Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-01-18
PRESIDENT cLEyELAND's lDEl


President Cleveland. in his message
to congress. reviews at considerable
length the history Of our greenbacks,
| the great need of retiring them and the
urgent need of changes in our banking
and currency laws to give ms a suf1i
1 cienf, safe and elastic currency. His
/ recommendations agree substantially
not only with those Of Secretary Carlisle
4 and Comptroller Eckles, but with these
| of many eminent authorities On this
subject. They should be, and we hope
have been, read by all good and patri-
otto citizens. We. however. propose now
to call renewed attention to his excel
lent discussion of the free coinage ques-
ton. 1t is one of the most convincing
arguments ever made against cheap sill
yer dollars. We reproduce below the
greater part of this discussion:
While / have endeayored to make
plain statement of the disordered condi-
tion of our currency and the present
dangers menacing our prosperity, and
to suggest way which leads to safer
financial system, have constantly had
in mind the fact that many of my coun-
trymen, whose sincerity do not doubt,
insist that the cure for the ills now
threatening as may be found in the sin
gle and simple remedy of the free coin
age of silver
Were there infinitely stronger reasons
than can be adduced for hoping that
such action would secure for us a BIZ
metallic currency moving on lines of
parity, an experiment SO novel and haz-
ardous as that proposed might well stag
ger those who believe that stability is
an imperative condition of sound money
No government. no human contri-
vance or act of legislation, has ever been
/ able to hold the two metals together in
free coinage at ratio appreciably diff
! ferent from that which is established in
the markets of the world
Those who believe that our independ-
ent free coinage of silver at an artifi-
| cial ratio with gold of 16 to would re-
store the parity between the metals, and
consequently between the coins, oppose
an unsupported and improbable theory
/ to the general belief and practice of
/ other nations, and to the teaching of the
/ wisest statesmen and economists of the
| world, both in the past and present,
and, what is far more conclusive, they
run counter to our own actual expert
1 ences.
Twice in our earlier history our law
1 makers in attempting to establish BIZ
/ metallic currency undertook free coin
age upon ratio which accidentally va
| ried from the actual relative values of
| the two metals not more than per
cent. In both cases, notwithstanding
greater difficulties and cost of transpor-
tation than now exist, the coins, whose
intrinsic worth was undervalued in the
ratio, gradually and surely disappeared
from our circulation and went to other
countries where their real value was
better recognized.
Acts of congress were impotent to
create equality where natural causes de-
creed even a slight inequality.
Twice in our recent history we have
signally failed to raise by legislation
the value of silver. Under an act of con-
gress passed in 1878 the government
was required for more than IL years to
/ expend annually at least $24, 900, 600 in
the purchase of silver bullion for coin
age. The act of July IA, 1890, in still
holder effort increased the amount of
silver the government was compelled to
purchase, and forced it to become the
buyer annually of $4,000, 900 ounces, or
practically the entire product of our
mines. Under both laws silver rapidly
and steadily declined in value. The
prophecy and the expressed hope and ex-
pectation of those in the congress who
led in the passage of the last mentioned
act, that ii would re-establish and main
tain the former parity between the two
metals, are still fresh in our memory.
In the light of these experiences,
which accord with the experiences of
other nations, there is certainly no Sc
cure ground for the belief that an act of
congress could now bridge an inequality
of so per cent between gold and silver
at our present ratio, nor is there the
least possibility that our country, which
has less than one-seventh of the silver
money in the world, could by its action
alone raise not only our own but all sill
yer to its lost ratio with gold. Our at
tempt to accomplish this by the free
coinage of silver at ratio differing
widely from actual relative values
would be the signal for the complete de-
parture of gold from our circulation, the
immediate and large contraction of our
circulating medium, and a shrinkage in
! leo a.
of all other forms of currency as they
settled to the level of silver monometal-
lism. Every one who receives a fixed
salary and every worker for wages would
| find the dollar in his hand ruthlessly
scaled down to the point of bitter disap-
pointment if not to pinching privation.
A change i'll our standard to silver
recommendation would also bring on a
collapse of the entire system of credit
which, when based on a standard which
is recognized aud adopted by the world
of business, is many times more potent
and useful than the entire volume of
currency and is safely capable of almost
| indefinite expansion to meet the growth
! of trade and enterprise.
In self invited struggle through
darkness ard uncertainty our humilia-
ton would be increased by the con-
seriousness that we had parted company
with all the enlightened and progl essive
nations Of the world, and were desper-
ately and hopelessly striving to meet the
stress of modern commerce and compe-
/ tition with a debased and unsuitable
currency and i'll association with the few
weak and laggard nations which have
silver alone as their standard of value.
All history warns us against rash ex-
periments which threaten violent
changes in our monetary standard and
the degradation of our currency The
past is full of lessons teaching not only
the economic dangers, but the national
immortality that follows in the train of
such experiments / will not believe
that the American people can be per-
suaded after sober elaboration to jeop-
ardize their nation prestige and proud
standing by encouraging financial nos
trums, nor that they will yield to the
false allurements of cheap money, when
they realize that it must result in the
weakening of that financial integrity and
rectitude which thus far i'll our history
have been so devotedly cherished as one
of the traits of true Americanism.
Our country's Indebtedness, whether
owing by the government or existing be-