The Monticellonian., 1895-05-24
THE GOLD STANDARD.
A Sound-Money Letter from John
 H. Inman.
Answering Queries from tho south-why the Depression Lasted so Long After the Repeal of the sherman Silver Law
 Confidence Again Growing.

| money subcommittee of the New York chamber of commerce has received the following communication from John Il. Inman:
 During the past year we have had many inquiries from the south asking 1 why the general depression lasted so long after the repeal of the sherman law. when it was promised that we would have better times after it's re- l peal. The answer is that there was constant fear, even after the repeal, in leading financial eenters that owing to the uncertainty of congress, this eoun- try would go on to silver basis, and those who took this view were pretty nearly right, as all who are familiar with finance know that We were on the verge of this very thing only three months ago; that is to say early in last | February, when the situation was gleemiest with cotton and other prod uets at their lowest, we were on tho verge of silver basis.
 With the immense crops maturing all over the south last fall, we would have had recovery then, but for the
 
 that we would go on q silver currency. What we were afraid of was that, when Mir. Cleveland sold the two lots of s50,- GOO, 900 bonds, he would say that he had done his duty and would leave the balance to congress. But when lie got into the month of Febru- ary and he sold the SG2. 900, GOO to the syndicate and assured the gen tlemen who went to Washington that he would sell as many more bonds as was necessary to keep the country on Il sound basis. we were assured that the finances of the nation were settled for at least two years, or at least dur ing his administration; and believing that we could elect hard-money can didate in 1896 felt that the country was permanently on sound money basis.
 Take cotton as an example; party of men who were quick to see future results looked over the situation at once, and feeling that the money ques- tion was settled for long time, made up their mind to go ea~ily into cot ton at 51a to 55s cents in the New York market. But for that sixty-twe- million bond transaction, however. the same set of men would not have touched cotton or any other com nodity, but simply kept their heads under cover; in this I am speaking from personal knowledge and may say that in my opinion unless the bond sale had occurred, or some such action taken by the government there would exist to-day throughout the country worse condition of affairs than we have had at any time and that cotton, instead of selling as it now is, at about cents in the New York mar ket, with prospects of a considerably higher price before January, would still be selling in the neighborhood of 5 cents.
 Ut is asked who ara the chief advo- cates of free coinage. Ask the mine owners in the west who wish to profit by the increased price of their product. It is fight between politicians in the south and west and the solid business men of those sections and the east. In the south we find large proportion of the conservative men in favor of sound currency, and my information sis that there are a great number of in- telligent farmers who take the same stand and many others who have not made up their minds on this question and will not do so until they have sufficient information to an- alyze it fully; and when they do. am of the conviction that they will vote on the side of sound money, it being clearly to their interest to do so.
 "As to the final outcome, thinl5 there is no question about it. Sound finance will whip in the fight. The politician who expects either to retain or ride into office on silver will na- tionally be showed under, and the sound-thinl1ing American people will win.
 Let us see who would be the gain CTS by the free coinage of silver. There would be practically none, ex- cept the silver miners in half dozen Rocky mountain states and the silver producers of Mexico. These few Rocky mountain states mined in 1899 and 1893 a yearly average of silver bullion worth S40,00o, oo0 in the mar kets of the world. If they could get free coinags of silver they would receive each year about s0,o0o, 900 sil- yer dollars for this same prod- uct; therefore, the miners of these few states would be benefited some thing like S40, 000 GOO per aunum. Mex ico in the same two years mined S34,- 000, ,o00 each year, two-thirds of which was sent into the United States and for which two-thirds they get S16,000, 900 annually. Whereas, under free coinage they would get 32,00o, GOO sil- yer dollars per aunum for this same product, so that the two sections would receive annually S56, 900, GOO more for their silver than they do at present. do not believe the south and central west will, when informed, wish to con- tribute by free silver law S56, 000, GOO to these miners, and we shall find in the end that they will not do it,
 "1o the inquiries, should any thing be done, I will say. first: The in- creased production of gold all over the globe is growing so rapidly from Hear to year that within a short time there will be more than ample gold L. do the should have state banks. Congress, ia my opinion, ought to pass u law IT.. moving the tax on circulation and per. hitting every state to have it's own banking laws, allowing state banks to issue circulation, thus affording elastic currency.
 Tn the outlook for the future, see | head sat-ae t4a5-i #f faf I4#4