The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1895-08-09
;wo and one-half per cent!

So scarce is silver that SPECTATORS
are cornering Mexican dollars. Says
the American Banker:
The recent scarcity of Mexican dol
lars in the market is explained by the
news that a syndicate of French bank
ers has succeeded in picking up lot of
| this silver, valued at about $500, 900,
which is being held awaiting some
movement in the market, as the de-
mand may be effected by the Chinese
loan negotiations"
Assuming that the population of the
United States increased at the rate of
per cent per annum and the world S
production of silver remained station
airy at Se15, DOC, 600 each year, it would
take seven years to coin $50 per capita.
In 1851 this country coined at its mints
nearly 50 per capita of gold In ten
years, 1s49 to 1853, it coined about $50
per capita of gold. If we could stand
that much coinage then, we can GER
tainly stand that much now.
OF course, English and European
silver coins would not come here for
coinage, because they are already at
par with gold in their home countries
at ratio of 15L to /. And if the
United States absorbed the total
worlds production. the 500, 600. 600 peo-
pie now on a silver basis would soon be
reduced to a condition of hopeless
| bankruptcy. And what would the
world do for silverware? 1t is extreme
ly doubtful if the United States would
receive a single ounce Of foreign silver
for coinage at her minis. Again ask:
| 'Why should the silver dollar be worth
only fifty cents?'
'Fifth-Becausea all our paper money,
becoming under the above conditions
redeemable in silver, would fall to the
| same value as the silver dollar. Thus
free coinage would involve the loss of
all our gold money and the reduction
by one-half of the value of all our
other forms of currency, which would
be equivalent to a contraction of about
60 per cent. in the present volume of
circulation medium, the most sweep
ing monetary revolution in history"
AIR. Clews and his ilk know that
this statement is pure bosh, and they
have tested it to the tune of about x12,-
600, 900 profits The last batch of
United States bonds were made paya-
BILE in 'coin," and are, therefore, paya-
ton. And yet they commanded big
premium in England! There is no
good or valid reason. or argument ad-
vanced to prove that the silver dollar
would not be worth as much as the
gold dollar, if the United States were
to accord to silver the privilege of I'M
restricted coinage at the ratio of 16
to /.
''Sixth-Because, if it be true, as the
silver advocates claim, that the volume
of purchasing power of the currency
controls prices, then the enormous
contraction of the volume and the
value Of the currency would force a
corresponding decline in the price of
all products and also in the rate of
wages"
A.-Consistency, thou art a jewel.
Note Mr.. Clews' wonderful and thrill
somersault. How can it be possible
that if the number of units be reduced
and the exchange value of each unit
be reduced SO per cent, that, never
theless, the aggregate purchasing
power of the total volume of money
can be SO largely increased as to 'force
a corresponding decline in the price of
all products?' Mr.. Clews is either
fool, or else he is a knave and thinks
the people are fools.
What then becomes of the ''sound
money" argument, that free coinage
of silver would be reputation of one
ultimately paid in products, not with
money. But Mr.. Carlisle, in his cele-
brated speech. squarely contradicts
Mr.. Clews by asserting that prices.
measured in silver dollars, would
double. Said he:
IAN actual increase in prices result
ing from an increase in the volume of
sound money in circulation is quite
different thing from a nominal increase
of prices resulting from the use of
deprecated currency, and no argument
upon the subject of price can be sound
that does not recognize the distinction
between them. The proposition of our
free coinage friends is to double prices
nominally. but at the same time to
have them paid in money intrinsically
worth only one-half as much as it was
before the prices were doubled, and
confess my inability to see how this
would help any body"
We presume that neither of the gen.
tlemen would care to deny the asser-
ton that if commodities have double
price they would pay double the
amount of Indebtedness they pay with
present prices.
observation-disclosures a reduction of
one-half. more or less, in the market
value of properties would correspond
ingly diminish the means from which
debtors would have to pay their debts,
and the outcome would therefore be
universal bankruptcy and panic, the
ruin of the banks, the destruction of
the assets of the savings banks. and
convulsive interruption of industry
arising from the inability of the peo-
pie to supply their wants."
A.-The answer to reason six an
swers this Mr.. Clews is unique and
solitary in his position. The stereo-
typed wall of the gold-bugs has been
that free coinage of silver would
double prices of commodities and scale
down all Indebtedness one-half But
Mr.. Clews is running bluff and tries
to make the people believe that free
coinage would cut prices in half and
double all forms of Indebtedness. Get
together, gentlemen, get together. In
his debate with Coin Harvey, at Chi
cago, Prof Laughlin said:
The justice of to-day permitting
IL