Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-04-27
"A Silver Object Lesson

Editor StGuato1 Vi1d5c0tor:
If you will give me a small portion of your
space l will attempt to criticise in a friendly
| spirit, an editorial in the last issue of your
paper entitled "a Silver Object Lesson.''
| The proper solution OF great Questions can
| t;ily be reached by timely, patient, courteous
ana careful discussion. True wisdom, and true
| philosophy teaches u that there are general
| ~ two sides 10 great questions neither of
| which are altogether right, CT altogether
wrong. That silver, one OF the great master
| metals Of the world, can he dAnonetized with
| ont causing almost indeScribable sorrow, suf-
ferins lad hardship, is to nay mind, as far as
am able to understand it, an established
| fact. Empirical fnanciers, who know about
| as much about it, as they do about the satel-
iites that reVoiye around the planet Saturn
write and talk very glibly about it, With
many Of them, am discouraged at the pros
pect OF their ever adding to their knowledge
Oh this momentous sub ect do not include
you in this category, because there is tone
Of sincerity about your writing which assures
me that you are honest and conscientious in
your opinion as to the propriety of gold mono
! metalism. The brunt of your argument is that
there are many millions Of American securi-
ties held by foreigners who annually draw
their dividends and interests in gold and if
they become dissatisfied with our financial
SYSTEM and fear that they will be paid In sill
ver which they consider of less value, they
will at once dump their holdings on our mar
ket and thus disturb trade, and create disas-
trouS financial panic. l think / have fairly
stated your point. L think there is something
in it, but there is far less than you seem to
think. In the first place think you greatly
overestimate the amount. Unfortunately
there is no way of even approximating it with
accuracy, and all we can do is to conjecture
confidently venture the assertion that the
amount now is less than it has been for ten
years; perhaps not half so much, owing to the
failure Of the great house of Barring Brothers
in 1892, which forced the holders of enormous
lots of American securities willingly Or I'M
willingly to unload. The world had prior
to that time never known Or experienced a
failure of single house amounting to over
FIVE hundred millions of dollars. It not only
unsettled credtevery where, but carried down
with it other houses and banks having in
their business almost a billion of dollars of
capital, and in no small degree shook the
great bank Of England causing it to borrow
an unusual amount of gold from France, the
great bimetallist county CT the world
Foreigners have never repurchased but
mparatively small portion of these securi-
ties because the panic still exists in England,
Germany and Australia to considerable ex-
tent, and is far worse in those countries
which have by legislation attempted to force
gold monometalism. Hence, the danger yon
apprehend is far less than you state it, You
seem to have fallen under another msarpre-
hension. The true advocates Of free silver
have never at any time advocated the demo-
netzation Of gold as you seem to think, be-
cause this country could never be brought to
a silver basis without the decentralization of
gold. Hence you do us great injustice. We
maintain that gold and silver could be kept
upon parity by proper legislation. We hold
that improper legislation has caused the
fall in the price of silver, and legislation
alone can restore it. 1t would make this pa
per too long to give the facts and figures show
ing that legislation alone has caused the fall
in silver, but l have not the least doubt OF my
ability to show it. You instance Mexico, to
show that because of the forced gold mono
metallSm OF THIS county, the price OF eX-
change is so high as to seriously curtail the |
remuneration Of American labor employed in
that country. This is in one sense true, but
you take keyhole view OF the subject, (I |
trust that you will pardon this expression as
think it is within the limit of parliamentary |
discusson), and your illustration is exceed |
ingly unfortunate, because Mexico with her
bimetalic currency is to-day more prosperous
than it has ever before been in its history.
immigration is tiocking to its shores, and
her manufactures are increasing with amaZ-
ing rapidity. and its growing Importance as
great country is being felt in every portion of
the globe. Her financers state that this great !,
prosperity is caused by her bimetalic system,