The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-19
Reasons For Opposing Free Coinage

I
The twenty-one reasons why. this coun-
/ try should not have Immediate free coin
| age at the ratio of 10 to / follow:
1.-The standard of value should have
the highest degree of stability in the con-
ditions affecting itself. This gold and
silver has not.
2-Where the standard of payment is
comparatively stable, like that of gold,
exchange of goods is practically made
without the use Of gold except for very
small fractions. Sixty thousand million
dollars of values were exchanged by
clearings in the United States in 1898 with
almost no gold used.
Stree coinage at 16 to l is silver mono
metalliSm.
with free coinage of silver at Is to
there IS a present premium OF sixteen
ounces of silver for melting every ounce
Of gold coin, therefore gold would disap-
pear as money.
duce a depreciating and varying stand
ard like that of Mexico and India, and
our trade would be equally unstable
with theirs.
Free coinage at 1s to 1 would largely
reduce, if not cut in two, the value of
all savings deposits. building loan de-
posts, life insurance and the like.
S-The direct evils of free coinage
would be largely escaped by bankers and
shrewd business men, and fall upon the
mass of the people, e., wage earners,
salaried employees and persons Of mod
crate income.
9-Under' free coinage of both gold and
silver in the United States we have al
ways had an alternating standard, either
of gold or silver.
1OGGold has been the standard for
prices in the United States since about
1884, except in the greenback period, 1861
to 1879
1.-THE production of gold since 1850 has
been the greatest in the history of the
world.
i2-The most enlightened nations of the
world have chosen gold as the ruling
standard
Wages in Gold and Silver.
1S-Measured by wages, gold has not
only not appreciated in value in the last
twenty years, but has deprecated.
14-Wages in silver-using countries are
lower both in money and purchasing
power than in gold-using countries.
16-Any one government alone cannot
rehabilitate the value of silver.
Exchanges in price of cotton IN recent
years have been caused by production
out of proportion to consumption and in
dependent of either gold or silver.
1.-THE decline in the price OF wheat
during recent years has been due to new
sources of supply, mainly in foreign coun-
tries, reduced cost of transportation and
labor-Saving devices.
1S-AIost farm products have main
tanned the high prices of 1873, while ar
ticles which farmers purchase have
largely fallen in price.
19-Tampering with the Standard, rem
dering the future kind of payment I'M
certain, makes high the interest rate to
the borrower and makes it difficult to
negotiate loans. Free coinage of silver
will work to the detriment of the bor-
rover.
2O-Given a certainty that the proposed
free coinage of silver would be realized,
lect their claims. Millions in securities
now held by investors, both foreign and
domestic would be thrown on the mar
ket. The panic of 1893, with all its dis
astrous results to trade, manufactures
and industries, would be repeated with
aggravated intensity. For the people OF
the United States to adopt a proposition
so ruinous would be the height Of folly.
21-For nations and for individuals
''honesty is the best policy"
We. believe that the several PROPOSE
tons stated are correct, and we think
that it is a fairly complete list of the
reasons which are advanced by those
who are opposed to the immediate free
coinage of silver on the basis of 16 to l.
HENRY S. ROBBINS.
President Honest Money League of IL
linois.
President Metropolitan National Bank
J. LAWRENCE LAUGHLIN,
Professor of Political Economy, Univer-
shy " L. ]. GRAY,
President First National Bank, Chicago.
VIM. G. BAKER,
President Chicago Board of Trade.
MARSHALL FIELD.
Marshall Field & Co. Chicago.
ROSWAIID MILLER,
President Chicago, Milwaukee and st.
! ''D- ''- r. G. HORR,
Chicago Times-Herald-