The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-09-10
SHOWS THAT BRYAN DOES NOT
KNOW THE MEANING OF
FREE COINAGE.
UNCLE sam WOULD NOT BUY SILVER
AS Bryan Intimated in New York, But
Would Simply Coin 1t Free of
Charge-The Rise and Fall
of Commodities.

Carl Schurz, who spoke under the aus
pieces of the Honest Money League. Mr..
Schurz had paid particular attention to
the New York speech of Mr.. Bryan, and
his description of what would happen
'if Bryan is elected provoked repeated
cheers from his audience.
He fatty declared that if Mr.. Bryan
believed certain things which he quoted
from Mr.. .Bryan's New York's address,
then Mr.. Bryan did not know half what
free coinage meant-even though he
was its most ardent apostle
The attendance, which numbered about
$500, received Mr.. Schurz's address with
great enthusiasm. He spoke in part as
follows:
Mr.. Carl Schurz, after reviewing the
Chicago platform, said:
"All existing consequences are ascribed
to the demonetization of silver in the
United States alone-not its demonetZa-
ton anywhere else. This is to justify
the presentation as a sufficient remedy of
the free coinage of silver in the United
States alone, without waiting for the aid
or consent of any other nation.
This platform is amplified by free
| coinage orators, who tell us that the act
called the crime of 1873 has surreptitious-
| ly wiped out one-half of the peoples mon
ey, namely, silver; that in consequence
the remaining half of our metallic mon
| W, namely, gold, as Il basis of the whole
| financial structure, has to do the same
! business that formerly was done by gold
and silver together; that thereby gold
has risen to about double its former pur
chasing power, the gold dollar being vir-
tually 200-cent dollar; that the man
| who produces things for sale is thus be-
ing robbed of half the price, while debts
| payable on Il gold basis have become
twice as heavy, and that this fall in prices
and increase of burden is enriching the
money changers and depressing the peo-
| pie.
"Was the fall in prices since 1873
caused by the so-called demonstration
of silver? Everybody knows that there
was considerable fall in prices, not only
| as to agricultural products-cotton for
! instance decreased from 81 a pound in
| 1864 to II cents in 1S71-but in many
| kinds of industrial products before 1873.
What happened before 1873 can not be
caused by what happened in 1873. The
shrinkage after 1873 may, therefore,
have been caused by something else.
I whenever change in prices of com
modities is caused by a change in supply
or demand or both, then it may affect
different articles differently. Wheat
may rise in price, the supply being pro-
portionately short, while at the same
time cotton may decline, the supply be-
ing proportionately abundant. But
when change of prices occur in cOnse-
quence of great change in the purchas-
| ing power of the money, especially when
that change is sudden, then the effect
must be equal, or at least approximately
so, as to all articles that are bought
or sold for that money. If by the So
called demonstration of silver in 1873,
the gold dollar, or the dollar on the gold
basis. became a 20O-cent dollar at all,
then it became 200-cent dollar at once
and for everything. 1t could not pos
sibly be at the same time a 2O0-cent dol
lar for wheat at $1.2O, for coal at S1.5O,
| 81 for cotton, and 1OO-cent dollar for
corn or for shovcls.
"The act of 1873 became Il law Febru-
airy II, Wheat, rye. oats and corn rose
| above the price of 1873 while cotton de-
clined. In 1874 wheat dropped; corn
| jumped up; cotton dropped; oats and rye
rose. In 1875 there was Il general de-
cline. In 1876 there was Il rise in
wheat and Il decline in corn. oats, rye
and cotton. In 1877 there was another
| rise in wheat, carrying the price above
.
preceding the act of 1873. Evidently so
far the 200-cent dollar bad not made its
mark at all. But / will admit the pos
sible plea, that, as they say, the act of
| 1873 having been passed in secret, people
did not know anything about it, and
prices remained measurcably steady. If
so, then it would appear that if the know
ing ones had only kept still about it that
gold dollar would have remained a 100
cent dollar and nobody would have been
hurt.
But it may be said that in 1873 we
Eere using exclusively paper money, That
neither gold nor silver was IN circula-
ton and that, therefore. the dcmonetiza-
ton would not be felt. but in 1879
metallic money circulated again, and the
cry about the crime of 1873 rcsounded
in congress and in the country. The
prices could not longer plead ignorance
and the 200-cent gold dollar had its OPP
portunity. But in 1880 wheat corn.
oats and cotton rose above the price of
1879. In 1889 wheat, corn, oats and
cotton rose In 1882 wheat and cotton
Inclined. while corn ard oats rose.
"These facts prove con elusively to
very sane man that for nine years after
The act of 1ST3-siX years before and
three years after the resumption of
specie payments-the prices of the agri-
cultural staples mentioned SHOW no trace
of any such effect as would have been
produced upon them had great and
sudden change in the purchasing power
of the country taken place. Therefore,
all this talk about the gold dollar having
become Il 200-cent dollar is-pardon the
eXpression-rank nonsense. How did it
happen that the act of 1873 did attract
that popular attention at the time?
Simply because the dropping of the
obsolete silver from the coinage was re-
garded by everybody taking an interest
in such matters as the mere recording of
an accomplished fact. just as law
would have been disseminating the flint
muskct from the army. In 1913 the sill
yer dollar was worth dollar and two
cents. The silver mine owner was en-
thusiastic for gold. \ few years later,
when the silver miner might have taken
90 cents worth of silver to the mint and
gotten for it one dollar, he vas enthusi-
astic for silver and grew more enthlIsi-
astic the more silver declined and the
more free coinage would have given. He
found the act of 1873 Il hein1us crime,
not against the mining millionaires but
against the common people. The more
the imitation is this joined in the cry.
Congress, cowed by the nproar, passed
the laws of 1873 and 1890, by which
429000,000 of silver dollars were added
to our currency, and yet the price of