The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-07
A WORD TO B1METALL1srs.

A certain per cent. of the free coinage
people profess to believe that the open
ing of our minis to silVor would SO in
crease the price of silver bullion that our
silver coins would riso to d parity with
gold. A much larger per cent. do not
care whether Ii does or not, and a con-
siderable per cent. had rather it would
their hopes Of being able to scale down
their debts. But. as we have said, a
certain per cent do, with apparent sin
cerity, profess to bslieve that free coin
age would place the two metals on q par
ty. These people are bimetallists, and
in the hope that it will lead to interna-
tional bimetalism. 1t is possible to treat
these people with some sort of patience
and consideration, because their advo-
eaoy is not tainted with dishonesty as
is that of the man who, is shout ing for
silver dollars because he thinks they will
| scale down his debts, or with Stiffness like
that of the man who is shouting for them
because he has vague idea that when
dollars are abundant some of them will
get into his pocket without any effort
on his part.
The attention of this class we want to
call to certain facts. In the first place
their own claim is that the present low
price Of silver has been caused, not by
demonstration by the United States
alone, but by tho demonstrations of this
country, Germany and the Latin Union
ombined. II it was the combined ae-
ton Of half a dozen great commercial
nations which sent it TO its present low
estate, how car they reasonably expe ct
that single one Of them, without any
assistance from the others, and against a
virtual resistance on their part, caE lift
ence, and are not compelled to rely upon
inherent probabilities or inprobnbilities
In 1878 our government commenced buy
ing 81, 00C, 000 worth of silver month,
and coming il into dollars 1t continued
that policy for twelve years. Here was a
and the prediction was freely made by
| the mon who advocated this transactio II
that it would arrest the decline In silver.
1t had not the slightest effect in that
direction. Silver continued to foil. In
1890 we increased our purchases to
100000 ounce a month, with nothing
but a momentary stimulation of the
price of silver. The Mexican minis have
been open to free coinage for many years,
but it has had not the slightest apparent
effect to stop silvor's decline. If free
coinage would lift silver to par, if it
would double its value. certainly our
continued purchases ought to have done
something in staying it's fall. But ad-
mittedly they did nothing. Thus
every experiment we have made
with silver for the past twenty years has
tended to destroy any reasonable hope
that we might by free coinage raise the
white metal to par.
If not raised TO par, what will happen
All our gold will vanish. difference
of two per cent in the valne of the silver
aud gold dollar succeeding our first coin
age law drove all the gold out of circu-
lation. We shall then be Oh silver ba-
sis, and silver recommendation, not bi-
| metallism, will be established in this
country. Instead of advancing the cause
of bimetallism we shall have retarded it.
President Walker, the leader of the BIZ
meta]lists in this country, made it very
clear in his recent address to the BIZ
metallic League that he should consider
free coinage by the United States alone
serious blow to the cause of world BIZ
metallism.