Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-06-21
+ Continued from Oh page.l

anyway that If we want other nations
o remOnetize silver we can compel them
70 do so more easily than we can per-
suade them. We are not Gripping our
selves when we remonetize silver. We
hIe arresting the evils produced by II
scanty supply of the medium of eX-
change; we are checking the downward
tendency of prices; we are giving en-
eerprise encouragement, youth chance,
he debtor hope AMI bestowing value
hnd use upon one of our largest pro-
lucts.
EXAMPLE ONLY NECESSARY.
Other nations will not leave us alone
to enjoy the advantages of Il double
standard, for we shall, in the language
#of the great Hamilton, present to the
world IA comparison of the benefits of
full with the evils of "A scanty circula-
tion..' Even England has not been easy
Tor content with her gold standard, for
her great prime minister, Dsraeli, said
"Our gold standard is not the cause of
our commercial prosperity, but the con-
Sequence of 1t. 1t served our purpose as
long as other nations chose to take or
give us silver at "A steady gold price; but
but from the moment our policy was
initiated in Germany in 1913, by dis
. carding silver, this country began suf-
fering IA loss which cannot be estimated.
Nor will the country which initiated us
with the fruit of its war with France
with success be benefited by it, 1t will
prove to be an incredible misfortune to
Its people, In fulhllment of the great
: minister's prediction England severely
feels the torture of the single gold
standard. and ermany-burdened with
disuess-is seeking to return to the
puuaI use of silver and gold
say again that an international agree
ment is not necessary. France for seven
ty years had her minis open to the free
Ecoinage of silver and of gold at the ratio
lob to /. When she closed her minis to
silver in 1874 she had $500, 100000 of
gold and 100000, 900 of silver in circula-
ton. The population of France was
then only 80 100000. and Its area one
seventh that of the United States. Dur
ing the time that France coined both
silver and gold at the ratio of l55 to | the
production of silver to gold in periods
fluctuated from to l-even from 30 TO /.
Even under such strained and eXtraordi-
nary conditions the free access to the
French minis kept the two metals in the
world at the value of their currency inn
preston or, in other words, their bull
ion and coin value were the same. The
period of the greatest tluctuatiOn of the
two metals was from 1903 to 1900, inclus-
i've. In that period there was produced
forty eight times more silver than gold,
and vet the tluctuation of the market
price of the two metals in that period
was intinitesimal: that is to say, the
ratio varied only from 1919 to ] to 1861
TO l. And again in the period from 1851
to 1874, when the relative production
was an average of & to /, the relative
to and never less than l5.30 to |.
Another fact which ought to go to
quiet the alarm of those who predict the
flooding of the minis with silver under
system of free coinage is that from 1903
to 1870 there was offered for coinage III
4 France two hundred millions more of
| gold than of silver. Even in the period
when the output was IS to l there was
. offered for coinage only seventyseven
millions more of silver than of gold.
. We have, too, an advantage that France
never had. All the silver and gold she
! coined was brought to her minis from
other countries. We are the greatest
producers OF both metals.
Let me say again to the bimetallists
who wait upon an international agree
ment that a mOney-uSing and debtor
nation like ours can, more safely than
the initial consent of other countries. If
our legislation in favor of the IemonetH-
alton of silver does not result in making
silver worth one-siXteenth of gold, then
. England and the other nations of Europe
will find it TO their advantage to help US
make silver more valuable. If they
don't, they suffer more than we do. We
cheaper gold by coming silver. They
car. make the silver which we offer them
more valuable by coming it also. In
other words, they would be more inter
ested than we in giving to silver the
debt-paying power our laws give to it.
Until human wisdom has devised some
other financial system than that new
recognized by the entire world, gold
and silver will continue to be used as
money. And so long as we are to use
metals as representative of value and
as an aid to exchange we cannot afford
to allow all value to be represented in
either nor rely upon one or the other as
the sole medium of exchange. The
quantity of either is so limited that the
demand for the one exclusively preferred
would tend constantly to appreciate it,
working not only injustice to the debtor,
but also by its apparent reduction OF
prices be constant check TO enterprise
and commerce.
Little Is gained IN the argument II We
cOncede 20 the gOld mOnometallists thai
falling prices benefit all alike unless We
also concede that hope is no factor il
initiating enterprises. encouraging in
dustry and exciting commerce. No mat
ter if the fact be that a bushel of whea
will buy as much of a commodity as tht
year before, if the fact be that it will no
yield to the purchaser as much in thu
j.. money of the land. The farmer will
measure his gains solely in the nomina
price he obtains, and will not patiently
resort to market quotations to determin,
the question of his prosperity. What il
true of the farmer is just as true of TIN
labOrer and every other producer-feel
ing he has less, he buys less. Fallin!
prices, therefore, affecting all bushes
operations. bring on "a kind of progress
i've paralysis.
SITUATION AS HE SEES 1T.
1t is the government approval of a Ger
tain commodity for money and its dec
laration that it shall be legal tende