The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-09-24

lar and hold the moro valuable Ro,a dollar
back for more profitable use. Gold will there-
fore quickly rise to q premium, and we shall
be on the silver basis long before q free coin
age law can DO enacted. What does it mean to
be on the silver basisf The word "coin, {" wher-
ever 1t appears in the law, will no longer mean
gold, as 1t was 30 far understood, but silver
alone. The greenback or treasury note re-
deemble in "coin" will no longer be redeemed
In gold, as heretofore. but only in silver. The
United States bond payable In COIN no matter
whether gold was paid fer 1t or whether it had
been sold for the very purpose of buying gold
for the treasury, will be paid, principal and
interest, In silver-repudiation as fragrant as
the world ever witnessed. Our daily trans
actions in buying and selling, In paying and
receiving wages, will no longer be carried on
upon the basis Of the gold dollar worth 100
cents, but Of the silver dollar worth 30 cents
or thereabout for the government will no
longer hold up the silver dollar to the value of
the gold dollar. That Is what the silver basis
means. You can study in Mexico how it
works.
The quantity Of gold vanishing from circula-
ton will amount to about 5000, 900, 900, the dis
appearance of which will make a tremendous
hole in the volume Of our currency. Nearly
one-third Of it will be gone, and what remains
will be reduced nearly one-half In purchasing
power. But, says the silver man, there win be
with coined silver or silver certificates. Oh,
no. my fellow sufferers. The disappearance OF
gold will happen promptly after the election
any free coinage Of silver for at least six
months, and it will require great many more
months to fill a gap of 5000, 100000 :
The Free Coinage Panic.
What will happen meanwhile2 The st. Louis
Globe Democrat reports Mr.. Bryan to have
said some time ago: ~ think 1t, meaning the
victory of the free coinage movement twill
cause a panic. But the country is in deplor-
able condition, and 1t will take extreme meas.
ures to restore it to condition Of prosperity"
Whereupon the St. Louis paper pointedly re-
marks, evidently Mr.. Bryan has heard Of the
doctor who always threw his patient into fits
before administering any curative medicine"
just SO.
How, then, would Mr.. Bryan's eft" work.
The sudden disappearance of our gold from
circulation would produce the most stringent
contraction of the currency on record. Bust
ness men who owe money and at the same
time have money due them will be forced to
collect that money by every means at their
disposal. Nobody will be inclined to lend out
| any money except upon extraordinary secu-
rity. The banks will naturally consider 1t their
duty to keep themselves strong, and there
fore to call in loans and to restrict their dis
counts and advances to business men with the
utmost caution. Business establishments,
manufactures, mercantile houses, unable to
get the money for meeting their obligations,
will by the hundreds succumb to their embar-
easements and tumble down like a row of
bricks. Others will cautiously restrict their
operations to the narrowest possible limit, and
wage earners by the thousands will lose their
employment and be turned into the street.
No class of society will be spared the de-
structive consequences. Every frightened
creditor, pressed by his own creditors and ap-
prehensive of a growing loss by every day
will his dabt0ra
The prompt settlement Of every account will
be perelnptorily demanded. Our farmers who
have mortgages on their property and who
have been told that free coinage will make
things exceedingly easy for them will have
some unexpected experiences Every mortgage
debt that is due will be quickly called in. The
mortgageor who tries to have his bond extend
ed will find an unwilling ear. He who seeks
to borrow money in order to replace the old
mortgage with new one will be told that this
is no time for loans, except, perhaps, upon ex-
orbitant conditions. The mortgageor may find,
too, that his bond is payable in gold coin, and
he will have to buy the gold at the premium
then ruling. Foreclosures will be the order Of
the day. The mortgageor who seeks shelter I'M
der the laws delay will at any rate further
seedlings. Everywhere anxiety, embarrass-
ment, sacrifice, loss and distress, even before
Mr.. Bryan could ascend the presidential chair.
Bryan's Bimetallism.
After five or six months Of such deadly
crisis, Mr.. Bryan's extra session Of congress
would begin and give us free coinage. Then,
as Mr. Bryan solemnly promised US in his
great New York Grafton, free coinage will give
us bimetallism, bimetallism will give us an
abundance Of money, and all will be right.
BimetallismP What is bimetallismp 1t is a
monetary system in which the two metals cir
culate together for all the purposes of money
on parity with each other upon fixed legal
ratio, which in our case Is 16 to l. Evidently
to have bimetallism gold must be on hand
as we'll as silver.
How will Mr.. Bryan get the gold back from
the money powerp Evidently he must offer
an inducements What inducements To be
sure, the minis will be open to gold as we'll as
silver. But who will offer gold bullion to have
it coined into dollars for circulation when he
can have silver dollars with the same legal
tender power at half the price2 Only an idiot
would do that OF course, gold will be offered
only when the silver dollar is up again to the
gold standard. There is the rub. But here
Mr.. Bryan steps in with theory which is 9
curiosity in craftsmanship. He said in his
New York speech: "Any purchaser who stands
ready to take the entire supply of any article
at a certain price can prevent that article from
falling below that price. So the government
can fix price for gold and silver by creating
demand greater than the supply" And
| again, "When mint price is thus established
| it regulates the bullion price, because any per
verted into coin at that price, and any person
desiring bullion can secure it by melting that
Would Be Silver Monometallism.
| What2 Is this to mean that under free coin
age the government will purchase silver bull
lion and pay a certain fixed price for itP II
SO, then Mr.. Bryan, the great free coinage
| apostle, does not know what free coinage Is
| Let us remind him. 1t means that the owner
| of silver bullion may take 1t to the mint and
| have it coined and returned to him in coined
! pieces, SO many dollars for so much weight Of
| pure silver. 1t does not mean that the govern
! ment "stands ready to purchase the entire
supply Of silver at a certain price," The gov
| eminent does not purchase single ounce Of
it. 1t merely receives the bullion, stamps il
and returns it. And as to fixing a price, az
soon as the government stops holding up the
| silver dollar to the gold standard, as it would
| with Mr.. Bryan's election, the silver dollar,
| measured by its purchasing power. will be
| worth not cent more than the market value
! OF the silver contained in it. If the market
value Of that quantity is 80 cents, and you
| present at the mint 80 cents worth Of bullion,
you get back, not a gold dollar, but silver
| dollar worth just 50 cents. You might, instead
of taking your bullion to the mint, sell it in
| the market for just the same amount of non
| ey. Indeed, bullion owners, unless they have
| some special reason for taking their bullion to
the mint, will take it to the market and sell
1t there, as they very extensively do in all
countries in which there is free silver coinage.
Why should they notp Because, if they have
their bullion coined, they get Aegal tender dol.
lars for it. Why, if they sell it In the market
they get there legal 3 ader dollars likewise.
1t will therefore be mere question Of special
| convenience whether they take it to the mint
or to the market. And in the market, accord
ing to all human reason anu experience, its
| price will, temporary fluctuations notwith
standing, remain on the whole verx near to
the figure of the cost at which it caT In large
quantities be produced. Mr.. Bryan's strange
| imaginings have therefore proved only that