Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-10-20

this assemblage that the average rate Of inter- est WAS never lower in this country than at the present time, and that profits upon invest ments have been reduced 10 the smallest per- centage consistent with the continuance of the enterprises in which the investments are made. While this is true the great body of our pro- ducers, the laboring people of the country are receiving as high wages as they ever received at any period in Our history, and the money in which they are paid will purchase in the mar kets more of the necessafies and comforts of life than ever before. Capital and labor combined are the only real producers of wealth, and the constant tendency in this country is to give labor more and capital less out of the pro- ceeds of their joint products. This is a fixed law of our industrial progress, and unless dis turbed by violence or unwlse Legislation. it will continue to operate until the relations between these two forces are permanently adjusted upon an equitable basis. Their real interests are not conflicting, but dependent, and every att tempt to array one against the other is injuri- ous to both. 1 am sorry to say that one of the most effective weapons in the hands of our free silver opponents has heretofore consisted of appeals to the class and sectional prejudces of the people, but these appeals appear now to have spent their force, and think we may congratulate the country upon the prospect of more dispassionate and intelligent discus sion of the subject hereafter.
 But, MT. Chairman, we must not assume that the abandonment or defeat of the free sil- yer movement will alone be sufficient to insure permanent financial peace in this country. Un- fortunately, as think, the currency legiSla- tfon of the last thirty-three years has deYolved upon the government of the United States nearly the entire responsibility for the main tenance of sound and stable currency and has at the same time denied to the public au- thorities the power to employ the ordinary and necessary means for the discharge of the duties imposed upon them. We nave ten diff ferent forms of money, or representatives of money, in this country, amounting in the ag- gregate to about s 221 ,000 000 and the value of every dollar of 1t, except about 5000 GOO in gold com and bullion, depends in whole or in part upon the faith and credit of the United States. By the resumption act of under the pol icy uxpressly declared in two subsequent acts of congress, the government is required to keep this entire volume of currency equal in eXehangeable value to gold coin. because in no other way can the United States notes be re- deemed in coin as required by law and the parity of the two metals be maintained. To compel the holder of these notes to receive silver iH exchange for them when he demands gold would at once destroy the parity of the two metals, because 1t would make the inferior coin the measure of their value in the hands of the people and it would not reduce gold to the level of silver. Such a course would place the currency of the country upon a silver basis, and as the silver dollar is not intrinSically worth as much as the gold dollar, all further. attempts to maintain their parity would be unayailing. Parity between two coins of uneqnal intrinsic value can be main- tained only in one way, and that Is to adopt the more valuable one as the standard, and by the credit and resources of bhe government kept the less valuable one equal to it in purchasing power. If the less valuable coin Is adopted as the standard or is permitted to become the standard. the parity is destroyed, because the more valuable one can not be brought down to it's level either here or 1n the markets of the world. The goV- ernment of the United States iS therefore bound to redeem it's notes in gold when gold is demanded, or fail to meet the responsibility imposed upon it by law and by the existing state of the currency; and it must continue to do this as long as it has any notes outStand- ing. In order to carry out this policy it must have constantly on hand sufficient amount of gold to inspire the public with confidence in it's ability to redeem it's obligations when pre- scented, and this gold, under the conditions which have existed during the last three years. can be promptly procured only by the sale of interest-bearing bonds.
 One Of the most important questions the peo- pie have now to consider is whether they can afford to adhere longer to system which peri odieally augments the public debt for the pur- pose of securing gold to be exchanged for notes, which, when redeemed, are not retired and cancelled, but are reissued and put in ercula- tion to be over and over aga1n presented for redemption. So far as the merits of this sin gle question are affected, it is fmmaterial whether our standard of value is to be gold or silver, because the coin for redemption pur- poses, whether 1t be gold coin or silver coin, must be provided by the government. and it can be procured only by the sale of bonds The free coinage ofsilver on account of and for the
 benefit of the owner of the bullion does not, therefore, enter into the discussion of this par ttcular question. Such policy would not give the government any silver except what it would receive in the ordinary way a part of .NH NN@NN'f ~ ''S1+NA demptlon purposes, unless we should have surplus revenue. Whether we continue to maintain the gold standard of value or debase our currency to the silver standard, the obliga- tion of the government to redeem It's notes in coin on presentation will remain. and, conse- quently, the question whether the notes when redeemed, shall be retired and cancelled, or re- issued is one which can not be avoided or set tied by change in our coinage laws. It must be settled by legislation in another direction and the advocates of free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to l. or at any other ratio are as much interested in its correct solution as the opponents of that policy.
 The first great mistake in our currency leg islation was made in the act of March IT, 1862, which authorized the secretary of the treasury to issue United States notes to the amount of $50 100000, and made them legal tender in the payment of all debts, public and private. except duties on imports, and interest on the public debt. Following this other acts were passed under which additional notes of the same character were issued, until the per reached S3s2 000,000. This was radical and dangerous departure from true financial principles If not serious infraction of the constitution of the United States. This de- preeiated paper, of course, expelled spe- cie from circulation, but as the gov ernment had not promised to redeem the treasury department to no serious re- sponsibility or inconvenience. That depart ment for the first time in our history was in- vested with authority to issue notes to cir eulate as money, but for the time being it was exempt from all responsibility for their re- demption. But since the passage of the act of May 3l. 1878. and the resumption of tecie pay ment on the first day of January 1S79 the situation has entirely changed, and the treas ury department is not now merely an agency for the issue of circulating notes but Is re- quired to provide for their redemption in coin, and to reissue them when redeemed. Under the silver r-purehasing act Of July IA ls9o addi- tonal treasury notes were issued to the mount of Sl55, ,931, ,e02. of which Sl4s0o0,000 are still outstanding. These notes when redeemed must also be reiss ued, or standard silver dollars must be substituted for them. Since January 1, 1879, old United States notes amounting to S3l0000,000 have been redeemed in gold on de- mand of the holders, and yet every dollar of these notes is still outstanding. having been re- issued as expressly required by the law. Since July Ii. 1890, treasury notes issued for the pur- chase of silver bullion have been r deemed in gold to the amount of more than 76,o000o0. and all these notes are still in existence uncan- celed. It thus appears that the government has redeemed notes in gold to the amount of S336 O00.t00 and that the notes so redeemed are still outstanding, and may be presented for re- demption over and over again, as long us our legislation remains in it's present condition Under such system of redemption and com
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