The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-10-22

Latin union. had to>sive up the coinage
Of silver lest overloaded with the sill
yer Of the world 1t should lose all Its
gold. Common sense is against the as
Eertion. Silver is now produced in
such quantities, at such small expense
Of production, that its value can not be
kept up to its former standard. And
Is the whole business of America to be
imperiled by a leap into an experiment
which those very men who advocate 1t
confess to be only an experiment, and
which experience and common sense
condemn?
The boast that the United States is
able alone to whip England and the
rest of the world into the coinage of
silver at 16 to l, or to force the value
of silver up to $1.29 an ounce, is mere
nonsense. We are great people, in
deed, but we have not yet grownto that
commercial strength that our country
means the commercial world. Our ma
tional pride may give us extraordinary
dreams Of our Importance, but it will
not do to build the business of the
country upon those dreams. Would all
the commercial nations together coin
ing silver at 16 to bring up the silver
value of bullion to $1.29 an ounce? Per-
haps; strong commercial reasons sug-
gest the contrary. Would America alone
bring silver to $1.29? Assuredly not
though, of course, the new demand for
silver from the mints would give some
increase to its value--which increase,
however, might again be Offset by an
increase of production. Some imagine
that the ratio of silver to gold was al
ways 16 to / or thereabouts. The ratio
was constantly changing throughout
historic times; at one time silver was
more valuable than gold; at the time
of the discovery of America, silver was
10l times less valuable than gold; 200
years before it had been eight times
less valuable. The ratio is constantly
changing, and the question for us to-
day is not what the ratio was at pre-
ceding date, but what it should be in
our time.
But has not Herr Bismarck counseed
the United Sites to go ahead and make
the experiment all alone? Yes, and
some Americans quote his advice as an
un-American. The sly old fox would
indeed be pleased to see America make
the experiment and go to the bottom of
the sea. Free coinage then will give
us money worth in the commercial
market of the world a little over half
its nominal value. No one imagines
that the stamp of the government gives
n nj nf toi n11r
oertifies to the quantity and quality.
Otherwise the government stamp might
as well be affixed to copper or to mere
paper. If the government stamp gave
value the .debased coins issued in the
past by impecunious sovereigns would
not have ruined the subjects of those
sovereigns and the assignat of France
and the paper issued by Ferdinand of
Naples, a century ago, would not have
sold in the market almost as govern
ment rags.
The Inevitable Result.
Legal tender compelling men to ac-
cept against their will money above
its commercial value in the markets OF
the world is rank injustice. The early
financial statesmen of America, Jeffer-
son, Morris, Hamilton, never thought
of making the legal value of coin
higher than the commercial value OF
the metal of which the coins were
made. Therefore, with the passage OF
free silver coinage we shall have cur
rency rejected at it's nominal value
from the markets of the world, unsta-
BILE and fuctuating in real value. Busi.
ness can not prosper with such a cur.
rency. The first condition of the life
of business is stability of the currency
None will invest money of certain
value today in commerce and industry
if by the time the raw material hai
: been turned into marketable wares the
currency is likely to have changed IL
value. Business in all branches would
become a speculation, gamble, con
.. servative capital would keep out O
sight. No loans would be made.
1t is nonsense to say that capita
must put itself into the American mar
ket, whether the capital be American
or European. We should not be de
luded by words. We may clamor II
vain for capital; 1t will not come un
less there be security for it. 1t will re
main in the vaults of safety or go Il
other parts Of the world where rewar'
is small but certain. And without capi
tai there will be no enterprises and NJ
work for the people. l am absolutel.
convinced that the laboring classe
b will suffer the most of all from fre
. silver coinage. And yet the laborin
classes are those that are the most urg
emily appealed to in this free silve
movement A man who talks agains
free silver is put down at once as a.
8 enemy of the common people" Wei
u for my part, l AM willing to be calle
. an enemy of the working classes, c
y 1.-The common people," IL / am in real
g ty advising them for their good an
II serving sheir true interests. Thos
, above all others in the land who shoul