News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-07


crease the ratio which silver now
bears to gold. We are Bi-metaIists
we desire to bring the metals to a
parity. The world must have both
in circulation. Nearly all the nations
with whom we have dealings of any
considerable amount have said they
do not want silver. Now, if we at
once reply that we do not want it,
we will, in the near future, be asked
to join them in the effort to restore
it to it's old position in the monetary
system of the world. But to do this,
you must keep the ratio where it is.
Put it at 20 to 1 and you at the
start dishonor the metal you are
anxious to elevate to an equality
with gold.
If, as our friends contend, the de-
monetization of silver is the work of
the gold bugs of Europe, the quickest
way to counterfeit this villainous
scheme is for our nation to put itself
on gold basis. Our resources are
ample enough to enable US to get
our share of the worlds gold, and
what we get they must lose.
The stock of gold in the world is a
little over $3,500,O00,000, and it is
now divided not very unequally be-
tween the nations of the world. But
all nations are bidders for it and
each will get what it can. Now, it
is a well-known fact that American
securities-our vast corporate bond
ed Indebtedness, our public securi-
ties of every name and kind-bear a
higher rate of interest than like for
eign securities, and all things else
being equal the foreign investor pre-
fers them and will buy them and pay
in gold. If, therefore, we keep this
temptation alive by so shaping our
legislation as to dispel the fear that
we are coming to a silver basis, is it
not as clear as sunlight that we shall
out-bid other nations for gold, and
equally clear that they will be short
of that metal?
When they discover this fact and
see that it is IA vantage ground that
we shall always have in the future,
they will discover that their supply
OF gold is inadequate and will then
see that silver must be recognized as
a basis metallic standard.
| Thus, bi-metalism will come about
by natural causes, and when 6TFee es-
tablished on such a basis it will
GOMEZ to stay. How much better,
wiser, and surer this plan than the
old, defiant, reckless, and illogical
scheme of free coinage by our nation
alone.
But it is said that we must con-
tinue the purchase of silver, in order
to expand our currency to the needs
of our growing population. Sup
pose that this is true; can we do it
and still keep the expanded currency
good in every market on the globe?
Strike off the 80 per cent. limit af-
fixed to the circulation of our. ma
tional banks, and you will at once
expand the currency about twenty
million dollars. Not only this, you
will tempt capital to invest more
| freely in such bank stocks, and the
number of national banks will be
largely increased, and the currency
still further expanded. Coin the sur
plus silver now in the treasury vaults
and you put into circulation forty
millions of silver. If the currency
then needs further expansion, au-
thorize the secretary of the treasury
from time to time to issue 3-per-cent.
gold-bearing bonds, to a limited ex-
tent, to be used as a basis for the
circulation of new or old national
banks that may desire them.
But whatever be the character of
supplemental legislation, the pressing
command of the people to-day is,
Stop buying silver"
But, Mr.. Speaker, silver is not
alone the cause of our business de-
preston. The money investor, at
home and abroad, is out of business
because we are rapidly approaching
to a silver basis for our currency.
This brings untold disaster to all
business enterprises. 1t touches the
wheat farmer of the west aud the
cotton farmer of the south, who
must have money, or their crops
will rot on their hands. 1t touches
every tradesman in the land, who
can neither buy nor sell, for there is
no money. 1t has depressed the
value of our securities in every mar
ket in the world.
But alongside this business paraly-
sis lies another that has oVertaken
every manufacturer or tradesman
who deals in articles effected by
change in tariff legislation.
1t is not my province to advise the
dominant party in the House what
its action should be in respect to tar
III legislation; if it were, my advice
would hardly be followed. For pres |
ent purposes, the country cares less
what the policy is ultimately to be, |
and more for an immediate an
nouncement of what it is to be. |
Don't ask us to study the Chicago |
platform to learn your purpose. |
You will probably be as much at log
gerheads yourselves over the tariff |
plank as you are over the silver
plank. Don't give US that conun-
drum. But in the name of the hun
dred thousands of workingmen and
working women of this land, who are !
already thrown out of employment
and who in their hunger for bread.
before the rigors of winter shall set |
IN, will storm the WalhalIa Hall of
every important city in the land,
unless something be done to give
them work, | implore you to tell us,
and tell us now, what the "reform -
you have promised is to be. The
manufacturer will shape himself to
the emergency whatever it may be.
But, action! action action should
be the eloquence and the watchword
of to-day.