Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-01-29
ing challenged to give some evidence of
nsomasc T.. uL;oL ho ,uaa "a k~~>.

ing challenged to give some evidence of
the prowess for which he was so famous,
answered that he would try a drinking
match with anyone. Accordingly drink
ing horn was produced that seemed of
no extraordinary size though it was long.
The god placed the horn to his lips and
without drawing a breath drank as long
and as deeply as he could that he might
not be obliged to take another draught,
but upon placing the vessel down it's
contents seemed in no wise diminished.
A second and a third draughts we're
equally fruitless and the god was van
pushed. That drinking horn was at.
tached to the sea. So will the United
States, great and p~uissant as she is,
standing among nations like Jupiter
among the gods, find if she permit her
thirst for silver to develop that the
drinking horn reaches to the currency Of
the world. She may irrigate this coun-
try with silver, but she cannot drain the
sea.
This brings us naturally to consider
the effect of an expansion of the cur-
rency. And right here I want to say that
thenecessity for expansion upon which
the silver men predict free coinage is
not necessarily associated Herewith. If
the country requires an enlargement of
the currency, by all means let 1t be given,
but it should proceed upon sound tinan-
clal principles, and not upon a fictitious
basis. The most elementary proposition
in the theory of currency is that an en-
largement raises prices, and a contrac-
ton lowers them. Apply this to com
merce. A large rise in the prices of
commodities would check exports, be-
cause foreign nations would not buy at
the advanced rate, but would purchase
elsewhere. Imports would be increased,
because foreign products would be
cheaper than our own. AS we could
not pay for our imports with our ex-
ports, the balance of trade, which would
I reach enormous proportion would have
to be paid in gold-but how, when it has
all left our shores. Is this the way to
build up our foreign commerce, and to
protect our home industries? The his
tory of nations negatives it, and IL
reason tells us no.
With the rays of the silvery moon
shining upon them, the people do not
always realize that her glory is borrowed
from the golden sun, nor do they always
consider that the value of the silver dol
lar is dependent on the gold one. Each
is necessary and useful in it's sphere,
but neither should be permitted to
eclipse permanently the other.
The people nave been delnded with
the sophistry that "silver is the peoples
money" Do they believe that with free
silver they may pluck the silvery lining
from the cloud Of adversely, and coin it
into dollars in the mint of imagination?
Ii not, in what illusions of hope then do
the people indulge? That prices and
wages will be raised. True the farmer
would get better prices, but so would
every one who sold to the farmer. Prices
would have risen in a certain ratio, and
the purchasing power of money would
have fallen in exactly the same ratio, SO
that the farmer would be no better off
than now. On the other hand
the wage Garner with nothing to sell
and everything to buy would be in a
worse condition. There is one class,
however, that would be greatly benefited
by such an arrangement of the currency
as free coinage would create and that is
the debtor class-at least those who are
also producers. But at what a cost-the
sacrifice of a nations honor for a depre-
clated currency is a fraud upon credit
ors. Thirty years ago the blood of mil
lions OF noble patriots and billions of
dollars were not esteemed too great a
cost to wipe the stain of slavery from our
national escutcheon. Shall we place an
other there? Never! Patience and in
dustry will wipe out mortgages, but the
stain of fraud is indelible. An honest
government is the noblest work of
man.
How will the silver men be affected by
free coinage? By silver men I mean pro-
ducers Of that metal who apparently ia
vor free coinage. I say apparently be.
cause | believe their advocacy of free
coinage to be insincere. It is not free
coinage they want particularly, but the
profit of 33115 per cent.
Before the passage of the present coin
age act requiring the purchase of ~
million ounces of silver per month the
market price of silver was 9515 cents per
ounce. By that act the mint demand
for silver was more than doubled, yet we
find that the market price of silver
is to-day Sc cents per ounce. Specula-
ton did raise the price as high as S1.2O
per ounce, but it 500 fell to the STAN
dard of all values, the cost of produc-
ton. Here is proof of the proposition I
previously announced, that supply and
demand may temporarily affect the re-
suit of this great law of production, but
they cannot do SO permanently. 1t
should also leave upo us a feeble i'm
press of the fact that there are some
laws mightier than those enacted by leg
islatures.
The silver men pr dicted that that act,
by absorbing the entire output of Amer
lean mines, would raise silver to a parity
with gold. but the relations of the two
metals remain unchanged. We have
trusted once to their prophetic af1atus
and the oracle is in disrepute. Shall we
now repose free and unlimited conf
dence in their predictions anent free and
unlimited coinage, or shall we be guided
by the lamp of experience?
Is there any one here who believes that
the S~6O,OO0,O00 of silver consumed in the
United States last year we're produced
at a loss? Mining may be a healthful
occupation, but it is not conducted sole
ly for hygiene reasons. I state, on the
authority of one of the largest silver
| onrn0rofioro IN TIN oo,--kr, 49, Al