Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-04-24
"HOrse Sense"

'sHOrse Sense"
Under this heading, the st. Louis
Republic thus discusses the money
question in favor of bimettalism with
a parity of values of the gold and silver
dollars
Mr.. Bryan of Nebraska addresses to
the President a letter in which he de-
clares that he is for free coinage OF
dollars containing 25.S grains of gold
and of dollars containing 412.5 grains
of silver
Then he classes as gold monometal-
lists all who do not agree with him.
Hold on, Mr. Bryan. There is a
great body of sensible men, perhaps
more numerous than either the 16 TO
forces or the gold standard believers,
who remain where their forefathers
stood in 1892 when the coinage of Uni
ted States dollars began, and where
jackson and Benton stood in 1884
when the ratio, was altered to more
nearly fit the commercial or exchange
values of the two metals.
These men are opposed to gold mon
ometallism and to silver monometal-
lism.
Their minds reject the chimerical
proposition that the United States,
acting alone, can restore the CONNER
cial relation of silver to gold which 1t
took the United States, France. Bel
GUM, Germany. Austria and India to
sustain. Reasoning about the relation
of metals, they hold that if demonetiz
alton in the United States deprecated
the value of silver, cessation OF coin
age, or demonstration, must have
proportionately deprecated the value
in all those countries and therefore IN
the world. Going little further, they
see that the United States alone can
not restore the value of silver to any
greater extent than the action OF the
United States, measured alone, was
instrumental in lowering its relative
value. Proceeding, they admit that,
entirely apart from anything our Con
gress did in 1878, silver has been lower
ed in exchange value and that we must
reckon with the fact of lowered ex-
change value, which we are not re-
sponsible for, which we cannot control
and which would be the same-to the
extent of its being consequence OF
the action of other nations-if we had
been coming silver freely all the time.
1t would be unreasonable to ask that
free coinage should do more than re-
store the actual unit of value-which
some people absurdly confuse with
unit of metallic weight-as it existed
prior to 1873. No honest debtor could
ask more. No bimetallist ever thought
of arguing for more.
Now If the money laws of other ma
lions, affecting the play of demand and
supply, have altered the exchange val
ue of the metals, 412.5 grains OF stand
ard silver do not represent in wheat OF
cotton or anything else what they rep
resented in 1878. To be sure, wheat
and cotton have fallen in price in
something like the proportion OF the
fall in silver. But coin has not. Wages
have not. Land has not. Horses did
not until electric and cable cars dis
arranged the market. So 412.5 grains
of silver are not, in measuring any
staple products, the same unit OF val
ue they were in 1878. The laws OF ma.
tions have lowered their value, not
oniy as to gold, bur as to everything
Observing these plain business facts
and thinking about them as Americans
usually think about Obvious business
facts, the vast body of men whom Mr..
Bryan ignores are in favor of the free
coinage of silver at ratio which will
represent commercial values justly,
which will restore the unit of value as
it really existed before 1873 and which
will not be dictated by combination
of Greenbaekers and mine owners.
Horse sense goes a long way in
America. We don't want any more
panics. We want business to feel that
it will he safe from reckless and ire
sponsible legislation for few years at
least. We know that unless dollars
are moving it doesn't matter whether
there are any dollars or not. And in
restoring stable measure of values,
or standard of payments, we want to
proceed so that we may avoid alarms,
crashes and commissions.
Mr.. Bryan must count in the horse
sense Americans.