Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-09-03
SENATOR SHERMAN.
The Money Question the Basis Of a
Speech in Ohio.
The RELATIONS OF GOLD and SILVER.
What the Senator Thinks Is Likely to Occur
Should the Present Arrangement Be
Disturbed-A Benefit to the
silver BarORs.

PAULDING, o., Aug. Ex-senator
Sherman arrived from Van Vert yes
terday morning and held a reception
all the forenoon. At o'clock, when
Senator Sherman began to speak, fully
5000 people were on the grounds. In
the course of his speech he said:
Now, you all know that the money in cir
culation in the United states-all of It's
good, as good a. gold. 1t will pass every
where and buy as much as the same amount
of any other money in the world.
Our money is of many kinds, gold,
silver. nickel and copper are all
coined into money. Then we have
United States notes, or greenbaeks, gold
certificates, silver certificates, treasury
notes and national bank notes But the
virtue of all these many kinds OF money is
that they are all good. A dollar of each is as
good as dollar OF any other kind. All are
as good as gold. But, aud here comes the
first difficulty, the silver IN the silver dollar
Is not worth as much as the gold in the gold
dollar. The nickel in that coin is worth but
a small part of five cents worth OF silver.
And tho copper in the cent is not worth one
fifth of the nickel in a five-cent piece
How then, you may ask me, can these coins
be made equal to each other? The answer
is that coinage is a government monopoly,
and though the copper in five cents is not
worth n nickel. and the nickel in twenty
pieces Is not worth n silver dollar. and the
silver in sixteen dollars Is not worth sixteen
dollars in gold, yet. as the government coins
them, and receives them, and maintains
them at par with gold coin, they are, for all
purposes, money equal to each other, and
wherever they go, even into foreign coun-
tries, they are received and paid out as
equivalents.
The reason Of all this is that the United
States limits the amount of all the coins to
be issued except gold, which, being the most
valuable, is coined without limit. II coinage
of all these metals was free, and any holder
of copper, nickel, silver or gold could carry |
it to the mint to be coined, we would have ]
no money but copper and nickel, because |
they are the cheaper metals, worth ]
less than one-fOurth of what, as coin, I
they pNrport to be. For the same l
reason, If the coinage of silver 4
was free at the ratio of sixteen of silver TO 4
one of gold, no gold would be coined, be. 4
cause sixteen ounces Of silver are not worth |
one ounce of gold. A holder of both silver
and gold would take his silver
to the mint and get dollar for every s7I
grains. He would sell his gold in the mar
ket or export il and get Is per cent more
dollars for gold than he could at the mint
As a matter of course he would not take his
gold to the mint
Under this law the United States Is now
purchasing more than the entire product of
silver bullion in the United States, and all
this bullion is represented in our currency
by either silver coin or legal tender treasury
notes of the United States. We expended
under this act in the purchase OF silver bull
lion prior to August of this year, SIS, IeI, s2L
and Issued that amount OF treasury notes
which are now in circulation We thus pro-
vided an increase of currency equal to, or
greater than the Increase of bust
a. Of kta kan 1
States. Under it we pur-
chase silver bullion at its market price and
hold It in the treasury as security for and
OF the treasury notes on de-
mand, and thus maintain these notes at the
parity Of greenbacks and gold. This Is now I
The declared policy of the United States
Under il We viii have a constantly inereas-