The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-08-08

merits of bimetallism as disclosed Inv the
whole debate. AS token money. silver
performs nome of the functions intended
| by the constitution
Second-That the silver dollar was the
unit of value in our coinage system fixed
| by the act of 1902. Mr.. Horr admits
this. See pages so and 61, official re-
port.
"Third-That silver and gold both were
the measures of value of all other property
till 1873, and the debtor had a right to-
pay in either metal. See Mr.. Horr's
answer ITO me ON page 119.
| "Folrth-That THE act of 1873 was sur
reptjtiously passed. After reading the
| lebate ON this subject one will turn back
10 page 93 and there read with surprise
he following language used by MIR. Horr
| when introducing this topic: Il propose
to show you during this discussion that
no law has ever been passed by the Amer
lean congress which was freer from taint,
which was more carefully examined and
which was more completely fully under
| stood than the law of 1873 When one
considers THAT the people were deprived of
one-half of their primary money without
their knowledge or consent in this, re-
publican form of government, one can
better understand. What Garfield,
Blaine and other said upon this subject
will be found in the congressional records
during the discussions 10 which my other
references gwen In debate will direct the
reader.
| "a letter from ex-Attorney General Pier
pont, under President Grant, to Hon. Geo.
Merrlck, Denver, Colo, stating that Gem
eral Grant told him that he was deceived
by the act of 1873 lis in my possession and
| | will use 1T in print and get it circulated.
"Fifth-That for all the time of which
we have bnOwl rdge gol and silver were
treated equally as money, both had a
right to enter the mints in I'LL countries
of the world until 1916, when England
closed her mints to silver and 1874 when
the United States, Germany, France and
the Latin union followed. And until 1873
| 1874 the commercial value of the two
metals were substantially at n parity with
the legal ratio. That this condition made
both meatls available for use as primary
money and the demand for primary money
was relieved by the volume of both metals
"SiNth-That prices of all property il
| not measured in gold alone and are sub.
stantially at the present time one-halt
what they would be under the bimetallic
system. Mr.. Horr frequently in debate
substantially makes this admission.
| Seventh-That there were 81 i3,000,OO0
in silver coined at our mints "ri1r 10 1873,
all of which coined prior ITO 1888 was pri-
mary money and since 1858 the silver
dollars were primary money through the
medium of silver certificates. The whole
volume of the silver supply, which was
behind our monetary system, WAS exerting
| its influence as a measure of value and
stood ready to be coined and to share
equally with gold the demand for money.
That all the silver coined since February
II, 1873, has been token money, represent
I;,,or n
measure of value and is not performing
the functions Of primary money.
"Eighth-I believe those who read and
farefully digest the debate will conclude
that 1 have made good all the PROPOSE
lions set forth in my opening statement.
That Mr. Horr found no errors in Coins
Financial School, except the statement on
page 8, where it stated that silver coined
prior to 1873 was $105, 100000, which we
both agree should read $143,OOO 900.
This is not an error affecting the merits of
the book or the principle involved and TO
have stated it at $143 100000 would have
been more to the interest of my cause
than stating it to be $105, 100000.
| "Mr. Horr stated that Jefferson did
| not stop the coinage Of silver dollars in
cdugf oa,oohCR:2 nOyotepca,s ErAO
1916 and direct that all silver seeking
mints must be coined into 80 cent pieces
md less because of the scarcity of small
money as stated in the School but vir-
tually rece1ed from this claim ON page
| IA.
| "The expectation Of silver dollars should
never have been coupled with me in con-
nection with this School The reason
| for this expectation was not, however,
on account Of premium on silver over
| gold, but because our silver dollars cir
| culated as money in other nations where
! their familiarity with the dollar would
cause it to do so, whereas they were not
| familiar with our fractional coins and
| thus the latter more readily staid with us.
Mr.. Horr said that when silver or gold
was the unit the quantity in q dollar
| would not be worth either more or less
| than dollar, more or less than itself.
| and criticised my statement in the school
| that it could be worth more. / passed it
at the time, as | did many other things
| that had no substantial bearing on the
case under discussion. / refer him now to
recent market quotations in New York
when gold bullion was selling at a small
| premium, which was accounted for at the
| time as purchases made by gold syndi-
cate to prevent gold from seeking the
mints. / also refer him to the silver unit
gave him, the old coin dealers quota
ton, which is 81.
."Mr. Horr's frequent references to a
change in the ratio prior to the fornla-
ton of this government is answered by
this: That the changes were not to make
less money but to make more money. In
no instance Is it known that silver was dis
turbed by increasing the size of the coins.
"In no instance is it known that silver
was disturbed by increasing the size of
the coins. The changes were made in gold
coins and were made to make more money.
When the changes were made in the legal
ratio the commercial ratio soon conformed
to the legal ratio. The great danger in
relying on bank credit to make up for US
the insufficient supply of money, aside
from the heavy tax, approximately $780,
power of the banking fraternity controlling
this credit system to bring on panics by
shutting off this supply at pleasure as they
did in 1857, 1878, and notably in 1898.
when they used il to assist Mr.. Cleveland
in what they called teaching the people
an object lesson ...-s -