The Portland daily press., 1895-07-25
SILVER AND PRICES.
The Effect of tire Disuse of One of the
Money Metals.

hAoHoy nACbaAos
To the Editor of the Press:
You have recently devoted SO large a
space in your paper to the discussion of
the monetary question that I hesitate to
ask you to place before your readers an
address on the same subject recently
given in London by Mr.. Samuel Smith,
M. T, The address is so admirable in
itself and SO applicable to the discussion
OF the same question in our own country,
that 1 think you will confer favor upon
many of your readers by giving it publi-
cation. S. w. T.
Mr.. Samuel Smith. M. p, Mr.. Chairman
and gentlemen. The last speaker has
very well put his side of the case He
| asks us how we can make two metals act
as one standard. Well, our reply is lat
under the bimetallic system the TWO
metals would become joint standard.
Ihe one metal supports and supplements
the other. That was always the case In
the days when the bimetallic system ex-
listed, and undoubtedly it would again be
the case if the bimetallic system were
generally adopted over wide area The
two metals would form one joint stand
ard, and would be melted together so to
speak. Well, they would form single
standard in reality The reply l have to
make to the question that bimetalilsln is
opposed to free trade principles is that
the analogy is misleading. We hold that
our policy is essentially one of Tree trade.
The policy advocated by monometalllc
country is essentially policy OF protec
tlon. Under the policy OF using both
metals we take all that nature gives us
for money, as the world has done Tor
thousands of years. For thousands OF
years, the world at large has used both
silver and gold as the money of the world.
1t is only within the last few years, and
especially within the past twenty years,
that the bulk of the nations have ceased
to coin one of the metals, and thereby
protected the other metal, namely
gold. They have, by limiting the use OF
| mankind to one metal, in the place OF
two put an artificial protection on one OF
them and have very much raised its value
as a consequence. Now, l say, great
evils, and very great amount OF lnJus--
tice, have resulted from this artificial
raising in value of the metal which has
now become the standard OF nearly all
Europe and America. l will try to ex-
plain that in minute or two, because it
lies at the foundation of this whole ques-
ton 1t is the kernel of it. Mankind sis
divided between debtors and creditors.
The greater part of mankind. in the or
dinaryscourse of business are debtors.
| The great bulk of busines is carried on
| by borrowed money. Now, by limiting
| the standard to one metal, and raising
the value of it, we have committed a
| species of fraud on the mass of the COM
munity. Since 1878 we have had an en-
ormous and continuous fall in prices,
| which we believe and very few doubt it
now, has largely arisen form the demon
etization of silver. do not think a sssin
gle intelligent person who has studied
this question will now deny that large
portion Of the extraordinary decline in
| prices which has occurred in the last
twenty or twenty-five years is owing to
the demonetization of practically half the
money of the world. 100 pounds today
will buy on an average as much as 1S0
pounds would buy in 1878. Now con-
slider how this affects the debtor classes.
First of all, we have more than 1000
millions of national debts, all payable in
gold. How is the money to be found for
paying the interest on those national
debts? Almost entirely by the sale of
commodities The farmer has to sell
| twice as much wheat, the miner twice
as much iron or coal, the manufacturer
twice as much cloth-that is twice as
much of the product of human labor has
to be given in exchange for the interest
| on the national debts as would have had
|
same as they were twenty years ago.
But national debts are much the smaller
part of the total debts 'of the world. We
have a perfect network of permanent
money obligations in all commercial
countries We have local and municipal
| debts and an immense amount of per-
manent charges running over long per-
iods of time. Most of London is built
on rs to SO year leases and the same may
be said of all great cities We have mort
cages on most of the property of this
country, and most of the land is also
mortgaged to one-half or two-thirds OF
it's value; and most of the industrial
plant of the country is likewise mort
gagged. Now, the result of this monetary
change which has taken place is that we
have almost doubled these debts. The
unfortunate people who borrowed money
twenty years ago have today to part with
double the amount of the produce O
their soil, or of their mills, or of theil
mines, in order to pay the interest OF
the money. The result of this state o.
things is that process has been taking
place in this country, France, in the
United States, and in all gold-usine
countries. which are also commercial
countries, which has transferred thu
wealth of the nation from the producing
class to the money-lending class be
lieve if we had register which Woult
show today the proportion of wealth IL
this country as between the hard work
ing, toiling, industrial class, and, in &
certain sense, the idle, money lending
class, we should find that the class which
lives by lending money, by holding bond
| and other ipternSt- hearing securities, in