Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-05-13

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[ on Saturday night Richard p. Bland COW
cred three points that have been in dis
pute FOR a generation between the gold
monometallists and the double standard
advocates. His statements are full of
fresh light.
XIV
~ have no interest whatever in the
states producing the precious metals, and
no sympathy for them beyond the inter-
eat and sympathy have in our common
country. If the restoration of silver we're
a mere local question affecting you alone,
you would indeed be helpless; and if the
restoration of silver benefited you to the
detrlment of the country, you would have
no right to ask it. The losses you silver
producers have sustained on account of
the demonetlzation Of silver are not to be
compared with the losses of the farmers
of Missouri in the fall of prices of farms
and products of the soil, consequent, as
we believe, to the demonetization of sill
yer. In 1873 the value of one acre of the
products of wheat, cotton, corn, oats and
hay was S15.75; in 1898 it was worth $S.15,
a decline of nearly As per ceLt, and the
decline continued during the next year.
If American farm products had sold in
1893 for the prices of 1873 they would
have brought 81 $1,5O0,0O0,000 more money.
This shows loss to the American farmers
on one years product of more money
than the total value of the whole silver
output of the United States from 1873 to
1898. If we take the whole of the farm
products of Missouri, no doubt this state
has lost annually in falling prices, in con.
sequence of silver demonstration, at
least as much as the whole silver output
of Colorado annually. It may be said
that the prices of all the products of the
soil, the factory and the mine, and the
products of labor generally, have suffered
in the same ratio"
**x
"From the passage of our first mint act
in 1892, until the demonstration act of
1878, the standard silver dollar, 81 a
grains pure silver, was the unit of ac-
count or standard of value. The amount
Of pure silver in this dollar was never al
tered, whereas the gold dollar had been
twice changed. For over eighty years,
and up to 1873, the standard silver dol
lar, as now coined in pure silver, was the
unit of our coinage! The act of 1873 was
entitled as follows: AN act revising
and amending the laws relating
to the mints and the assay offices and the
coinage of the United States" This act
contains in all sixty seven sections and
deals with the management of the mints
and assay Offices. The title of the act
and the contents indicate the sole pur-
pose of the act to be to amend the de-
tails relating to the management of the
mints and assay Offices and the coinage.
There is nothing whatever in the title of
the act giving notice that the purpose of
the act was to displace this old silver
unit and to put in its stead the gold dol
lar as the unit of value; nothing to indi-
cate purpose to prohibit the coinage Of
the old silver unit that had had the right
of free coinage at our mints and full le-
gal tender from the foundation of the
government up that time. Notwithstand-
ing the act contains sixty-seven sections
in all, there was no important change in
the law relating to the mints and assays
Offices and the coinage, excepting that
part prohibiting the coinage of the
standard silver dollar and substituting the
gold dollar for the silver dollar as the
unit of account"
x**
"Immediately after the election of Mr..
Cleveland the anti-silver forces of the
country organized for the purpose of &C.
curing the repeal of the purchase clause
of the so-called Sherman law. The bank
ers and bondholders of this country,
aided and supported by the bankers and
bondholders OF Europe, commenced raid
ing the treasury gold and deliberately set
to work to bring on stringency in the
money market, and to raise the hue and
cry against silver as the cause of string
ENJOY. The money changers of England
induced the government to suspend the
free coinage of silver for India. This
was done early in the summer of 1898,
and evidently for the purpose of affect
ing legislation in this country on the sill
yer question. No sooner had the British
government suspended free coinage Of
silver in India than this fact was seized
upon by the gold standard people ip this
country as further excuse to make war
upon silver here. This war upon silver
caused great CONSERVATION throughout
THIS country ana the world.
ITO give further OBJ ject lesson, as it
was called, to teach the people the bad
effects of silver coinage, the banking i'll
stitutlons of England and Of this country
began systematic process of boarding
money, drawing In their loans and refus-
ing advances to their customers, thus
precipitating what was called-and pro-
perly called-a 'bankers' panic Prob
ably 1t was not intended to bring about
such severe panic as ensued; but the
people generally became alarmed, not
because they we're afraid of silver money,
or that they distrusted our money in any
sense, but, on the contrary, in their eager.
ness to possess their money and to hold
u, they made run on the banks, with
drawing deposits, showing that it was
the banks they distrusted, and not the
money of the country. These runs upon
the banking institutions caused many of
them to fail; a widespread and disastrous
panic eDsued. The object lesson was
now complete. England had done her
part in stopping the coinage of silver in
India. The banking Institutions of this
country and the eastern metropolitan
press had terrorized the people into
general panic.
"The friends of silver predicted then
precisely what has taken place. They
predicted a great appreciation Of 2old,
. depreciation of prices, hard times and
business stagnation as the result of sill
yer demonetisation. These things have
come TO pass"
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