The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-12-06

Il he Il AC1ANANAAN A-A~'-~~-t5~ -
saith Congress was written in his
usual lucid and happy style, and
shows a breadth of information on
subjects treated. The message is
devoted principally to foreign rela-
tions and the currency, though its
author did not fail to show that he
is as much opposed to the republi-
can doctrine of protection as he has
always been. 1t is evident that no
attempt will be made to plunge this
country in a war without just
grounds for doing so, therefore the
predictions of his enemies that he
would attempt to bring about hos
tilities between this country and
England to secure a third term is
proven to be unfounded. As the
means of preventing drains on the
gold reserve, the President recon-
mends the retirement of greenbacks
and Sherman notes, and in order to
prevent a contraction of the curren-
CIV, national banks be allowed to is
sue notes to the par value of bonds
deposited, and that the tax on the
circulating notes be placed at one
fourth of one per cent, A part OF
the message is as follows:
Those who believe that our indie
pendent free coinage of silver at an
artificial ratio with gold of 16 to
would restore the parity between
the two metals and consequently
between the coins, oppose an unsur-
ported and improbable theory to the
general belief and practice of other
nations, and to the teachings of the
wisest statesmen and economists of
the world, both in the past and
present, and what is far more con-
elusive, they run counter to our
own actual experiences. Twice in
our earlier history, our lawmakers,
in attempting to establish bime-
talic currency, undertook free coin
age upon a ratio which accidents
varied from the actual relative val
ues of the two metals not more than
8 per cent. In both cases, nOtwith-
standing greater difficulties and cost
of transportation than now exist,
the coins whose intrinsic worth was
undervalued in the ratio, gradually
and surely disappeared from our
circulation, and went to other cOun-
tries where their real value was bet
ter recognized. Acts of congress
were impotent to create an equality
where natural causes decreed even
a slight inequality. Twice in our
recent history have we signally fail
ed to raise by legislation the value
of silver. Under an act of con-
gress passed in 1877 the govern
ment was required for more than
twelve years to expend annually at
least S24, 1000, 900 in the purchase of
silver bullion for coinage. The act
of July IA, 1890, in still holder
effort increased the amount CT sill
yer the government was compelled
to purchase, and forced it to become
the buyer annually of $4,000, 900
ounces, or practically the entire pro-
duct of our mines. Under both
laws silver rapidly and steadily de-
clined in value. The prophecy and
the expressed hope and expectation
of those in the congress who led in
the passage of the last mentioned
act, that it would reestablish and
maintain the former parity between
the two metals, are still fresh in our
memory.
In the light of these experiences,
which accord with the experiences
of other nations, there is certainly
no secure ground tor the belief that
an act of congress could now bridge
an inequality of so per cent between
gold and silver at our present ratio,
nor is there the least possibility that
our country, which has less than
one-seventh of the silver money in
the world, could by its action alone
raise not only our own but all silverto
its lost ratio with gold. Our attempt
to accomplish this, by free coinage
of silver at ratio differing widely
from actual relative values would be
the signal for the complete depar-
ture of gold from our circulation,
the immediate and large contraction
of our circulating medium and a
shrinkage in the real value and mon
etary efficiency of all other forms of
currency as they settled to the level
of silver monometallism. Every
one who receives fixed
salary and every worker for wages
would find the dollar in his hand
ruthlessly scaled down to the point
of bitter disappointment, if not to
pinching privation.