The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1896-07-11
SOME HARD FACTS.
They Hit Telling Blows Against Fre'
Coinage at Sixteen to One.

terror, delivered speech IN New 1Ork
On May 10 on the currency question. |
II is a speech that should be read by all |
who buy and sell or who vote or have |
influence with voters. It is as follows:
The people of this country make their
contracts payable in dollars. Uncer-
tainty as to the meaning of the word
dollar must create doubt as to the effect
II contracts and general distrust in BUSH
ness.
The dollar of the United States at the
present time has q distinct meaning.
1t Is equivalent to 1922 grains of pure
gold. Paper dollars are mere promises
to pay in coin. Silver dollars, while they
contain bullion worth only about so
cents each, have been surrounded by
safeguards of legislation limiting the
number coined and supporting them by
the credit Of anu Z H1rshe goyertsaat
they have been kept on parfty-with
bold dollars. Twenty-three-twent
one-hundredths grains of gold therefore.
measure the value of what is meant by
a dollar, when the. term is used for
trade here, and this has been true Tor
about so years, with the exception OF
the period during which paper dollars
were deprecated. f. &.
Upon the floor of the house of repre-
sentatives in 1859, when the bill was
pending which made fractional cur
rency subsidiary, Cyrus i. Durham, Of
Indiana, who had charge of the bin,
said: atg
AN objection urged against this pro-
posed change is that it gives us gold
standard only. = = y Gentlemen talk
about double standard of gold and sill
yer as thing that exists, and. that we
propose to change. We have had but n
single standard for the last three or four
years; this has been and now is gold; we
propose to let it remain so and adapt sill
YER to and regulate it by gold" 'iis
After this long experience in the use
IF dollars based upon 1922 grains OF
gold the advocates of silver demand its
free, unlimited and independent coinage
at the present ratio. -
This is really proposition to remove
from silver dollars the safeguards of leg
islation which surround them, to with
draw the limit and to take from then
the support of the government. tits an
effort to reach bimctallic currency by
the free and unlimited coinage of two
metals at fixed ratio which places 1ot
cents worth of bullion in the gold dol
lar and so cents worth of bullion IL
the silver dollar.
Theexperience of every country which
has attempted the free and unlimited
coinage OF the two metals at a ratio dis
Regarding the commercial value of tn
bullion of each metal put into dolla;
has been the coinage and use of TIL
cheaper metal and the loss as money 0
the more valuable metal. The prin
cipie is thus expressed by Sir Isaa
Gresham:
eff debased coin is attempted to b
circulated with full value coin,s all O
the latter will disappear from eireula
ton, and the overvalued and debase
coin win alone remain. to the ruin Q
our commerce and business"
This indisputable doctrine was laugh
in the 14th century by Nicholas Orel
me and again in the 10th century b
Nicholas Copernicus. Coming down
1717, Sir Isaac Newton, at that tim
director of the mint of England. d
cfared:
'If silver leaves the shores of EN-
land In crowns or in ingots, the produt
of. coins rcmelted, and gives place
gold, It is because the value which Il
monetary legislation assigns to it. in r
lation to gold, is not correct"
Apply the lesson practically to OF
own money. With free and unlimits
coinage of gold and silver at the ratio
sixteen to one silver monometallis
would result, and the measure of Il
value of our dollar would be 3T1H grail
of silver, worth about - grains of gol
But tie advocates of silver coinaj
insist that with 371A grains OF silly
admitted in unlimited quantities to t
minis for coinage, free of charge, 8
bullion value of this number of graf
would necessarily be equal, before col
age. to the coined dollar. This is trt
and It would be equally true OF ]
grains, or OF one grain, if admitted fl
and in unlimited quantities to COMA:
Indeed, If chips we're admitted free a
in unlimited quantities to the privile
il being stamped into dollars, the chi
before they were stamped, would
worth as much as the dollars after til
were stamped, but unfortunately
dollars would be worth no more tn
chips.
Another favorite argumentof the Fl
silver advocates refers to the exporter
of France, and they have claimed
over the country that France. frcr.s' !.
to 1874. by fixing a legal ratio for
coinage of silver and gold fat fife
and one-half to one). kept the comm
cial ratio between the two metals att
same figures. This. inaccurate sta
rnent has been one of their princi
arguments- If they viii reallyexam