The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-08-11

| lsSutu ny any COunlTy Will SuIHClfnL ROlu anu
silver, one or both, behind them for redemp
ton ever deprecated or became fiat money.
| cannot discover, and have asked single
| standard advocates in vain to tell me one in
stance in the worlds history where any
nation, any state, any community, or any in.
dividual ever suffered financial difficulty be-
cause of too much of either gold or silver
money or both.
But in 1873 the nations of Europe, for rea-
sons my time will not permit me to attempt
to state, declared that this work, hitherto
done by gold and silver together as one,
should hereafter be done by one half, or gold
alone, and they induced the United States to
join them. But one result could follow such
action. The one-haf compelled to do what
the whole had been doing, and which had re-
| quired both to do, must necessarily struggle
to exhaustion and leave much undone.
Suppose we have two men doing a necessary
work, requiring their best and constant effort
in working hours to do properly, and we dis.
charge one of them and require the other to
do the work previously done by both, what
result would we expect, and what should we
surely get? But this is precisely what
Europe did with silver and gold. and the
United States was fooled into doing the same
thing. We were pretty well off in 1873.
general prosperity prevailed, but we wanted
a change, we got it by demonetzing silver.
There is said to be an old epitaph on stone
in an English church yard reading rs fol.
lows:
II was WE'LL wished to be better
took medicine and here am" q
We were well in 1873-we wished to be
better; we took medicine-"the English gold
cure"-and here we are.
But the advocates of the single gold
standard tell us that gold has not appreciated
-, ,roiua hot he IL,
price of everything manufactured or pro.
duced by us has been owing to competition,
to cheapening of cost of productions through
modern inventions, &c. One fact seems
sufficient to demonstrate the fallacy of these
theories. When the United States in 1873
deprived silver of the minting privilege it was
worth premium of per cent above gold,
and for many years all Europe had paid us
Sl.03 in gold for every dollar of our silver we
| could spare them; it was worth $l.32 per
ounce in gold. Today an ounce of silver will
bring in bullion form only 60 cents IN gold,
yet with l ounce of silver bullion | can buy
as much wheat, as much cotton, as much
paper, furniture, clothing or almost anything
else as | could in 1878, when my ounce of
silver was worth Sl.32 in gold. But with an
ounce of gold in bullion can buy nearly
twice as much of any one of these articles
and yet we are told gold has not appreciated
1t is hard to make a debtor, paying obliga-
tons assumed in the past, believe that it has
not largely appreciated. | know personally
of one case, which is only one of thousands.
A man bought farm in Kansas ten years
ago for $4,000. He paid $1,000 down and
agreed to pay $500 year and interest for ten
years. The first year he paid his $500 due
that year with 500 bushels of wheat; but
every succeeding year took more and more
L., nIyo h. las Mt he aA
to raise /, $50 bushels, or a correspondingly
large number of hogs or cattle. You can't
make that man believe that gold has not APP
preciated.
The advocates of the single gold standard
seem 10 entirely ignore the experience of the
world in one direction, going back to the
earliest record of human history and coming
up to the present day, and without an excep
ton it is a fact that there has never been in
any nation an era of contraction in per capita
circulation, no matter how small, accompa-
MED by falling prices through a series of
years, which has not been followed by bust
ness depression and panic, such as the world
is now experiencing. This seems 10 be Il
law as unvarying as the ebb and aow of the
tides or the movements Of the planets. If
these causes always produce these effects,
ought we not to have wisdom enough to pre-
vent the cause and avoid the effects? | can
conceive of no way in which this can be done
except by providing for a continued yearly
or monthly issue of some kind Of money sui
fcent TO meet the per capita requirements OF
increased population and to replace money
destroyed by various causes. The people OF
the United States need at least as much per
capita circulation as the people of any other
country. We have an enormous country to
develop. Our young men are more active,
4 l. "a.
business for themselves. There are more
things to do requiring capital than in the old
and thickly settled countries OF Europe.
The report of the Treasury Department
June l, 1894, gives the total amount of United
States money in existence as 81 1915, 669, 40l,
or $24.54 per capita. If this amount was
really in circulation among our people it
would be $50 per capita less than the circula
ton Of France; but the real amount in circu
lation is much less than the amount stated by
the Treasury Department. There should be
deducted $3.50, 000, 600 in the United States
Treasury and Repositories, and $3.50 900
reserve in National Banks, which the law
requires they shall keep in their vaults at all
times.
A vast amount in bills has been lost and
destroyed since their issue, coins have been
melted and used in the arts to large amount,
and the loss by wear and abrasion has been
large. Deducting these items | doubt if
there is in circulation today or available for
circulation more than Sl2 per capita, and no
additions are being made except as gold is
produced and coined. Does any business
man need argument to convince him that the
present evils must continue as long as this
condition prevails?
Bimetallism, the restorative of silver to the
position it occupied previous to 1873, will
i Il H.. I,al. and
do not believe anything else will or can.
am as bitterly opposed to fat money as
any advocate of the single standard can be.
am also opposed to creating debt on which
the people must pay interest, for the purpose
of permitting the national banks to issue
currency based on such debt. | would per-
init the national banks to issue as much cur
rency as could be pro6tably employed, to be
redeemed in gold or silver on demand, and
require them to keep a sufficient reserve in
gold and silver for redemption purposes.
The Bank of France issues the bank bills
of France They are by their terms redeem
able in either gold or silver at the pleasure of
the bank. No one wants either to carry or
keep in large amounts, but the knowledge
that they can at any time obtain gold or silver
for the bills inspires confidence and keeps
them in circulation. France is perhaps the
most continuously prosperous nation in the
world-the freest from panic and business
disturbance Her circulation is $40 per
capita The Bank of France keeps its re-
demption reserve in half gold and half silver,
and whenever any considerable amount of its
bills are presented for redemption it pays half
gold and half silver, unless it has reason to
believe that the demand is from Spectator
who wishes to export the gold, in which case
If will redeem its bills in silver.
Contrast this with the policy of the United
States. This Government has no obligation,
except gold and silver certificates, which are
not .payable by their terms in either gold or
silver at its pleasure; but we have foolishly
permitted any Spectator to present any oil
our bills or obligations at our Sub.Treasury
and given them gold, thus permitting foreign |
nations to deplete our gold at pleasure and
causing our country to play sorry part in
what Balfor calls the international scramble
for gold No other nation on earth would
hermit such operations But we allow Mr..
IckeIbeimer. Mr. Hockkeimer, Lazard