The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-06-21
AN AID TO PROGRESS.
SILVER THE PROTECTOR OF
WEALTH MAKERS.
A Statistical Review by George T..
Plumbe Showing the Achievements OF
the Nation Under the Bimetallic
PolIcy-Ruin I'm Gold Standard.

Inc Onlleu oldleS eueTBeu lTOln tue
war of independence with debt of
about $4,000, 000 of which $11 600, 900
was held abroad, chiefly in France,
Holland and Germany. The new gov
eminent at Its outset found itself with
out revenues. without commerce and
without credit at home or abroad. The
circulating medium of the country
consisted chiefly of deprecated paper
currency, which was worth in 1850 only
4O to l in silver. At this time sugar
sold for SIS pound and eggs at $12
a dozen.
The question of providing a cur
rency for the country was taken up
by congress in 1881, but it was not
until 1894 that the mint went into
operation, and in that year some silver
was coined and the year following
little gold, the ratio being 10 to l..
The amount of silver coined was in
significant, from the fact that the re-
sources OF the mint were the foreign
COINS that came into the country and
the silver plate held by private indi-
Vlduals which was sent to the mint to
10 be Transformed into money. The
total coinage of gold up to 1884 was
$l4,OOO,OOO, but little or none was in
circulation before 1920 and none after
that date, it being drawn to England.
Subsidiary silver was the only metallic
money except cents in circulation up
TO about 1910. The reason more gold
than silver was coined was that as
early as 1879 gold was found in North
Carolina and Alabama, the mines of
which yielded up to 1873 about $40, 000,-
600 worth of gold. 1t was not known
that silver in any considerable guam
titles existed in the country until its
discovery in Nevada in 1859. The dis
covery of gold in California and silver
in Nevada modified largely our fnan-
cial theories and laws.
Previous to 1910 silver was the only
money in circulation in the country, eX-
cept the paper issues of the state
banks.
What did the country accomplish
during the silver period between 1894
and 1910?
First, it paid off its revolutionary
war debt, and by this means estab-
lished its credit the world over. Dur
ing this period the nation had a de-
gree of prosperity that was unprec-
edented in the history of the world
and our foreign trade and commerce
became enormous. From no COM
merce at all in 1890 we had reached
position where, in 1859, GA per cent
of our exports and rs per cent of our
imports were carried in American YES
sells. 1894 only 10 per cent of our i'm
ports and 8 per cent of our exports
were carried in American vessels. On
the high seas our only rival was Great
Britain. and there was more truth than
poetry in the declaration that our sails
whitened every sea.
Second, silver carried the government
through the war of 1912 with Great
Britain and established our claim that
the American flag protected an Ameri-
can seaman without regard to his ma
tionality, and this has not since been
subject OF dispute. This war en-
tailed a debt on the government of
nearly $100,000,000, which was not only
itself paid off but all preceding obli
cations were discharged, so that Jan.
/, 1886, the government was out of debt
and had a surplus in the treasury of
$40 100000 Congress took action as
to how it might reduce the revenues
of the government, and a bill was
passed in June, 1886, to distribute the
surplus, over $5,000,0 900, among the
states of the Union, and over SIS, O00,-
coo was so distributed.
Third, in this silver period the coun-
try became one of the great manufac-
turing countries of the globe. Our cot
ton product increased from $4,000, 900
pounds to S34,000,000 pounds, and the
number of sp.ndles was larger per
capita in the United States than in
Great Britain. In iron, agriculture,
paper and woolens we were hardly
outranked on the globe. In 1890 the
product of American manufactures was
about $40 1000, GOO, but in 1910 it reached,
in round NUMBERS, value of $500, 000,-
600.
fOUTIn, lHS SONtI umeHL duueu
enormously to the extent of our public
domain. In 1903 the Louisiana pur-
chase was made from France, which
added more than 100000 square miles
to our territory at cost of 81 ,250. 900,
which our government paid in bonds
which the French took, so we'll estab-
lshed had our national credit become.
In 1919 the purchase of Florida was
mcde from Spain, costing us $4,000 900
and adding $4,000 square miles to our
area. In 1S45 New Mexico was pur-
chased from Texas at cost of $10,-
600, 900, by which we acquired 121 POI
square miles of territory. In 1S4S, by
the expenditure of $15,000,0OO, we ac-
quired, including Texas, S75, 900 square
miles of additional territory In 1853
the Gadsen purchase gave us an in
creased area of 45,535 square miles at
cost of $10,000,0O0, and in 1868 the
Russian cession of Alaska added $780,
900 square miles to our country at
cost of s7.2O0.O00.
This indicates that with a bimetallic
standard we added by purchase TO our
tbirtaa,, atataa TO XII O1O oorae 90