Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-15

Thus, fellow citizens, they must be con sidered. ThYs treated they become such a money, and if so we can regard with perfect equanimity, when the system is once established, the going out of one and the coming in of the other metal. The ebb and flow would be perfectly natural and healthful movement, marking tho frictionless adjustment of the money vol ume to the demands of trade and of local ties. If gold starts to leave us today, we have nothing to take its place, and so we keep hanging on to it, the amount of our desire to keep it the measure of our neces- sities for it, being registered in the fall of the prices of all we produce or mako. This is the greatest and heaviest premium money can command If silver were also primary money, when gold wanted to go so badly it might go temporarily and sat isfy the wants of somebody who would give more for it for the time being than we would. Under present conditions we pay more than it is worth to keep it. A premium of 50 per cent paid in all our commodities is today the premium on gold in the United States. It isn't worth the sacrifice.
 In this connection draw your attention to the following extract from the final re- port of the English commission before mentioned. This portion is signed by the 12 members of the commission, gold mon- ometallists and all, compri sing the great est specialists in England:
 Sec. 189. Looking then to the vast changes which occurred prior to l673 in the relative production of the two metals without any cor responding disturbance in their market yalue it appears to us difficult to resist the conclu- sion that some influence then at work tending to steady the price of silver and to keep the ratio which it bore to gold approxi' mately stable
 Sec. 192. These considerations seem to sug- gest the existence of some steadying influence in former periods which has now been remov ed, and which has left the silver market sub ject to the influence of causes the full effect of which was previously kept in check. The question therefore forces itself upon us, Is there any other circumstance calculated to effect the relation of silver to gold which dis tingushes the latter from the earlierp
 Now, undoubtedly the date which forms the dividing line between an epoch of approxi- mate fixity in the relative value of gold and silver and one of marked instability is the year when the bimetallic system which had pre- viously been in force in the Latin union ceased to be in full operation and we are irresistibly led to the conclusion that the operation of that system, established as it was in countries the population and commerce of which were con siderable, exerted a material influence upon the relative values of the two metals
 So long as that system in force we think that, notwithstanding the changes in the production and the use of the precious metals, it kept the market price of silver ap proximately steady at the ratio fixed by law between them-namely, l51a to l.
 Sec. 193. Nor does it appear to priori unreasonable to suppose that the existence in the Latin union of a bimetallio system with ratio of 151a to fixed between the two metals should have been capable of keeping the mar ket price of silver steady at approximately that ratio.
 The view that it could only affect tho mar. ket price to the extent to which there was a demand for it for currency purposes in the Latin union, or to which it was actually taken to the hints of those countries, is, we think, fallacious.
 The fact that the owner of silver could in the last resort take it to those hints and have it converted into coin which would purchase commodities at the ratio of 151s of silver to of gold would, in our opinion. be likely to af- feet the price of silver in the market general. ly. whoever the purchaser and for whatever country it was destined. It would enable the seller to stand out for price approximating to the legal ratio and would tend to keep the market steady at about that point.
 The situation in France and the nature and theory of the bimetallio adjustment are admirably set forth in the following eloquent words of Cernuschi in the mone- tary conference of 1881:
 Until 1874 clear and sonorous voice was always heard resoundng from the banks of the Seine. It sald I am France, rich tlusold and rich In silver. can arrange that in the entire world the two metals form but one money. Peoples and nations, bring to Paris all the gold and silver you like. I take 1t all. Fora hun dredweight of gold or for 15H hundred weights of silver, will always give you the same quantity of francs. Let the pro- duction of one metal or the other be more or less abundant, more or less costly, it will be immaterial to me. Peoples and nations, do you want golds Bring silver. Do you want silyerp Bring gold. As bi- metallists the French have no preference for one metal or the other. They will al ways make exchange for you, if you know how to ask it, of one metal for the other on the basis of 15X, and in the two hem- ispheres the relative value of the two metals will always and everywhere be the same' 1"
 Question of Judgment.
 The reason why France was able to do