Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-08-14
BRYAN'S MASTERLY EFFORT
Concluded from First Page.

furnish either gold or silver. In other
words they would exercise the option
just as the government ought to do now.
The government must either exercise the
right to redeem it's obligations in silver
when silver is more convenient or it
must retire all the silver and silver GER
tifcates from circulation and leave moth
ing but gold as legal tender money. Are
our opponents willing to outline finan-
cial system which will carry out their
precepts to q legitimate conclusion, or
will they continue to cloak their designs
in ambiguous phases? There is an ac-
tual necessity for bimetallism, as we'll as
theoretical defense of it. During the
last twenty three years legislation has
been creating an additional demand for
gold, and this law created demand has re-
suited in increasing the purchasing power
of each ounce of gold. The restoration
of bimetallism in the United States will
take away from gold just as much of its
purchasing power as was added to it by
the demonstration of silver by the Unit
ed States. The silver dollar is now held
up to the gold dollar by legal tender laws,
and not by redemption In gold, because
the standard silver dollars are not now re-
deemable in gold either by law or admin
istrative power.
THE VALUE OF SILVER.
We contend that free and unlimited
coinage by the United States alone will
raise the bullion value of silver to its
coinage value and thus make silver bull
worth $1.29 per ounce in gold throughout
the world. This proposition is in keep
ing with natural laws, not in defiance of
them. The best known law of commerce
is the law of supply and demand. We
recognize this law and build our argu-
ment upon it. We apply this law to
money when we say reduction in the
volume of money will raise the purchas-
ing power of the dollar; we also apply the
law of supply aud demand to silver when
we say that new demand for silver
created by law will raise the price of sill
yer bullion. Gold and silver are different
from other commodities in that they are
limited in quantity. Corn, wheat, manu-
featured products, etc., can be produced
almost without limit, provided
they can be sold at price suf.
ficient to stimulate production, but god
and silver are called precious metals be
cause they are found, not produced
These metals have been the objects Of
search as far back as history runs, yet
according to Mr.. Harvey's calculation, al
the gold coin of the world can be melted
into 22-foot cube and all the silver coir
in the world into a 66-foot cube. Be-
cause gold and silver are limited both ir
the quantity now in hand and in actua
production, it follows that legislation car
fix the ratio between them. Any pur
chaser who stands ready to take the en-
tire supply of any given article at Ger
tain price can prevent that article from
falling below that price. So the govern
ment can fix price for gold and silver
by creating demand greater than the
supply. International bimetallists be-
lieve that several nations, by entering
into an agreement to coin at fixed ratio
all the gold and silver presented, car
maintain the bullion value of the metals
at the mint ratio. When mint price s
thus established it regulates the bullion
price, because any person desiring coir
may have the bullion converted into coir
at that price, and many persons desiring
| ouiAAoA OuA oOSulO ~ ny luOluluR uuO COlu
The question upon which international
bimetallists and independent bimetallists
differ is: Can the United States, by free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the
present legal ratio, create demand tol
silver which, taken in connection with
the demand already in existence, will b,
sufficient to utilize all the silver that viii
be presented at the mintsY They agree
in their defense of bimetallic principle
and they agree in unalterable opposition
to the gold standard. International bi
metallists can not complain that free
coinage gives benefit to the mine owner
because international bimetallism givel
to the owner of silver all the advantages
offered by the independent bimetallisu
at the ratio agreed upon.
HERE IS THE QUESTION.
International bimetallists can not &C
cuse the advocates of free silver of being
"bullion owners who desire to raise tn,
value of their bullion or debtors who de
sire to pay their debt in cheap dollars,
or demagogues who desire to curry favol
with the people," They must rest thei
opposition upon one ground only, namely
that the supply of silver available fol
coinage is too large to be utilized by tn,
United States. In discussing this cues
ton we must consider the capacity OF ou1
people to use silver, and the quantity o.
silver which can come to our mints. Il
must be remembered that we live in {
country only partially developed, and
that our people far surpass any equa
number of people in the world in theil
power to consume and produce. Our ex
tensive railroad development and enor
nous internal commerce must also be
taken into consideration. Now, how
much can come heref Not the COINED
silver of the world, because almost all oil
it is more valuable at this time
in other lands than it would be at our
mints under free coinage. If our mints
are opened to free and unlimited coinage
at the present ratio, merchandise silver
can not come here, because the labor ap
piled to it has made it worth more in The
form of merchandise than it will be worth
at our mints. We can not even expect
all of the annual product of silver because
India, China, Japan and Mexico and all
other silver using countries must satisf,
their annual needs, from the annual prod
uct; the arts will require large amount
and the gold standard countries will need
considerable quantity for subsidiary
coinage. We will be required to coir
only that which is not needed elsewhere
but If we stand ready to take and utiliz,
all of it, other nations will be compelled
to buy at the price which we fix.
Many fear that the opening of ou
minis will be followed by an enormou
increase in the annual production of sill
yer. This is conjecture. Silver has beer
used as money for thousands of years
and during all Of that time the world ha
never suffered from an overproduction
If for any reason the supply Of gold O
silver in the future ever exceeds the re-