The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-11

a
government has a system OF true bimet-
alliSm. IL is either fnonometallic of gold
or monometallic Of silver; and he proceed
ed TO state at length the action Of Ger
many. of the Latin union. of Russia. Of
Austria, and of other countries, which had
suspended the coinage Of silver and had es-
tablished their currency on a gold ba-
sis. He said that 1t is not necessary to
consider the reasons which induced this
action by all the nations of Europe, be-
cause We are concerned now about what
should be our policy from our present
surroundings. and not as to what should
have been the policy of other nations.
He said that a great many of the most
distinguished economic writers both here
and abroad, favor bimetallism on
principle, but he knew of no
one of these who advises his
eountrymen to attempt it without the CO.
operation Of other nations. He said that
he favOrs a double standard, but that il
cannot be obtained by Independent action.
He firmly believed that in the near fu-
ture other nations will declare for dOU-
bic standard,
He next took up the question of cheap
money, and said that the perniciOus doc
trine that government could create
money and make values is the source OF
all financial fallacies. The establishment
by the government OF legal ratio be-
tween two metals is only a recognition
by the laW-making power of a fact which
already exists, and he instanced the
change made in 1884 by this country in
the ratio from Is to to is to ], because
of the difference in the commercial value
of the two metals.
Mr.. duBignon quoted from Thomas JEFF
ferson to show that in his opinion the
propOrtionate value between gold and sill
yer is purely a mercantile question. He
said that If the government could create
money, there is no longer left any ar
gument in favor of sound currency, or of
any limit to the issue of currency. II
the government had this power, he SAID,
no excuse could be offered to justify the
collection of taxes, and no reason why
men should longer work for living. He
aI.a4 4 10 H.
experience there are ample instances IN
history to warn us from the fallacy. He
then proceeded to trace the history Of the
old English land bank act and the wild
scheme in France to base a currency on
the commerce of the world, of the assig
mats of the French revolution, and the
experience of the Argentine Republic
with its hypothecary or mortgage bank,
and showed that each resulted disastrous
ly and in several instances were fol-
lowed by bread riots and bloodshed- he
took up our own greenback craze, as he
termed 1t, and the subtreasury plan,
which, he said, is now universally ADAM
doned and laughed at.
The advocates of a cheap money, he
said, always allude to their faVorite cur
rency as the money of the people, and 70
those who abuse their views as capital
lists money lenders and gold bugs. He
said that anyone who advocates cheap
money for the people is the worse posi-
BILE enemy, the people could have; that no
portion of our population is so vitality
interested in sound and stable currency
as the masses of the people; that the con-
sumers of our currency are not the large
merchants who conduct their business on
credit as a rule, and who are always bor-
rowers from the banks, nor are they the
capitalists and gold bugs; that the people
who consume the currency are the
daily, weekly and monthly laborers, whose
earnings go into the savings banks and
into the insurance companies of the coun-
try; that If a law were passed depreciat-
ing the currency, and which would give
us 5O-cent dollars, the sufferers would be
the toiling masses Of the people, and the
widows and orphans of the land.
He said that the faVorite argument of
those who demand cheap currency has
always been the per capita theory. The
fundamental error in this theory was that
il COMPOUNDED circulation with distribu-
ton. He showed by statistics that the
per capita circulation in 1870, one of the
most prosperous years we have ever
known, was only $3.50, whereas in 1891 it
was $3.50, and yet the last named year
was one of unusual industrial and finan-
cial depression. He said the great evil
was not a small circulation, but an I'M
just and unequal distribution of what
was in circulation. He said that this was
brought about by the artificial conditions
tive tariff laws, whereby the money was
in the hands-of favored few.
are but so many huge savings banks, con-
trolling all the idle capital in this
country; that they hold ii in trust for their
policy holders, and that it is invested
secured by mortgages, and that the suf-
ferers of deprecated currency would
be the benefciaries of these policies.
He said that he is opposed to the free,
unlimited and independent coinage of
silver at 16 to l because he believes that
by a law as inexorable as the law of
gravitation, our gold would be driven
from circulation and our currency re-
duced to one-half Of its present value.
He said that our own experience has
taught us that cheap gold would drive
silver from circulation; that cheap silver
would have the same effect on gold, and
that both would disappear when a de-
preciated paper currency appears.
He is opposed to the unlimited coinage
of silver because 1t would revOlutionize
the standard of all values, by which
commodities are estimated as they pass
from ownership to ownership; that an
arbitrary reduction in the standard of
all length and weight would not be more
and unlimited coinage of silver because
it would be to make a public offer to
pay for all the silver in the world twice
its market value; that it would make
America the dumping ground of the dis
carded silver Of the world He is
opposed to it because he believes in the
principles of unrestricted trade with the
commercial nations of the world; that
our vast surplus products must find a
market in the crowded centers of Europe,
and from these such a policy would ex
clude them. He said that 1t matters not
how great or how powerful a nation
may be at it's boundary lines, all money
stands on its commercial value; that there
tokens and signs are meaningless, and
legal tender laws pOwerless.
He said that free and unlimited coin
age of silver would give us a par of ex-
change with Mexico, but with no other
country and that with those nations,
where our cotton goes and our bread
stuffs and dairy products are consumed,
our commercial relations would be seri-
ously disturbed, if not destroyed.
He said that he is not opposed to the
use and coinage of silver, but, on the con-
trary, that il serves a useful Office in our
monetary system. He said that ii should
be coined, but coined to the extent only
that it is absorbed in use; that whenever
the back flow of silver into the treasury
indicates that more is being coined than
the country would use, its coinage should
cease, and that power to stop it should
be vested in the Secretary of the Treas
ury. He said that he believes that the
legal tender power of the silver coined
should be limited; that when 1t was lin
tied il confined the silver to a subsidiary
and domestic use, and that this, in his
opinion, is its true office.
Mr. duBignon said that he believes that
radical changes in the national banking
system are demanded, and he spoke at
some length in favor of a repeal of the
10 per cent. tax on state banks. This, he
said, was explicitly demanded by the