Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-09-10

or any other coinage? In which does it
mention any coinage further than TO au-
thorize the general government to "coin
money and regulate the value there
OF! Acting under that authority Con-
gress at first authorized coinage at 15 to
l. Was that the gold and silver coin
age of the Constitution" If so, how
mas IL to / come to be the coinage of
the Constitution? Under the first ratio
silver was undervalued and refused to
circulate except in the form of worn and
abraded foreign coins. Our own silver
COINS, even the subsidiary pieces, were
melted down for bullion because they
were worth about 3 per cent. more than
gold dollars. In all the period up to the
tlme of the great silver discoveries Con-
Sress sought to make the coinage ratio
the same as the commercial ratio. 1t
never authorized coinage at any other
Was that the coinage of the Constitu-
tion" If SO, will it be return to it for
us now to establish free coinage at the
ratio of 10 to l when the commercial
ratio is about 81 to 1?
|. 4. VIII not free coinage Mt 16 to 1 re-
duce the value of the dollar unit by about
one-half?
D. Will it not be in fact a reputation
or about one-half of all our debts, public
and private?
y. Is there not danger that it will
cause the return to us of all the Ameri-
can securities held abroad-government,
railroad and industrial stocks and bonds
thus precipitating panic of giant pro-
portions, with long years of depression to
follow?
cago platform cause the calling in, be-
tween November and March, of all col
iectable debts, all loans, all mortgages
that have expired? And will not this
produce such distress as this country
mas never known, particularly in the
west and South, where capital and
credit are most needed and depend upon
confidence as their basis?
o. WIN not free and unlimited coinage
drive all the five or six hundred millions
OF gold and gold certificates out of use
as money or as bank reserves? Will it
not cause a currency contraction of the
most disastrous proportions, inasmuch
as the utmost capacity of the minis to
COIN silver cannot make good this with
draWai Tor several years to come?
u. "lll not free coinage place us at
once on financial level with Mexico,
India and China, and can we afford to
| go. upon that level?
TO- Is there any country in the world
today which gives free and unlimited
| coinage to silver? Mexico does not.
India does not. None of the Central or
South American States does. We know
| or no country that does, of no example
| that can be studied.
III. Is there any country in the world
| now on the silver basis which is as pros
| porous as the United States. even in this
time of depression? Is there any in
which wages are so high as they are
wages will buy so much? Is there any
| silver-basis country that has large
| commerce, prosperous manufactures, or
| well-to-do agricultural class? Is it
| not fact that in every silver-basis cOun-
| try in the world abject and hopeless pow
nptv IN ort Of fhn l., tI,n
| rule?
| II. Will you explain to us for our en-
| lightenment and guidance how our coun-
try is to escape like conditions if we
| go to a silver basis, or how we are to
| avoid the lapse to that basis if we adopt
free and unlimited coinage at 16 to l
when the commercial ratio between the
| metals is about twice that?
| ID. And if you tell us, as many free
coinage advocates do, that free coinage
will raise the commercial value of silver
to the coinage rate, will you explain to
| us how in that case free coinage is TO
make money cheaper or easier to get,
| how it is to relieve "the debtor class"
| how il is to increase the price of wheat
| or any other commodity!
| IA. You may be aware that there was
last year on deposit in the savings banks
enormous sum belonged to 1,615,17S de-
| positors, giving an average to each of
| $39S.63. 1t represents mainly the small
savings of the thrifty poor. Nearly all
| of it has been deposited since the pres
ent standard of value was adopted by
or just to impair by Al per cent. or by
| even | per cent. the value of the money
| in which these deposits were earned and
in which today they would be paid?
Is. There are in this state SS,710 pen
sioners. They drew from the govern
| p,ant Ia CT ypor nporly 81 Il O0l O00 Cnp-
sidering the nature of this debt of honor
| when Justly due-can you look with ia
vor upon any policy that might result in
paying them in deprecated currency?
16. There are in the country 5S3S
building and loan association, of which
AS are in New York. These associa-
tons have 1,745, 125 shareholders-all of
| the working and saving classes Their
assets last year were $45O,667 ,594. repre-
scented chiefly by mortgage loans to
homeseekcrs, of whom 455.000 are mem
hers of the associations. These associa-
tons have nearly all been organized with
| in the last fifteen years under the exist
| ing money standard. Can you think it
fair or beneficial to the working people
to reduce by AZ per cent. or any lesser
sum. the value of these investments of
| the thrifty poor!
II. Is it not fact worth consideration
| in proposing Il descent to the silver stan
| dard that the thirty -nine old-style life in
surance companies alone doing business
in this state last year had in force here
nearly 100000 policies. insuring over
$4,000, 100000. The assessment compa-
MES and various benevolent orders have
vast amount more. Would it not be an
| injury and wrong to the benefciaries
of these polices-the widows and
orphans. whom provident love had
sought to protect-to compel them to re-
ceive in payment deprecated money?
49, The rise in prices" which you
predict as result of free silver coinage
| would. of course, mean an increase in the
cost of living to all the people-to wage
earners. salaried men, and the whole
body of consumers. Do you know of any
case in which rise in wages or sala-
aries has been parallel with the rise in
prices? Is there any way to render il
certain, or even probable, that the wage
| earners will be compensated for the in
creased cost of living?
| 10. You attribute the decline in silver
| to the demonstration of the silver dol
lar in 1873, though that dollar was not
| in Ia