New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1895-03-06
Comments On Nj. Lin l's Speech.

Comments On Nj. lin rs Speech.
] Ex-C Congressman John Lind delivered
a free silver lecture before the Congre-
gational Club in ST. Paul on Monday
evening. The burden Of Mr.. Liind's ar
gument was that gold had appreciated
in value, and hence was not q just OF
equitable measure of values. It had APP
preciated largely because Of lis use as a
money metal, and silver had deprecated
because of its disuse as a money metal.
GAS it is the use IF an article which es
tablishes its value,' Z continued Mr.. Lind,
aif the law gives the same identical use
to two metals as coin. the bullion value
would not have any effect. The min
tage value would keep them at par
This might be true if the equal use Of
the two metals as coin were world wide
and universal. If both were given equal
mintage privileges at the rate of TX ! or
I6 to in all the nlints of the world it
is quite likely that the two metals would
stand at a parity with each other at that
ratio. But is Mr.. Lind prepared to say
that free coinage by the United States
alone would bring the two metals to sill
yer up to parity with gold2 Ititwould
not, then under the universally admitted
I"Gresham" law, the overvalued metal
would be driven from circulation and
the result would be practically monome-
tallism.
The detection Of. Mr.. Lind on the sill
yer question is only one of numerous in
stances showlng..the division in the Re
publican ranks on this question Of issue.
1t is useless to deny that there is a seli-
Gus silver split in the Republican party
and worse one in the Democratic par
ty. Unless our currency system can be
adjusted by non-part1san measure, a
readJustment of party lines seems ine-
v1table,, for it is an issue that will not
down, at any mans bidding. -Minnca-
polls Tribune.
Nothing is more remarkable than the
persistency with which the advocates of
free silver reitsrate their exploded mac
curacies of statement on which their the
cries are based. When John Lind says,
for example, that one-half our metallic
money was dropped out by the demone-
tization of silver in 1878, he is simply
repeating misstatement, the groundless-
ness of which, as applied to this country,
has been a Thousand times exposed.
When the silver dollar was dropped from
our coinage by the act of 1878. there had
not been silver dollar in circulation in
the United States for twenty years, and
hardly any for nearly forty years. And
the reason why they had gone out of cir
culation is decisive refutation of his
theory that if there was the same free
coinage of silver as of gold the demand
for it for money purposes would raise its
value or bullion price to the level of
that of gold. For exactly that condi-
ton of things had always existed in this
country since the first coinage act framed
by Hamilton became law. During the
whole period from 1892 to 1873 under
the regime of the tree and unlimited
coinage of gold and silver either the gold
Or silver coins were driven out of circ,1-
lation by the operation of Gresham's
law-that is to say, whenever the gold
was cheaper than silver on the existing
ratio of their relative money value, the
silver went out of circulation. When
silver was the cheaper, as happened a
few years after Hamilton's act went into
operation, the gold coins disappeared
from circulation. In 1884 the ratio was
changed from Is to / to l6 to l, iii or
der to bring gold back into circulation.
The change had the effect desired, but it
also had the effect of driving silver out
of circulation. Thus in the whole peri
cd of the so-called double standard, from
1892 to 1878, when the state of things
existed which Mr.. Lind claims would
bring silver~to par with gold, it was
the exact reverse hichhappencd. Eth
er the silver coins were worth more as
bullion than as money and went into the
melting pot of the silversmith, OF the
gold was worth more as bullion than as
money and disappeared from. the none
tary circulation. Eighty-one years ex-.
perience with the so-called double stand
ard demonstrated that it was delusion.
During all that time, except at those
brief intervals when the bullion value of
the two metals at the legal money ratio
was at mar we had either q sin,,lo o;lunr