The Monticellonian., 1895-08-02

Heretofore the issue among de- mocrats has been how much silver could be wisely coined into legal
 tender dollars, some insisting up-
 on limiting the coinage, while oth- CTS urged unlimited coinage, as is
 the case with gold. It is now
 whether any silver dollars shall
 ever again be coined. Most Of those who advocated the policy of limited coinage are now openly demanding the single gold stand ard, so that, regardless of the less important question of ratio, all sincere friends of silver are neces- sarily thrown together as oppos- ing forces It is evident that the ultimate purpose of the advocates of gold as the only money is to do more than establish the single gold standard. As shown by res olutions adopted by what is term ed the State Democracy of New York, representing the money power of that great city, 1t is pro- posed to go further than hereto fore in the overthrow of the exist ing system of finance. These res olutions denounee the system un- der which the republic has grown to its present proportions, demand d
 the retirement of tho S346,000, ,000 legal tender treasury notes, the stoppage of silver coinage. and the establishment of the gold stand ard, supplemented only by the issue of national bank notes. When that is accomplished, either by declaration of law or construc- ton of the treasuay department, and full control of the government is secured, it will be an easy step to issue s500,OO0,0O0 gold bonds and to declare, as is proposed, that the funded loan bonds out standing of s559,O0O,0OO due in 1907, while expressly payable in coin, are in fact to be paid or re- funded in gold. The effect of | these measures, if successful, can but be disastrous to all except bondholders and the money pow CT. The issue of the new per cent bonds, while perpetuating the national banking system, will in- crease taxation $20,000,000 annu- ally. It is apparent that the val ue of the old bonds will be greatly enhanced and the tax to pay them corr espondingly increased by such change of contract. The contrac- tion of the currency involved in the destruction of the greenbacks, denial of the legal tender quali- ties of the existing silver dollars and stoppage of further silver coinage. will obviously increase the value of gold and decrease the value of every other character of property. The reduction such policy will cause in wages and the returns from labor is incalcalable. The mint bureaus estimate on the total gold coin and bullion in the world at about s3,500,000,000, while in the United States the gold coin and bullion is only about $600,OOO, ,O00. This would only provide circulation per capita in the world of $2.96 and in the United States of $S.92 if
 the entire product were coined, with an increase each year, esti- mated by the gold product of last year, of only 10 cents per capita. This is manifestly insufficient to meet the needs of commerce. It is no answer 10 declare that un. der the proposed system the cir. culation of gold would be ade- quatly supplemented by bank
 notes for it is dangerous to rely
 upon them. In proportion as
 money is scarce the rate of inter- est is higher, and banks would not
 be disposed to furnish abundant supply and thus diminish their gains. That the measures to which 1 refer will be urged can not be doubted. The approach to them will be slow, and it will be, 1t the more austute leaders think it wise, but the purpose will be boldly avowed if indications of success should warrant. Always individuals and organizations have declared for them. The di- rection of the step is undoubted