The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-15
The Mempbis Re.oIutIoD.

.
Z Memphis that Is IN accordance with the
+ facts. and no attempt was made by the
! speakers 10 show that any one OF them is.
I The reason why the cause OF silver has so
| little weight with thinking men is that 81
/ is impossible to show that it Is founded on
, Justice. reason or good policy. The insin-
ceTity Of the Memphis sEverites crops out
ali through their resolutions. They make
misleading assertions for which they have
no authority. At the outset they declare
that universal experience has demo nstrat-
ed that the joint use Of both silver and gold
coin as money constitute the most stable
standard of value" and that the "fun
amount of both metals is necessary as a
medium of exchange"
What are the facts? England. after 900
years experience found It impossible TO
maintain gold and silver as the standard
and in 1916 abandoned the free coinage Of
silver. The two metals made most unsta-
bic standard. The other European nations
followed England. This country ceased 10
coin the silver dollar in 1873 because it was
impossible to keep gold and silver coin on a
parity. The two had never circulated on
parity. The country practically adopted
the gold standard in 1881. and has had that
standard ever since Before 1894 silver was
practically the standard. To-day. all the
great commercial nations-the nations
which are the most proeressive-have the
gold standard, but they use vast amounts
Of silver money. All the less progressive
ana less enlightened nations such as China
and Mexico have the silver standard. The
inference which the silverites would have
the people draw from their Memphis reso-
lutions is that under their scheme gold and
silver coin would circulate on parity.
They don't dare 10 say they would. how
ever because they know they wouldn't
Their scheme would give us nothing but
silver-sflver money that would rank with
that Of Mexico and China, the wage earn
ers OF which countries are in the depths Of
poverty and degradation.
Again, the Memphis silverite resolutions
say that the demonstration of either gold
or silver means an appreciation in the val
ne of money, and a fall in the prices of
commodities That is bold assertion
which is not susceptible of proof.
Silver was demonetized in Eng
land in 1916 and since that
time England has made the prices for our
cotton, wheat and other products of which
we have surplus Did this act of Eng
land cause the prices of our products to
fall? If so, why have we just discovered
1t? In the 50 years that have elapsed prices
Of wheat and cotton have risen and fallen,
sometimes being very high and sometimes
very low but until this silver craze crop
ped out nobody suggested that the demone-
tization of silver by England had caused
the prices of the products she purchased
from us to fall. The act of 1873, about which
there is so much controversy had no effect
on prices as far as anybody knows, and mo-
body thought of asserting it had until
the overproduction of wheat and cotton
gave the silverites an opportunity to say
that it caused prices to fall But, If what
the silverites say is true. namely, that the
decentralization of silver has caused the
prices of commodities to fall why is it that
prices have fallen in countries which have
The Memphis resolutions say. that 1.-THE
pauper and the plutocrat are the twin
children" of the gold standard. The infer
ence from this is that wealth would be
more evenly distributed under the silver
standard which the silverites propose shall
be established. But what are the facts? In
the silver standard countries there are
few very rich men and the great mass of
the people are virtual slaves, barely able
to earn enough to keep body and soul to-
gether Is that the condition to which the
silverites would like to bring this country?
That Is the condition to which we would
come If we should adopt the silver stand
ard.
If the silverites were sincere in what
they say In behalf of bimetallism, they
would favor the free coinage of both gold
and silver at their commercial ratio. They
don't favor anything of that kind how
ever. They favor ratio that would keep
gold out of the mints-that would give us
only debased silver money. &