The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-10-02

the Constitution In what clause of
the Constitution. or in which of the fif-
teen amendments, does the fundamental
law prescribe IA gold and silver coinage
or any other coinage? In which does it
mention any coinage further than to a,l-
thoriZe the general government to ''coin
| money and regulate the value there
OFF, Acting under that authority Con
gress at first authorized coinage at Is to
l. Was that the gold and silver coin
age of the Constitution If so. how
has 16 to 1 come to he the coinage of
the Constitution? Under the first ratio
silver was undervalued and refused to
circulate except in the form of worn and
abraded foreign coins. Our own silver
coins, even the subsidiary pieces. We're
melted down for bullion because they
were worth about 3 per cent. more than
gold dollars. In all the period up to the
time of the great silver discoveries Con-
gress sought to make the coinage ratio
never authorized coinage at any other.
Was that the coinage of the COnstitu-
tiOn?" If so. will it be return to it for
us now to establish free coinage at the
ratio of l6 to 1 when the commercial
ratio is about 81 to L?
4. VIII not free coinage at 16 to | re-
duce the value of the dollar unit by about
one-half?
.. Will it not be in fact regulation
OF about one-half of all our debts, public
and private:
q. Is there not danger that it will
cause the return to us of all the Amer-
can securities held abroad-government
railroad and industrial stocks and bonds
thus precipitating panic of giant pro-
portions. with long years of depression to
Z. Will not your election upon the Chi
cago platform cause the calling in. be-
tween November and March, of all col
lectable debts. all loans. all mortgages
that have expired? And will not this
produce such distress as this country
West and South. where caoital and
credit are most needed and depend upon
confidence as their basis?
:. Will not free and unlimited coinage
drive all the five or six hundred millions
OF gold and gold certificates out of use
as money or as bank reserves? Will it
not cause currency contraction of the
most disastrous proportions. inasmuch
as the utmost capacity of the mints to
com silver cannot make good this with
drawal tor several years to come?
y. VIII not free coinage place us at
once on financial level with Mexico,
India and China. and can we afford to
go upon that level?
10. is there any country in the world
today which gives free and unlimited
India does not. None of the Central or
South American States does. We know
of no country that does, of no example
that can be studied
IL. Is there any country in the world
now ON the silver basis which is as pros
time of depression? Is there any in
which wages are SO high as they are
here, or in which the dollar received in
wages will buy so much? Is there any
silver-basis country that has large
commerce. prosperous manufactures, or
well-to-do agricultural class? Is it
not fact that in every silver-basis coun-
try in the world abject and hopeless pow
erty on the part of the masses is the
rule?
IL. Will you explain to us for our en-
lightenment and guidance how our coun-
try is to escape like conditions if we
go to a silver basis. or how we are to
avoid the lapse TO that basis if we adopt
free and unlimited coinage at 16 to 1
when the commercial ratio between the
metals is about twice that?
13. And if you tell us, as many free
coinage advocates do, that free coinage
will raise the commercial value of silver
to the coinage rate, will you explain to
us how in that case free coinage is to
make money cheaper or easier to get.
how it is to increase the price of wheat
or any other commodity?
IA. You may be aware that there was
last year ON deposit in the savings banks
Of this state alone $643.S73.514. This
enormous sum belonged to 1,615,11S de-
positors, giving an average to each of
$39S.63. 1t represents mainly the small
savings of the thrifty poor. Nearly all
of it has been deposited since the pres
ent standard of value was adopted by
or just to impair by Al per cent. or by
even ! per cent. the value of the money
in which these deposits were earned and
in which today they would be paid?
Is. There are in this state SS,719 PEN
sioners. They drew from the govern
sidering the nature of this debt of honor
when Justly due-can you look with fa-
vor upon any policy that might result in
paying them in deprecated currency
Is. There are in the country 2S3S
building and loan association. of which
41S are in New York. These associa-
tions have 1,7451 125 shareholders-all of
the working and saving classes. Their
assets last year were $3.50, 1861 ,594, repre-
sented chiefly by mortgage loans to
homeseekers, of whom 455.000 are mem
bers of the associations. These associa-
tions have nearly all been organized with
in the last fifteen years under the exist
ing money standard. Can you think it
fair or beneficial to the working people
to reduce by Al per cent, or any lesser
the thrifty poor?
II. Is it not fact worth consideration
| in proposing q descent to the silver stan
dard that the thirty-nine old-style life in
surance companies alone doing business
| in this state last year had in force here
nearly 100000 policies, insuring over
| 5000, ,OOO, 600. The assessment compa-
| nies and various benevolent orders have a
vast amount more. Would it not be an
| injury and a wrong to the benefciaries
of these polices-the widows and
orphans, whom a provident love had
sought to protect-to compel them to re.
| ceive in payment deprecated money?
1S. The rise in prices" which you
! predict as a result of free silver coinage
| would, of course, mean an increase in the
cost of living to all the people-to wage.
| earners, salaried men, and the whole
body of consumers. Do you know of any
case in which rise in wages or sala'
| ries has been parallel with the rise in
prices? Is there any way to render il
certain, or even probable, that the wage
| earners will be compensated for the in
creased cost of living?
| 10. You attribute the decline in silver
| to the demonetization of the silver dol
| lar in 1878, though that dollar. was not
| then coined in any considerable numbers
| and was not in circulation at all, owing
| to the fact that silver bullion was worth