The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-15

the re-establishment of bimetallism had
been indefinitely postponed, The Bank OF
France has s250, 600 000Iof silver, not in cir
cuiation, but locked lp in its vaults. The
Bank of Spain has about $50, 100000, the
Bank of the Netherlands S35. 000, 600 and 9TH
ers varying amounts. There are over $780,
COO, 900 stored in nine 1anking houses. This
silver is worth nothing to them beyond its
bullion value. 1t serves as part of the
but they could better sustain more paper
on gold, and IL they Gould make the sub
stitution by sending his silver to the
why wouldn't they do L? Let me give you
commanding authority Henry Cernuschi
is the ablest authorit. in Europe of the
leader of the bimetall5s. In his pamphlet
on 1.-THE Great Metallic Powers he says:
United States was free Europe would act
towards the United Safes just as Ger
many acted towards france. SO long as
monetize large masses of silver and send
them to Philadelphia to get them made in
get gold dollars dispatched to her" And
again; Why Na Is not tie coinage Of silver
free f in Franes? Bseasse were the coin d
have a monetary medium either with Eng
land. or with Germany 3r. with the United
States Very venturesone would be those
who should recommend the United States
of America to undertake. single-handed,
handed Wise counsel and admonition
from the greatest of the friends of silver
WARNING FROM RUSSIA.
Let me add another impressive warning.
And in order to make it specific will you
pardon a personal allusiol, and statement
which 1 have never publicly made before
and in making which at the present time
hope I am not altogether indiscreet. In 1890
when the bill for the free coinage of silver
was pending in the United States Senate L
had the honor of being the American minis
ter at st. Petersburg. The Russian Minis
ter of Finance was Mr.. Vshnegradski. who
died only last Saturday. statesman of ex-
traordinary capacity and perhaps the ablest
finance minister in Europe at the time.
had occasion one day to call upon him, and
l found him with a copy of the American
free coinage silver bill, then under debate in
him. His first expressions revealed his pro-
found interest in the subject. He had stud
led the details of the bill to the minutest
particular. He did not hesitate to pro-
nounce it a most remarkable measure, in
volving most disastrous policy, which, as
finance, he hoped she would not undertake.
He inquired carefully after its prospects.
nant climax, which, as others were involved,
l shall not in this public declaration venture
to repeat in as specific form as he gave it
in that more confidential talk. But he said
in substance: IF this bill becomes a law
the United States will expose herself to
dangers of which she has perhaps little
rope; we have some in Russia; already the
proposition has been made to me to join in
a movement, in the event of the American
adoption of free coinage, to unload a part
of Europe's silver on the United States; but
believe this measure and this action would
bring calamity, and hope the United States
will make no such mistake" 1t was the
clear vision and the weighty remonstrance
of a statesman looking on with the truer
perspective of distance and speaking with
direct personal knowledge of dangers which
the silver extremists profess to scout and de-
ride.
With free coinage the surplus silver Of
the world would flow toward our shores
the ground. 1t would flow here because
this would be it's one great market at
price not offered anywhere else. Realizing l.a
radicals have proposed to limit free coin
age to the American product. But none
that limitation. And IL you tried 1T how
could you do it? With a temporary artifl-
eiai and rs price f nere hoW eo1 t
way across our borders, as 1T has done in
the past? Besides. suppose it were possible
not be free coinage at all. 1t would not
lift silver III the markets of the world; 1t
would not remove the disparity between , the
the only condition upon which free coin
age could possibly be justified; It would
worth of silver bullion to take II TO the
mint and have u 3fa raaHset ono f,'irdre &c
would issue it's note for it, and force you
and me to receive 1t for dollar. Are
the American people ready for that amaz-
Free coinage. I repeat, means that We
must be prepared to buy the silver of the
world What would be the effect? Gold
coinage would Immediately stop. Who
would bring gold to be coined when 1t was
the the, great influx Of domestic and foreign
silver in notes redeen1able in COIN. The
notes would be presented and gold de-
manded. If gold were paid by the treasury
how long under this great demand would
the reserve last? II gold were refused we
and the treasury notes and the whole cir
culation of the United States would rail- 70
the. silver level; Under sucn condisions g4io
Gold would go to premium Every dollar
would be locked up or exported. The gov
stripped s c OF as soia sver and
that payment would reduce us at once TO
the silver standard. There is thus under
two alternatives, either that we must by
our action alone raise the silver OF the
world to the gold standard, which IS mand-
faStiv impossble or we must drop to the
silver standard.
INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM.
What then, is the true remedy? To find
the remedy we must find the cause. The
free coinage extremists mistake the one
ana so misapply the other They begin
wrong. argue wrong and end wrong. They
charge the fall of silver to the act of 1873
which is said TO nave deHloIletlzeu IL, anu
they say it has not been restored to Its
position because we have not done enough
for il. But the act Of 1873 had no more to
do with the fall of silver than the last
eclipse of the moon. We hadn't any silver
to demonetize. We had coined only $780,
o9o silver dollars from the foundation of
the government, and for quarter of a
century before 1873 there hadn't been
dollar in circulation. As to our subsequent
treatment of silver, / have shown that
since 1873 we have done, seventy-two times
as much for the silver dollar as we did
in all our previous history, and, in spite
of this, silver kept on falling.
What, then, has caused the great mon
etary disocat ton of the past twenty years?
1t was not the decentralization of silver In
the United States, but the overthrow of
bimetallism in Europe We had practically
no silver coinage and our act had 80 eff
feet Europe had $1.o00,000,0 600 of silver
coinage and her prescription of silver and
the stoppage OF her demand brought the
arrangement. For nearly two hundred
years gold and silver had maintained
practically steady ratio. The production of
the two metals had fluctuated in the most
remarkable degree. During the first forty
FIVE years of this century the output of
silver enormously exceeded that of gold.
During the next twenty-five years the con-
ditions were reversed, and the output of
gold enormously exceeded that of silver.
Within the quarter of a century following
1850 the mines of the world poured forth
as much gold during the entire preeed-
ing three centuries and half from the
discovery of America by Columbus.
Yet through these extraordinary changes
in the relative quantity of gold and silver