The advocate., 1891-07-29

by promise of redemption. The finan
Cisl distress of the commercial world i
caused by want of real money, not credi
money.
In January, 1873, when gold and silye
coin were both real money, it is estimated
that bhere were about 81, 500, 100000 of sucl
coin. The director of the mint now esti
mates that there is only $3,727, ,OO0,O 900 o
gold coin in the world. On your theor!
that silver depends for its value on redemp
ton in gold, there is only about one-half al
much real money in the world as there wa
eighteen years ago. Is such reduction il
the standard money of the cOmmercia
world not a sufficient cause for our financia
trouble? If fittOok 81, 500, 600 900 of coin( (golt
and silver to maintain business and credit
eighteen years ago, is it strange that the ex
listing fabric of credit and volume of bust
ness should be deranged with less than hal
as broad base of standard money to sus
tain it as existed eighteen years ago2
You say, "If more money is required
there are many ways of providing it withou
Ohespening the purchasing power of Oul
money" If such be the fact, then there il
certainly something new under the sun, ant
the axiom that value is determined by thu
law of supply and demand must be dis
Carded. II you have any method by which
you can add to the number of dollars il
circulation without diminishing the pur
chasing power of each dollar, then miracles
are still possible. The farmers of Ohio
know, if you do not, that when money il
plenty prices rise, and that contraction de.
preCiates the value of their property. They
appreciate the baleful effect of contraction
by the rejection of silver as standard money
in the depreciation of their property. Those
who are in debt regard with dismay the in.
creased purchasing power Of our money,
which you propose to maintain by reducing
all values TO the limited supply of gold.
You say that ''it seems to me almost a
lunacy for US to disturb this happy condi-
tiOn by changing the standard of all con-
tracts, including special contracts payable
in gold" II is unfortunate, my dear Sena-
tor, that you did not entertain similar views
to these when you had charge of the bill
which demonetized silver and converted
every contract which was payable in either
gold, silver or paper into contract payable
in gold alone. Is it possible that you can
see no wrong in violating contracts to op-
press the debtor and increase the value of
the money Of the rich while you insist that
the iron grasp of contraction shall not be
relaxed? Who has proposed to change
special contracts payable in gold9 Ger
tainly not the advocates of silver. Let
those who agreed to pay gold, pay gold.
Courts have decided that such contracts are
valid. There is no difficulty in paying all
the gold they have agreed to pay if they
have a reasonable supply of money to
stimulate production.
The people of the United States owe
several thousand millions to the people OF
Europe, which must be paid with the pro-
ducts of this country. Such products
must be sent abroad and sold to pay these
foreign debts. bow can this be done if we
are driven from the European market by
the silver standard countries2 About the
only exports that we can rely on at present
to pay our foreign debts are cotton and
petroleum. We can have no regular wheat
market in Europe in competition with Asia.
It is to be hoped that this year is an excep-
ton. on account of small crops in Russia
and India.
No, Mr.. Sherman, there will be no repudi-