The herald., 1896-09-27

a high rate Of interest, as a share Of the
profit of the borrower in using 1t.
AS we appeal to the country In the Jus
tice of our cause one or two points OF
common inquiry must be satisfied. as
follows:
The experience of Mexico is held up for
our alarm. We answer, first. that Mex
leo is conspicuously prosperous at home.
Her increase in manufactures, railway
earnings and the like in recent years Is
phenomenal Second, Mexico is no cri-
terion for the United States. for the rea-
son that she has foreign trade indebt-
edness of about s20,000,00o annually in
excess of the value of her exports of cot
ton, sugar, coffee, hides and the like.
which must be paid g in the surplus
products of her mines. Iier silver, there
fore, goes abroad as merchandise and
at valuation fixed by the outside world.
The United States. on the other hand,
is a nation of 100000 of people, scat
tered over a territory seventeen times
the area of France. A single one of our
railway systems, the Erie, exceeds the
aggregate railway mileage of all Mexico.
We offer an employment for money to
an aggregate greater than the world S
spare silver will furnish US. Hence, our
silver money at home and abroad, will
be valued as the money of the United
States.
The opposition threatens us with flood
of Europe's silver upon our reopened
mints. We answer, Europe has no silver
but her silver money. Her silver money
values silver at from 8 cents to cents
on the dollar higher than ours. Hence
the European merchant or banker must
sacrifice from 8 to Z per cent OF his full
legal tender money in order to recoin 1t
at our MINIS. Europe's silverware ike
Americas silverware, carries IN IL the
additional value of labor and the man
ufacturer's profit
They threaten us with food OF silver
from the far east. We answer that tne
course of silver is invariably eastward
and never toward the west. British IN
dia is a perpetual sink of silver, absorb
ing it. never to return, by from $50, ,000, 000
to $50 0O0, 900 worth every year. And
India's absorption of silver will be en-
larged by the steadiness of the price for
silver fixed by our reopened mints.
They threaten us with sudden re-
tirement of 5000, 600, 900 gold, with the ac-
companying panic, causing contraction
and commercial disaster unparalleled
We answer that our total stock of gold,
other than about s10,000OOO or 5000, 900
circulating on the Pacific coast. is al
ready in retirement. Practically all our
gold is in the United States treasury or
held by banks. The gold in the treasury
will remain there, if the secretary avaiis
of his option to redeem United States
notes in silver. The gold in the banks
constitutes the quiet and undisturbed
portion of their reserves against their
liabilities. 1t will continue to do money
duty as such reserves after free coinage
for silver is enacted. Hence a premium
on it will not contract the currency. The
utmost possible contraction of the cur
rency will be the few millions circulating
on the Pacific coast, and this will be re-
tired but slowly.
A similar threat of flight OF gold was
made for the Bland act Of 1878. Presi-
dent Hayes was urged to veto 1t, but
congress passed it over his veto Instead
of flight of gold, as had been predicted;
we gained by importation 900 the
first year. S7,000,000 the next, and $780,
600, 900 the third year. During the twelve
years that the act was on the statute
book we gained 1921, 900 900 of foreign
gold Instead Of the destruction Of our
credit abroad as had been predicted, the
United States 4-per-cent loan, which
stood at 101 on the day of the enactment.
sold at 120 per cent subsequently. In
stead of defeating the resumption Of spe-
Gle payments on January Of the follow
ing year, the 24,000,000 silver dollars,
which were coined in 1873 and circulated
by means of the silver certificates, re-
duced the demand upon the government
for gold Hence the threat of disaster
now is without historic foundation.
This, then, is what will follow the re-
opening of our mints to silver: The gold
already In the treasury will remain there