Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-05-30
Sound Money Convention.

Money I
The sound money convention held !
at Memphis, Tenn, which was adj
by Secretary Carlisle adopted
the following resolutions:
PLATFORM DECLARATIONS.
The Committee on Resolutions re-
ported the following platform, which
vas adopted.
The people of the Southern States
who believe the maintenance of n
sound and stable currency to be es-
sential to the prosperity of the whole
country and the welfare of the people
in all the vocations of life, do, through
their Representatives in convention
assembled at Memphis, on May %,
1895, make the following declaration of
their matured convictions:
/. Believing a uniform and certain
standard of value necessary to the ag-
riculturaI, commercial and industrial
development and prosperity of our
common country, we favor the main
tenance of all u money, whether
gold, silver or paper, on a parity, to
the end that each dollar, whatever
may be its composition, shall have
equal purchasing and debt paying
power with every other dollar.
2. Profiting by the experience OF
Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton,
and the teachings of the great students
of monetary science from the time
when John Locke wrote to the discus
sion of the present day, we accept the
truth of the principle now universally
recognized and applied in the com
mercial world, that the bimetallic
| standard can not be maintained where
the ratio fixed by law for the free
coinage of gold and silver does not
correspond with the market ratio of
the two metals; and that whatever
and whenever the legal or coinage ra-
ito varies from the market or CONNER
cial ratio to any a~ppreciable extent,
the dollar, whether Of gold or silver,
which thereby becomes more valuable
as bullion than as money, will go to a
premium and retire from circulation.
We saw this principle applied in our
own national experience, when, under
the act of 1892, which fixed the coinage
ratio at is to 1, gold retired from cir
culation because of a slight decline in
the price of silver in the open market,
whereby the bullion in a gold dollar
became worth a few cents more than
the bullion in a silver dollar, and was
therefore sold as a commodity because
it was worth more as a bullion than as
money; and again under the act OF
1884, which fixed the ratio at 16 to i,
when the silver coin retired for a like
reason. We are, therefore, opposed
to the free, unlimited and independ-
ent coinage of silver at the ratio of 10
to 1 when the market or the CONNER
cial ratio is more than 30 to 1, and the
difference between the bullion value
of O gold and a silver dollar is about5l
cents, on the ground that such action,
instead of restoring the bimetallie
standard, would inevitably result in
silver recommendation.
d. Az LILLE LII GllCAo AZ AN cN
in the world which maintains b BIZ
. metallic standard, and neither is there
any country where the free coinage Of
!, silver obtains which is not on a silver
! basis. Each country, on account Of
: it's inability to adopt independently
! any bimetallic standard, must elect fol
, itself which 1t prefers, the gold or the
I silver standard. We, therefore, favor
in the absence of international coop
Grafton, the retention and mainten'
! ance of the existing gold standard
9 Because a change from the gold to the
silver standard would have the effec
to repudiate all public and private OBJ
. legations to the extent of the difference
3 between the bullion value of the gol'
Z and silver dollar; because, wheneve
$ such change should be seriousl.
Q threatened, it would cause an imme
!. date attempt at a collection and hqui
dation of all debts in anticipation O
r the result it would produce; becaus
2 such transition from the gold to tn
Z silver basis would destroy public an
private confidence, and would involv
the country in such panic, confusio
+ and distress that the products OF agri
8 culture and the wages of labor woul
It be unremunerative, the business {
y commerce would become improbable
"A and our people engaged in industrii
r occupations would be thrown out {
Is employment; because there is not
As progressive, enlightened country
the world which has not elected go
Of as the preferable standard; becaui
liz gold standard countries retain silv'
in their circulation on a parity Wi
ID gold, whereas there is no silver stan'
az ard country which does or a utilii
II gold as money; because there is not
silver country on the globe where ii
,s wages of labor are sufficient to sul
9. tain the working classes in comic
nt and independence, and, finally, b'
ID cause the high destiny of the Unite
be States demands for the use of Il
es American people that money whiC
Y, experience has taught mankind TO !
as the best suited for the promotion
Is commerce, the development OF mani
features, the development of lab'
and the advancement of ivilization.