The San Francisco call., 1896-10-23

currency, but are not yet quite ready to
accept dollar worth only 80 cents.
Driven away from the advocacy OF the
first proposition In many parts OF the
country by reason of its manifest and
gross injustice to the laboring man, to de-
positors in savings banks and other insti-
tutions, and creditors generally, and
forced by the unanswerable arguments of
their opponents in other parts of the
country to abandon the second one on ac-
count of its demonstrated absurdity they
have to resort to the third as a compro-
mise between the advocates of absolute
6atism and the advocates of partial or
modified fatism, but, the contention that
the United States alone can, by the free
coinage of silver, increase the value OF that
metal and also reduce the value of gold
simply doubles the difficulties which our
opponents have encountered in this dis
cussion.
To believe that free coinage by the
United States alone would accomplish
either of these results requires a faith in
fatism which would remove mountains,
but to believe that it would accomplish
both exhibits a degree of credulity un-
paralleled in the annals of human affairs
Taking up in detail each of these three
propositions Mr.. Carlisle went on to show
how the law of supply and demand and
at least six centuries refuted each of them.
The natural law on the subject, which we
could neither repeal nor alter. seemed to
be that when the production and coinage
of either gold or silver into legal-tender
money were increased in proportion to
the production and coinage of the other
metal, the relative value of the coins thus
isproportionately added to the circula-
ton decreases, and the rule was the same
rpb hn cfe nf NJ
or silver coins.
To protect themselves against the evil
effects of threatened depreciation of
their money, and to enable them to main
tain the parity of their silver and gold
coins already in use, Holland, France,
Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and
Venezuela have all been compelled since
the year 1875 to suspend the coinage of
legal tender silver. Spain was forced
cept on Government account. and
in 1898 the Government of British
India, a silver monometallic coun-
try, after an exhaustive examination of
the subject in all its aspects, suspended
the coinage on individual account for the
avowed purpose of preventing the further
tall OF the silver rupee and establishing a
fixed par of exchange with London and
other financial centers in Europe. But
X
statesmen and financiers of all these
countries moved in exactly the wrong
direction, and if they had wanted to MAN.
tain parity or to establish parity, they
ought to have opened their mints to the
free coinage of all the silver in the world
instead of closing them.
The increased coinage of legal tender
silver at a ratio which overvalued that
metal relatively to gold would not
4 ich la Il
or terminate the struggle for it's posses
sion, but would greatly increase the de-
mand and intensity the struggle, because,
If two kinds of money of the same denomi-
nation but of unequal value were in ex-
istence, every body would strive to get the
most valuable, and as the number of silver
dollars increased their value relatively 10
gold would decrease.
In opposition to any such policy as that
proposed by the Chicago and Populist
conventions he urged that by holding
fast to the best money the people would
always have the best things that money
could buy. Turning to other parts of the
platform Mr.. Carlisle said if the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of
Is to were the only issue presented every
old-line Democrat in the country would be
fully justified in refusing to support the
nominee of the Chicago and st. Louis Pop
issue, and it might in the end prove to be
not even the most important one. When
was it ever before declared by any conven-
tion ever pretending to be Democratic
that the Federal Government had the con-
stit1tional authority to interfere with pri-
vate contracts between Individual citizens
of the same State
In view of the facts that it was also pro-
posed to have the Government purchase
nd fn oil ha raiI nd f0ta 4.
lines, and issue paper to pay for them,
that 1T was TO coin at the public expense
all the silver in the world, if the owners
OF the bullion saw proper to present 1t at
our mints, that it was to inaugurate and
maintain a system of public works,
whether needed or not, sufficient to give
constant employment to laborers, who
were not otherwise occupied, and that
it was to establish postal savings banks
receive idle money on deposit and pay in
terest on it, whether it could use the
money or not. he thought it not extrava-
CANT to say that the people were threat
ened with social and political revolution
of the gravest character-a revolution
which, If successful, would subvert the
fundamental principles upon which the
Government is founded, tax the private
industries of the people out of existence
and convert our system into a socialistic
despotism. When to this extravaganza
and demoralizing demand was added tEat
other revolutionary feature Of tue Chicago
platform, substantial avowal of a pur-
pose to make the judiciary part of the
political machine by reconstructing the
Supreme Court in order to dictate it's
judgments upon questions of constitu-
tional law, plan of operations was pro-
posed more dangerous to our institutions
than was ever suggested by any party in
the past.