The herald., 1895-05-26
The Secretary Has More to Say
About Money
VALUE OF THE DOLLAR
Currency Question Again Discussed IN
Kentucky
1t Is Argued That II All the Silver in the
Country Was Coined Into Dollars
Silver Would Depreciate
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
BOWLING GREEN, KY, May 25.-Hon.
J. G. Carlisle, secretary of the treasury,
! spoke here today in the opera house ON
| the currency question. The seating ca
pacity OF the house is only about 1000,
and it was found necessary to exclude
women and children, voters only being
admitted.
| When Mr.. Carlisle appeared upon sthe
stage he was greeted with loud applause.
After brief statement that he was tneie
to discuss public questions and not in any
way to apologize for the administration,
which he knew needed no apology, Mr..
Carlisle comm enced as follows:
'The question is whether we shall con-
tinue to preserve our present monetary
system, under which the dollars in use
with the people. whether gold, silver or
paper. are equal in purchasing power
in all markets. The proposition OF our
fellow citizens in favor of the free and
unlimited coinage of legal tender silver
is that the United States alone, without
the assistance and cooperation of any
age of 412la grains of standard silver into
dollars and by law compel the people Of
the United States, but nobody else, to
receive these dollars in payment of
debts of all kinds when, as q matter of
fact. the silver contained in such coin
is only worth about so cents. But the
claim by the free coinage men that free
coinage at 16 to l would appreciate silver
and bring it to a parity with gold de-
stroys the argument that it would furnish
the people with cheap currency with
which to pay debts.
coinage Of both metals. giving to each
full legal tender equality and both in
creased at the same time. England tried
for five hundred years with strict laws
against the importation of coin. She lost
all her gold and was driven in 1906 to the
single standard. Wherever in the cur
rencv OF a country metal is overrated
in comparison with another metal, the
undervalued metal is driven out Of the
country.
There are five provisions which abso.
lutely cannot be avoided:
First-There is not free coinage conn
try i'll the world that is mot on a silver
basis.
Second There is not a gold standard
country in the world today that. t.does not
use silver for money along with gold. :.
Third-There is not silver standard
country in the world that uses any gold
as money along with silver.
Fourth-There is not a silver standard
country in the world today. that has more
than one-third of the circulation Der cap
ita OF the United States.
Fitth-There is not a silver standard
country in the world today where tho
laboring man receives fair pay for his
days work:
''lf the United States could coin all the
silver in the world available for coinage
the 37lN grains OF pure,silver contained in
| our dollar would not be worth in this
country as much as the silver dollar, but
the silver dollar itself would be depre-
Grated. The Mexican dollar, with 377.17
grains of silver, six grains more than the
American dollar, is worth only about so
cents of our money. That would be ex-
actly the effect on our silver dollar il we
coined for private account, free all the
silver brought. If we can. by making the
ratio is to 1, make silver dollar pass as
100 cents when it is only worth 80 cents.
why could it not be done at ratio of 10
to l.
"Before free coinage of silver can De
brought about another congress and an
other president favorable to it would have
to be elected. This would certainly take
three years, and before that time every
creditor in the country, seeing the COM
ing of cheap money, would call on his
debtors to liquidate before the cheap
money was in effect. would bring upon
the country a panic compared with which
! all former panics were nothing. In 1905.
when the Spanish dollar and the French
crown were made legal tender and we're
slightly under weight it drove all the
the country, so that Mr.. Jefferson stopped
the coinage of the silver dollar. The sub
sidiary coin was also driven out because
of full fractional weight. and the coins
were slightly reduced in weight in order r
to hold them in circulation