The Monitor-register., 1896-07-10

II we should adopt free coinage of
silver the author of that catechism would
have US believe the $612, 600, 900 of gold
would Immediately leave us. Under free
coinage it might be forced out eventually,
to our own and to the advantage of
Europe, should neither France nor Ger.
many join us in restoring bimetallism;
but just as Germany and then the Latin
Union, consisting of France, Belgium,
Italy. Greece and Switzerland, followed
us in closing their mints to silver, so
there are good reasons to believe, from
the rapid growth of the silver sentiment
in Germany and its we'll known exist
ence in France, that they would follow
our lead in reopening their mints to It's
coinage.
Suppose they did not; what would fol.
low the adoption of free coinage by the
United States? Admit that some foreign
investors should become frightened by
the woful predictions of the bankers and
newspapers and draw gold from us by
selling American securities. To the ex.
tent to which they drew they would
lessen our quantity below 1,700 millions
and increase their supply to an equal
amount above their proper distributive
share; prices in America would fall some.
prices in Europe would rise some, money
would buy more here than elsewhere and
by a law as inevitable as gravitation
Chat gold will go where it will buy the
most), the gold would Immediately flow
back in the purchase of u wheat, corn,
pork and other products, the level would
be again restored and we would again
have our 1,700 millions.
If, the first year of free coinage, we
coined 800, 900, 600 of silver, we would
then have 1900 millions CURRENCY
larger portion of the worlds money in
proportion to our trade and our popula-
| ton than our share, and such portion of
100 millions of gold would go out as
would again restore the level. Europe
would have more money and we also
would have more, and prices of all pro-
ducts in both countries would rise
some, because of an increase of the
money of the world through the ad-
dition of 100 millions to its stock of metal
money; and much more, because men
would see that the era of falling prices
had ended and an era of rising values
had begun. They would not longer fear
to invest money In manufacturing and
the development of natural resources,
because with rising values profits would
be assured.
AS we continued, and only as we con-
tinued, to coin silver to take it's place we
would expel gold until we had 612 mil.
lions more silver money than our present
total supply of currency and Europe had
612 millions more gold money. Such a
large addition to her stock of basic metal
money would immensely enhance prices
in those markets which take our surplus
products, the price of which surplus
determines the price of the immensely
greater quantity consumed at home. Do
you not realize, therefore, that the more
gold we oan drive to Europe through an
increase to an equal extent of the guam |
tity of our W currency the higher
| prices we will receive for products, the
less it will take of them 20 pay her our 4
annual interest and other dues, the heav.
Ter the balance she will be compelled to |
pay us to settle accounts, and the more
prosperous as individuals and as q nation
we will become?-
After we had expelled all our gold 0y
the free coinage of silver Chat would not |
happen except under the supposition that
free coinage of silver by the United States
would fail to give silver all over the
world, at the ratio of 16 to /, the same
value as gold, and it is to be remembered
it is conceded that France, with only |
So millions of population, succeeded in
maintaining a world wide ratio of 151 to
1 from 1903 to 1873 through free coin
age), continued silver coinage would |
gradually raise prices here above coun-
tries having a gold standard, just as /
during the war and shortly after, prices
measured in our paper were higher thar |
in Europe.
But only very gradually, because as we
then increased our currency some of it
would flow out to the South American |
and Asiatic nations, which are on a silver
basis, and only as we raised the general
level of prices of the nations on an ex.
elusive silver basis, having a combined
population of 900 millions-far in excess
of the population of the nations on a
gold standard, could our prices advance. |
Men well informed on this subject de- |
clare that the annual production of the
silver mines of the world would not more
than suffice to keep pace, with the aid of
gold productions with the increase of the
worlds population after deduoting the
quantity of both metals used for other
purposes than coinage.
As to the statement that free coinage
would reduce 610 millions to 305 millions,
and that each dollar would vary from
day to day as the price of silver bullion
varied, it need only be said. that when
the United States coined into a dollar
every 4129 grains of standard silver
brought to its mints, without charge to
the owner thereof, there is no man, not a
~lunatic, who would take less than a dol
lar for every 4124 grains of such silver he
might own, and as such owner could not
get more elsewhere, there would be no
fuctuation in silver bullion.
Within the past twenty. five years silver
bullion has fallen until the silver that is
in a silver dollar which in 1878 was
worth, as differently stated, from 101 to
1903 cents in gold, is now worth only 81
cents in that metal. Yet in the nations
having free coinage the purchasing power
of their silver coins is the same to day as
1t was in '73. The purchasing power of
the Mex lean dollar, of the Japanese yen,
of the Indian rupee, is the same now as
when silver bullion was nearly double its
present value. This can be verified by
our Consular reports from these ooun-
tries, and is further supported by the
personal testimony of a near relative
recently stationed in Asiatic waters.
This is true because during these years
the amounts of basic currency, i. g., the
number of silver coins, in prop ortion to
in these countries, has not
varied, and it is an admitted principle by