Birmingham state herald., 1896-05-30
THE REAL TROuRTE.

| dlOne snail cOnSllIuIH IIe tu0I6y Ol hiisei redemption the advocates of bimetallism
 have said there is not enough gold to an- swer the purpose. They have contended and correctly so-that when the final redemption money of the world is re- | stricted to gold alone, should that awful l day ever overtake us, we will witness
 no more prosperity either in the United l States of America or elsewhere among | the toling masses. That the scramble
 for the limited amount of money in exist | ence will become so fierce, the demand | for it so great and the supply so | limited that property and wages must | fall to a level where nothing beyond 1 bare existence can possibly be obtained 1 by those who, having no fixed incomes, must live by their own exertions. In support of this proposition we find in @ l recent issue of the Courer-Journal the following statement in reference to the scramble already on for the yellow met | al, which is absolute proof of the correct
 ness of the theory that there is insufii- cient gold to supply the worlds demand | for redemption money:
 We gather from the mail adyices which supplement the meager cable re- ports that the Berliners have been in serious apprehension of financial dlf- | faculties for some time. Part of the l Chinese loan was too rashly undertaken | by German financers, and when the first | installment of a little over $l5,00OOOo fell | due it was with difficulty that the half | of 1t could be transmitted to London, and then it had to be sent in bills, not | in gold. The result is another object | lesson in finances. Under the circum- stances the Imperial bank arranged to hI1xF eroI1 in hplr the cause of the exports for the past three weeks which no one here was ex- pecting. The stock of gold in the lmpe- rial bank on May 21 was $37, ,500,00O less than on May 23, 1895. The total amount of specie was $45 000. .000, so 1t is not sur
 prising that the gold shipments con
 tinue."
 Instead of using these facts in support
 of the well-founded contention of the ad-
 vocates of bimetallism that there is not
 sufficient gold in the world to supply the demand for money of final redemption,
 as it would have been found doing only
 few years ago when it was in reality
 democratic newspaper representing
 the people, we find the Courier-Journal
 attempting to use this instance of
 scramble for the scarce article in support
 of the unholy and undemocratic propo-
 sition to saddle an interest bearing debt
 of $50G000,0 900 upon this and future gener-
 ations for the sole purpose of destroying
 that amount of legal tender paper
 money, which is circulating through the
 channels of trade, keeping alive the
 precious little business that the des-
 perate effort to maintain the gold stand
 ard in this country has left. The Cour-
 ier-Journal says:
 This is only another exemplification
 of the gold raids which the defenseless condition of our treasury is continually inviting"
 It should have said, and doubtless would have said before it abandoned the interests of the people and took up the interests of the money gamblers: This is verification of the fact that there is not enough gold in the world to supply the needs of the world for final redemption money."
 Again the Courer-Journal says: "When London or Berlin or St. Peters | burg needs gold it proceeds to manipu- | late the endless chain in New York, and | it's wants are easily supplied. It is the | rankest financial folly to maintain cur | rency system which puts us at the mercy | of every gold grabber in the world, when | by going out of the banking business, | the treasury would be undisturbed. As l it is, it suffers all the inconvenience 1 and dangers to which any bank of issue | is subjected, and for what? Only for the l privilege of keeping up paper circula- | tion which war once justified and which | is now erroneously supposed to be cheap | because it bears no interest, but which | in reality is the most expensive money | we can use.'
 | If the Courier-Journal was not engaged
 
 | tenn which puts us at the mercy of every | gold grabber in the world" it would have l advised the return to the use of both gold
 and silver as primary money, money of | final redemption and a compliance with | the law which reserves to the govern | ment the right to redeem the paper cur | rency referred to in either gold or silver | at the discretion of the secretary of the l treasury. Instead of advising the de- | struction of our greenbacks and treasu- | ry notes, just the very thing every ''gold | grabber in the world" would have us l do and have been for quite while and | are yet trying to force us to do, the Cou- | rier-Journal should demand that when | London or Berlin or St. Petersburg needs | gold, and, in order to get it from the | United States, attempts to manipulate the endless chain," they be promptly | sit upon by our government officials who | are charged with the operation of the treasury department, by rendering them | silver upon their presentation of our coin | obligations for redemption. The incon-
 veniences and dangers to the treasury | which our contemporary alludes to are the direct fruits of the desperate effort
 to maintain the single gold standard in
 the United States. We cant think the l Courier-Journal sincere in the position it
 has seen proper to take on the financial | question, and trust that when its state,
 as it will do today, joins in the demand | for bimetallism the once great ad-
 tocate of the peoples money will fall
 into line and cease stultifying itself by | attempting to make believe, as it has
 done in the article from which we clip, | that 1t is the existence of the greenbacks | and treasury notes, and not the attempt
 to maintain the gold standard demanded
 by the "gold grabbers," that has brought on our present financial troubles.
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