Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-12-12

increase the ordinary revenue or pay current
some Confusion Of IDEAS resarding the efeels
OF the issue of bonds and the results OF the
.,lhdrswsl Ct gold Was the latter proe sn.,
treasury United Statee notes and treasury
notes for gold increased by their amount the
money which was In the nrst instance subject
to ordinary government expenditure.
WHEN THE WITHDRAWALS BEGAN.
Although the law compelling an increased
purchase OF silver by the government was
dsawals Of gold from the treasury upon the
notes given In payment on such purchases did
not begin until October. 1891: Immediately fol-
these notes and United States notes increased
very largely. and have continued TO such an
has oeen more than thirteen times as much
gold taken out Of the treasury upon United
States notes and treasury notes Issued f Sr s
the eleven and a half years Immediately prior
thereto and after the lst day OF January, 1879,
when specie payments were resumed.
CHARGEABLE TO THE sILvER-PURCHAsE LAWS.
It Is neither unfair nor unjust to charge q
large share of our present financial perplext.'
ties and dangers to the operation OF the laws OF
1873 and 1890, compelling the purchase OF silver
by the government. which not only furnished
new treasury obligation upon which Its gold
of an overwhelming food OF silver and forced
descent to silver payments that even the re-
peal Of these laws did not entirely cure the
evils of their existence.
AS TO FREE COINAGE OF SILVER
While have endeavored to make plain
statement of this. the disordered condition OF
our currency and the present dangers menace
ing our prosperity, and to suggest a way
which leads to safer financial system.
I have constantly had in mind the fact that
many OF my countrymen whose sincerity do
not doubt, insist that the cure for the Ills now
threatening US may be found IN the single ana
simple remedy Of the free coinage of silver.
They contend that our mints shall be at once
thrown open to the free, unlimited aud indie
pendent coinage of both gold and silver dol
lars of full legal-tender quality regardless OF
the action OF any other government and in full
view of the fact that the ratio between the
metals which they suggest calls for one hum
bred cents worth Of gold in the gold dollar at
the present standard and only nifty cents in
in intrinsic worth of silver in the silver dollar,
were there infinitely stronger reasons than can
be adduced for hoping that such action would
secure for bimetallic currency moving
lines of parity. an experiment so novel and
hazardous as that proposed might well stagger
those who believe that stability is an impera-
tive condition of sound money.
No government, no human continuance or
act of legislation. has ever been able to hold
the two metals together in free coinage at
ratio appreciable different from that which
Is established in the markets of the world.
A HAZARDOUS EXPERIMENT..
Those who believe that our independent free
coinage of silver at an artificial ratio with gold
of l6 to would restore the parity between the
metals. and consequently between the coins,
oppose an unsupported and improbable theory
tions and to the teaching of the wisest states
men and economists of the world, both in the
past ana present. ana. WnaC Is lar more con-
elusive. they run counter to our own actual ex-
periences. Twice in our earlier history our
law-makers, in attempting to establish a BIZ
metallic currency, undertook free coinage up
on a ratio which accidentally varied
from the actual relative value Of the
es9 metals p oes cns
greater difficulties and cost of transportation
than now exist the coins whose intrinsic worth
was undervalued in the ratio gradually and
surely disappeared from our circulation and
went to other countries where their real value
was better recognized. Acts of congress were
causes decreed even a slight inequality.
Twice in our recent history we have signally
failedto raise by legislation the value of sill
yer. Under an act of congress passed in 1873,
the government was required for more than
twelve years toexpend annually at least f24 0OO,-
600 in the purchase of silver bullion for coinage
The act OF July "a. 1885, in stIll holder effort.
increased the amount of silver the govern
ment was compelled to purchase and forced 1t
to become the buyer annually OF 100000
ounces, or practically the entire product OF our
steadily declined in value. The prophecy and
the expressed hope and expectation Of those
in the congress who led in the passage OF the
last mentioned act that it would re-eStabliSh
and maintain the former parity between the
two metals. are still fresh in our memory.
IN THE LIGHT OF PAST EXPERIENCE
cord with the experiences of other nations
there is certainly no secure ground for the be-
lief that an act Of congress could now bridge
an inequality OF so per cent. between gold and
silver at our present ratio, nor is there in the
least possibility that our country which has
1 less snan e EN- OF ane sixer money IN
only our own but all silver to its lost ratio
with gold. Our attempt to accomplish this by
widely from actual relative values would be
the signal for the complete departure Of gold
contraction Of our circulating medium and q
shrinkage In the real value and monetary efh-
cheney Of all other forms OF currency as they
settled to the level of silver recommendation.
Everyone VINO receives q nXed salary and
every worker for wages would find the dollar
of bitter disappointment If not to pinching
privation. A change in our standard to silver
monometallism would also bring on collapse
based on standard which is recognized and
adopted by the world of business is many
times more useful than the entire volume of
currency. and is safely capable of almost in
definite expansion to meet the growth of trade
In a self-invited struggle through darkness
and uncertainty, our humiliation would be in
creased by the consciousness that We had
parted company with all the enlightened and
progressive nations of the world. and were
desperately and hopeleSSly striving to meet
the stress of modern commerce and COMPETE
tion with a debased and unsuitable currency,
and in association with the few weak and lag
gard nations which have silver alone as their
standard of value. All history warns US against
rash experiments which threaten violent
changes in our monetary standard and the de-
graduation of our currency.
NATIONAL FINANCIAL HONOR INVOLVED
Our couatry'S Indebtedness, whether owing
by the government or existing between indi-
vidualS, has been contracted with reference to
gress that these debts hall be payable in less
valuable dollars than those within the contem-
plation and intention of the parties when con-
tracted would operate to transfer, by the fat
of law and without compensation an amount
of property and a volume of rights and inter-
ests almost incalculable Those who advocate
blind and headlong plunge to free coinage in
the name OF bimetallism. aud protesting the
belief contrary to all experience, that We
t,r,so HI iSh 7nrh lsa Sfn ri and
concurrent circulation OF both metals in our
coinage are certainly reckoning from a cloudy
the standard OF the civilized world and permits
the only bimetalliSm now possible, or at least
that within the independent reach OF any single
nation however powerful that nation may be.
While the value of gold as a standard is stead
led by almost universal commercial and buSi-
ness use. it does not despise silver nor seek it's
banishment Wherever this standard is main
tanned. there by its side. in free and unqueS-
toned circulation. is found a volume Of silver
even exceeding it in amount. both maintained
{ a parity Notwithstanding q depreciation or
huctuation in the intrinsic value OF silver
STANDARD MUST BE FIXED AND CERTAIN.
OF value and q currency for monetary use. The
standard must necessarily by fixed and GER
tain. The currency may be in diverse forms
and of various kinds. No silver standard coun-
try has gold currency in circulation. but an
enlightened and wise system of finance
secures the benefits of both gold and silver as
the standard stable and all other currency at
par with it. Such a system and such a stand
sion of safe and conservative credit so indfs-
spensible to broad and growing COM
and well sas
II afixed and staple standard is TnaintaiGed
such as the magnitude and safety of our COM
lnercial transactions and business requi re, the
use OF money itself is conveniently minim-
lied.
I have ventured to express myself on these
subjects niaiuleSS OF