The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-08-17

man who wanted silver, ana especially u
he had made that attempt at such cru
cal period as we have had I'm the last two
years, my Judgment Is IL would have been
very disastrouse.
l do not agree with the secretary that II
was wise To follow "a bad precedent, bui
from his answer 10 will be seen that the
fault does not lie with the greenbacks and
treasury notes but rather with the exec
utive officers who have seen fit to surren'
der right which should have been exer'
ciSed for the protection Of interests oil the
people. This executive action has already
been made the excuse for the issue oil
more than s25O, 900 600 In bonds, and IL Is
impossible To estimate the amount oil
bonds which may hereafter be issued II
this policy is continued We are told that
any attempt upon the part of the govern
ment To redeem its obligations In silver
would put premium upon gold. The
Bank of France exercises the right To re-
deem all bank paper In either gold or Sill
yer, and yet France maintains the parity
between 4 Id and silver at ratio OF l5H
to and retains in circulation moro silver
per capita than we do in the United
States.
Ii may be further answered that our OPP
ponents have suggested no feasible plan
for avoiding the dangers which they fear.
The retirement of the grecnbacks ami
treasury notes would not protect the
treasury, because the same policy which
now leads the secretary of the treasury 10
redeem all government paper In gold,
when gold is demanded, will require the
redemption of all silver dollars and silver
certificates In gold, II the greenbacks and
treasury notes are withdrawn from circu-
lation. More than this, If the govern
ment should retire its paper and throw
upon the banks the necessity Of furnish
9g coin redemption, the banks would ex-
Srcise the right To furnish either gold or
silver. In other words they would exer-
else the option, just as the government
ought To exercise it now. The govern
ment must either exercise the right to re-
deem its obligations i'm silver when silver
is more convenient, or it must retire all
the silver and silver certificates from cir
culation and leave nothing but gold as
legal tender money Are our opponents
willing To outline a financial system which
will carry out their policy to its legitimate
conclusion, or will they continue to cloak
their designs in ambiguous phrasesY
There is an actual necessity for bimet-
sllism as well as "A theoretical defense of
10. During the last twenty-three years
legislation has been creating an additional
demand for gold and this law creating de.
mand here resulted in increasing the pur.
shasing power of each ounce of gold The
restoration of bimetallism in the United
States will take away from gold just so
much of its purchasing power as was add
ell To IL by the dcmonetiZation of silver by
the United States The silver dollar is
now held up to the gold dollar by legal
tender laws and not by redemption in
gold, because the standard silver dollars are
not now redeemable In gold either in law
or by administrative policy. We contend
that free and unlimited coinage by the
United States will raise the bullion value
Of silver To the coinage value and thus
make silver bullion worth Sl.29 per ounce
in gold throughout the world. This prop.
osition is in keeping with natural laws,
not in defiance of them. The best known
law of commerce is the law of supply and
demand. We recognize this law and
build our argument upon IL. We apply
this law To money when we say that re-
duction in the volume of money will raise
the purchasing power of the dollar; we
also apply the law of supply and demand
To silver when we say that new demand
for silver created by law will raise the
price of silver bullion