Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-19
FROM GOVERNOR W. c. OATES
tcontinued From First Page.)

I pfeme court or the OnlteQ states, Wnlcn | Decision 1 think was wrong.
 You say that "no more silver is being | coined" That is only partly true. No | more silversdollars are being coined, but | the coinage of fractional silver still con | tinues, and we need more of that than | can be coined in a year. Let us have the | whole truth and not half of 1t. l think | that the coinage of the bullion in the 1 treasury into dollars as well as fraction | al currency should continue. l thought l last congress that all the seigntorage | should be coined and so voted. I am of 1 the same opinion now. All the other sii-i 1 yer bullion. though vast in bulk, is un- | der a lien for the redemption of the Sher- | man notes given in purchase of the bull l lion. The law should have made them | redeemable in silver coin alone, but 1t | was not so made. It was solely the work of republicans You blame Cleveland and l Carlisle because these notes and green | backs are not redeemed in silver instead | of gold. Suppose the holders refuse to
 take silver. There is no law. to compel 1 them to do so. I wish the secretary l would try it and refuse to redeem in gold | for ten days to see what effect it would | have. Cleveland and Carlisle believe that l gold would go to premium. Then l
 would have Uncle Eden enter Wall street | and sell gold by the million against the | gamblers and break them down if possi- l ble.
 | You next assert that ''the volume of money is being constantly contracted" | This is not strictly true. It fiuctuates and is far greater now per capita than 1t l was ten, fifteen or twenty years ago. If
 you read carefully what frequently said | in congress at different times, and in the l very speech of 1893, from which you | quote, you will see that have ever been
 in favor of a sufficiently large amount of l circulation to do the business of the en- 1 tire country free from stringency We | cannot have too much good money, but | I want no, nor am now in favor of, fiat | money nor an inflated currency and dol l lars of different value. You assume that | because I am not in favor of an inflated l silver currency that I am in favor of the | contraction of the entire volume, which l is an utterly unwarranted assumption on l your part.
 | You said because I contended that free l coinage will not put another dollar in | the pockets of the people that Governor l Oates differs from Alexander Hamilton | and Thomas Jefferson, who held that a | diminishing and contracting currency l was calamity to be avoided" Yes! l assert that free coinage at the ratio of | 16 to 1. when there is such a wide dis parity in the value of the two metals,
 would soon render it impossible to main-
 tain parity between the two as coined, l and whenever they parted company in value the gold would rapidly disappear | from circulation, which is now about | $63O O00, ,000-just about equal to the total | amount of silver, including fractional
 coins, and in my opinion would be likely | to produce panic by the withdrawal of l so much gold from active circulation; | and all the hints of the United States, if kept continually coining silver, could
 not replace in silver the quantity of gold | thus withdrawn in several years. This would, instead of making money more | plentiful, produce a remarkably severe | atringency.
 | Jefferson and Hamilton, whom you so | freely quote, when providing for the l coinage of the metals fixed the ratio at l their then commercial value, and Hamil | ton said in his report to congress, in | which Jefferson concurred, that the com | mercial value of the two metals was the proper ratio for their coinage. Knowing | this and having always been a friend to | silver voted for free coinage at the ratio | of 20 to l, when the commercial differ 1 ence was 28 to 1. did this in the hope
 that giving silver such consideration would, perhaps, reduce the difference sev | eral points and bring them upon a party | commercially. When that failed voted
 to resurrect the Bland-Allison act, which 1 would give us the coinage of $2,000, ,000 per month, which I then believed might 1 be kept on @ parity with gold. You then l said that Hamilton and Jefferson plant | ed the currency of both metals. Governor l Oates plants the country upon a. sole gold l standard with only so much silver as a l subsidiary coin as will not interfere with l the sovereignty of gold" There is not 1 one word of truth in this statement, I l never in my Review article nor elsewhere | advocated :" the single gold standard" nor did I ever advocate the making Of | silver only a subsidiary coin. You can | not find where I ever gave utterance to any such expression. never have ap- proved the dropping of the silver dollar | from coinage in the act of 1873, nor do believe that if all the members of con l gress had known of the omission, as they | would have known if they had been closely attentive to their duties, that the bill would have passed In that shape I | have always contended upon the floor of | congress and elsewhere that the silver | dollar was dropped from, coinage in the | interest of the bondholders. Thus the silver dollar was demonetized. It so re- mained for five years and then by the | act of 1878 it was revived and made a l legal tender and as much money of re- | demption as gold, and has so continued ever since.
 | The only difference between it and gold | was and Is In respect to the coinage-not l as to their legal status. The coinage of gold was made free by the act of 1873, and the coinage of silver was by the act | of 1878 to be coined on government ac- | count and limited to not less than $2,- | 100000 and not more than $4,000,000 per | month, When I voted for the repeal of | the purchasing clause of the Sherman law | I had no private understanding about it, az your editorial seems to inSinuate. I voted for it's repeal because the demo- cratic platform demanded 1t, and I be- | lieved it was right. I did then denounce the idea of a single gold standard and | do yet, and have shown you above one | law which maintains bimetallism and | makes the silver dollar legal tender in payment of dues, public and private. My | understanding. of the word bimetallism | does not relate to the question of coin | age, but to the maintenance of both | metals as primal money or money of | final redemption. That which is a legal | tender in payment of a debt is not de- | monetzed and a mere token of value. | but is money. The act of 1873 says that | the gold dollar is the measure of value. | A single gold standard advocate is him | who desires that gold be the only legal | tender. What difference does 1t make | if the law says the gold dollar is the l standard of value and that the silver dol | lar is its equal? There is then no differ ence in the legal status. but only in l privilege of coining.
 never have and do not now retract