The Republican., 1896-07-30

purchased 20, 900 bushels of white
wheat in Ontario and agreed to pay
for it $1.25 per bushel ini United
States Treasury notes. At that
time the premium on gold was
25 per cent. | thought it would de-
cline and therefore l borrowed the
gold IN Canada of the Ontario Bank
at per cent. and sold the gold in
New York for 1926 and paid the
parties for the wheat with currnecy
draft on New York at the rate Of
S1.25 per bushel. l shipped 1t to
New York and held it in store until
l sold it at So. so per bushel payable
in United States Treasury notes.
| was obliged to sell the American
currency at 40 cents on the dollar
to pay my notes to theOntdrloBank.
Although l sold the wheat at an ad-
vance of 100 per cent. made moth
ing on the transaction, but lost, on
the contrary, the freight, storage,
insurance, shrinkage, interest and
sellers commission. My apparent
profit was wholly, entirely and abso-
lutely fictitious, because the rise IN
gold was far more rapid than the
advance in the price Of the wheat.
In 1868, while manufac
machinery, l bought my suppl S
this country because the premium
on gold had advanced far more rap
idly than the cost of the merchan'
disc which | wished to purchase.
NY purchases amounted in Ameri-
can currency to $500, and when
they became due l went to the On
tario Bank in Bowmanville, Ont,
and discounted my note three
months for $4,000 at the rate Of s
per cent. per annum, and purchased
a gold draft on New York with the
proceeds and sold 1t in New York
through Fisk & Hatch, at 256, and
discharged my obligations Of $500
and had a small surplus left.
l purchased sections for mower
knives four inches by four inches Of
Messrs, Sweet, Barnes, & Co., OF
Syracuse, for 80 cents each. They
cost me in gold little less than Il
cents. They were retailed in this
country at that time for Sc pei
dozen, while | could retail them at
a good profit for 20 cents each in
gold, or 81 40 per dozen. Although
the price of steel and the cost Of
man lfacturlng sections has de-
creased very much in this country
since 1868 | do not think four-b by
four mower section can be purchased
at wholesale at less than 10 cents at
the present time. paid my mould.
ers in Canada 1.50 per day; at the
same time moulders were earning
SO per day at similar work at
Rochester. With gold selling al
250 and 2G0 in New York at the
same time, the Rochester men re.
ceived less than 81 20 in gold pei
day, against S1.5O in gold paid IN
| Canada.
The premium on gold in New
York was 6 per cent. higher than
the premium upon silver; therefore
silver was purchased by parties who
came to Canada to buy Canadian
| products, such as horses for the army
cattle, lumber, or food supplies OF
any kind. 1t became such a drug
and such nuisance that the banks
refused to receive it, as well as the
railways for freight and passenger
traffic, and finally an organization
was formed and it was brought up
at discount and reshipped here
and sold as bullion, and afterward
only received in Canada at a dis
count of 10 per cent.
1t was necessary to make remit
tances in silver by express as neither
the Post Office Department nor the
banks would have anything to do
with it. The loss fell in the end
on the farmers and wage-earners,
who had accepted it at par for their
products or their labor.
Canadians have not forgotten
their experience with American sill
yer, and therefore could not be in
duced to return to a bimetallic
standard of exchange or measure Of
value. They haye not lost their
reason, common sense, Judgment
or integrity, and therefore they are
advocates of the single gold STAN