The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-01-16

pie of the United States to prevent fluc-
tuations of value. You may maze laws
which will have widereaching influence,
but you can not regulate or fix the price
of wheat or grain of silver or gold.
This value is fixed by the opinion of man
kind, the market value of the world meas
ured from day to day in exchanges, and
when YOU now by this sudden leap sub
stitute for gold, which has been the stand
ard Of our couptry for years, inferior
money, you drive out of circulation all the
superior money and you cause it to be
boarded or to be sent into foreign coun-
tries. Silver Their becomes the only stand
ard of value, and 81 grains of silver will
be the unit of value, worth at the market
price for the last fifteen years any where
from o TO 30 per cent below par in gold.
You substitute silver coin, silver bullion,
and require the Government Of the United
States to issue its promises TO pay based
upon 81 grains Of silver instead of 25.o
of gold.
But these gentlemen very often remark,
''wc have large amount of silver in cir
culation." SO we have. We have more
silver in the treasury of the United States
now than gold. We purchase more than
the production of the United States,
amounting to 54,000,0GO ounces of silver
annually, and are constantly adding to the
supply. We purchase it at its gold value,
issue notes based upon it, and maintain it
at par in gold by redemption.
Silver is boarded in every country and
used every where to greater or less ex-
tent, but not as the measure and standard
of value. Now, you propose here to make
it the standard of value and do what
France has not done. You substitute this
metal for the other on what pretcxt? That
it will increase the volume Of the money
ahoat.
have shown that it will demonetize
nearly onc-half of all the money Of our
country, and degrade to lower value all
the balance of it, and will drive out of
circulation and thus diminish the volume
of the circulation of gold as money. The
dollar will be measured in purchasing
power by the market value of 37l grains
of silver, and this for years has been less
than 25.S grains of gold. Who will pay
out the gold dollar when he can purchase
the silver dollar for less? What wide
reaching influence that will have upon the
contracts of our fcllow-citzens God only
knows. You diminish the money of this
country nearly one-haif and require our
people to fulfill their contracts with in
fcrior money of volume only one-half as
great as our present volume of money.
We have now in circulation have not
the figures before me and am sorry can
not be exactly accurate-in this country
40 odd millions of money which is legal
tender and passes from hand to hand.
The whole Of that money is now based up
on The gold standard The whole of that
money will purchase as much in the mar
kcts of the world as the hest money issued
byany mint in the world. But suppose
YOU at once adopt this new standard. Take
the present valuation of the silver bullion
in the dollar at about 50 cents on the dol
lar. and believe il is less than that. what
will he the effect Of that upon our foreign
exchanges? All contracts of our people in
Europe are based upon the gold standard.
The immediate eHl - upon the standard of
value would he that instead of II sterling
being equal to $4.S6, 81 sterling would be
equal TO Sc Of our money. So that our
citizens in paving balances to Europe must
send $6 of our money instead of S1S7,
anu 50 WIFI al OtilCI
using the gold standard.
AS to contracts made within the United
States, they were made substantially on
the gold basis, and although gold and sill
yer have always been in circulation as
money here, we have always maintained
both at the gold standard. Our laws de-
clare that the relative value of one dollar
shall be $4S6.4 to one sovereign of En-
glish money, and proportiOnatc rates for
coins of other countries. Suppose on our
bonds held abroad we should undertake to
pay them in silver at 81 Sc OF silver to the
pound sterling; is there man in Europe
who would not feel that he had been cheat
ed bv the United States? 1t will not do
for YOU to point him to your law which
says that silver and gold are alike the
standard of value and that silver money
may be paid SO in this country if silver
is rendered, it has been maintained by the
government up to the standard of gold.
But now by the free coinage of silver,
without limitation or restraint, we invite
all the silver from all the world here to be
ccined not at its gold value, but valra
ton that vibratcs daily at 10 to 30 per
cent. below gold When you come to use
it and pay it back again to the country
from which it came, it is measured by
the gold standard. Your dollar formerly
received at shillings is only taken as 3
shilIngs, and 3 pence.
1t will only be accepted as an acquit-
lance upon the gold standard at its mark
ct value. The same fate will bcfall your
paper substitutes for money. Theyare all
now redeemable in gold and silver coin,
but coin maintained ut parity with each
other in accordance with public policy
YOU have more than once declared by law.
All these forms of money have been re-
ccved and paid out us the equivalent OF
gold coin not only in the United States
but in. every country Of the world where
the flag Of commerce floats. If this prop
ostion becomes the law all this will cease
and our money will he measured by the
daily huctuation of the price of silver
bullion Who will pay out gold when a
money always less valuable than gold fills
the channels Of circulation?
The sudden revolution caused by this
change in our finances could only be COM
pared with some Of the great revolutions
in the history of the past, when some fool
king undertook to change the standard
of value or reduce the quantity of precious
metal in given coin, or TO add additional
alloy, and it was nevertheless called a
pound sterling or livre, or form, but
it was measured every day, and day by
day, as it was issued, by the people of the
world, at its real value, the market value
of the metal contained in the coin. So will
ours be now.
The fourteen hundred and seventy-odd
millions of money now outstanding, all Of
which is worth so much in gold, and every