Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-08-13

the CONSTITUTION. OF Ill WHICH or the HI
teen amendments, does the fundamental
law prescribe a gold and silver coinage
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
Off" Acting under that authority Con-
gress at first authorized coinage at Is to
l. Was that the ''gold and silver coin
age of the Constitution If so, how
has Is to 1 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
melted down for bullion because they
were worth about 3 per cent. more than
gold dollars. In all the period up to the
time of the great silver discoveries Con
gress sought to make the coinage ratio
the same as the commercial ratio. 1t
never authorized coinage at any ether.
Was that the coinage of the Constitu-
tion?" If so, will it be a return to it for
us now to establish free coinage at the
ratio of 16 to l when the commercial
ratio is about 81 to l g
4. Will not free ct|eage at 16 to 1 re-
duce the value of the dollar unit by about
one-4mlf?
5. Will it not be in fact Reputation
of about one-half of all our debts, public
and private?
G. Is there not danger that it will
cause the return to us of all the Ameri-
can securities held abroad-goyernmen
railroad and Industrial stocks and bonds
titus preclpltatlng panic of giant pro-
portions, with long years of depression to
fy1flow?
Z. Will not your election upon the Chi
| cago platform cause the calling in, be-
tween November and March, of all col
lectable debts, al loans, all mortgages
IN how ~,
produce such a distress as this country
has never known, particularly in the
West and South, where capital ard
credit are most needed and depend upun
confidence as their basis?
.. Will 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? Win it
not cause currency contraction of the
most disastrous proportions. inasmUch
as the. utmost capacity of the minis to
com silver cannot make good this with
draWal tor several years to come?
y. Will not free coinage place us at
| once on a financial level with Mexico,
India and China, and can we afford to
$50 upon that level?
H. is there amy 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
Of no country that does, of no example
that can be studied
IL. Is there any country in the world
row 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
here. or in which The dollar received in
wages will buy so much? Is there any
silver-basis country that has a large
commerce, prosperous manufactures, ,or
ali IL I.
! not a fact that in every silver basis coaln-
| try in the world AFFECT and hopeless pov-
erty on the part of the masses is the
| rule?
u. 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 80
avoid the lapse to that basis if we adopt
| free and unlimited coinage at 16 to 1
| when the commercial ratio between the
metals is about twice that?
Is. 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, WIFI you explain to
| us how in that case free coinage is to
| make money cheaper or easier to get.
| how ii is to relieve ''the debtor Glass;"
| how it is to increase the price of wheat
| or any other commodity!
IA. YWM may be aware that there was
of this state alone $643, s73, 574. This
| enormous sum belonged to 1,615,17S de-
| pOsitOrs, giving an average to each of
S39S.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
the government Do YOU think it fair
| or just to impair by Al per cent or by
| even l per cent. the value of the money
| in which these deposits were earned and
in which today they would be paid?
10 There are in this state SS,719 PEN
sioners They drew from the govern
| ment last year nearly S14,000,OOO Con-
sdering 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 1898
| AIS are in New York. These associa-
tons have 1,745125 shareholders-all of
| the working and saving classes. Their
assets last year We're $45O,667 ,594. repre-
| scented chiefly by mortgage loans to
homeseekers, of whom 455.000 are mem
bers 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 lnEllly pOOI
II. Is it not Il fact worth consideration
in proposing 81 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
So O0O. 100000 The assessment compa-
MES and various benevolent orders have a
vast amount more. Would it not be an
injury and wrong to the benefciaries
of these polices-the widows and
orphans whom a provident love had
sought to protect-to compel them to re-
ceive in payment deprecated money?
10. The rise in prices" which you
predict as Il 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 a rise in wages or sala-
ries has been parallel with the rise in
prices? Is there any way to render it
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 decentralization of the silver dol
lar in 1873. though that dollar was not
then coined in any considerable numbers
and was not in circulation at all, owing
to the fact that silver bullion was worth
more in the market than at the mint.
Do YOU consider that the increase in the