Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-29

mills building operations, etc, would
shut down, and all classes of work
men. mechanics and laborers except
farm hands, be generally thrown out
of employment. Unuer the keen com
petition CT this mass of unemployed
for the little work left, it is clear that
wages, instead Of rising, must in the
near future, fall, even though paid for
in deprecated dollars, because OF the
many who want employment and must
take 1t at any price to save themselves
and their families from starving. With
no wages, the unemployed laborers
could buy neither food nor clothing
and the diminished demand would
cause the prices of grain, cotton and
all farm products to fall, as is always
the case even in small panics; and
such want, suffering and misery would
be entailed upon the labOring classes
as we never have known before OF
course all mortgages past due or in de-
fault would be Immediately called in,
and if not paid, foreclosed, and the
mOrtgagOrs largely wiped out.
1t is neeuIesS to say that there
ever to loan, for who wou.>- lend a
order later on to get back but SO? 4.
Mr.. Bryan says he does not believe
the silver dollar would depreciate to 90
cents or at all, but would continue to
be worth 100 cents in gold as now. Is
this view sound? If the silver dollar
under free coinage is to remain worth
100 cents in gold it is apparent that
silver bullion must become worth ST.
fo,, -
holders would coin it for the profit,
and this process would continue until
no profit remained; that is until the
value of the silver dollar was just the
value of the bullion in it. If on the
other hand the price of silver is not
raised to S129 an ounce, it must in
evitably draw the value of the silver
down to the value of the bullion in
it; as bullion would be coined until
the two values met To raise the val
lie Of silver bullion, it is necessary to
raise the value of the whole worlds
stock of silver, which exceeds four
thousand millions of dollars, from
65 cents, it's present price, to I'D an
ounce. Mr.. Bryan admits this. In
his speech of acceptance he said: I'VE
contend that free and unlimited coin
age by the United States alone will
raise the bullion value of silver to it's
co mage value, and thus make silver
b llion worth $129 per ounce in gold
throughout the world"
The question therefore resolves it
self into >.-is,-WOuId the demand in
the United States for silver dollars
over and above the present stock of
437 900, 600 of them, (treasury state
ment Of Oct. 1st, inst.,) which we al
ready have on hand, be sufficient to
double the value of the worlds stock
of silver? Mr.. Bryan says it WILL but
admits he can't prove it, adding
neither can you prove that it won't"
That is his argument He gives you
his claim and belief, and says that is
just as good as what all the financiers
claim and believe, as neither can be
proved; and it is on this showing, and
on this showing alone, that he asks
the American people to elect him and
to see if his belief won't come true.
In Brooklyn, on September oath, he
said: You cannot prove by mathe-
ematicS that we maintain a parity
neither can you prove that we can
not" Fortunately we are not remit
ted to Mr.. Bryan's belief alone for our
guidance. The United States has had
some experience in trying to raise the
price of the worlds stock of coin
above it's market value. In 1860, the
! bullion in a silver dollar was worth
! $1.03 in gold; and the gold dollar
measured by silver, was deprecated
per cent. Our minis were open to the
! free coinage Of gold as well as of sill
yer. Did that raise the price of gold
to par with silver? Not at all. Al
! though the worlds stock of gold is
much smaller than it's stock of silver
and although iU was only necessary to
raise it's price 3 per cent, we could not
accomplish it. This lasted from 1884
to 1860 and down to 1873. The price
! of gOlu bullion was not raised the 3
per cent, and being the cheaper cur
rency, it drove the silver out of circu-
lation. And, as no silver had been in
circulation for over 35 years, in 1873,
after full debate, this coin was omitted
from our coinage list.
| In 1852, un~er the ratio of Is to / lin
force at that time) the bullion in a
gold dollar was worth cents more
than the silver dollar; and the silver
dollar measured by gold, was depre-
ciated 3 per cent. Silver being the
cheaper, drove gold entirely out of
circulation for more than A. years, i. e.
until 1884 when the government
changed the ratio from Is to 1, to Is
to 1 with the effect seen above.
In 1860, we were a nation of over
30,000,000 of people, and had no silver
on hand. Now we are a nation of
about 70,000,000 of people but have
437 10000 of silver dollars on hand.
IT, with all our power in 1860, we were
unable to raise the bullion value of
gold but ) per cent, how can we ex-
pect to raise the bullion value of a
still larger quantity of silver not
merely 3 per cent, DuC more than 10
times 3, i. e. AZ per cent? If, with
over 5000 of people in 1861 we
had been able to raise the bullion val
ue of gold just per cent to par,
then, being 2 1-3 times as great peo-
pie now as we were then, we might ex-
pect to raise the bullion prices of sill
yer two and one third times as high,
that is per cent, but how could we
expect even then to raise it's price not
Z cents alone, but more than times
Z, that is AZ cents? Especially when
the only power we have to raise it
with is our demand for silver dollars.
and that demand is already supplied
to the extent Of s437 200, 900?
Yet unless the price of the worlds
stock Of silver is nearly doubled, the
price OF bullion must. as we have seen,
inevitably pull the value OF the silver
dollar down, as bullion would be
coined as long as there was a profit,
i. e. till the values met.