The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1894-08-02


covered papea; and China, with its
400,600 600 ofpe4ple, has 500, 000, 600 Of sill
ver,lpassingl onits bullion value, in circu-
lati6n. Thes8 statistics indicate, il we
. take into account our population, our
whole field " currency, and our mode of
doing bnsinss. THAT
= D. Eas Not Been Stricken Down,
as some rsformers ailcge, but that on the
wholeit is as much in favor here, for use
as money, as anywhere in the commercial
world, Ind that our country is today in a
sound s&te of local-as distinguished from
internatNnal-bim Our own coin
age history, from 1899 to 1884, and from
the later dste until the Bland act of 1878,
has demonstrated that the free coinage Of
both metals, on ratio almost approx
mating the commercial ratio, failed to
give us real bimetallism-the uninter-
rupted circulation of both metals side by
side There being no complete system of
international bimetallism, and there being
no actual or legal incontrovertibility be-
tween the two metals, under the inexor-
able operation of the Gresham law, silver,
as the cheaper metal, during the second
period, drove gold out of circulation, and
second period, drove silver out of circula-
ton, except as to the debased subsidiary
coin, to which have already referred. 1t
is truth demonstrated and confirmed by
our own history, that in spite of free coin
age, we never had any real bimetallism-
any real, uninterrupted circulation of the
two metals, side by side and on parity
until since 1878. Prior to that time, 80
far as metallic currency was concerned,
gold or silver, but only one at the
time, held the field of circulation.
Which ever, for the time being, was the
cheaper metal, was in exclusive possession
and control And this proves to all who
are capable or willing to receive the truth
that free coinage alone will not give us
practical or real bimetallism. And take
it that we are all bimetallists in the sense
OF wanting both gold and silver to be in
actual circulation as money. None of us
want to drive either gold or silver out of
circulation The commercial or intrinsic
value of the silver dollar is today hardly
50 cents of the geld dollar, and it is only
current and received as equivalent to the
gold dollar because you can, at all times,
exchange or convert it into the latter.
And this is what we understand by the
term incontrovcrtible If q so cent silver
dollar can at all times be converted into a
hundred cents gold dollar we are as anx-
ious to receive silver as gold.
But to keep up this state of interconver-
tibility there must not only be a law for it
but the actual ability to maintain it must
also exist. And today the United States
Is possessed of both of these qualities. We
have the law and we have gold dollar for
every silverdol in existence. In other
words, we float our silver currency with a
gold redemption fund. France does the
same thing. She is today floating $780,
000,00o silver currency with $500, 600, 900 in
gold. Last year the equilibrium of the
two metals was threatened, The owners
of silver bullion sold the same to the fed
eral governm ent and received in exchange
therefor treasury notes under the act Of
1880. and then, as though doubling the
ability of the government (an Incident OF
the change of administrasion), they a.
once procured the redemption of these
notes in gold, and this gold was in its turn
hurried out of the country to Europe. for
various purposes, especially to aid Austro-
Hungary TO place itself, like the rest Of
Europe, On a gold basis. This
Great Outflow OF Gold
was threatening the interconvertibility OF
the two metals and was fast drifting us into
a state Of silver recommendation, or exclu-
sive silver circulation. The gold was rush
ing out of the country faster than the sill
yer was rushing into the treasury. This
threw the financial and business world
ito panic Money disappeared from
circulation and went into hiding. 1t was
as hard to borrow money for the rich as it
was for the poor. Under these conditions
and to relieve the tention, distrust and
alarm, congress repealed the purchasing
clause of the Sherman law-that feature
requiring the government to purchase
every month 4,500, 600 ounces of silver.
This was not the demonetiz alton of silver.
1t was, in effect, merely the suspension of
silver coinage, or the enlargement OF our
silver currency. 1t was for the purpose Of
keeping up the equilibrium Of the two
metals and to keep them from running
from each other. In other words, it was
for the purpose of keeping up the inter
convertibllity of our silver with our
gold, for, as have pointed out, we need
gold dollars to maintain and float our 30
cent silver dollars.
The moment silver dollar Is not con-
vertible into gold dollar, silver, now as
in the early days of our nation, will en-
tirely usurp the place of gold and drive the
latter out of circulation and into hiding.
This would reduce us to state of mono
metalism, a state of exclusive silver
circulation. Our S666, 000, 600 of gold
would at once disappear from cir
culation. Instead of having combined
gold and silver currency, as we have to-
day, amounting to 81 1913. 200, 600, we would
be reduced to an exclusive silver currency
of S647, 100000. Even with the free coinage
of silver it would take years to supply the
vacuum, and in the meantime the country
would be suffering under an immense and
extraordinary contraction of the currency,
The country would be in a far sadder state
than it is even today. We would all suffer
and be oppressed, except the owners of
silver mines and silver bullion. They
would reap a big harvest, but it would be
at the expense of all the rest of us--of the
entire country.
No, my friends, silver recommendation is
at least as dangerous as gold monometal-
lism. No honest man, having the good Of
his country at heart, wants either We
want honest, genuine bimetallism. We
have it in a measure and to a limited ex-
tent UOuity. ana the SuDStanCldi, OHo
statesmanlike and the patriotic question
is, how to maintain and enlarge it, not
how to destroy it, We can, by ourselves,
sustain it to limited and local degree, as
we have ever since the Bland act of 1876,
and as we never succeeded in doing be-
fore. We can enlarge it to its greatest
limit and put it ON an enduring basis by
international agreement among the lead
ing commercial nations of the world. The
former is bimetallisn, the latter inter-
national. The former rests on the prin-
ciple of interconvertibility, the latter on
mutual agreement. In the former case q
80 cent silver dollar passes current because
it can be converted at will into gold dol
lar. In the latter case the same silver
dollar passes current the world over, be-
cause all great commercial nations have
agreed to receive it as such ON a parity
with gold. "A free coinage which sustains
and upholds bimetallism is desired by all
friends of good government and honest
money A free coinage which would at