to restrict
credit. Now with no more actual money
in circulation than six weeks ago, there
is an abundance of money and an album
dance of credit He declared to his GER
tain knowledge that since the present free
silver bill was passed by the Senate large
transactions, amounting to hundreds OF
thousands of dollars, had been summarily
suspended after being well under way.
AS soon as Mr.. Atkinson finished, Mr..
Bland, saying that these were the same
statements that he had heard for years,
moved to Tx day for final vote, which
motion Mr. Faux moved to amend by fix
ing Tuesday rs the next meeting day of
the committee.
Mr.. Walker of Massachusetts, immedi-
ately objected, and said his business would
not permit him to he present SO often. He
declared warmly that the committee had
never had any hearings on the question OF
free coinage, and the free silver men i'm
mediately locked horns with him on this
statement.
Mr.. Walker kept the floor for FIVE min
utes, or more, and when an attempt was
made to vote OH Mr.. Vaux's motion he
made the point of order that IL o'clock
had arrived, to which Mr.. Williams, OF
Illinois, retorted with the remark that
Mr.. Walker had used up all the time nec-
essary to vote. The Chairman, Mr.. Wick
ham, overruled Mr.. Walkers point Of
order, hut the propriety of the ruling was
). questioned, and finally, by unanimous
consent, adjournment was taken unit
j Tuesday.