Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-24
THAT BANNER IS RAISED.
tContinued From First Page.)


 different legal and authoritative meas
 ures of the same thing in use at the same time, as, for instance, a pound weighing sixteen ounces and a pound weighing eight ounces, or only half as much, and both declared by law to be legal pounds. l agree entirely with General Jackson s secretary of the treasury, who said;
 "fhe proposition that there can be but
 one standard in fact is self-evident" The proposition to establish and maintain
 two different measures of value to be in
 use at the same time. and to be applied
 to the same things at the same time,
 embodies physical and metaphysical
 abSurdity and thls is so evident that the
 ablest thinkers and writers upon the sub
 ject have been at last forced to abandon
 it. Prof. Francis A. Walker. one of the
 most distinguished bimetalists in the
 United States or in the world in a care
 fully prepared paper recently published,
 says:
 But one thing more remains to be said
 in this connection; that is. in reply to the
 allegation of the monometallist writers that the course of events in France which
 has been recited did not constitute a genuine case of bimetallism. If these writers may be permitted to impose their own definition upon us, their contention
 can to considerable extent be made good. What they say is, that France
 from 1903 to 1873 did not enjoy the con current circulation of the two metals, but only an alternate circulation. now of one and now of the other; and this. they
 declare. is not bimetallsm at all. There
 fore according to their view, there is no great historical instance of the success of bimetallism.
 The Argument Simpliied.
 'If, on the other hand we may be per mitted for ourselves to say what we mean and propose by bimetalllsm, the criticism in question does not touch
 our case at all We f1atly deny that bi- metallism necessarily involves the con current circulation of the two metals
 There is some reason to believe that the French statesmen of 1903 really expected that concurrent circulation would re- suit; but no bimetallist nowadays makes
 the concurrent circulation of the two metals in the same country a necessity of that system If it results only in es- tablishing an alternating circulation, the chief results of bimetallism will still be achieved as they were by the action of France"
 This is ineligible, for we can all understand how it is possible to have an alternating standard and circula- ton, sometimes gold and sometimes sill yer, and the monetary history of the world proves that this is just what hap pens whenever the two metals are freely coined in any country and made full legal tender. Values will always be measured by the kind of money in actual, circulation, no matter what the law may. declare and, therefore, if the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 should drive out gold and sub stitute silver and paper redeemable in silver in it's place, we should have single silver standard and actual silver monometallism. Instead of using both gold and silver as we do now in larger amounts than ever before in our his tory we should instantly eXpel the more valuable metal from the country and make the other the sole basis of our cur rency We have now practical bimetal- lism--the use of both metals as money; we should have then practical mono metsllism-the use of only one metal as money. This is neither speculation nor prophecy but conclusion based on facts established by the experience or all nations in all ages.
 In order to eliminate all irrelevant mat ter and simplify the argument allow me | to state exactly what the proposition | now pending before the people is: It is | proposed that the United States, without the cooperation or assistance of any oth-
 CT government shall provide by law mat all the silver bullion, or foreign silver coins, that may be presented at the hints by individuals or corporations, foreign or domestic, shall be coined, at the pup
 lie expense, into silver dollars, at the ra- tio of 16 to 1 with gold-that is, that six teen pounds of silver shall be consid- | cred equal in value to one pound Of gold, and the weights of the coins shall be ad- iusted accordingly-and that the coins so | made at the public expense shall be de- livered to the owners of the bullion, or | foreign silver coins, as the case may be. and all the people of the United States, | but nobody else, shall be compelled by 1 law to receive them as dollars of full l value in the payment of debts due to 1 them from their own fellow citizens and 1 from the citizens or subjects of other countries. It is not proposed that the citizens or subjects of other countries, l with whom our people trade, shall be compelled to receive these dollars in l their transactions with us. because that
 can be done only by international agree l ment, and our impatient free coinage 1 friends declare their determination to l proceed at once independentlYsof all oth- l CT governments All who are indebted l to us are, therefore, to have the privilege l of paying in silver while all to whom we l shall become indebted are to have the privilege of requiring us to pay in gold. l Measured by their purchasing power 1 in the markets of the world, which is the 1 only real test, the relative value of silver 1 bullion to gold bullion is about 32 to l; l that Is. it requires in all countries-silver l standard countries as well as gold stand | ard countries-about thirty-two pounds 1 of silver bullion to procure the same 1 quantity of commodities that one pound l of gold bullion will procure; and, there fore, the proposition to authorize the free 1 and unlimited coinage of silver into full l legal tender money at the ratio of 16 to 1 l means. under existing conditions, that l the intrinsic value of the silver dollar | shall only be half, or about half, the in- 1 trinsic value of the gold dollar. My own l opinion is that after we had passed 1 certain limit the more silver dollars we l coined the less they would be worth, be- l cause the imitation itself would still fur ] ther diminish their purchasing power. 1 Such Legislation by the United States
 alone would not reduce the value of the l gold dollar to any extent whatever, be-
 cause, as already stated, the value of that
 al oil