Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-09-04

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and Its connection with the transaction
there end. Such are the silver dollars
which would be issued under free coin
age OF silver ut the ratio of 16 to I. Who
would then maintain the parity? What
would keep them at par with gold !? There
would be no obligation resting upoA the
Government to do it, and if there were it
truth is we would be driven to silver
6asiE-to silver monometallism. These
dollars, therefore, would stand upon their
real value. If the free and unlimited
coinage of silver ut n ratio of sixteen
ounces of silver to one ounce of gold
would. as some of it's advocates assert,
make b3 cents in silver worth 100 cents
dollar, then we would have no cheaper
money than now and 1t would be no easier
to get. But that such would be the re-
suit Is against reason and is contradicted
by experience in all times and in all lands.
L means the debasement of our currency
to the amount of the difference between
tie commercial and coin value of the sill
yer dollar. which Is ever changing, and
the effect would be to reduce property
values. entail untold financial loss, destroy
confidence, impair the obligations of ex-
listing contracts. further impoverish the
laborers and producers of the country,
create panic of unparalleled severity
and intiict upon trade and commerce q
deadly blow. Against and such policy
am unaltcrably opposed
Bimctallism.
Bimctallism cannot be secured by inde-
pendent action on our part. 1t cannot
y" obtained by opening our mints to the
unlimited coinage of the silver of the
world at ratio of sixteen ounces of sill
yer to one ounce of gold. when the COM
mercial ratio is more than thirty ounces
of silver to one ounce of gold. Mexico
and China have tried the experiment.
Mexico has free coinage of silver and gold
at n ratio slightly i'll excess of sixteen and
one-half ounces of silver to one ounce of
gold. and Willie her mints are freely open
To both metals ut that ratio not a single
dollar in gold bullion is coined and circu-
lated as money. Gold has been driven
they are on Il silver basis alone. Until
international agreement is had it is the
plain duty of the United States to MAIN
tain the gold standard. 1t is the recog-
nizcd and sole standard of the great COM
mercial nations of the world with which
we trade more largely than any other.
fsighty-f"ur per cent of our foreign trade
standard countries and our trade with
nthc, countries WAS settled OH gold
h.SlS.
VIC Have More Silver than Gold.
Chiefly by means of legislation during
md since 1878 there has been put in cir
culatlon more than $624 1000 of silver,
ar it's representative. This has been done
in ihc honest effort 10 give to silver, if
possible. tho same bullion and coinage
of both gold and silver as money. Prior
10 that time. there had been less than
a.nuD.OM OF silver dollars coined in the
entiit history OF the United Stntes-;l
u, riod %. cighty-nine years This lcgis-
ration secures the largest use of silver
consistent with financial safety and the
pledge to maintain its parity With gold.
This has been accomplished at times with
grave peril 10 the public credit. The so
called sherman law sought to use all the
silvv: product of the United States for
money at its market value From 1890 to
ISL! the Government purchased 4,5OO.OO
ounces of silver month. or $4,000, 900
ounces IL year. This WAS one-third of the
product of the world and practically all
this country product. II was believed
4 by those who then and now favor free
coinage that such use of silver would
/ advance it's bullion value to its coinage
valuc. but this expectation was not real
i%e,i. In few months. Notwithstanding
tl.. unprecedented market for the silver
produced in tho United States. the price
of silver Went down very rapidly, reach
ing IL lower point than ever before. Then,
upon the Recommendation of President
Cleveland. both political parties united
in the repeal of the purchasing clause of
the Sherman law. We cannot with safety
engage in further experiments in this d.
| rection.
The Double Standard.
On Aug. 81. 1891. in public address,
said: '.lf we could have an international
ratio. which all the leading nations of the
world would adopt. and the true relation
be fixed between the two metals, and all
a"rcc upon the quantity of silver which
should constitute IL dollar. then silver
world he as free and unlimited in it's priv
llegcs of coinage as gold is to-day. But
with the free and unlimited coinage of
silver adopted in the United States. ut the
present ratio, We would be still further
removed from any international agree
ncnt. We may never be able to secure it
III we enter upon the isolated coinage of
silver. The double standard implies
equality lit Il ratio. and that equality can
only he established by the concurrent law
of nations. 1t was the concurrent law OF
nations that made the double standard
il will require the concurrent law of ma.
tions to rens,atc and sustain it,
The Republican party has not been. and
Ii not now. opposed to the use of silver
= money. as its record ;ibundantly shows
1t has done all that could be done for
:,s increased use. with safety and honor
ny the United States acting apart from
other governments. There are those who
think that it has already gone beyond the
limit of financial prudence. Surely We
can 20 no further. and we must not per
nit false lights to lure us across the dan
ger line.
We have much more silver in use thar
any cOuOtrv in tho world nvroNt 1nd;o ~,