The San Francisco call., 1895-05-24


intelligence, patriotism and commercial honor
OF every man to whom it is addressed No
matter What may be the real purposes and mo-
tiyes OF those who make the proposition to
legalize the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer at the ratio of 16 to L, these are the conse-
quences involved in their scheme, and in my
opinion they cannot be avoided if it should be
adopted. In no part of the country will the
consequences of such policy prove more in
furious to the mssterful interests of the people
than in the undeveloped and progressive
South.
The use of credit in the form of hank notes,
checks bills and other evidences of debt has so
increased in modern times that in all highly
organized commercial communities the use of
coin, except in making change, has been almost
entirely dispensed with. The percentage of
coin actively employed in conducting business
in this country is SO small that it is almost in
appreclable; so small, in fact, that the cisuse
in our transactions would not be felt if we had
q substitute for paper representative OF the
subsidiary pieces.
Although we have the gold standard or
measure of value, in this country, our actual
stock of gold bullion and coin amounts to only
about one-third of our actual currency-a con-
dition OF affairs inconcevablea few centuries
ago. We have about $625 600, 900 in gold,
1897 652, 1878 in full legal-tender silver, S149,-
5S4 All in Treasury notes issued in the pur-
chase of silver bullion, 5000 1885 in
national bank notes, and $76, ,169 500
in subsidiary silver coin, making in
all $1,S04, ,707, ,763, exclusive of the
minor coins, and every dollar of this vast
volume of currency is kept equal in value
to the standard established by law. This is
the financial condition which the advocates of
free coinage at the ratio OF 16 to 1 propose to
revolutionize at once by q change in the
standard OF value, so that it would require
about double the amount of currency required
now 10 perform the same service in the ex-
change OF commodities. For a long time
credit, which constitutes by far the most i'm
portant factor in our financial and commercial
transactions, would be substantially destroyed
by the confusion and uncertainty necessarily
following such great and sudden change in
our monetary system.
1t is contended by large number of the
advocates of free coinage that the effect of their
policy would establish what they call bimetal-
ism and a double standard. I confess my in
ability to understand what is really meant
by double standard or measure of value;
the idea is incomprehensible to my mind be-
cause cannot conceive how it is possible to
have two different legal and authoritative
measures of the same thing in use at the same
time; pound weighing sixteen ounces and
pound weighing eight ounces. both declared by
law legal pounds. Instead of using both gold
and silver as We do Row in larger amounts
than ever before in our history, we should in
stantly eXpel the more valuable metal from the
country and make the other the sole basis of
our currency. We have now practically BIZ
metallism-the use of both metals as money;
we should have then practical lmonometallism-
the use of only one metal as money. This is
conclusion based on facts and established by
the experience OF all nations in all ages.
The establishment of a silver standard here
could not possibly increase the price of cotton
or wheat, or any other American product in
Liverpool, Paris or Berlin, whatever effect it
might have upon the nominal price in this
country. The only effect would be that the
exchange would be doubled and the pound
sterling, instead of being worth $4.e66 in our
currency as it is now, would be worth SO .732,
and when our people wanted to make remit
tance to pay debt abroad they would have to
pay twice as much in our money for the same
number of pounds as they pay now, while the
foreigner who wanted to make remittance to
pay debt here would only pay half as much
in his money for the same number of dollars
as he pays now.
In addition to the risk of fall in the price
OF the products abroad, he must incur the risk
of rise in the price of silver between the time
of his purchase and the time when he received
the proceeds of his SALE for silver rises in the
meantime he may not get back as many dollars
as he paid out.
When silver is worth 60 cents per ounce the
bullion is worth AGA cents, but if the price of
silver should advance to 81 cents per ounce
the value OF the bullion contained in silver
dollar would be AZ cents-an increase of nearly
AZ per cent. The price of cotton or wheat will
not rise in proportion to the depreciation of
the dollar in which it is to be paid; that is, the
purchaser for export viii not pay for it at the
rate OF 48 cents for each dollar when silver is
h1
that silver may rise to 81 r62 cents per ounce
before he can sell the product abroad and get
his money for it, and he knows that if this hap
pens the gold he receives abroad cannot be ex-
changed for as many silver dollars as he paid
the producer here
1t has been found that the prices of articles
useo 1or food, taking them all together, had
lailen less than 10 per cent since 1873, while
the prices of clothes and clothing had fallen
80 per cent; metals and implements "A nar
cent; lumber and building materials nearly 20
per cent; drugs and chemicals 81 per cent.
house-furnishing goods 27 per cent. and mis-
cellaneous articles 10 per cent The prices for
the year 1860, being taken as the standard
were represented by 100. When this inyestf-
cation was made in the nineties articles of
food stood at 1899, or nearly per cent higher
than in 1860; clothes and clothing at S1.1.
fuel and lighting at 81; metals and imple
ments at 74.9; lumber and house-building ma
terials at 1928; drugs and chemicals at sc. 8:
house-furnishing goods at 70.1, and miscel-
laneous articles at 95.1.
The prices of articles of food, the products of
farms, gardens, orchards and dairies were
about per cent higher than in 1860 long be-
fore the silver legislation now complained Of
The fall in the prices of these farm products
since the year 1873 has been much less than
the fall in prices OF the commodities the farm
ers have to buy, and the reductions in prices
have not been uniform, and therefore cannot
be attributed to one cause-to the appreciation
of gold, for instance. Notwithstanding the
great increase in the production of cotton and
wheat here and in other countries and the
consequent decline in their prices, a given
quantity of either of them will now purchase
in our markets and in the markets abroad
larger share of many other useful commodities
than 1t would have purchased in 1872 or
1873, so that, in fact, as compared with many
other things, the values of cotton and wheat
have appreciated. The only thing which
has been less affected by the changes in
the relation between supply and demand, by
improvements IN the methods of production
and distribution ana by the other influences
which produce fluctuations in prices of COM
modlues generally, is labor, and it is by far the
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