Semi=weekly graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1895-1902, 1895-11-23
c4REESLE ON CURRENCY.


occupies today a more conspicuous
position than John g. Carlisle, of
Kentucky, Secretary of the Treas
ury The defeat of the free silver
forces in the recent election has
brought him into prominence as
the champion of sound currency,
which cause he has ably espoused
during the heated campaign of the
mast two years. Last Tuesday he
made an address on "Our Currency
system at the banquet given by
the Chamber of Commerce, of New
York, at which time he said:
seNo changes made in our currency
system will afford relief unless it.
nroyides for the retirement of the
local tenders. The circulation of
legal tenders has a tendency to
drive out of the country the very
coin in which the Government is
compelled to redeem them; and it
has expelled millions of dollars from
our borders. Although the Govern
ment and our own people are COM
PEELED to receive them, they will not
discharge international obligations,
and GOLD must go out to settle all
final balances against Us. No
other Government in the world is
required to supply gold from its
treasury to discharge the private
obligations of its citizens.
'sThe theories that the Govern
ment can create money by placing
its stamp upon paper or other
material; that legislative enact
ment can make 56 cents equal in
value to 100 cents; that artifically
inflated prices, paid in deprecated
currency, are better for the people
than natural prices paid in sound
currency, and various other vagaries
now floating like bubbles in the
political atmosphere, are all directly
attributable to the long continued
use of legal tender paper. The
proposition that promise of the
Government to pay moneyis money,
is just as absurd as the proposition
that promise to deliver a horse is
a horse, and yet there are eminent
men high in public councils who
believe that the United States
promissory is not actual money,
and that the statute which eompels
all the people to receive it as actual
money is constitutional and ought
to be continued in force. The
agitation for the free coinage of
legal tender silver is predicated
upon the same vicious principle
that underlies the legislation making
paper money promise legal tender;
but there is a practical difference
between the two systems. The
United States note was a forced loan
from the people to the Government,
which the Government promised to
repay in dollars, but the free coinage
of legal tender silver at the ratio of
16 to ! would be a forced loan from
people to the owners of silver mines
and silver bullion, without a
promise OF repayment by anybody.
''The fact that the government is
required to borrow money is an
injury to its credit and the credit of
its people, but the injury resulting
from this cause is insignificant in
comparison with the ruin that
would follow an abandonment of
the reserve while the notes are
outstanding, for all our currency
would thus be reduced to the silver
standard. "
In closing his address, the Secre-
tary said
"Let US have no more ambiguous
phrases, no more inconsistent and
irreconcilable clauses in party
platforms or in public utterances,
but let us make our meaning SO
clear and our purpose SO plain that
they can be neither misunderstood
nor successfully misrepresented.a
Another straddle or a declaration
that can even be misunderstood or
successfully misrepresented, as the
Secretary puts it, means that doubt
and distrust win prevail for four
years longer in our finances. The
hard times of the past few years
have been caused largely by this