The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-24

/ WHel InlS convention SDall nave
adopted these resolutions, adjourn and
go to our homes with the determine
ton TO stand by them. Let us organize
ourselves into a movement militant
and not quieScent for, believing as we
do, we would be recreant to our duty
If we failed at all times to let our
views be known. Let us nail our colors
TO the masthead and let the old ship
90 on her course regardless of the OBJ
! stacles that we may encounter, having
talth that with the truth as our guide
we Will reach our destination safely.
Gentlemen of the convention, we
should take heart at the fact that our
views are sanctioned by all the great
! people of this country outside of po-
litical life. Suppose we adopted the
Tree coinage of silver at ratio Of 16
to lit will bring about silver mono
metallism pure any simple. When the
simple issue is put before the people,
do not believe they you'd be willing
TO put this country on a silver basis -
After the selection Of G. c. Matthews,
associate editor of the Commercial APP
peal as secretary, committee on reso-
lutionS was appointed, one delegate
from each of the states represented be-
ing named.
Secretary of the Treasury John G.
| Carlisle was then introduced by Chair
man Catchings. When the distin-
I
front of the stage the audience rose to
its feet and cheered enthusiastically
for several moments. After quiet had
been restored the secretary spoke as
follows:
Mr.: President and Gentlemen of the
Convention:
L congratulate myself upon my good
fortune in having the opportunity to
appear before this large assemblage of
SOIIT h6Tn hIrcinaSc 7
ulate the people of the south upon
their good fortune in being able to
send here so many real representa-
tlveS of their great industrial and
commercial interests.
The proposition to revolutioniZe our
monetary system and thus destroy the
credit Of the government and the peo-
pie at home and abroad, violate the
obligations of all contracts, unsettle
all eXchangeable values, reduce the
wages of labor, eXpel capital from our
country, and seriously obstruct the
trade of our people among them
selves and with the people of other
countries, is one which challenges the
intelligence, patriotism and CONNER
cial honor of every man to whom it
is addressed. No matter what may be
the real purposes and motives Of those
who make the proposition to legaliZe
the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer at the ratio of 16 to l, these are
the consequences involved in their
scheme, and, in my opinion, they can
not be avoided if it should be adopted.
In no part of the country will the
consequences of such a policy prove
more injurious to the material inter-
ests of the people than in the undevel-
oped and progressive south.
Intrinsic Value.
In international trade, whether pay
ments are made in gold or silver. coins
or bullion, the actual intrinsic value
determines the amount of quantity to
be delivered, no matter what may be
the legal tender laws of the different
countries, even though they have the
same ratios of value between the met
ais within their respective limits. The
law of France, for instance, places a
higher value upon silver relatively
than is placed upon it by the laws of
the United States, the French ratio
being 151a to 1 and ours being 16 to l;
but if sixteen pounds of our silver,
coined or uncoined, were sent to that
country to be used in the payment of
a debt or in the purchase of commodi-
ties, it would not be accepted at the
ratio of 1515 to l, or at the ratio of 16
to l as compared to gold, but only at
about the ratio of 80 to l. Coinage is
free in Mexico and the dollar, full
legal tender, contains 377.17 grains of
pure silver, while our dollar contains
only 371.25 grains of pure silver; yet
Mexican silver dollars are sent into
the United States and other parts of
the world and sold at the price of the
bullion in them, about one-half their |
nominal or legal value in their own
country. 1t is the metal that fixes the !
value of the coin and not the coin that |
fixes the value of the metal.
Use of Credit.
The use of credit in the form of
bank notes, checks, bills and other |
evidences of debt has so increased in |
modern times that in all highly organ |
lied commercial communities the use !
of coin except in making change, has |
been almost entirely dispensed with. |
The percentage of coin already en-
ployed in conducting business in this |
is so small that 1t is almost |
so small in fact, that its |
disuse in our transactions would not |
be felt if we had a substitute for or a,
paper representative Of the subsidiary
pieces.
Although we have the gold standard
for measure of value in this country,
our actual stock of gold bullion and |
coin amounts to only about one-third [
of our actual currency condition of
affairs inconceivable a few centuries
ago. We have about $625, 100000; $780,
$50, S73 in full legal tender silver, $685.
SS1, 900 in old United States notes, $149,-
5S4,471 in treasury notes issued in the
purchase of silver bullion, S209719,S50
in national bank notes, and SIC, 199, 500
In subsidiary silver coin; making in
all 81, S04, 707,763, exclusive of'the minor
coins, and every dollar of this vast
of currency is kept equal in
value to the standard established by
law. This is the financial condition
which the advocates of free coinage at
the ratio of 16 to 1 propose to revolu-
-ionize at once by a change in the
standard of value, so that 1t would
-eouire about double the amount of
currency required now to perform the
same service in the exchange of COM
nodities. For a long time credit,
which constitutes by far the most i'm
oortant factor in our financial and
transactions would be
destroyed by the confu-
sion and uncertainty necessarily fol-
owing such a great and sudden
change to our monetary system.
Confesses His Inability.
SIT is contended by a large number
f the advocates of free coinage that
he effect of their policy would estab-
Ish what they call bimetalliSm and d
ouble standard. I confess my ina
,ility to understand what is really
meant by a double standard or meas
re of value; the idea is incomprehensi-
lie to my mind, because cannot con-