The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1895-10-17

a Congress pledged to the passage of
such law; the Prcsident-elect would not
take his seat until the 4th of the follow
ing March, and the Congresseect would
not convene until the first Monday in
December following the inauguration of
the President, and then it would probably
take six months before law could be
passed and put in force. In the mean
time the widest confusion would ensue,
Every bank and every holder of gold
would hoard it. Creditors everywhere
would enter into fierce struggle TO Sc
cure the better money in payment of
their debts. That debtor who would not
renew his debt payable in gold would be
driven TO the wall. American securities
would be forced upon the market. A gov
eminent which had borrowed gold dol
lars worth 100 cents for its people and
had then deliberately enacted a law
whereby it proposed to discharge its OBJ
legations in dollars worth 52A cents would
be discredited throughout the world Its
securities and the securities Of its citi-
zens would be everywhere discredited and
the rush that would be made would BE
irresistible.
As we are a government of the peo-
pie both people and government would
share the same fate. For years the in
vestors of money in the United States
have been taking their securities payable
in gold The banks have the gold today
very largely in their reserves. The great
life insurance companies, which have in
surance on the lives of the American
people amounting to seven billions of dol
lars have been for years collecting their
permiums in gold or its equivalent, and
investing them i'll gold assets. The cleo
ton of President and Congress pledged
to free coinage of silver would at once re-
suit in the Withdrawal of every dollar of
gold from the Treasury, in the payment
by banks of silver to their deposItors, in
the payment of silver by the life insur-
ance col-panics to their policy holders,
and in forcing on the market great guam
titles of property to be sold for debts pay
| able in gold. In the meantime all kinds
of business would he paralyzed, manu-
| factories would be closed, labor would
be discharged and we would have in a
most aggravated form all the adverse con-
ditons which existed during the panic Of
1898.
! The wit of man coHld not devise a
scheme better suited to place the prop
| erty of the country more absolutely at the
mercy of organized and aggressive CAPT
/ tai. If it was the purpose of it's advo-
Gates to create a moneyed aristocracy and
! race of poems out of the freemen of
America, more effective plan could not
be adopted than this Be it remembered,
my acknowledgements that an unstable
and fiuctuating currency always enriches
the few and impoyerishes the many.
Once disturb and derange the medium
of exchange and all will be confusion
and disaster. Such a arrangement took
place in England during the reign of
William and Mary, and the following ex-
tract from Macaulay's History of Eng
land shows what followed:
But when the great instrument of eX-
change became totally deranged pll trade,
all industry. was smltten as with a palsy.
The evil was felt almost daily and hourly
in every place and by almost every class
in the dairy and on the threshihg floor
by the anvil and by the loom, on the bill.
lows of the ocean and in the depths OF
the mine. Nothing could be purchased
without a dispute Over every counter
there was wranging from morning t
night. The workman and his employer
had a quarrel as regularly as the Sat
urday night came round. On n fair day
or on market day the clamors, the re
proaches, the curses were incessant, anC
it was well if no booth was overturned
and no head broken. No merchan
would contract to deliver goods withou
making some stipulation about the quail
ty of the coin in which he was to b.
paid. Even men of business were Otter
bewildered by the confusion into which
all pecuniary transactions were thrown
The simple and the careless were pillaget
without mercy by extortioners, whose de
mands grew even more rapidly than tn,
money changed The prices of the neces
saries of life, of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal
rose fast The laborer found that the hi
of metal which when he received it wa
called shilling would hardly, when h
wanted to purchase pot of beer or
loaf of bread, 20 as far us a sixpencc
But the ignorant and helpless were cruel
ly ground between one class which woul
3 give money only by tale, and anothe
, which would take it only by weight"
Gold the Money of Commerce.
Gold is the money of commerce; anC
whether we retain the gold standard 0
abandon it, we cannot conduct our fol
cign trade ON any other standard. 1t
the money of all the countries to whol
we sell the products of our farms. w
! neither export cotton, wheat, corn, mea
: butter or other farm products to III
silver standard countries 1t is not
matter of choice with us We are con
7 PEELED to sell our products to gold stan,
:, ard countries or 90 out of business III
: prices of our products are all, therefor
measured in gold. As it is now we measul
products in terms of gold not only in fo
> eign countries, but in our own. Our me
:, chal%s take into consideration only Il
rise and fall of the commodities the
buy and sell, and they are not Athlete
with any doubt in respect to their none
If we were on a silver basis, then OF
:, products would be purchased in silver al
= sold in gold, and as silver rises and fal
: in terms of gold like other commoditie
y there would arise an additional risk
y the merchant; and every additional ris
4 is another burden on the producer
:. the purchasing power of silver doll
+ compared with gold was 80 cents toda
q and cotton was worth cents per pour
Il in gold, the cotton buyer could not a
, ford to pay 16 cents per pound in s.
! yer, because by the time he delivered Il
a cotton the silver might have decline
~ to 40 cents, and the loss would be his.
Y This explains why manufacturers al
y merchants in silver standard countri