Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-05
AN INTERESTING LETTER MT. ChappelI Cory Writes About
 Currency A PRESENTATION OF FACTS The Silver Men Will Win if They Only Hold Their Grounds Wall Streets Mes
 sage Over Another's Signature.

granted the state Herald permission to> publish for the benefit of it's readers the following able letter written by MT. Chappell Cory formerly editor of the Age-Herald now of London;
 4O7 oxford Street
 London Dec IS, 1895.
 Dear Sir: The pleasure which a sight of the Birmingham postmark always gives me was recently greatly enhanced by finding your familiar and friendly name within the seal. l would, however, much have preferred a gossipy letter on home affairs to any suggestions about the currency While l have pronounced and definite views on the silver ques- tion. the currency question is quite a diff ferent thing, and judge from the pres identS message that the matter is in very different shape from that which It wore a year ago When l left home, in the sum- mer of 1894 there seemed to be a we'll defined issue as between bimetalism and gold monometallism Now it seems to have widened out into an issue between contraction on the one hand and keeping what we have got on the other. With out knowing how either the democrats or republicans are lining up on the mes- sage which the dealers in money and owners of gold bonds recently sent to congress over the signature of the pres ;dent of the United States, indulge the pleasing hope that what friends the peo- pie have in public life will fight with their backs to the wall until the people themselves get chance to speak in next November.
 The characterization of silver was sim ply contraction to that extent. The re- tirement of the paper currency would be still further contraction. The con tention that gold is too narrow base is sustained by the message, which leaves no doubt that resting on that base, the great government of the United States cannot keep $500, 100000 of its promissory notes in circulation without resort to foreign bankers.
 Now, without going into the question in detail, I am a bimetalllst, because the experience of mankind sustains that syS- tenn. During some thousands of years peoples and governments have conducted every conceivable experiment almost on the subject of money, and they nave never yet found anything equal to gold and silver. The wiSeSt group Of men who ever put their heads together were the founders of our government, and they adopter gold and silver, not because of any special respect or Veneratlon TOT those metals per SC, but because the long experience of the world proved them to constitute, acting together, the best sys- tenn of money yet devised.
 Now, this long experience and the ap- proVal of our own fathers puts a tre- mendous burden of proof on him who would alter the system, and creates a enormous presumption in it's favor. Some twenty years ago the United states and Europe accepted the burden of proof, and did enter on the trial of new sys- tenn viz, gold alone. There has been suf- ficient time for an enlightened conclusion as to whether the new system is sue cess. My own judgment Is that It mas failed and will continue to fail A feW years after the old approved system was abandoned prices began to fall, or, what is the same thing. money to go up. There is not gold country on earth where the people are satisfied with their currency 1fe.-o tf,fa a,tia ian more intense The United States is the most dissatisfied of any. There even the dealers in money are clamofous TOT d change. Here the money dealers are well. nigh supreme, and are in the man satls- fled, though many bankers, lncludlhS the governor of the Bank of England, are Joining the bmetallists. The statesman on whose young shoulders the mantle or MT. Gladstone will fal MT. Balfour, leader of the conservative party, is an ardent bimetallist. English agriculture 2. is practically bankrupt through fifteen years of steadily falling prices. It is not merely that landlords feel their rents ana parsons their tithes cut in two NO amount of rent reduction keeps the farm- CT at an unprofitable trade. Small as the area is and near great markets. thousands of farms are left vacant ana both tenants and laborers are going to swell the ranks of the unemployed in the towns The cotton spinners say that the daily fluctuations in the value of money makes their trade with the slver-using countries mere gamble on the price of exchange. The leading minds of this !, country say that nearly 100 years of gold fnonometallism is proving itself out in disaster. All went well as long as other nations were bimetallic and held silver to it's true function. One gold country made no difference. But when the ex- pertinent came to be tried on a sufficient scale to really test it. failure is the re- suit There are S5,000,0OO people in Eng land Wales and Scotland. Of these only 1000 900 are men. And of these 1,0O0OO0, or a seventh of the whole, are unem- ployed. Verify. England is not satisfied. We all know France is not. Germany has officially declared herself. Italy is bankrupt Austria has just bought the gold standard at a price. Russia has only paper and is trying vainly to get some gold Of course many who are dis satisfied and want change don't want bimetalism They don't know what they want. They merely count as swell ing testimony to the fact that the pres ent money system is wrong, that dissat- isfaction is universal in the gold coun- tries of the world, where the long and real curse of falling prices is reaching its climax.
 Now you and I oppose the silly schemes of money put forward by the populists, but did 1t ever occur 10 you that there must be some real grievance behind a dissa tisfaction that commanded millions of votes for those wild schemes, and which, before our very eyes, swept nearly half the sober and sturdy democrats of Alabama from their moorlngs?
 This universal dissatisfaction and real grievance lies in the shrinking of prices of those things which mems labor pro- duces to sell and this shrinking of prices comes from contraction of money. Now let us clearly distinguish between money and currency. In our country sil- yer is not money; it is only currency. Money Is something in which the debtor has the option to pay. our government does not exercise the option, and that de- stroys silver as money and puts it on the same basis with greenbacks, mere prom ises to pay, mere currency as distinguish ed from money. The only money In the limited States is the $500 000,000 or S600- GOO. 900 of gold. and at the present rate of export that won't last long. It is not enough
 NIv n,vn conclusion is that the gold