The herald., 1895-05-21

ties at ratio o; va,ce which does not
conform substantially to their intrinsic
or commercial ratio III thc markets of the
| world. both kinds of Gon cannot be KEEP
| i'll circulation at the same time.
'T.cfe WAS never in our whole history
one-third as much legal ten Ter silver in
uIe in the UnteI Statss at lie time as
there is now. and it is used without de,o
! priving us of all our gold which wa "
mover done before. Silv err is not demon
| cited in this country. but its coinage has
aen so limited and regulated by law ana
the financial affairs of the government
! have been also conducted that up to
the present time ito purchasing power
| has been preserved and its circulation to
IL large amount has been maintained
| concurrently with other forms of money,
notwithstanding it has been coined at a
ratio which does not conform to the real
| value of the metal contained in it, In the
| United States sixteen pounds OF silver
coined into dollars will now purch ase as
much as one pound OF gold coins. but
this would not be the case under a sys-
tenn of free and unlimited coinage on in
| dividual account.
~ have never been. and am not now.
| unfriendly to silver in the sense Of desir-
| ing to see it excluded from the monetary
system of the United States, or of any
other country. but l know that it cannot
! be kept in circulation along with gold by
| means OF any ratio the law of any one
country may attempt to establ sh between
the two metals and that the only way to
secure the use of both at the same time
| = TN q Of m of. a rl nj
value and so limit tho coinage of the
other that the government which issues
them and receives them for public dues
may be able at all times to maintain their
exchangeabilty. either directly or indi-
rectly through tn operation of its fnan-
cial system. l am, therefore, in favor of
the preservation of the existing standard
Of value with such use of full legal tender
! silver COINS and paper convertible into
coin on demand, as can be maintained
without impairing or endangering the
| credit of the government or diminishing
the purchasing or debt-paying power of
the money in the hands OF the people.
This is what | mean by the term sound
money and. in my opinion, it is what
is meant by an overwhelming majority
of the opponents of free coinage at the
ratio OF 16 to /. This is neither gold mono
metallism or silver metallsm, but it
means that one standard OF measure OF
value shall be maintained and that all
forms of standard coins in use shall be
kept equal to that standard in the pur-
chase of commodities and in the paym ent
| of debts.
'"How long do you suppose the $780,
| ne
main here and be used as money under
rec coinage policy? The banking and
uther great financial institutions which
own and hold in their resorts much the
greater part of this gold, would at once
sell it for a large premium for silver
about two dollars for one dollar-or. they
would exchange it for silver bullion in
the market at the ratio OF about thirty
| pounds of silver for one pound OF gold,
having thirty-two bounds Of silver coined
into dollars at the expense of3the people.
and with this cheap money pay the de-
mands OF their depositors and other cred
itors.
'The masses of the people cannot do
this, for they have no gold, nor have they
any silver bullion to be coined at t he ex-
pense of the government. If the immedi-
| ate effect of the free coinage policy at
the ratio OF IL to 1 would be to contract
| the currency to the extent of about $62,
| 600 900 by the withdrawal of that amount
| of gold from circulation and from use as
! the basis of notes and other forms of
credit, prices would not even nominally
advance. On the contrary, for the time
being at least this condition would
greatly reduce prices because 1T would
alarm the country destroy credit and un
doubtedly produce the most serious finan-
cial disturban ces this country has ever
| witnessed.
"Of course a great country like this, rich
| in natural resources. would ultimately
| recover in some measure from even such
a disaster, but how long time would be
required to do SO no man can predict.
| All the mints of the United States, if de-
voted entirely to the coinage or silver dol
| lars, could produce only about $40. 000,
| O0OO per annum. and therefore, with free
coinage, it would require more than
fifteen years to put silver dollars in the
place of the gold we now have and give
back to the country the same amount of
metallic money now existing. But. ip.
the meantime. we would have depreci
ated standard of value with hominally
higher prices-after the first collapse was
over-on account o. the reduced purchas-
ing pow.r of the dollar and at the same
time wo would have for a long time fewer
dollars to pay with. Common prudence
would dictate that, when any considerable
change is to be made in our monetary
system, some provision should be made
in advance of the actual change for IA
gradual transition from the old to the
new order of things; a transition period
should be provided for so as to avoid. as
far as possible. sudden disturbance of
business and contraction of the currency;
but the advocates of tree coinage have no
such purpose.
at is we'll known personally to every
gentleman in this audience who is old
enough co know what was transpiring in
1878 that there was not a dollar of silver
in circulation at that date. The only
metallic money or redemption IN oney in
use here at that time was gold. which
amounted to only $135 000,0OO including
what the government was using. whereas
we now have about $625. 600, 900 in gold
and 1897, ,652 S76 in full legal tender silver,
hosidos ahout SS7 ono OOO in suhsidio orv oil.