The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-06-22
WHAT CAUSES HARD TIMES.
A Winston FinanCiGr Gives a Very
Clear Statement
OF WHY. MONEY Is SO SCARCE,
1t is a Predetermined Effcrt by the
Brokers to Force an Issue of Bonds
The Preponderanceo of Silver Over
Gold and How to Establish an
EuuiIibrium.

The Preponderance of Silver Over
Gold and How to Establish an
Equilibrium.
To the Editor of the Sentinel.
A great many men are asking these
days what is the cause OF the present
financial depression and how long it
is going to last; and with your permits |
sion l will venture to give you my
opinion, though it may not be worth
much, of its cause and how long we
may expect it to remain.
1t is generally conceded that bat
terry of New York brokers is lombard !
ing the Treasury. The method is
simple and the raid is not an accident.
1t would appear to be a well-planned
campaign, with a definite purpose.
The object of all this financial cannon
aiding is to force the government to
issue bonds. There is no doubt but
that the Secretary of the Treasury
has the bond-issuing power, and it is
to coerce him to invoke it that this
pressure. is applied. The method of
these brokers' war on the Treasury is
this: 1t consists in presenting the
usual paper money at the Treasury
and asking for gold. This is to be
carried on untilthe Treasury gold is so
wasted and depleted as 10 compel Mr..
Carlisle to one of two courses, either
to refuse to give any more gold for
paper, or, continuing this, to issue
bonds and, selling them for gold again,
restore the drained Golfers to an over
flowed condition. Were this last
done it is probable the war would
cease for a year or two at least. The
brokers would pocket the fruits in
their commissions for negotiating the
bonds, and would then be quiet until
conditions were fit and possible for
another successful raid. The brokers'
believe that fear of a panic will finally
drive Mr.. Carlisle to the bond issue.
They argue that the raid continuing,
and as an effect the amount of gold
in the treasury becoming lower and
| lower holders of American securities
| in Europe will grow Shaky and throw
their holdings on the street for sale,
other debt-hOlding interests will
close in for payment, the old-time
stampede will occur and a financial
| cyclone will sweep through the bust
ness woods with the customary
| s-rrssfasSA.
Would a-4h3e eand-is Issue be a national
disaster? 1t does not strike me that
| it would. England, one of the most
| successful and prosperous of nations,
| has big debt. She always has had
| and always VIII have. | do not be-
| lieve that bond issue, as a matter of
| finance, would hurt US. Some assert
| that Mr.. Carlisle can legally refuse to
] pay gold for anything but the gold
| certificates, but granting that he has
| this right, would not this very con-
| fession of gold weakness, implied by a
refusal to meet this paper with the
usual gold, start Europe on our trail
| and precipitate the crisis and panic
| which all OF us are so anxious to avert?
| Some have advised Mr.. Carlisle to
continue paying gold for all sorts of
| paper money as long as he has a gold
| dollar in the treasury, but others say
that the mOneyed world has become
| used to seeing so much gold in the
| Treasury of the United States that
any reduction will shake the general
| confidence. That such d shock to pub.
lie confidence will send every bond and
| security holder at home and abroad
| into the street to unload and theD Il
panic will ensue.
1t looks to US as if the brokers had
! freed the government and have gotten
| it out on a limb, and it cannot get
| back. From present appearances it
| looks as if one or two things will hap
|
| bonds or panic will ensue. If he re-
fuses to pay gold at the Treasury
every jack-rabbit with money bag
| will take to running, and a panic will
| follow. The only way to prevent a
collapse is to issue bonds.
These brokers who are raiding the
Treasury have plenty of gold in their
vaults. There is no necessity for the
present war. 1t is nothing but a
l T1ll of n i1n6
| ner our government and squeeze an
| issue of bonds from it: now what is
the trouble? Why is it that a nation
of seventy millions of people, easily
| the richest nation on the earth, can
be led captive by ring of brokers =?
1t is because of the Sherman law
| which cOmpelS the government to
| purchase four and one-half million
| ounces of silver every month and lay
it away in the dark and issue paper
! on it. 1t is because this silver buying
| and paper money issuing has gone on
so long that the ratio OF silver money
to gold money has grown all wrong, if
| you expect to keep the two moneys on
| an equality. The gold is compare
| lively scarce and the silver compare
| lively plentiful, and the thing is get
ting worse every day. 1t is as if gold
| was a balloon into which silver gas
l.
are now searching for the rope with a
knife and when they cut it the gold
balloon will soar. 1t will be a costly
| spectacle, but you can learn a heap
| from it, 1t is this incessant silver
buying 'and paper issuing which has
| finally put it in the power of ring of
money pirates to break, as it were,
the Treasury of the United States, to
| send gold to premium, and the bust
| ness world TO the how vows
The United States declares itself by
| law gold standard country. 1t says:
| "What | issue for money, whether
| it be gold, silver or paper, every time
| / call+it dollar | mean a gold dollar,
and [ will give you gold dollar for it
at any times" and, the United States
| being rich, the business world believ-
ed it and took every dollar we issued,
whether paper or silver, and put
gold value on it. That statement is
why our silver dollar, weighing less
than Mexican silver dollar, is worth
thirty cents more. By that statement
all sorts of American money meant
gold and went for gold everywhere on
earth. But we have gone on blindly
buying silver and throwing off clouds
of paper money until it Is not in our
gold power to meet it. The raiders
have simply organized with paper
money enough to come over and, by
asking for gold, clean us out. They
do not dump it all at once. They
came each day with enough to clean
out all the gold the government took
in that day and a little more besides.
They do not want to crush US, but
they want to show us that they can
break our credit and provoke panic,
and that the only way out is to give
up the bonds. Ii this silver had new
er been bought and these silver GER