The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-19

I help. in destroying silver she cannot pre-
I vent from being undone by Its restoration.
7 God help us TO DO this just and honorable
work, for the sake OF our fathers who
I hrst ordained IL. and Of all posterity.
| insist that these coinage and CONNER
l cial ratios between gold and silver as
l money metals are no more and no less
than the deductions Of reason drawn from
| experience and based upon laws that are
as definite. as Interchangeable and as sell
I dom varied In their results as the laws
/ that govern in the annual production Of
| our crops
I will recall some of these laws to your
attention.
The anticipated silver dump" Is, with
/ some, an idle apprehension Of danger and.
/ with others, it is the convenient stalking
| horse of false prophecy. In the absence
/ Of facts, at present existing. and in the
presence Of the contradictions Of history,
| these soothsayers and OWNERS OF evils 10
| come, consult their hopes OF getting offices
/ by giving pleasure 10 their masters, and
/ are made to prophesy whichever way the
I wind doth blow" They did not consult,
I as did the ancients. the auguries found in
| the entrails of birds and beasts. They are
/ more wise in Consulting the yearning bow
/ els that are strutted out with patronage,
/ as hungry Dutchman cOnsults a bologna
sausage. The larger the bowels and the
richer the stufiing, the more Obsequlous is
/ the divinatlon.
Every nation in the eastern hemisphere
| Is compelled to purchase silver from Amer
/ lea, vast In amounts, 10 supply the de-
/ mand of the arts and TO supply that minor
l coinage, without which no nation, even
/ semi-civilized, could provide its people
| with the means of obtaining their daily
| food. Demonetize all the silver coin in
| Europe, Asia and Africa and expel IL from
those continents, and the people would
/ be Obliged TO starve. The daily transac-
| tions of the world in small traffic where
minor coins of silver are used far exceed,
| in the aggregate, the actual money used
/ in the great marts of trade
This market for silver would alone keep
| the silver mines of the western hemis-
| phere in active operation If the silver dol
| lar was everywhere discarded as fun legal
tender money but the coinage value
would be greatly deprecated.
! If the price of iron ruled higher in
| America than it does In Europe, by 50
! per cent, would you expect the people If
| Europe to melt down their pots and ket-
/ ties and send the metal here to be sold
! in our higher markets, provided they
/ could not get iron elsewhere to supply
/ the deficit? AS well may you expect 20
| see them loading ships with their silver
| coins, which are mere bullion in the
| United States, to be sent here to go in;O
/ the melting pot, and to be coined into our
I
| TO be sent abroad.
In such an operation the first loss would
/ be 20 per cent. Of the actual weight in the
| alloy that must be thrown away. The
! second loss would be the mintage due at
| our minis to be again duplicated at the
English mints when this silver should be
reshipped for recoinage there. The third
| loss would be the interest on the money
! thus employed, while it awaited trans
| portation; the delay Of making exchange,
and the delay of coinage here, and the
/ delay Of transportation and recoinage
in England. The fourth loss would be in
the weight of this soft metal, by abras-
! ion
The fifth and greatest loss would be that
of the rise in the price of silver in Europe
to supply the absence of the coins sent
on this fools errand" across the Atlantic
and back again to England.
|
Why has there not been "a silver dump"
on South America, to have British silver
coined into their legal tender dollars? Ie
the alleged silver dump would come with
free coinage to the United States, why has
it not gone to South America to purchase
| wheat and hides, silver mines and gold
mines, coffee and sugar and the luscious
fruits of the tropics? Nothing would help
that continent so much as to have the sill
yer they have sold to Europe dumped
| back upon them, and nothing would hurt
! Europe more.
In another part of my remarks I have
| adverted to the dependence of the eastern
hemisphere upon this hemisphere for sill
yer, and of our independence of them for
! gold, although they produce more gold
! than we do. We should be in dangerous
! dependence upon them for a gold supply
were if not for the assistance we get from
| out natural silver resources, and the fact
| that they are compelled to purchase il
from us to supply the demand of the arts
| and for coinage.
This fanfaronade about 1.-THE Gresham
law and about driving out" silver or
gold from one country to another is a thin
! device TO conceal the truth and to deceive
the friends of silver We have no balan-
| ces of trade to settle with the world:
and when gold leaves US to go abroad 1t
is to pay debts for borrowed money or
the dividends on stocks. or else it is
attracted to other countries where a profit
can be made by it's shipment, because
the price is higher there than it is here
1t is a commodity of trade and IL takes
the course of all other commodities
Both silver and gold are drawn to Lon
don, not driven OUT of the South Amer
lean states, to pay their balances of
trade, leaving them only paper money. at
discount of 50 per cent.
Chile has thus been forced to a gold
standard" but in order to enlarge the ap-
parent ratio between her paper money
and her gold, she has debased her gold
coin with alloy until So coin has only
$3.50 Of gold in it, She has thus put her
gold in prison bounds, to keep il from
going to London. And the other states
of South America are about to be driven
TO the same cruel alternative. II they
VIII follow the example of Mexico and
put an export duty on silver they will
soon share her independence and pros
perity. Her people will have some legal
tender coin left at home with which they
can do their work.
If 1t were not that our annual bal
ances of trade enabled us to keep some
of our coins at home, we would long
since have been in the same low condi-
ton of Chile, Argentine and other South
American states. London would have
drawn out our precious metals to pur-
chase our crops at London prices and to
supply her home minis and those of her
colonies with cheap silver. produced in
our mines and enticed away from us.
WHAT Is A CLASSIC.