Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-08-11

other notes, for this fund has alreaay pee,
subjected to the payment of new obliga-
tions amounting to about $780, 900 on
account of silver purchases, and has as q
consequence, for the first time since its
creation, been encroached upon.
We have thus made the depletion of our
gold easy, and have helped other and more
appreciative nations to add it to their
stock. That the opportunity we have Of
fered has not been neglected, is shown by
the large amounts of gold which have been
recently drawn from our treasury and ex-
ported to increase the financial strength of
foreign nations. The excess of exports of
gold over its imports for the year ending
June 80, 1893, amounted to more than
ss7, 500, 900. Between the 1st day of July,
1890, and the 18th day of July, 1893, the
gold coin and bullion in our treasury de
"raasad more than S122 ONN OOO while dur
ing the same period the silver coin ana
bullion in the treasury increased more than
$147, 100000. Unless government bonds are
to be constantly issued and sold to replen-
ish our exhausted gold, only to be again
exhausted, it is apparent that the opera
ton of the silver purchase law now in
force, leads in the direction of the entire
substitution of silver for the gold in the
government treasury and that this must
be followed by the payment of all govern
ment obligations in deprecated silver.
Must Part Company.
at this stage GOLD and .:...--
company and tNe government must fail in
Its established policy to maintain the two
metals on parity with each other Given
over to the exclusive use of currency
greatly deprecated according to the
standard of the commercial world, we
could no longer claim place among ma
tiens of the first class, nor could our gov
ernment claim performance of it's obi iga-
tion, SO far as such an obligation has been
imposed upon it, to provide for the use of
the people, the best and safest money
If, as many of its friends claim, silver
ought to occupy larger place in our cur
rency and the currency of the world
through general international cooperation
and agreement, it is obvious that the
United States will not be in position to
gain a hearing in favor of such an arrange
ment SO long as we are willing to con-
tinue our attempt to accomplish the re-
suit single handed.
Resulted In Lack of Confidence.
The knowledge in business circles among
our own people that our government can
not make it's fiat equivalent to intrinsic
value, nor keep in force our money on
parity with superior money by it's own in
dependent efforts, has resulted in such a
lack of confidence at home in the stability
of currency values that capital refuses its
aid to new enterprises. while millions are
actually withdrawn from channels of
trade and commerce to become idle and
unproductive in the hands of timid own
ers. Foreign investors, equally alert, not
only decline to purchase American securi-
ties, but make haste to sacrifice those
which they already have. 1t does not meet
the situation to say that apprehension in
regard to the future of our finances is
grOundless, and that there is no reason for
lack of confidence in the purposes Of the
government in the premises.
Should Not BE Disregartled.
The very existence of this apprehension
and lack of confidence, however caused, is
menace which ought not for moment to
be disregarded. Possibly if the undertake
ing we have in hand, were the maintenance
of specific known quantity of silver at a
parity with gold, our ability to do so
haps in view of our unparalleled growth
and resources, might be favorably passed
upon. But when our avowed endeavor is
to maintain such parity in regard to an
amount of silver increasing at the rate of
$5O, 600 yearly, with no fixed termina-
tion to such increase, it can hardly be said
that problem is presented whose solution
is free from doubt.
The people of the United States are en-
titled to sound and stable currency, and
to money recognized as such on every ex-
change and in every market of the world
Their government has no right to iniure
them by financial experiments opposed to
the policy and practice of other civilized
states, nor is it justified in permitting an
exaggerated and unreasonable reliance
on our national strength and ability to
| jeopardize the soundness of the peoples
money.
This matter rises above the plane of
party politics. 1t vitally concerns every
business and calling and enters every
| household in the land. There is one inn
portant aspect of the subject which
| especially should never be overlooked. AT
times like the present, when the evils of
unsound finance threaten us, the specu-
lator may anticipate harvest, gathered
from the misfortune of Others the cap
italist may protect himself by boarding or
may even find profit in the tlnctuation of
values.
The Wage-Earner Defenseless.
But the wage-earner, the first to be in
jured by a deprecated currency and tho
last to receive the benefit of it's correction
is practically defenselcss He relies for
work upon the ventures of confident
and contented capital. This failing
him, his condition is without
alienation, for he can neither prey
on the misfortunes of others, nor hoard his
labor. One of the greatest statesmen our
country has known, speaking more than
| 80 years ago when arrangement Of the
currency had caused commercial distress,
said: "The very man of all others who
has the deepest interest in a sound cur
rency and who suffers most by mschevOls
legislation IN money matters. is tie man