Los Angeles herald., 1891-09-10

do so to any extent. Gold and silver
coin is legal tender for payment of debts
only; there is no power in the govern
ment to compel me to sell or exchange
one grain of gold or one grain OF sand
for all the silver in creation. Any ex-
change OF gold for silver will be volun-
tary, and when the gold-bug banks
accommodate the holders of silver coin
we won't fear that the banks will be
losers. Foreign silver brought to the
| United States and coined will remain
the property of the importer, and will
follow its owner or be excbaged for our
general products. Only when the bal
ance of trade, so-called (there is no such
thing in reality, is against us, will gold
go out of the country, unless shipped
out by Wall street for the purpose of
creating a stringency and panic.
The prediction of the gold bugs
that free coinage will deluge us
with cheap foreign silver finds
no support in our recent expert
ence; for when, after and largely
as result of the passage of the last
silver bill the price of silver went stead
lily up to $1.20 per ounce, constant
stream OF silver passed out of the
United States into the very country that
the opponents of silver declared would
flood us with that metal. The explana-
on is that England must have certain
amount of silver for her India trade and
she is not silver producer. The silver
that she buys of us at 20 per cent. be-
low par with gold, she coins into rupees
at par, and makes the profit that right
fully belongs to our miners. How long
will the United States continue to dis
credit that article of which she supplies
nearly one half the product of the world?
There is drift towards the double
standard. The ability and readiness of
France, silver coinage country to loan
$25, ,000,0 900 in gold to England, gold,
single standard country, during the
Barring crisis, has had its effect on the |
minds of thinking men. But John
Sherman says bimetalism must await |
an international arrangement, well |
knowing that no action for the remone-
tization of silver will ever be per-
mitted so long as such as he by
gold or intrigue can prevent it.
The way to resume is to resume"
and the United States, being the
largest producer of both gold and silver,
should lead off by bimetallizing, she is
strong enough to do it and the time is
OPPOl OuhO' h0G ucI open u0T ulnUS anu
the price of silver will rise in Europe as
we'll as in America, until the objection
of inequality in the bullion value OF gold
and silver coin will disappear and re-
monetization of silver by ll,Europe will
be made easy. 1t will come in no other
way. Bi-metallism is not question of
ratios, it is question of legislation.
Suppose Europe and America should
demonetize gold, what would be the ef-
feet? The gold now destined for coinage
would be available for the various other
uses to which gold is put and would be
thrown upon the market for those uses,
and the supply of gold for those pur-
poses being thus increased beyond any
demand, the price would
necessarily fall. Then the same argu-
ments would be used by Sherman and
Mckinley against the coinage of gold
that they now use against silver, and
with exactly the same reason.
But such arguments will not win.
Free coinage of silver is one OF the near
;ertainties OF American politics, and an
other national election will give to those
statesmen who are now predicting that
it will overwhelm us with every Kind of
financial evil, opportunity and leisure to
learn how it didn't do it.
MAYNARD F. STILES.
Los Angeles, Sept. 7th.