San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-01
Ex.sEcRE1ARY scHuRz.
Shows Clearly That Free silver would
Ruin Industry.

temDer D. speaking OF possible free
silver victory, he said:
Consider what the immediate conse-
quences would be if Mr.. Bryan we're
elected president, with congress to
match. Mr.. Bryan would, of course, be
anxious to have his free-coinage law
he called an extra session of congress,
until some time in April or May, five or
six months after the day of election.
But as soon as on the 4th of November
the result of the election was announced
everybody would know that the parity
of gold and silver would not be main
tanned.
1t having been made certain by Mr..
Bryan's election that the parity of gold
and silver would not be maintained,
there would be rush upon the treasury
for the gold in it by the persons hold
ing greenbacks entitled to redemption,
and the gold reserve would be exhausted
in a twinkling. Gold will instantly
disappear from circulation, to be hoard
ed or exported. Why will it disappear?
Because every sensible person when
making a payment will prefer to make
it in the less valuable dollar and hold
the more valuable gold dollar back for
more profitable use. Gold will there
fore quickly rise to premium, and we
shall be on the silver basis long before
q free-coinage law can be enacted. Our
daily transactions in buying and sell
ing, in paying and receiving wages,
will no longer be carried on upon the
basis of the gold dollar worth 100 cents,
but of the silver dollar worth so cents
no longer hold up the silver dollar to
the value of the gold dollar. That is
what the silver basis means. You can
study in Mexico how it works.
The quantity of gold vanishing from
circulation will amount to about $780,
100000, the disappearance of which
will make a tremendous hole in the
volume of our currency. But, says the
silver man, there will be free silver
coinage to fill the gap promptly with
coined silver or silver certificates. Oh,
no, my fellow sufferers. The disappear
ance of gold will happen promptly after
the election of Mr.. Bryan, and there
will not possibly be any free coinage of
silver for at least six months, and it
will require great many more months
to fill gap of 5000, 100000. o..
What will happen meanwhile? The
st. Louis Globe-Democrat reports Mr..
Bryan to have said some time ago: 81
think it-meaning the victory of the
free-coinage movement-will cause a
panic. But the country is in deplor-
able condition, and it will take extreme
measures to restore it to a condition of
prosperity" Whereupon the st. Louis
paper pointedly remarks: Evidently
Mr.. Bryan has heard of the doctor who
always threw his patient into fits before
administering any curative medicine"
Just so.
How, then, would Mr.. Bryan's eft"
work? The sudden disappearance of
our gold from circulation would pro-
duce the most stringent contraction of
the currency on record. Business men
who own money and at the same time
have money due them will be forced to
collect that money by every means at
their disposal. Nobody will be inclined
to lend out money except upon ex-
traordinary security. The banks will
naturally consider it their duty to keep
themselves strong, and therefore to call
in loans and to restrict their discounts
and advances to business men with the
utmost caution. Business establish
ments, manufactures, mercantile
houses, unable to get the money for
meeting their obligations, will by the
hundreds succumb to their embarrass-
ments and tumble down like row of
bricks. Others will cautiously restrict
their operations to the narrowest posi-
BILE limit, and wage-earners by the thou
sands will lose their employment and be
turned into the street.
How can I foretell these things with
so much assurance? Because they have
already cast their shadows before. Do
you remember the crisis of 1898, when
the silver basis was in sight? And now
again the mere apprehension of posi-
bility of Mr.. Bryan's election and of the
consequent slipping of our country upon
the silver basis has already caused I'M
told millions of our securities to be
thrown upon the market in Europe as
well as here. ... ....s
Scores of business orders are already
recalled, a large number of manufactur-
ing establishments have already stopped
or restricted their operations, enter
prise is already discouraged and nearly
paralyzed, many works of public utili-
ty by Industrial or railroad companies
have already been ordered off, thou
sands of worbingmen are already
thrown out of employment, gold is al
ready being hoarder, capital is already
being sent out of the country to be in
vested in Europe for safety.
And why all this? Not, as the silver
men foolishly pretend, because the ex-
isting gold standard has made money
scarce, for capital is lying idle inheaps,
scores upon scores of millions, fairly