The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-22
TRUE TO THE FAITH


s.>g
Continued From First Page.
cents-eighty-I sdonst know but what it is
up 10 ninety, haven't seen today's report
eut between those two periods wheat has
nucfuated, and 5fuctuated greatly. in value
In 1861 It was sAyenty- Ave cents; in 1862, sew
enty-six cents; IN 1851 under the greenbacks
We; In 1884. sixty-four cents, and in 1885,
mnety-tWo cents. You can take any number
of years since 1873 ami compare them with the
same number ofryeaEs prior to 1873, and you
| VIII see that there Is no material difference
In the prices of1wheat in the Chicago market
| Now, this proves that, far as wheat Is
concerned at least, gold
HAS NOT APPRECIATED
| in value. for these are gold prices But an
ounce of silver would buy two bushels of
wheat in 1858. and today it won't buy one
bushel: This, " seems to me, demonstrates
that silver has been reduced in value. 1t
is undoubtedly true that there has been
great depreciation In the prices, and values
or great many commodities. Why, horses
have gone down recently; not by reason Of
silver legislation, not by reason Of a tariff,
but because the street railways are using
the trolley instead of horses, and the bicy-
Gle has got in its deadly work upon horse
nesh and wherever machinery plays a part
IN the cost OF production, wherever the men
ering new inventions and new processes and
new methods can get in their work, there,
too, prices have been and are being and for
ever will be reduced and the world is all
ular Science Monthly, the other day, an ar
-t!cle by David A. Wells, in which he demon
strates. by mathematical computation, that
carpenter dropping wire nail cannot al
ford to stop and pick 1t up; the time ne
would lose is more valuable than the nail
he has lost: but nevertheless maintain that
there mas rarely been a time in our history
when days work on the farm. in the shop,
behind the counter. would furnish a man
more OF the necessities and comforts and
luxuries OF life. And this has come about
under our reduced tariff law, and Is not
caused by any silver, or other legislation, OF
that character. But whether the act OF 1873
was wise or upwise whether it was crime
Or an inspiration, is immaterial matter to
us now. The deed has been done twenty
five years ago. Ever since that time the
business OF this country has been conducted
upon the single gold standard; for twenty
three years We have been doing business
upon that basis; and the great question is
business of ours and put it upon basis
which we abandoned a quarter of a cen
tury ago. My brilliant and dazzling friend
from Nebraska asks us to try his experiment
of free coinage. With magnificent courage,
he invites us to follow him into the dark,
to leap over the abyss and find out how we
if the experiment fails, we can go back.
But he forgets, gentlemen, that the man
who.
TRIPLES WITH DYNAMITE
is not always in condition to come back.
applause and Iaughter.) Mr.. Bryan's prop
free and unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to 1.
By that, in effect, he means that the man VINO
has silver bullion can take 1t TO the mint
and sell 1t for s1.29 an ounce. no matter what
it is worth anywhere else And this he
calls true Americafism. 1t does not make
any difference what the market value Of it is;
1t does not make any difference what other
nations pay fors silver; will go 1t alone;
we will have 1S- to 1, or We'll bust. THAT
is Americanisms" (Applause.)
In 1892 two Of the wisest statesmen this
or;1
tocrat, and Jefferson, the Democrat-sat down
to frame the first coinage law Of the United
States. They weree both young men, not
brilliant, but careful and able and cautious.
They sought all the, information they could
find upon this subject of coinage. They
visited and called upon almost every mint
in Europe, and they studied the markets.
silver was worth just exactly one ounce of
gold they said: Here is the ratio Of coin
age" and they adopted Is to 1. Why. it is
son, as he arose from that work, and yet
with all the wisdom of those men 1t soon
appeared that they had made mistake. 1t
soon appeared that fifteen ounces of silver
were not worth as much as one ounce of
gold, and the consequence was that men who
had gold put it in their pockets and paid
out their silver, and the free and unlimited
coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of Is
to was not sufficient. The fiat of the gov
eminent was not strong enough toHkeep both
gold and silver in circulation at the. same
not dare to experiment with the finances of
the nation. They had passed through the
terrible days of the revolution; had seen and
known what the deprecated continental cur
rency meant, and so this work that they did,
they did with the care and the caution of
practiced statesmen. Years before that. in the
time OF good Queen BesS, an investigating
student of economy named Thomas Gresham
had discovered this law from the experience
OF the nations that a poor currency. an in
ferior currency always drives the better cur
rency out Of circulation. This is known as
Greshams law, and it has been proved and
tested with the experience of nations.
In 1884 in order to bring gold back into cir
culation, congress amended it's coinage law
and fixed upon the ratio of 16 to l. They
fixed upon that ratio because at that time the
markets showed that sixteen ounces Of silver
were exactly equal to one Of gold. Now the
consequence of that act was that in the
course of time the production Of gold in
creased and sixteen ounces OF silver were
worth more than one ounce of gold, and there
fore Greshams law came into play, and the
silver went out Of circulation and 1t remained
out of circulation from 1884 to 1873, and dur
ing all that time, with the exception Of the
period of the war, the business of the coun-
try was upon the basis Of the single gold
standard. The act efidS73 merely enacted that
which was already IAN existing fact, silver
had been demogetized in 1884. If Mr.. Jeffer-
son and Mr.. Ha4iiton were today called upon
to frame coinage law it seems to me they
would do as they did in 1893. They would
PUT their ears to the keyholes Of the nations
they would study the markets of the world,
they would find out just exactly what the
market ratio wass and having found that it
was 80 to /. they would fix upon the ratio Of
80 to 1. There would not be any ZIG to or
bust with Jefferson or Hamilton. Now the
important question for us to consider, gentle
men, is. what wouldabe the effect If we would
adopt Mr.. Bryan's proposition of free coin
age? Why, he says he believes that If we do
it, it will raise silver up until 1t is equal with
gold. He believes this and he asks us to
have faith in his faith and believe in his
belief. Well, now suppose it does do that,
suppose it does bring silver up until it is
equal with gold and ounce Of silver sells
for $1.29 in gold, how have we bettered the
they are now, for silver is equal to gold, and
pay it in gold as in silver, because the two
are equal and silver has come up. Who then
would be benefited by such course except
the silver miner? But suppose Mr.. Bryan is
mistaken Suppose the effect of such coinage
would not be TO raise silver, then what? Why
GRESHAMS MEMORABLE LAW
would come in force and the fifty-two-cent
dollar would drive the one-hundred- gold
dollar out of circulation. All this paper
money of ours, the greenbacks the treasury
notes, the silver certificates, would one and
all be redeemable in the silver dollar, and,
therefore, worth no more than the silver dol
lar. We have outstanding about a thou
sand millions of paper currency, but only
small portion of that is in the treasury, only
small portion of 1t Is In the bank vaults;
the greater part of 1t is in circulation in
the channels of retail trade, In the hands
and in the pockets of the common people
<zP fu ,fr-xr rrvr,ny ,.4o