The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-07-22
lContInued,hom Second Pagel

tract the currency by the expulsion of all the
gold now in the country.
Al the generalization Of silver 10 the amount
OF a little over per cent in the coinage la v OF
liG expelled gold and established silver mono
hletallism, and II the generalization of gold to
lhe extent OF less than Der cent in the acts of
1854 and la51 expelled silver from circulation
ana established gold mOnometallism, Is not the
conclusion Irresistible that the free and un
limited coinage OF legal tender silver at the
present time, at an generalization OF nearly
100 per cent, would at once place the country
upon monometallic silver basis2 This ques-
ton does not seem 10 me 10 be open To ser GUS
argument, and when IL Is proposed that the
United states shall, in defiance Of our own ex-
peTlenco during period Of 90 years and in de-
nance OF the experience Of other nations dur
Ing many centuries, authorize the free coinage
OF legal tender silver at such ratio, IL is the
duty or the people and especially the duty of tho
laboring people To pause before ii Is too late and
| carefully consider whether they Will deter.
mine 10 overthrow their existing monetary
| system and substitute in its place the depre-
ciated silver monometallism of Asia and Mex
leo and the small states and republics Of Cen
tr1l and South America, with their low rates
| Of wages and their high rates Of exchange.
Under the coinage act Of 1892 we had silver
| but no gold, and under the acts of 1884 and
| 1877, with free coinage of both metals we had
| gold, but no silver except the token subsidiary
standard and limited coinage of silver, we have
both gold and silver as full legal tender money
In larger amounts than ever before in our his
tory, and the coins of the two metals are kept
| equal In purchasing power by the credit and
resources OF the government, Notwithstanding
the difference in their intrinsic value.
Real Question Shall We Have Silver
Monometallism?
We have now about $500, coo, 900 In gold and
f,,ll al.
Ns,2l6,67 in subsidiary silver coins which
are legal tender in payments not exceeding
$40. and the real question for the people to de-
eide Is whether they Will continue to use the
coins OF both metals or adopt monetary sys-
tenn which always has and always will drive
one OF them out of the country. l am not here
therefore, this evening to advocate the exclu-
sivo use Of gold coin as money, or to oppose a
| conservative and safe use of silver coin as
money along with gold and at parity with
gold, but am here to insist that we shall not
abandon the present legal standard of value
expel all the gold from the country and adopt
silver monometalism, with free coinage OF q
nominal dollar worth inirinsically only 81 or
b2 cents. l am here TO insist that the minis of
the United States, which were constructed
and are maintained and operated at the ex-
pense OF all the people, shall not be used for
the exclusive benefit of the owners of silver
bullion under n law giving them the right to
free OF charge and stamped as dollar and
compelling you and all others to receive it
from them as Il dollar.
All the minis of the United States, operated
TO their full capacity and doing no other work.
could not coin into standard silver dollars two
thirds Of the annual production Of silver in
our own country, but, Notwithstanding this, IL
is seriously proposed to offer free coinage to
all the silver in the world at legal valuation
almost double its commercial value in the
markets Of the foreign countries where IL is
produced. The annual production of silver in
the world Is about S2l6, 10000 at our coinage
rate. and the annual capacity of our minis to
coin standard silver dollars is only about S4c,-
0OO,O0O. Last year coined S43, g33 475 in gold
and 5000, $50 in silver, that IL our mints
were devoted exclusively TO the free coinage
Of standard silver dollars the addition to our
stock of metallic money would be about sl5,-
0OO,OOO less every year than ii Is now, ard it
would not be good money after IL was coined
More than 10 years would elapse before we
could at this rate coin enough deprecated sill
yer dollars to supply the place of the good
gold dollars expelled from the country, and in
the meantime "A complete revolution would
have 20 be effected in our commercial rela-
lions with other nations and in all our domes-
tic business affairs, including a readjustment
of the wages of labor the price Of commodities
the rates of municipal, state and federal taxa-
ton, charges for transportation and every
other matter involving the use Of money or
credit. We should descend by single step
from the highest standard Of value to silver
recommendation, with contracted and at the
same time deprecated currency, financial
experiment which has no precedent in the
monetary interest of the world.
Fortunately when changes have heretofore
been made in the circulation by the substitu-
tion of the coins of one metal for the coins OF
the other, the difference in their value has
- = g. d.
ton has been gradual and created no great
financial disturbance. Under the act of 1899
the difference in value between the coins and
the legal ratio was only little over per
| cent, and yet, within less than one year after
| the enactment of that statute, congress was
| compelled TO re-enforce our stock of money by
making certain foreign coins legal tender In
| the payment OF debts. and on the same day of
| the passage of the act of 1884, which put the
| country ON gold basis by undertaking sill
yer about per cent, congress passed another
| statute making the gold coins Of Great Britain,
| Portugal, Brazil, France, Mexico and Colon
| bia legal tender by weight in the payment OF
debts, thus providing as far as possible against
| "a contraction of the currency on account OF
| the expulsion Of silver from the circulation.
| During tho war. when gold was leaving the
country. legal tender treasury notes were
rapidly issued, under authority OF congress, to
take its place, and instead of u contraction OF
L tho currency MO nau an Aibtf Nhc
war, when it was determined TO change the
character Of our currency again by the re-
sumption of specie payments, the law was en-
noted four years in advance of the time when
it was TO take effect in order that ample OPP
portunity might be afforded TO adjust the busi'
ness of the people to the altered conditions.
Now however, all the conservative and pru-
Dental considerations that have usually con-
trolled in the settlement OF great financial
questions seem to DO utterly disregarded, and
we are confronted by an organized and ag
gressive movement to destroy by single blow
the measures of value upon which all existing
contracts are based and thus subvert the very
foundations of our monetary system, without
allowing a single day to prepare for the change
In the general confusion and disorder re-
smiling from such "A radical measure what will
be the condition Of the American laborerY Will
he DO benefited or injured by reducing the
value Of the money in which his wages are
paid and at the same time increasing the prices
OF the commodities for which his wages are
expended
Effect on the wageworkers.
After struggling for more than quarter OF
n century, through labor organizations and
otherwise to secure a rate of wages which
would make the proceeds of days work
equal to the cost of a days subsistence for the
worlingman and his family, you are asked by
the advocates of free coinage to Join them In
destroying VI '4N
of the money In which you are paid and Inn
nosa upon yourselves the task of doubling the
nominal amount OF your wages hereafter-that
Is, 10 struggle for another quarter OF CEN
tury or perhaps longer, to raise your wages
in a deprecated currency to point which
will enable you TO purchase with them as
much of tho necessaries of life as you can
purchase now.--and II. after years OF conten-
zion. privation and industrial disorder You
should at last succeed in so adjusting wages
that they would procure ut the higher prices
=. -....,nlati.,. insI Uhat they VIII prOCure