The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-24
RECOMMENDATION DR. SILVER.
1T WILL HELP THE DEBTORS.
So Says John Sherman.


Globe-Journal:
Senator Sherman shows beyond a
peradventure that the silver dollar
demanded by the Populists and by the
Populistic democrats would draw
down upon us all the silver in the
world, wrench the control of money
values out Of the grasp of our govern
ment and make one gold dollar at
once worth two silver dollars. The
experience of every nation has proved
that the gold would be boarded and
the silver used. "No one will pay gold
when silver worth one-half in com
mercial value can be- paid instead"
And where would be the benefit in
doubling prices of things sold, if the
doubling process also applied to all
Things bought?
This question Senator Sherman an
sWers by saying that only two classes
OF people could possibly profit by the
change-the debtors and the silver
miners. And then he goes to show
that even the great corporations that
mine silver, while getting nominally
twice as much for their products,
would have to pay twice as much for
their labor If they were honest, and
would, therefore, from the moment
give the 81 for 49 CENTS worth Of sill
yer, be no better off than before.
Hence the matter harroWs down to
one class-the debtors, who would be
enabled to pay their notes with money
worth only half what they received
and had agreed to pay"
Now if this be true it is matter of
great Importance to Minnesota, which
| ic lol,
According to the census of 1890 we
| owed 100000 mortgag ges on real estate,
for $l97, 900; while our chattel
mortgage membranes, machine
bills, store bills and unsecured indebt-
edness generally amount probably to
as much more, OF to say $400, 900;
bearing interest at. 10 per cent, fer,
say, $40, 100000 annually, to be paid by
less than 100000 voters or $l33 for
each voter. Or, if we will estimate
the chattel and unsecured debt at
one-half the real estate mortgage
debt, that would give us, in round
numbers, $500. 000.000 of debt in the
state, or 500 per annum for each
voter. Now surely anything that will
help these people to get out of debt
will help the state; and if free silver
will dO this then we want free silver.
But, says some one. are you so dis
honest as to want the debtors to pay
their creditors less than they re-
ceived? No; neither are we dishonest
enough to pay 4noretiIan we received.
| Most of the mortgage debts of Mime
sofa were contracted when wheat was
worth Is cents to 81 per bushel. 1t is
| shamefully dishonest to ask these
debtors to pay when wheat is worth
so cents per bushel. 1t is p ractically
doubling the debt. When two citizens
enter into contract, one to lend
money and the other to borrow it, the
government has no right to step in
and change the value of currency, so
that the debtor will have to pay in a
dearer or in a cheaper dollar. One is
as great an outrage as the other. II
A.. B. contracts to pay G. d. $1,000
when 1000 bushels Of wheat would eX-
tiEguish the debt. it is villainous
outrage, on the debtor to demonet tie
silver and contract the currency, and
make money so valuable that it takes
1900 bushels Of wheat to pay that
debt. And this is just what has taken
place. And this plutocratic devil,
John Sherman, whose portrait hangs
in an honored place, in the office of
the president of the bank of England,
because he helped to bring about this
cruel injustice; (and another portrait
of whom, painted on abestos, will
hang in the private office of Beelzebub
in Sheol) objects to putting money
back where it stood, because it will
help the debtors to pay their debts,
on the same basis that existed when
they contracted the debt
And this deplorable knave argues
that if our government remonetized
silver by opening our mints to free
coinage, that this "would draw down
upon us all the silver in the world
Why? Because he argues that silver
would be worth more here than in all
the rest of the world. And yet he
knows that commerce equaliZes the
value of all commodities, all over the
world. 1t is impossible for wheat. fol
instance, to be worth so cents in
Liverpool and 81 in New York. A
soon as the Liverpool merchant under.
stands that wheat is worth ST in New
York he will put up the price Of his SO
cents wheat to 81, less the cost Of ship
ping it to New York. Whenever the
the mints are opened to silver and sll
yer bullion can besexchanged for legal
tender silver dollars, worth 100 cents
that moment silver in the United
States will be worth 100 cents on the
dollar; and the moment that is known
in Europe silver will rise to the same
level, because it can be sent here an6
coined. But the moment silver is thus
made worth as much in Europe as il
is in America, that moment all in
ducement to ship it to America
ceases. Ifsilver isworth in Liverpool
the same as in New York, less the
freight, what inducement has any
man to ship it to New York. pay the
freight and sell it for precisely what
it is worth in Liverpool? What prof
would there be in;such transaction:
Who but fools would indulge in sucl
operations: And the merchants O
the world are not fools.
: And hence this argument OF Johr
Sherman is fraud and sham; ant
he knows it; butfit is put forth simply