The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1893-07-13

and labor to pay these debts as would
be necessary if the business of the
world should continue on the double
standard of gold and silver legal ten.
der money. And our people are called
on to make this great sacrifice by a
comparatively limited number OF al
ready rich bondholders and moneyed
men, aud by so doing to plunge our
people Into bankruptcy, ruin and
misery.
8. If the United States will adopt
the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer the same as of gold, it will broaden
the basis for banking and exchanges,
enlarge the much needed supply of
money, and relieve the financial dis
tress of the country. Without the use
of silver as money, all safe
banking and all exchang S must be
limited to the amount of gold
in use as money. And it seems amaZ
ing that bankers and business men of
this country should have been so
blinded by the sophistries of others as
to make themselves catspaws for the
carrying out of a financial policy
which has already broken so many
banks, and reduced so mauy business
houses to bankruptcy; and which is
certain, if carried out, to produce an
appalling amount of bankruptcy,
ruin and distress. And l predict, if
this war on silver should be success
| full, it will make larger political
graveyard by far than has ever been
witnessed in this country. Let poll
ticians beware!
Tenth-.The free and unlimited
coinage of silver will secure to the
United States a substantial monopoly
Of the trade with Mexico and Central
and South America, and would greatly
enlarge our trade with China and
Japan. If the people of those coun.
tries could pay for the manufac
tured fabrics and other articles of
export tom this country with
silver, which is the money of those
countries. and should at the same
time be required to pay gold for such
commodities in the markets of Europe,
it requires no argument to demon
strate that they would trade with us.
This would give us the control of the
commerce of this continent, aud great
ly enlarge our trade with Asia, and it
would do more towards transferring
the center of the worlds exchanges
from London to New York than any
other one thing l can think of. And
it would seem that this ought to ar
rest the attention of our manufactur-
ers and merchants and others furnish
ing for export to those countries.
Eleventh-It would, while maintain
ing gold and silver as the necessary
basis of the worlds money, enable the
people of the United States to utilize
The extensive deposits of silver with
which our country is blessed. as
sumo that the people of no other
country, in possession, as ours Is, OF
over 40 per cent of all the silver mines
from the earth, would toi-
crate the stupendous folly OF destroy
ing its quality and value as money,
aud of striking down mining interests
in which so many people are employed,
and in which so much money is IN
vested. 1t would augment the wealth
of this country by re-estaollsnlng our
large export of cotton and grain to
Europe, which has been so greatly re-
duced by the unfriendly action OF our
own and other governments to silver.
As silver and property OF all kinds
have gone down in price together,
while the price of gold has gone up,
our exports of cotton and grain and
other farm products to Europe have
been reduced and the exports, especi-
ally of cotton and wheat, from India.
Egypt aud Russia to Europe have
been correspondingly increased, to the
great injury to this country,
Twelfth - The large Indebtedness
of the government OF the
United States and OF the several
states, of municipal, railroad,
manufacturing and other corporations
lions, and of associations, nrms and
private persons, amounting In the
aggregate to many billions OF dollars,
makes it monstrous crime to violate
the equitable right of these debtors to
make payment in the kinds of legal
tender money which existed when the
debts were created, by deprivlng them
of the use Of silver
To strike down silver as money
would about double the burdens of all
debtors, and very greatly increase the
value OF all securities for money in Vlo'
| lation of the implied law OF the con-
tracts which these debts are created
t And when we remember the almost Ill
calculable amount OF the Indebtedness
< of the governments and corporations
5 OF the WOflu, VIII is uOlu cIlOuSl "
? assume that these debts can be paid il
f the legal tenGer currency o.
ffthe world should be reduced
to gold alone? Does anyone believe
| that in that event it would be pos
/ sible for the railroad corporations O.
the United States to even pay the
t more than $5,000,000,000 which they
, now owe? The most of which is helc
e by European capitalists, largely by
n those of Great Britain and Germany
!, Thirteenth-The public and official
statistics show that since the passage
of the act of 1873, which demonetizeC
4 silver, the value of all property in thu
4 United States, real and personal. ha
S been reduced not less than one.third
= thus inflicting loss of many billions
$ of dollars on our people, for no othe
- or better reason than to augment tn,
: fortunes OF the ricn AID comparativel,
: few holders of bonds and gold, at tn
: expense of the great industrial anC
= producing classes of the people. An(
= the same cause, as the books of tn
: treasury department will show, he,
: greatly reduced the exports of the pro
; dupts of this country To tba Orao,