Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-04-19

soldiers and seamen, and in short, for every kind of obligation recognized by the laws of the land, except only in cases where the prudent capitalist has taken the pre- caution in advance to contract for payment in gold or it's equivalent TO say noth- ing of the gross partialfty and manifest in justice of such policy, its immediate eI- feet would he to contract our currency tu the extent of about $620 000,000 by stopping the use of gold as money and putting pre- mium upon the coins of that metal equal, or about equal, to the difference between the intrinsic value of the gold dollar and the intrinsic value of the silver dollar Gold coins would at once become com nodity and would be bought and sold by specula tors in the market just as they were during the war when we had a de- rreciated paper currency. The value of the silver dollar would 1uetuate from day to day moving up and down with the rise ana fall of the commercial price of the bull lion contained in it, as the Mexican dollar does now and the premium on the gold dol lar would of course f1uctuate to the same extent, thus affording an opportunity to bullion brokers and spectators to buy and sell at profit. 1t would cease to be used as money, because no man would pay his debts in gold dollars, or in paper redeem able in gold dollars, worth one hundred cents, when the law permitted him to pay it in silver dollars, worth only 51 or 52 cents each. The sudden withdrawal of S620, 000,- 060 from the volume of currency in the country would undoubtedly produce financial and industrial disturbance far more disastrous to the interests of labor than has ever been experienced in our his. tory, and no man who RaS. perllcle or sympathy for working men and women and their dependent families can contem- plate the possibility Of such a calamity without feeling that it is his duty, whether he occupies a public a private station, to employ every honorable means at his command to avert 1t.
 Purchasing Power of Silver Lessened.
 While the sudden expulsion of S620. .000, GOO in gold from our stock of money would itself be sufficient to create 8 financial dis turbanee unparalleled in the history Of this or any other country, the situation would be very greatly aggravated by the fact that the purchasing power of all the remainder of our currency would be suddenly reduced about ene-half; we should have only about two-thirds much currency as we have now, and at the same time it would be so depreciated in value that it would require about twice as much as we have now to transact the business of the country, pro- vided there should be any business to tran Sact.
 Double Standard of Value Always a Failure.
 The attempt to maintain what is called the double standard of value, that is, the attempt to keep the legal tender coins Of the two metals, gold and silver, in use as money at the same time, upon ratio of value fixed by law, has repeatedly been made by kings and parliaments in every civilized country in the world, and it has failed again and again in every one of them, and it requires no gift Of prophecy to foresee that 1t must continue to fail so long as self interest constitutes controlt- ing factor in the business affairs of men. Without trespassing upon your patience to review the monetary history of other eoun- tries in which this experiment has been made and failed, 1t may be advantageous to refer briefly to our own experience upon this subject. When 1t was determined to adopt a monetary system for the United States and establish a mint, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, two men who differed widely upon almost every public question, and whose names as found- CTS and leaders of their respective parties will live as long our political literature Is read, agreed that in determining what should be the coinage or legal ratio be- tween gold and silver, the true relative com mercial value of the two metals in the markets of the world must first be as- eertained, and that this relative value when ascertained should be incorporated into the statute as the basis of the pro- posed system of coinage. Although they were party leaders, they were statesmen and patriots, and when they were called on to consider this great business question affecting all the private affairs of their fel- low-citizens, they gave it thorough and impartial investigation upon it's merits, without regard to the effect their decision might have upon their own political for tunes or upon the political fortunes of their followers. These great men were never disturbed for a moment by the delusion that congress could fix by statute the actual more than it could fix by statute the actual or relative values of pound of lead and pound of iron. They knew that gold and silver like all other eXchangeable things,
 
 be fixed in the markets of the world. They knew that it was entirely competent, in fact necessary, for congress to declare the ratio upon which the two metals should be coined at the mint, If they were to be coined at all, but they knew equally well that if the ratio so declared did not correspond substantially with the ratio which the com mercial world had established, the coins of the two metals could not be kept in use as money at the same time; and, conse- quently, as I have already said, they de- termined to ascertain the commercial ratio and to adopt it. They reached the con clusion that the true commercial ratio at that time was fifteen to one: that is, that fifteen ounces of silver were equal in value to one ounce of gold, and accordingly the act of 1792, which was our first coinage law, authorized the coinage of the two metals at that ratio.
 Gold Displaced by First Legal Ratio.
 At the ratio thus established the silver dollar contained 37lM grains of fine silver, and the gold contained 24sz grains of fine mistake had been made and that 37lA grains of fine silver were not in fact equal in value to PEA grains of fine gold, and the consequence was that, although the diff ference between the value of d silver dol lar and the value of a gold dollar was only about one cent and one-eighth of cent, silver drove gold out of use and out of the country, and from that time we had silver monometalism until after the passage of the acts of 1884 and 1887. The fact that the silver was put into the form of a coin and made legal tender the same as gold, and that both dollars were declared to be worth 100 cents each, did not increase the value of the 37114 grains of silver to any extent whatever. The people could not be de- ceived by mere words printed in statute: they soon learned that the metal contained in the silver dollar was not equal in value to the metal contained in the gold dollar, and they paid silver to their creditors and hoarded the gold or sent it out of the coun- try. Even our new and full-weight silver coins would not circulate or remain in the country, because congress by various acts made certain foreign coins legal tender in the payment of debts, and as they were generally so worn by abrasion as to be of less weight than the new domestic coins, they drove our dollars and half dollars. and to a large extent our quarters and dimes also out of use as money. Our own coins were exported and used at their bullion value in making purchases and paying debts abroad, and Mir Jefferson himself, who had then become president of the United States, issued an order on the 1st of May, 1906, stopping the coinage of silver dollars at our hints. No more sil- yer dollars were coined until 1886. 30 years afterwards, and then only 1000 of them were issued from the hints.
 Attempt to Restore Gold to Circulation.
 Gold having left the country. congress.