Little Falls weekly transcript., 1894-10-05

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lul for eight years before the war. it had
proved successful in otkr countries, and
was therefore re-enacted in the act of 1873.
In 1878, a new method of securing real
pimetalllsm was tried, for the first time in
history so far as know. Congress in that
year passed an act providing for the pur-
chase by the government of 1900, 600
ounces of silver per month, and it's coinage
into standard silver dollars which should
nave full legal tender quality. That is,
we tried the experiment. of limiting the
coinage instead of limiting the tender, as
IN 1853 and 1873. Though many able men
feared the result, we have found that for a
Time this method can be successfully oper-
| ated. 1t will work just as long as we can
| preserve the parity of the dollars; that is
just as long as we have gold enough in the
| treasury to render people confident in the
opinion that each kind of dollar can be
! converted on demand into the other kind.
But just as soon as the visible supply of
gold on hand begins to make it doubtful
That this exchange can be made, just at
that moment, say, the experiment. be-
comes dangerous one.
In 1890 the silver producers became more
arrogant in their demands. They secured
the passage through the senate of bill
providing for the free coinage of silver. In
the house the free silver sentiment was
very strong. It seemed as though the old,
Old plan, which never in the worlds his
tory has failed to result in monometallism,
! was about to be resorted to. It seemed as
though the hands were to be turned back
on the dial-plate of time, that congress,
controlled by men blind to everything but
their own interest, was about to forget
what the past had taught and revert to a
plan that had been discarded by all the
leading nations of the world. To pre-
vent that great catastrophe, the con-
cesslon was made that the sill
yer purchases of the government
| should be increased from two million
ounces of silver per month to more than
twice that amount. The limit was thus
raised so high as to become almost inoper-
atlve as check upon the action of the
| Gresham law. AS told you two years ago
In my campaign, the SHERMAN act," so
| called, was simply a bridge to carry us
! over to the time when we should have an
international ratio, which it was hoped
would be agreed upon by the international
conference which had been called at the
request of the United States government.
AS told you then, it was my Judgment
that it the conference failed to reach a
conclusion the Sherman act would have to
be repealed, at least that portion of it
known as "the purchase clause.u' The
conference failed to reach an agreement,
and last November the purchase clause OF
the Sherman act was repealed, as it de-
served to be-
We are great silver producing coun
try. We naturally desire that all our in
dustries shall prosper. To that end we
have gone to the very edge of the precipice
in our efforts to aid the silver producers.
And now, if they insist upon driving US
over the edge, if they insist on sacrificing
every other interest of the country to
theirs, we who are not silver producers
owe it to ourselves and to the country to
say to these men quietly but firmly:
1.-THE interests of the whole country are of
fvastly more Importance than the interests
of any section. of it; the interests of the
whole people must be considered as su-
perior to the interests Of any class of peo-
pie, and we shall not permit you to do
that which would. be beneficial to YOU
only, and harmful beyond measure to the
rest OF the country. We appreciate your
| anxiety to find market for your product;
we understand the skill with which YOU
have sought to make us believe that we
have some interest and will derive some
benefit from the success of your scheme.
But you underestimate our intelligence
We decline to be misled.''
An International Ratio.
AS has already been stated. the unlim-
tied coinage of both metals with the un-
limited legal tender of each kind of coin.
has everywhere and always resulted in
monometallism, the metal overvalued at
the mint being coined and circulated as
money, while that undervalued at the
mint retires from circulation In the
light of such experience as we have had.
let us try to find out what may reasonably
be expected from common ratio of coin
age for all the nations of the world
In order to make a reasonable estimate
it is necessary for us to consider what be-
comes of the metal that retires from cir
culation. So far as I can learn, it has in
variably done one of two things. It has
either gone to the melting pot, to be used
in the arts in it's own country or else
| where, or else it has gone to some other
country where it is more highly appre-
ciated as money, that is, where the ratio
was more favorable to it. If one country,
for example, fixes it's ratio at Is to and
another country at 16 to 1, while the actual
commercial ratio is Is 1-2 to 1, it is evident
that one of the countries is overvaluine
gold, while the other is overvaluing silver.
In such a state of affairs, experience has
shown that that portion of the product of
each metal which goes to the mint at all
will immediately begin to gravitate to-
ward the country where it is most highly
appreciated. The result has invariably
been that each country under those cir
cumstances becomes monometallic on the
basis Of the metal for which it bids the
highest. For example, when our own
mints were established we were very anx-
ious to secure supply of Spanish
silver, for at that time we pro-
duced almost no silver ourselves.
This was our principal reason for fixing
the ratio so favorable to silver. And our
expectations were largely realized; al
though, as have shown, it was at the ex-
pense Of losing what little gold we had.
In view Of these things, we may reason
ably expect, ! think, that It there were
common ratio for all the countries of the
world, each country would secure and re-