Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-06-09


 standard established by law, so that every man who receives a silver dollar or paper dollar in exchange for his products, or in satisfaction of debt, gets just as good dollar as the man who receives gold.
 This Is the monetary system and this Is the financial condition which the advocates of free coinage at the ratio of 16 to now propose to revolutionize at once by & change in the standard of value, so that the whole mass of circulation left for the use of the people would be reduced to about one-half the purchasing power it has now or, in other words so that 1t would require about double the amount of currency that is re- quired now to perform the same service In tho exchangeof commodities. But the con- summation of such a policy would produce results more farreaehing and disastrous than the moro reduction of the standard of value because, for long time at least, credit, which constitutes by far the most important fHctor in our financial and com merical transactions. would be substan- tially destroyed by the confusion and un- certainty necessarily following such great and sudden change in our monetary sys- tenn.
 But 1t Is oontended by large number of tho advocates of free e0inage-perhaps q majority of them-that the effect of thoir policy would ha not to abolish tho present. standard of value and substitute the single silver standard in its place, but that 1t would establish what they callbfnetalllsm and double standard 1 confess my ina bility to understand what is really meant by double standard or measure of value. The idea is tncOmprehensible to my mind because I cannot conceive how it Is possi- ble to have two different legal and author itative measures of the same thing in use at the same time-,as, for instance, a pound weighing l6 ounces and pound weighing 8 ounces, or only half as much, and both declared by law to bolegal pounds. agree entirely with General Jaekson's secretary of the treasury, who said, 1.-The proposi- tion that there can bo but one standard, in fact, Is self evident. The proposition to establish and maintain two different meas ures of valuo to be in use at tho sumo time and to be applied to tho samo things at tho same time, embodies q physical and meta physical absurdity, and this Is so evident that the ablest thinkers and writers upon the snhject haye been at last forced to aban- don 1t.
 Values will always be measured by the kind of money in actual circulation, no matter what tho law may declare, and therefore if the free end unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of l6to i should drive out gold and substitute silver and paper redeemable in silver in its place we should have 0 single silver standard and actual silver monometallism. Instead of using both gold and silver, as we do now, In larger amounts than evor before in our history, we should instantly oxpel the moro valuable metal from the country and make the other tho sole basis of our cur rency. We haFe now practical blmetallism -the uso of both metals ias money. Nc should have then practical mon0metallism the use of only ono metal as money. This Is ncithcr speculation nor prophecy, but Rconclusion based on facts established by the experience of all nations in all ages.
 In order to eliminate all irrelevant mat ter and simplify tho argument, allow mo to state exactly what the proposition now pending before the people is 1t Is proposed that the United States, without the co op- eration or assistance of any ether govern mont, shtGll provide by law that all the silver bullion, or foreign silver coins, that may be presented at tho hints by individuals or corporations, foreign or domestio shall he coined, ut tho public expense Into silver dollars, at the ratio of 16 to 1 with gold that Is, that 16 pounds of silver shall be considered equal in value to ono pound of gold, and the weights of the coins shall Do adjusted accordingl y-and that the coins so made at the public expense shall be dc- hverrd to the owners of tho bullion, or for eign silver coins, as the case may be- and all tho people of the United States, but no- body tlao, shall be compelled by law to re- ceirn thuin As dollars of full value in the paymcnt of debts due to thom from their own fellow citizens and from the citizens or subjects of other countries 1t Is not proposed that the citizens or subjects of other countries, with whom our people trade, shall be compelled to receive these silver dollars in their transactions with us, because that can be done only by inter national agreement and our impatient free coinage friends declare their determi- nation to proceed at once Independently of all other governments. All who are in- debted to us are, therefore, to have the privilege of paying in silver, while all to whom we shall become indebted are to have the privilege of requiring us to pay In gold
 Relative Values Of Gold and Silver.
 Measured by their purchasing power in tho markets of the world, which Is the only real test, tho relative value of silver bull Hon to gold bullion Is about 89 to 1-that is it requires in all countries silver stand ard countries as we'll as gold standard countries, about 8a pounds of silver bull lion to procure tho same quantity of com modities that ono pound of gold bullion will procure, and therefore the proposition to authorize the free and unlimited coin age of silver into full legal tender money at the ratio of 16 to means, under exist Ing conditions, that the intrinsic value of the silver dollar shall only be half, or about half, the intrinsic value of the gold dollar. My own opinion is that, after we had pass ed a certain limit, the moro silver dollars VIC coined tho less they would be worth, because the imitation itself would still fur ther diminish their purchasing power. Such legislation by the United States alone would not reduce theyalue of the gold dol lar to any extent whatever, because, as al ready stated, the value of that metal In commercial transactions all over tho world Is estimated according to its weight and f1neness and will continue to be so estimat- ad and aancnnnantly the only way In