Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-23
ST JOHN AND THE GIRL.
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 of labor. These combined elements con- stitute the overwhelming majority or voters. Their intelligent conclusion Will be
 Felt When Expressed at the Polls
 The banker also is without prosperity unless prosperity is general throughout the United States. He must learn to dis- tingush between cheap money and mon ey commanding low rate or interest, The dollar worth two bushels Of wheat IS a dear dollar, and yet it commands inter est in Wall street at present of but per cent per annum on call If the dollar can be cheapened by increasing the num- ber of dollars, so that each dollar will buy less wheat, the increasing price or wheat will increase the demand for dol lars to invest in it's production. Then the borrower of dollars to invest in the production of wheat being reasonably sure of a profit from that employ ment Of the money, can afford to pay interest for its use as a. part of his profit In other words, interest is share of the profit on the employment of money. So that abundant money, money readily obtaina- ble which is to say really cheap money is the money which commands high rate of interest as share Of the pront of the borrower in using it.
 As we appeal to the country in the justice of our cause one or two points or
 
 lows: The experience of Mexico is held up for our alarm. We answer first, that Mexico is conspicuously prosperous at home. Her increase in manufacture, railway earnings and the like In recent years Is phenomenal Second, Mexico Is no criterion for the United States, Tor tn reason that she has a foreign trade Indebtedness of about 0,00O, 900 annually in excess of the value of her exports or cotton, sugar, coffee hides and the like, which must be paid for in the surplus product of her mines. Her silver, there fore goes abroad as merchandise, and at a valuation fixed by the outside world The United States, on the other hand, IS a nation of 70,000, GOO of people, scattered over a territory seventeen times the area of France A single one of our railway systems the Erie, exceeds the aggregate railway mileage of all Mexico We of fer an employment for money to an ag- gregate greater than the worlds spare | silver will furnish us. Hence, our silver money, at home and abroad, will be val | ued as |
 The Money of the United States. The opposition threatens us with a | flood of Europes silver upon our re- | opened hints. We answer. Europe has | no silver but her silver money. Her sil- | yer money values silver at from 5 cents | to cents on the dollar higher than | ours Hence the European merchant or l banker must sacrifice from to per cent | of his full legal tender in order to recoin | it at our hints. Europes sllverware, | like Americas silverware, carries in it | the additional value of labor and the | manufacturerS' profit. They threaten us with flood of silver | from the far east. We answer that the | course of silver is invariably eastward, and never toward the west. British ln- | dia Is a perpetual sink of silver absorb | ing 1t, never to return, by from $50,O0O00 to $60, ,000, 900 worth every year. And h. dia's absorption of silver will be enlarg- ed by the steadiness of price for silver fixed by our reopened hints.
 They threaten us with sudden re- tirement of 5000 GOO 900 gold with the &C., companying panic, causing contraction and commercial disaster unparalleled. We answer that our total stock og gold, other than about $1O0OO,OOO or $l5,oOO'o0o circulating cn the Pacific coast Is all ready in retirement. Practically all our gold is in the United States treasury or held by banks. The gold in the treasury will remain there if the secretary
 Avails ot His Option
 to redeem United States notes in silver. The gold in the banks constitutes the quiet and undisturbed portion of their reserves against their liabilities. It will continue to do money duty as such re- serve after free coinage for silver is en- acted. Hence a premium on It will not contract the currency. The utmost pos sible contraction of the currency will be the few millions circulating on the Pa cific coast, and this will be retired, but slowly.
 A similar threat of flight of gold was made for the Bland act of 1878. President Hayes was urged to veto 1t, but congress passed it over the veto Instead of flight of gold, as had been predicted, we gained by importation $4,000,000 for the first year, $70,000 900 the next and $90,000,- 900 the third year. During the twelve years that the act was on the statute books we gained $221, 100000 of foreign : gold. Instead of the destruction of our credit abroad, as had been predicted, the United States per cent loan, which stood at 101 on the day of the enactment, sold at 120 per cent within three years and at 130 per cent subsequently, h. stead of defeating the resumption of specie payments on January of the fol- lowing year, the 24,000OO0 silver dollars which were coined Tn 1878 and circulated by means of silver certificates, reduced the demand upon the government for gold. Hence the threat of disaster now is without historic foundation.
 This, then, is what will follow the re- opening of our hints to silver: The gold already in the treasury will remain there if common sense dictates the treasury management; that is. if the treasurer exercises the option to redeem United