St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-20
SENATOR SHERMAN AND FREE
COINAGE,

large, cautious and very superior flock
of those who have little to gain from
change of any kind and much to lose.
Such leader of such flock is little
likely either to be dumb before its
shearers or to be careless in bringing
his brief well up to date and contem-
porary criticism. This being the case,
it is worth while to ask how it happens
that Senator SHERMAN's Judgment
upon the silver question seems to have
crytallized these years past, so that his
speeches and prophecies of to-day read
only as the vain repetition of those
speeches and those prophecies which
the event of the past ten years has SO
sIgnally falsifed.
Of two historic letters in this connec-
ton, / know not which is the more in
teresting reading to-day. Lord LIVER
POOLS letter to the king or JOHN SHER-
MANS letter to SAMUEL RUGGLEs.
But there are certain objections to
free coinage, which, laid down by Sena-
tor SHERMAN in any of his speeches
during the past few years, have become
stage properties of the opponents of sill
yer in this country; to one or two of
these you will perhaps allow me to
reply as briefly as possible.
Formerly the objection to free coin
age at to 16 was this-that Europe"
would melt up her silver stocks and
send them here to be exchanged for
gold.' Europe" is geographical ex-
preston, and one sufficiently wide
when the desire is to confuse the issue;
but when we pointed out that silver at
the European ratio of l to 1519 was
worth, plus freight and insurance,
nearly per cent more there than
it would be when sent here, it
came to be admitted by our opponents
that the individual European would
not empty his pockets of silver to buy
your gold, seeing that he can buy more
gold with his five-franc piece in Paris
than he could i'll New York, were free
coinage measure to become the law.
Still it was said Europe" was to make
this country the dumping ground'' for
her silver-the European state, not the
individual. Then followed the inquiry,
what state was meant? Was Greece or
was Montenegro going to drain Amer
lea of her gold? And finally, after
careful process of reluctant elimina-
ton, we arrived at the point that France,
surcharged with legal tender silver, was
the Europe" meant; that France would
be likely to unload her silver out of the
''swiftest ocean greyhouds. ETC., etc."
To this the reply seemed sufficient that,
at the expiration of the period of the
Latin Monetary union in 1889, France,
under the terms of that agree
ment, could have made both Bel
GUM and also that Italy, so
disliked by Frenchmen, buy back not
less than S60,OO0,00O worth of their sill
yer now circulating in France for gold
at to 1515-in other words, for 1874
cents per standard ounce; as, however,
France did not sell silver to Italy at 1874
cents, was it likely she would sell to
America at 1919 cents? For, just as no
government in this country could stand,
if to-day it attempted to repeat the affair
of 1878, so it is recognized in Paris that
any executive action hostile to the peo-
pies money would there also be followed
by swift retribution. Does Senator SHER-
MAN-doeS any other senator-really
suppose that an act to melt up French
silver could pass the French chambers?
Who in the public life of France can be
named willing to stand sponsor for
such bill? And even were it possible
to pass such measure-a measure abso-
lutely irreconcilable with the attitude
France has taken at every monetary
C conference.-the, is this American ma
ton in the habit of accepting kicks and
cuffs from abroad without reprisals? At
present the United States admits emf
grants freely from all foreign nations;
suppose that the French should pass an
act to dump their criminal lunatics at
Castle Garden, would congress and the
executive here regard their hands tied?
Would they not rather modify their leg
islation? And so, when an act has passed
the French chambers to melt up five
franc pieces, when that melting has
commenced, and you Oh this side have
promptly restricted your coinage of sill
yer, France will merely find herself
obliged to reopen her minis and recon
her melted silver.
This fact then stands out-there is no
country in Europe in position to melt
and sell silver coin without fresh legis-
lation: even Germany cannot do it with
out obtaining from the reichstag a
fresh appropriation for the purpose.
Yes, one country i'll Europe must be
partially excepted, and that Austria.
Austria, indeed, could not change her
do al ciI
ton, but rise in the price Of silver to
129 cents would have the effect of liber-
ating some S20,000.00O of Austrian silver.
Probably portion of those twenty mill
ions would cross the Atlantic and JUS
tify Wall street in declaring that Europe
was dumping her silver stocks'' here,
out of the aforesaid ocean grey
hounds" But that Is all the foreign sill
yer you have to expect in the event
Of free colnage-that, and posi-
bly, four millions of silver dollars coined
for Egypt five years since at a ratio of
l to 10, and which the rise in price
would bring to the melting pot. The
Egyptian government is on the aleI t and
will no doubt, if you pass free coinage,
collect and reissue this silver at lower
ratio. Such, then, is the position of
Europe; her silver was coined at a
higher ratio than that proposed here, so
that the current Of exchanges could
never send silver here; while in every
European legislature is a strong body,
possibly majority, determined that
there shall be no repetition of the dis
graceful anti-Silver exploit of eighteen
years ago.
Little, however, is being said now in
this country about the European
dump"-that scare has perhaps run its
course, and it is Asia" that is now ION
top"-the silver boards of thousand
million OF Asiatics are to come here, all
the dollars that ever Cinnamon took
home with them, and an eruption of In
dian rupees and nose rings. TO any