The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1895-03-13
Some Facts About Finance.


of the newspapers are talking about a
silver basis That is, they say that il
the treasury should default in gold pay.
ments, the country would be on silver
basis What do they mean by that?"
The newspaper editors who make such
! statements as the one quoted by our cor
respondent do not know what they
mean. Without reflection they adopt
the declarations they find in the eastern
organs of the gold gamblers The state
ment that we should go to a "silver
basis" in the event Of the suspension of
gold payments is the same as saying that
the premium on gold would be 200 per
cent-that a gold dollar would be worth
two standard silver dollars. What editor
or newspaper reader is ignoramus enough
to believe that?
During the war, when neither silver
nor gold was in circulation, and when
the country was on greenback basis,
the premium on gold never reached
more than 60 per cent premium, and
this in the face of the fact that the gold
exchange was in full operation, and that
the Wall street gamblers had the entire
stock cornered. II there had been no
law making customs duties payable in
gold, the premium would never have
reached 10 per cent.
Our correspondent will find that every
argument employed by the agents of the
gold gamblers and the cuckoos against
the reconciliation OF silver is based on
sheer assumption and on brazen denial
OF the facts of history. For instance the
statement is frequently made that bmet-
alism is an impossibilty Mr.. Carlisle
himself, after his official conversion to
gold monometalism, declared that he
could never understand what was meant
by the double standard. And yet all he
had to do was to turn to the financial
history of France, there to discover that
for seventy years that government held
the two metals together, both as money
and bullion, at the ratio of l54 to ].
The fluctuations were never more than !
per cent and these were fluctuations in
rates OF exchange. Gold at this moment
commands premium of 4 of per cent.
when it is bought in the open market
and yet this fluctuation from par value
has no perceptible effect on the market.
Another statement our correspondent
will often see is that gold is the standard
OF civilized countries, while silver is the
standard OF the nations that scufiie about
on lower level. Is it true, then, that
the people Of the United States were
never civilized until after 1878? Up to
that date silver was our sole unit of ac-
| count. The minis were open to gold,
but gold and all other commodities were
valued in terms OF silver. A dollar
meant silver dollar and ten dollars in
gold meant an amount of the yellow
mental sufficient to exchange for ten
silver dollars.
Is it true, too, that, until 1870, Great
Britain was the only civilized nation in
Europe? Up to that year, no other
European nation had gold stand
ard, and Germany had the single silver
standard. Was Germany with the sim
gle silver standard on level with China,
India and Mexico so far as her civiliza-
ton was concerned? To ask these ques-
| tons is to blow away, as with breath,
the imbecile argument that gold is the
money Of civilization while silver is the
money of barbarians.
Our correspondent will also note that
there are constant illusions to the small
purchasing power Of the Mexican dollar
as compared with the American silver
dollar. The argument that the Ameri-
can dollar is as good as a gold dollar
while the Mexican piece is only as good
as silver dollar ought to open the eyes
OF sensible men to the real state OF the
case. The Mexican dollar is worth now
Just what it was in 1879. The value OF
the peoples products has not deprecated
in Mexico. Whereas by the fiat Of the
|
dollar has been made to appreciate along
with the gold dollar. Our silver dollars
are not redeemable in gold under the
law, and If they were that fact would not
help the case at all. We have not gold
enough to redeem the treasury notes OF
1890. All the available gold is in the
hands OF comparatively few gold gamb-
lers. They have it safely cornered, and
in order to get it to keep up our ruinous
pretense Of gold payments we are COM
PEELED TO borrow it at rate OF interest
higher than any nation or any reputable
municipality is compelled to pay.
The people everywhere are opening
their eyes to the truth The Constitution
has been preaching for so many years =
Atlanta Constitution.
knights Of the Maccabees.
4 mi ~ l.. ii