The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-09-14
Daddy Of Low Prices
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Lord Lansdowne said that the action
| of the Indian council was defensive
measure made necessary by the ex-
pected action of the United States in
repeating the Sherman law and ceasing
to coin it altogether. This shows that
the expected fall consequent on our
legislation was to be great, as ii
necessita5ed this important move by
the council of India. The fall will
certainly be equal to thai which fol-
lowed the action of the Indian council
In my opinion it will be even greater,
for our annual purchase of silver
exceeded the coinage of Inuia.
After we shall have repealed the
silver purchase law and substituted
nothing to uphold it as money metal
silver will, in my opinion, sink to the
level of the demand which is created by
its use in the ar,s ard the necessity OF
occas onallvreplenishing the subsidiary
or token money Of the countries SO
using it, estimated at about 1855, ,00O,-
600, as before stated, o: about one
eighth of the silver money now in use.
Seven-eighths of the de nand, thereto e,
being thus abolished, natural economic
laws would justify US in saying that
the price would be reduced in the same
proportion; but to the figures thus
arrived at must be added whatever
would be created by the demand for its
use in the arts.
| Will not our remaining silver dollar
participate in this decline? If, while
sustained by coinage law and made a
legal tender. our dollar is denounced
as disho est and as only having a
bullion value of So cents, what will be
said of it when the bullion of it is
worth only about 80 cents? If now,
our own Secretary of the Treasury will
not tender it in discharge of silver
obligations, what will become of it in
the trading world when it strikes The
bottom and what must be thought of
a Senator OF Congressman who asserts
that Immediately after its repeal our
remaining dollar will become equal to
gold dollar, and the parity will be
! complete? Is that what the Chicago
platform meant, that you should make
| silver dollars so scarce that the parity
with gold would be equal? Is that
what it means when saying ''We hold
to the use of both gold and silver 20
If so, then all the world is bimetallic,
for all use both, and the people were
deceived. Did it mean by coming no
silver that we should thereby make no
discrimination against either metal?
Did the platform mean that we should
first cut off the coinage of silver and
then show no discrimination, but coin
| equally of both? After that, when the
platform said, That the dollar unit
of all coinage of both metals must be Of
equal intrinsic and exchangeable
value," did it mean that we must first
reduce by hostile legislation the in
trinsic or bullion value of silver so low
as to render the carrying out of that
pledge an impossibility? And when
| it says that this intrinsic and inter-
| changeable value is ''to be adjusted
through international agreement" did
it mean that we should first increas
the disparity to the extent of making
silver worth only about 80 cents an
ounce, or 40 to l of gold, in order to
facilitate the task Of getting foreign
nations to agree to coin it with us at
154 t61?
And failing in that, when the plat
form goes on to say, /" or by such safe
guards of legislation as shall insure the
maintenance of the parity of the two
metals in equal power of every dollar
at all times in the markets and in the
payment of debts,' did it ment that
these legislative safeguards should be
applied whilst the silver dollar was
still alive, so as to help to maintain its
parity with gold, or after its coinage
was stopped and its intrinsic value was
reduced so that it was virtually dead ?
Was it an invitation to the nuptial
ceremonies of the two metals, or was
it a notice TO attend the funeral OF
silver? And did it mean that it should
be good in paymentof the public debts,
or only debts among private parties
and the small fry:
Was that wink with golden eve
to the bondholder and a broad, silver
smile to the common people, who love
the old dollar? And when the platform
denounced the Sherman law as "a
cowardly makeshift," did it mean a
makeshift for free coinage of silver, or
the use of gold "a makeshift for
bimetallism or monometallism? Gun
der which king, Bezonian? Speak or
die!" [Laughter.l
If the trainers Of that plank meant
that it was cowardly makeshift for
the free coinage Of silver, is not the
bill for its repeal, without line in its
place, a greater coward and a worse
makeshift? Is not the coinage OF
54.OOO,O0O ounces per annum nearer
to free coinage than the coming OF
nones III was meant that it was a
cowardly makeshift for gold monometal-
lism, is not the language Of the platform
itself both a cowardly and a lying
makeshift for the truth:
Finally, if the language Of the plat
form taken altogether means only that
we are to oblige the bankers, bond
holders and stockholders first, by
unconditional repeal of the Sherman
law, accompanied only by a short
stump speech in the belly Of the act,
saying that it is our policy at some
future time-the Lord knows when
to do something further-the Lord
knows what laughter. jim the direc-
ton of carrying out the other promises
of the platform-are not the markers
II g al al