Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-05-03
SOUND MONEY.
Ex-senator Edmunds Gives His
VieWS-ProbabIe Results of the
Present Silver Agitation.


"That was very plain at the time" he
answered. "For many years silver, save
as subsidiary currency, had been prac-
tically unknown in the United States.
without speaking by the official figures,
| should say that all told, only about s.
100000 of silver dollars had been coined,
and at that time not One-balf nor one
quarter of them we've in circulation. This
fact and the tendency of the greatest
manufacturing country in the world,
England, to 90 to a single gold standard,
led Congress to the conclusion that it
was the best thing for us to do. All the
people who are now raising such row
over the law, and who were in Congress
at the time, Senator Stewart and the rest,
were in favor of it"
u can remember" continued the eX-
Senator, 'seeing in the State of Vermont
where was born and brought up, mort
cages paid off in silver the money being
carried in bags and counted out, piece
by piece. thousands of dollars some
times; but after 1915, or thereabOuts, the
silver dollar disappeared and was an un-
known quantity. An incident in which
| was an actor will illustrate this scar
city and the lack of acquaintance by the
common people. A young man, with
whom | owned a pack of fox hounds, was
about to marry, and 7 was to be master
of ceremonies, as it were. He desired
to present the officiating clergyman
silver dollar as his gratlum for the SER
vice, and it devOlved upon me to procure
the coin and present it. We lived in
small town where there was no bank, and
it was only after a thorough search of
the place that | found solitary silver
dollar. 1t looked big and was exceed
ingly bright, but two or three days after
the ceremony a friend of the clergyman
brought it back to me to be assured that
it was not counterfeit.
The law of 1873, which demonetized
silver. changed the unit of value to a
gold dollar of % $40 grains"
WAS it generally understood at that
time, Mr.. Edmunds, that the law was in
tended to put the United States upon the
single gold standard in its financial oper-
ations?"
'Certainly. All the Nations with
which we do business, or most of them,
were going to the gold standard alone,
and the tendency OF all trade pointed to
that as the inevitable basis of values"
"Do you agree with Senator Allison
that the adoption of the gold standard
was a mistaken
81 do not. The mistake lies in the
fact that we have not stuck to it. The
whole trouble lies in the fact, which al
ways has existed and always will exist,
that people are in debt. If there were
! no debts to pay there would never be a
word said about the character of the cur
.ency of the country. Until human ma
| ture shall have been reconstructed, there
will always be the struggle to discharge
! financial obligations at the least cost II
a man bOrrows 800 this year, and, be-
ing farmer, must produce 100 bushels
| of potatoes to meet the obligation, if,
| when the debt becomes due, he can dis
charge it in currency that requires but
| 80 bushels to secure, he will be very apt
to use that form of money. The farmers
of Vermont know thGt if this year they
raise million more bushels of potatoes
than they did last year there will not be
such demand for them; that their crop,
bushel for bushel, will not buy them so
many barrels of flour or pounds of sugar
or pairs of shoes. So it is with gold and
silver, or iron and copper.
you might just as we'll attempt to fix
by law the relative value of iron and cop
per, without regard to the demand for
each or the amount produced of each, as
to attempt to fix the relative value of
gold and silver under the same condi-
tions. The United States doubtless
could coin silver and make it legal ten
der in accordance with the demands of
the day, but we could not trade with any
body else on that basis. All this does
not mean that silver should not be used
at; it is necessary as subsidiary coinage
for the transaction of domestic trade,
and will always be freely used for that
purpose.
Il am not opposed to bimetallism per
Sc, if conducted upon the same basis that
the fathers prachsed it. Increase the
amount of silver in the dollar or decrease
that in the gold dollar, so that they will
approximate each other in value, and
the objection will largely disappear.
But the disadvantages of that are Obvi.
ous-the shifting values would require
almost continual legislation to keep the
dollars at parity"
"Do you apprehend any serious results
from the present agitation?" was asked.
"Uness it be met by campaign of in.
formation and intelligence, many people,
who do not take note of circumstances
within their own observation and who
do not know the history of all similar
movements, will he led astray. Finding
nothing to refute the assertions made In
Ine SpeeCleS anu puDllChOlOuS VI IhO Sll'
yer propaganda, those to whom they are
addressed will conclude that they are
true. The duty of the patriot, especial.
ly the young patriot, is to engage in this
campaign. 1t can be conducted by
means of school district meetings and by
the issue of pamphlets-short, crisp,
printed in large type, loaded, so as to be
easily read by lamplight. Once the peo
pie Of the country, not the highly cul'
tured, but the ordinary men of average
intelligence and honesty, become thor.
oughly informed upon the subject
there will be no danger that they will &C
wrong. 1t is in the lack of knowledge
that danger lies.
''If the logic of the advocates of un
limited free coinage of silver at the ratio
of 16 to l be carried out" continued Mr.
Edmunds, 1--WE shall be face to face will
flat money, pure and simple. For if by
the legislative will 16 ounces of silver
can be made the equivalent of one ounce
of gold and endowed with legal tender
qualities, why shall not 10 ounces, o.
one ounce, have the same value given iti
What is to prevent the enactment of {
law that piece of paper stamped by th'
Government, This is a dollar, shall be ;
dollar just as % $40 grains of gold are
There is no sure stopping place unde
the logic of their arguments this side o