Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-10-18
SHERMAN ON FINANCE.
The Ohio Senator Says It is idle
To Talk Of More Money"
He Would Preserve the Gold Standard and
Keep All Other Currency at Par with
Gold by Using Gold Reserve in Re-
demptiOn as Far as Necessary.


demptiOn as Far as Necessary.
AKRON, o., Oct. Ex-senator John
Sherman spoke on political issues of the
present campaign here to-day, opening
the Ohio campaign. He said:
FELLOW CITIzENS-The most important fea-
ture of this political campaign is the election
OF members of the house of representatives OF
the United States. You may think that what
happens in congress at Washington is too re-
mote to affect your interests. In this you are
greatly mistaken. The action of congress in
leyyfng taxes for the support of the national
government, and in providing money whether
coin or paper money as the measure of value.
affects directly every inhabitant of the United
States whether poor or rich, whatever may be
his employment, whether laborer, farmer.
q capitalist or q business man Everyone.
whether producer or a consumer, is deeply
interested in the taxes he has to pay and in
the money he receives pays
These two vital questions and al
ways viii be the chief foundations of political
divisions in a free country. They now the
dividing lines between the democratic and re-
publican parties. Other issues may arise such
as arose out of the late rebellion. These have
been settled from time to time. but taxation
and currelcy-the mode Of leyying taxes and
the qualities OF our money-will always be the
bone of contention between the two great par
ties
After devoting considerable attention
to the tariff question, he proceeded to
the discussion of that of the money
supply of the country, in the course of
which he said:
Another great question involved in this cleo
ton is the free coinage of silver The recent
democratic convention of Ohio adopted this
resolution:
I'VE dissent from the presidents views con-
ntrv1ar
and, therefore. believe that all silver should be
restored to the position it occupied as money
prior to its decentralization by the republican
party. and to that end we favor the unlimited
free coinage OF silver at the legal ratio of Is
and with equal legal-tender power"
This resolution is in direct opposition to the
national democratic platform of 1892 and the
known views of President Cleveland. The at
tempt to carry this resolution into effect would
rive the democratic party from turret to founda-
ton stone. The policy it proposes would re-
duce the purchasing power of the dollar more
than one-hah. The wages of labor would be
practically reduced. for the deprecated dol
lar would buy only what fifty cents will now.
The only remedy of the laborer would be higher
wages but every laboring man knows how diff
fcult it is to secure such an advance. 1 have
sometimes thought that this declaration is but
the demogogism meeting of Senator Brice and
Tom Johnson in the same convention
But the'conSequenceS Of free coinage under
present conditions are grave, so wide reach
ing upon all business, labor and production.
that think it best for me to state carefully
and accurately my views of the free coinage of
silver.
What is meant bv free coinage? 1t is by law
to confer upon any holder of silver bullion the
right to deposit it in the treasury or mints of
the United States and to demand and receive
for it one dollar for 3711s grains of pure silver
or 4f2H grains of pure silver nine-tenths fine:
or. in the silver is not coined, the
holder may demand note of the
United States for one dollar, and both
the coin and paper are money. and
o legal tender for all debts. public and private.
Remember that 371 a grains of silver are worth
in the markets of the world about forty-nine
cents Silver may vary in price from day to
day. but the tendency is for it to decline. As
money. the holder of the bullion may demand
and get one dollar for 3714 grains, and that
dollar is a general legal tender.
As the result Of this either one or two things
will happen: Either all the silver in sight will
advance in value to gold at the ratio of sixteen
to one. or the purchasing power OF the dollar
will be reduced to fifty cents of our money,
and the gold dollar will be worth two silver
dollars. Which of these is likely to happen?
The experience of every nation in the world
proves that the cheaper money will fill the
channels of circulation, and the money of
higher value will be boarded up or exported
This is rule as universal as the movement
of the earth around the moon or the flow of
when silver, worth one-haH In commercial
value can be paid instead. The amount of sill
in sight in the world is stated at 5000 900
ounces, each ounce containing $50 grains. The
annual production of silver in the world is
about 1s1 600 600 ounces. the commercial value
of which is S125, 900, but the coinage value
at the present ratio Is now about S225, 900 900.
The vast hoard of silver will be invited to
the United States in the hope to obtain more
of it than its market value.
haf hone dico lr1o inc
coinage laws, if made, confer upon the people
of the United States? 1t is said that it will
double the price of all our productions. So it
would nominally. but win it not also double
the price of all you have to buy? Foolish
men may sell their farms at a higher Price.
but will the money they receive pur-
chase any more or much property of
any kind as they sold: The work.
man whose daily wages are now pay
able in gold or it's equivalent will have to re-
ceive silver dollars whose purchasing power is
but one-half of the money he receives now. If
he demands higher wages because of cheaper
dollars he knows how difficult it is to secure a
proper increase of wages
II the farmer gets higher prices for his crops
it will be in money of less purchasing power.
But two classes OF men will be benefited, the
debtor, who can pay his debt in cheaper money.
and the owners of silver mines. The debtor
gains by cheaper money, but is it homes. to
borrow gold and pay in silver worth half what
he received The owners of silver mines gener-
ally organized into great corporations will get
nominally more dollars for their product but
if they are just to their workmcn the cos. of
mining will be increased. do not see how in
tine end the silver miner will be benefited.
If the object of this change is to increase the
volume Of money why should not the govern
ment buy the silver bullion at its market price
and issue its money. coin or paper. to the
amount of the cost Of the silver? This would
give us more money and we would have in the
treasury enough silver at gold prices to redeem
our money.
This would be honest and right. We tried
that experiment in 1890. We passed a law re-
9uiring the secretary of the treasury to buy the
enormous amount of 4.5O0. 900 ounces Of silver a
month at market price. and to issue in ex-
change for it United States treasury notes. I
voted for this law, and it was called the ..Sher-
man law Ivoted for it with much doubt upon
the confident assertion that this large purchase
value. But, in spite OF our purchases, the price
of silver went down, down. down. from los
cents an ounce to sixty-fve cents, and this loss
fell upon the government The experiment
having failed, congress repealed the act OF 1890
and voted for that repeal.
What would be the inevitable result of the
free coinage of silver now, when the silver In
the dollar is worth only fifty cents, Does any
man need to be told that it will be worth only
what it cost?
By carefully limiting the amount Of silver
coins and coming only on government account.
we can maintain silver coins at par with gold
coins just as we keep paper money by prom
ise to receive it as money and redeem 1t in gold
IL demanded That is what we did with nearly
800. 900 600 of paper money in 1879. We accu-