Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-05-29
FORECAST OF FREE-CO1NAGE

A FORECAST OF FREE-CO1NAGE.
The rank and file of the silver party
should lend an attentive ear to the
great speech delivered Monday night
in Kentucky, for Mr.. Carlisle is still
kept on a parity with other money.
The Secretary of the Treasury uses
none of the arts of the politician, the
trimmer or the time-server, but boldly
proclaims:-
l am in favor of the preservation of the ex-
istlng standard of value with such use of full
legaltender silver COINS and paper converti-
BILE into coin on demand as can be maintain
ed without impairing or endangering the
credit of the government or diminishing the
purchasing or debt paying power of the money
in the hands of the people.
The Secretary, having disavowed
gold recommendation, and, on the other
hand, having disavowed silver.mono-
metallism - contending that lone
standard of value shall be maintained
and that all forms of standard coins in
use shall be kept equal to that stand
ard in the purchase of commodities
and in the payment of debts"-plant
ed himself squarely on a platform of
honest money, whether it be silver,
gold or copper money.
But, as he proceeds, he elucidates
some questions which it is absurd for
any man to discuss dogmatically. IN
| less he is an expert in the mysteries of
| financial science, of which Mr.. Carlisle
is confessedly a master. The theory
has been spread broadcast by financial
| uuacks that the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1
would make money abundant for all,
and that the establishment of double
standard of value is practicable. But
Secretary Carlisle, with great fairness
and force, satisfactorily disposes of
this delusion in the following pregnant
| PASSAGE
| Free and unlimited coinage at the ratio of
| 16 to would at once establish silver mono
metallism pure and simple, for, as already
shown, the coins of the overvalued metal will
ultimately drive the coins of the other out of
| circulation and out of the country, even
when the legal ratio varies but a small frac-
| ton from the commercial ratio, but the ex-
| pusiOn of the undervalued coin from circu-
| latiOn would be instantaneous when its value
| is really double the value of the other. How
| long do you suppose the 1925, 100000 of gold
| in this country would remain here and be
used as money under such policy? The
| banking and other great financial inStitu-
| tons, which own and hold in their reserves
much the greater part of this gold, would at
| once sell it at a large premium for silver
about two dollars for one-or they would ex-
change it for silver bullion in the market at
| the ratio of about thirty-two rounds of silver
| for each one.pound of gold, have the thirty
| two pounds of silver coined into dollars at the
expense of the people, and with this cheap
money pay the demands of their depostors
and other creditors. The masses of the peo-
pie cannot do this, for they have no gold, nor
| have they any silver bullion to be coined at
| the expense of the government.
Nothing could more cogently dis
prove the fallacy of double standard
than the considerations thus forcibly
put. 1.-Two hundred years ago." said
| Garfield, ''all the intelligence Newton
and Locke could bring to bear upon
this subject resulted in proving the i'm
possibility of sustaining in equipoise
two standards of value-the one silver
and the other gold" The problem of
| fixing double standard is as absurd
| ly insoluble as that of souaring the cir
Gle or discovering perpetual motion or
determining an Understandable guam
tity. For no human ingenuity or
power can pre- vent the value of silver
from fiuctuating more than that of the
lustrous yellow metal, whose beauty,
ductility, malleability, purity and
power of resisting the rust of time have
made it in all ages the most precious
of metals in the eyes of the whole hu-
man family.
1t is usually assumed and asserted
by silverites that free coinage would at
once increase the prices of commodi-
ties, and they would all quickly get
rich. But, as Mr.. Carlisle shows in the
following sentence, their reasoning is
precipitate:-
The immediate effect of the adoption of
free coinage policy at the ratio of 16 to l
would be to contract the currency to the eX-
| tent of about $685., 900, 900 by the withdrawal
of that amount of gold from circulation and
| from use as the basis of notes and other forms
| of credit. Prices would not even nominally
advance. On the contrary, for the time being
| at least, this contraction would greatly reduce
| prices because 1t would alarm the country,
destroy credit and undoubtedly produce the
| most serious financial disturbance this coun-
| try has ever witnessed.
No man in his senses can doubt that
a financial storm of untold violence
would instantly follow the free coinage
ofsilver. Every depositor in the banks
would demand the return of his money,
| fearing that he would be ultimately
paid in deprecated silver There
would be a universal run on the banks,
and this, as the Secretary says, would
compel the banks to call at once for
the payment of all the notes and other
securities they had discounted for
their customers, and the contraction
of the currency would cause an increas-
ed demand for currency at the very
| time when it could not be obtained,
and thus the difficulty of the situation
would be increased by both causes"
How will the laborer and the farmer
fare while this financial crash is going
on? The laborer would, of course, be
instantly thrown out of work, as in the
panic of 1898. and would probably re-
| main unemployed for long time.
With the universal contraction, prices
of wheat, corn, cotton and all farm
products would necessarily decline
And business would obviously suffer
and wither under the leaden clouds of
depression.
But the climax of the solid and mas
sive argument is not reached until the
Secretary sketches the scene after the
financial hurricane caused by free
coinage has ravaged the country. The
post mortem situation is thus soberly
pictured
The prices of all things will be nominally
increased-that is to say, it will require a
greater number of dollars to purchase given
amount of any commodity than it required
before. There appears to be a singular delu
sion in the minds of some upon this subject
Many good people appear to think that in
some mysterious manner, which no one has
yet attempted to explain, the government by
legislation or otherwise, can increase the
prices of the things they have to sell without
increasing the prices of the things they have
to buy. y If prices are increased sole
ly on account of an increase in the volume of
circulation, or on account of depreciation of
the currency, without any change in the rela-
ton between the supply and demand of the
commodities to be exchanged, the increase in
prices will necessarily affect all things alike
If, therefore, the farmer or planter receives a
greater number of dollars for his crop of cot
ton or wheat he will be compelled to pay
correspondingy greater number of dollars for
his agricultural implements, for his groceries,
for his clothing, and, in short, for everything
he purchases.
But in reality the case would be still
worse for the farmer and planter, be-
| cause, as Mr.. Carlisle adds 1.-THE
farmer cannot control the prices of the
commodities produced by him to the