Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-02-21

murder in the first degree, to provide
whether the death penalty shall be
passed or whether the prisoner shall
be imprisoned for life.
Things That Would Happen.
From the st. Louis Republic.
"What would be the result" asks
an Illinois reader, who is also a public
official in a populous county, "If the
Treasurer of the United States should
refuse to pay gold and should tender
silver for the redemption of Sherman
notes and greenbacks? What would be
the effect on the farmer and debtor
cIasses?"
There is no room for doubt about
the result. The Treasury notes and
greenbacks would be worth what the
Government redeems them in-the
Governments estimate would be the
business estimate. Whether the notes
would sink at once to the exact intrinic
value of a silver dollar would depend
on whether the commercial world be-
lieved in the Governments intention
and ability to return at an early day to
q maintenance of the parity.
At any rate, there would be a fall in
the value of every note. There would
also be the most feverish uncertainty.
Currency would stay around the great
centers for quick s in the fluctua-
tions which might be expected.
On the whole, it would a great deal
better to go definitely to a silver basis
and stay there than to begin redemp-
ton in silver without announcing a
permanent policy. In the first case
there would be one great crash, but
business would adjust itself and start
again. In the second case there would
s~b-s~sssSpisSess, .nesrtsintyy congestion
and depression for an indefinite
period.
What would be the effect ON the
farmer and debtor classes? For an in
slant many forms of debt would be
more easily paid. Those who might
desire to borrow money, however,
would find, new difficulties. Nobody
would care to lend until the value OF
legal tender currency was settled.
High interest rates would be charged
and remuneration for risks would en-
ter into all calculations.
The greatest of creditor classes
the wage earners-would be at once
thrown into trouble. Depositors in
savings banks and commercial banks
another great creditor classLwould
lose d proportion of what they had de-
posted, according to the extent of the
fall in the value of legal tenders. Our
foreign trade would be paralyzed. As
foreign capital disappeared the cost of
capital would rise and the expense of
establishing new enterprises or enlarg-
ing old ones would increase.
Uncertainty, when translated into a
business term, means risk, and risk is
always expensive-the worst seventies
Of the expenses always falling upon
the masses who r dependent upon
markets and steadiness of employ
ment.
IL the Government started the re-
demption of notes in silver, il should
declare that kind of redemption to be
the permanent policy Of Its banking
business. Trade and industry could
get along under a monometallic silver
standard, but eenld not and would not
get along very well when 1t did not
know a week ahead to what extent
the Treasury would attempt to main
tain a parity.
1t is possible that the first silver dol
lar rendered to a noteholder who ask
ed for gold might throw us on a silver
basis for years to come; and thus pro-
duee the crash and establish a complete
change in spite of the Governments
efforts to prevent.
II that were the result il would hap
pen in this way: The moment the
news of silver redemption went forth,
everybody who held a note would
want gold. The notes would pile up
around s~ubtreasuries and wait for the
attempt of the Government to redeem
In gold. The Government would find
itself unable to make the attempt, an
lis supply of gold would be exhausted
In "a hours. We do not assert abso-
liitely that this would happen, but it
might.
Our correspondent see that the
9i per cent of business done in terms
of money would be affected as much
ne the 8 per cent done with cash.
Every check, draft and due bin for
dollars would take a new valuation be-
tween the date Of issue and the date of
redemption. He al imagine the con-
fusion which would ensue.
IL a Government intends TO pay its
debts In coin, there are but three ways
open-to pay in gold, to pay in silver
or to pay in both under a bimetallic
ratio. A bimetallic ratio is one which
Is adjusted to meet the commercial or
exchange values OF the two metals.
The higher a civilization and the more
effectively organized a nations bust
ness the more urgent is the necessity
OF exactitude In the circulating me-
dinm. To begin redemption with coins
worth only AZ cents In comparison with
the coins it has been using for redemp-
tor is a Government operation which
might be called dishonorable and is
certainly dangerous.
1
Mrs. w. L. Corner Is home from a
visit to Centralia.