The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-06
EASY TO BoFAK PRICES
SEMJ-PANICKY FEELING ACTIVE
DURING THIS SEASON OF
UNCERTAINTY.
WARNING FROM HENRY CLEws
The Ffnancter Depicts the Results
OF the Adoption of a Free
Coinage Policy.

| 49, AoAl1A, uIy Oil MS WGeKlX
review OF the financial situation in
Wall street. Henry Clews says:
During the past week the bear eIe-
ment has found a fruitful source of
selling in the exciting reports relating
to the prospective Chicago convention.
Between the wild excitement of the sill
| yer delegates, the plots Of Altgeld for
controlling the convention, and the un-
wise and feeble tactics of certain of
the Eastern sound money leaders. it
has been found easy to break prices by
vigorous short selling; and the fall in
prices for the week has therefore been
considerable. The sales, however have
been almost entirely by professional OPP
orators. Private investors have shown
no disposition to part with their Sc
curities; and London, in spite Of the
| weakness here, has evidenced a recov-
cry Of confidence by taking 100000
shares Of stock, besides good amount
OF bonds. The bears" have found it
possible to shake out a considerable
amount Of stock carried on margins;
| and that success has been the main
| cause of their persistence, These op-
| erat1ons have produced feverish feel
| ing, and have naturally fostered the
prevailing distrust. This unsettlement
Is likely to continue through the Chi
| cago convention and may quite pos
! s1bly be aggravated by it's exciting de-
velopments.
| Rarely. in the history of national
elections, have the people been called
upon to choose between more vital is
sues; and it is to the last degree i'm
! portant that there should be a clear
conception respecting the interests at
stake. The public choice is beween the
! continuance OF a basis under which
| gold or its equivalents may be demand
ed in the settlement of all contracts;
and basis under which silver dollars
| alone would be used in payments; such
dollars being sixteen times the weight
of the gold dollar. At the present value
of silver bullion, the silver dollar would
| need to weigh about thirty times the
weight of the gold dollar, in order to
| make the two coins of equal value. 1t
| follows, therefore, that if, as demand
ed by the silverites, any holder of sill
! yer bullion can have his metal minted
/ into dollars at the rate of sixteen
weights of the white metal to one of
the yellow, the dollars so coined would
! have an intrinsic or metallic value Of
| only about one-half that of the gold
| dollar
1t is proposed that this deteriorated
dollar shall be coined without limit,
/ whether from silver imported or that
coming from the home mines 1t is
also proposed that these dollars shall
be legal tender to any amount in the
4 liquidation Of contracts Under this
scheme, the United States would
| stand exposed to an issue of silver dol
/ lars limited only by the worlds entire
current production and it's accumulated
/ stocks of coined silver. What would
prove. to be the depreciation of the sill
yer dollar, under such conditions, it is
1 impossible to tell. One Of the first eff
! fects of the change would be for the
4 European nations to exchange, as far
q f1nir
! bullion and coin for our gold. Besides
! that, under the natural law by which
an inferior currency always displaceS
superior one, our supply of gold
would leave the country. In this way,
we should lose our gold circulation and
become an exclusively silver-paying
/ nation, with an attendant enormous
loss Of the only stable form Of money
and a consequent contraction of the
circulation. We should then be upon
| the same monetary bass as China,
Japan, Mexico and third-rate nation
alities. Provided silver kept it's pres
ent bullion value. our dollar would
then be worth a fraction over one-half
! of Its present valuation; and to that
extent the purchasing power of our en-
tire paper circulation would also be
diminished. All our mercantile debts
outstanding when this state of affairs
took effect would become payable in
4 ILLS OCpTeCIdIeu money, excepting LnOSG
! made under special contract payable in
! gold. The national debt and the in
terest upon 1t would be legally pay
able in the same stuff; inasmuch as
| the law authorizing the bonds makes
! them payable 'in COIN" without stip-
| ulation as to whether the coin shall be
! of silver or of gold The many thou
sands of millions Of real estate mort
cages. and Of bonds of every form, and
| the interest upon all corporate stocks
| all of which are now payable in gold
/ or its representatives, would then be-
| come payable in this silver money Of
unknown value Thus the enormous
sum Of national investments and the
wealth which they represent would not
only lose their stable gold standard Of
value, but would become enormously
| deprecated, and their price would be
ever f1uctuating with the oscillating
| price Of silver bullion. The 2,700, 000,0 900
of private deposits in banks and trust
companies would suffer in the same
way, and so would the 1900, 900 of
| the workman's accommodations in saw
| ings banks, as they would become pay
able in the same deprecated dollar.
| What would become of our foreign
! credit may be inferred from the fact
that we have from 1,500, DOC, 600 to 2,000,-
/ 600, 900 of investment securities out
standing in foreign countries, a. large
part of which would become payable
in this deteriorated coin.
! These are some Of the more obvious
consequences that would Immediately
follow the adoption of unrestricted
coinage of silver in the ratio Of Is parts
Of the white metal to one of the yellow.
What would follow, 1t is not difficult
to foresee. Our credit system would be
| paralyzed, If not ruined Capitalists
who are conducting vast industrial en-
terprises would necessarily be serious
| ly embarrassed. The ruin of producers
would be inevitable and great suffering
of the employed classes would natural
| ly follow. Such widespread disaster
would produce a quick reaction of the
destructive legislation, and every Sec
| ton of the country would become clam
orous for a return to the gold basis.
| BUT the cost of the experiment would
| be terrible and lasting penalty. The
undoing Of the mischief would not be
| the work Of year or two. 1t would
| take generation to restore what we
| had sacrificed in organization, In repu-
| tation, in credit, in wealth, in pros
| perity, in industrial advancement, and
| in the gold resources needful to give US
financial stability. 1t does not need to
| be said how long we should have to
carry the stigma of political incompe-
| tence which such a blunder would
| fasten upon our principles of self-gov-
eminent. The cause of free govern
ment would be blighted the world over