The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-22

Smelling charges. So: freight, So; discount
for loss los S. making SIS the miner reeeiy
has been cheapened. In 1874 it cost $50 &C
get 800 worth of ore. leaving only s2t
profit of $50 So it is not hard to see why
silver has gone down. Is there any trouble
N IN discovering the reason? What now costs st
yer not to 90 down in price under such
circumstances?
But let me read you some more. Schoen-
hof, in a chapter of his Money and
Prices, devoted to silver production
quotes from official reports as follows
ifornia varied from $50 to $500 a ton a
great proportion yielding in the mill over
SIOO per ton As considerable proportion
was produced at cost of only $3.50 q ton,
It is probable that the mean cost of ex-
traction exceeded that at the Bonanza
King. say SIS per ton. The BONANZA King
mine obtained $179 of silver in value at a
cost of $3.50 at the average price of 81
an ounce for the silver bullion represented
by Sli9 the bullion in standard silver dol
lar costs about Is cents" Now was /
wrong when told you that there was a
on the dollar? Is there any business man
within the hearing of my voice that makes
profit like that? Can he sell for 81 cents
what it costs but Is or 20 cents to produce ?
There should be enormous profit left the
silver mine owner if the value of the free
coinage dollar went down to 40 cents or
compelled to take it for a dollar?
Rain and snow, heat and drought, affect
the mines. What is not mined simply lies
there until it is taken out by the hand of
man So you see that the mine owner
would profit by free coinage, because he
could push the production of his mines to
their very highest limit. have the bullion
an coined and compel the people to take
the coined dollars money.
Mr.. Teller and his little handful of asso-
ciates and friends went out of the ST. Louis
convention. Why did not the representa-
tives from the great agricultural and man
ufacturing States go out? Why did not In
diana. Minnesota, Ohio and New York?
Nobody went out except those interested
in silver mine production and their special
friends and champions The great body of
American people could not be benefited by
the free coinage of silver. Those who are
interested have consorted with ambitious
politicians following Mr.. Bryan. hoping by
the combination to place him in the White
House.
COINAGE HISTORY
We commenced coming money in 1872
Thomas jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and
the other great statesmen of that period
carefully considered the matter. They de-
cided to try ard secure bimetalism by the
free coinage of both gold and silver, and
they were of opinion that in order to Sc
cure it they must put just as much silver
bullion in value in the silver dollar as gold
in a gold dollar. They thought this was
necessary in order to secure their concur
Jont circulation with free coinage of both
much as Mr.. Bryan; they did not know
that they could put one-half as much in
value of bullion in the silver dollar as of
gold in the gold dollar and have them cir
culate together as money. daughter.)
These old fellows We're not smart at all.
They thought that if either dollar was
worth more than the other as bullion it
would go out of circulation. They inquired
in London. France. Holland and in all the
markets of the world how much silver it
would take to buy an ounce of gold After
n - ROT hay nd EN11I1 ta1y
fifteen ounces of silver to buy an ounce OF
gold. Then they said: We viii put in q
we put of gold in gold dollar. that they
will be equal in intrinsic value when
stamped by the government. and will stay
in circulation side by side. (Applausel
They knew then what Mr.. Bryan and his
followers do not seem to know now-that
any coin, whether silver or gold, coined
under free coinage is worth just what the
bullion in it is worth and must go out in
the markets on its own strength and buy
just what it can. At the same time they
made the Spanish dollar a legal tender.
and the first result was that they had in
circulation the new American silver dollars,
which had more silver in them than the
old and worn Spanish dollars. The Amer
lean dollar was worth more to sell than
to pay out as money, for any man who
and then take his American dollars and
sell them for Il little premium. So it fol-
lowed that the American dollar went OUT
of circulation and the Spanish dollar
manned. Here appeared the unvarying rule
that with two coins under free coinage un>
equal in bullion value whichever one is
worth more as bullion will be sold as bull
lion, and the cheaper one only will be used
as money; so to-day, if We had free coin
worth twice as much as the silver dollar
and gold would go out of circulation and be
sold at its bullion value and the silver dol
lar would alone remain in circulation as
money, and we would come down at once
to silver basis = silver moncmetaIlism.
True bimetallism is not only providing by
a free bI1f
providing that they will both circulate as
money with the people.
found out that the American dollar was
going out of circulation, and so he com
mitted a crime" He did not wait for Con
Of the Treasury write letter to the Direc-
tor of the Mint to stop coini~~ tt'o si1v-er
dollar. The Democrats say that Congress
crime in 1875 Wnen Lney uI,.
away with the law providing for free coin
age of silver dollars, but Thomas Jefferson
dollar. without any act of Congress. and
not another one was coined for thirty years,
except $1,000 in Andrew Jackson's admins
tration. But this is a crime that you
don't hear any Democrat or Populist talk
ing about. They way they talk about the
thing reminds me of an old friend of mine
half gone and l can't understand it. If a
man owes me dollar / don't have any
a man dollar 1 can't think of it at ALL
(Laughter) That is the way with these
Bryan people. They can't think of any
thing that does not accord with their the
orieS.
OTHER THINGS THEY FOUND.
But what else did our early statesmen
find? They found that at the ratio of Is to
after few years the gold in a gold dol
ar was worth more than the silver in the
silver dollar, and the gold went out Of
circulation. The unvarying rule again made
Itself felt. The more valuable in its bullion
Or intrinsic value of the two coins under
free coinage goes out of circulation, being
worth more to sell than to pay as money
TWO dollars, one of which he could sell for
a.01, which would he pay me? The one he
could not sell for any more than it would
pass for as money, and the other one he
would take and sell for 81 .01. The law OF
human selfishness controls. You may re-
peal the law of supply and demand" nv
POpocratic friends, as it is said you pro-
pose to do, but you cannot repeal the lay
Of human selfishness. 1t will remain the
same forever. They found the gold in the
gold coins worth little more than the silver
paying only silver and paper as
money. What did the statesmen of that
lay do? They changed the ratio. They did
not say, as Bryan does. 1--WE have fixed
he coinage ratio and will maintain it, and
he bullion market value will eQualize
tself with the coinage ratios" They
thought the coinage ratio under free coin
the bullion. What a pity Mr. Bryan had
not lived in 1884. What trouble he might
have saved them if he is right. They
changed the coinage ratio in 1884 and 1897