The record-union., 1896-04-16

Mr. Carlisle said: Labor cannot
be boarded. The idle day is gone for
ever; lost wages are never reimbursed,
and therefore steady employment and
good pay in good money are essential
to the comfort and happiness of the
American laborer and his wife and chill
dren. He will be unfaithful to himself
and to them if he does not insist upon
the adoption and maintenance of such
q policy as will most certainly preserve
the value and stability of all our cur
1ency and promote the regular and
profitable conduct OF all our industrial
enterprises.
The naked proposition is that the
United States shall coin at the public
expense for the exclusive benefit Of the
individuals and corporations owning the
bullion, all the silver that may be pre-
sented at the mints into dollars contain
ing 371A grains Of pure silver or 41215
grains of standard silver, worth intrin-
sically about 81 or % cents, deliver the
coins to the depositors of the bullion
and compel all the other people in the
country to receive these coins at valu-
alton of 100 cents each in the payment
of debts due them, except only in cases
where the prudential capitalist has
taken the precaution in advance to con-
tract for payment in gold or its equiva-
lent.
ITO say nothing of the gross partiality
and manifest injustice of such policy
its immediate effect would be to con-
tract our currency to the extent of about
$500, ,000, 600 by stopping the use of gold
as money and putting a premium upon
Of hat or ah hnl1t
equal, to the difference between the in
trinsic value of the geld dollar and the
intrinsic value of the silver dollar Gold
coins would at once become a com
modify, and would be bought and sold
by spectators in the market just as
they were during the war when we had
a deprecated paper currency
1.-The value of the silver dollar would
fluctuate from day to day, moving Up
and down with the rise and fall of the
commercial movement the same as the
Mexican dollar does now, and the prem
ium on the gold dollar would of course
fluctuate to the same extent, thus af
fording an opportunity to bullion brok-
ers and speculators to buy and sell 1t at
a profit 1t would cease to- be used as
money because no man would pay his
debt in gold dollars or in paper redeem
able in gold dollars worth 100 cents,
when the law permitted him to pay it
in silver dollars worth only fifty-one or
ffty-two cents each.
"The sudden withdrawal of S620 900, =
600 from the volume of currency in the
country would undoubtedly produce a
financial and industrial disturbance far
more disastrous to the interests OF labor
than has ever been experienced in our
history, and no man who has particle
of sympathy for workingmen and
women and their dependent families
can contemplate the possibilities of
such a calamity without feeling that it
is his duty. whether he occupies a pub
lie or a private station, to use every
honorable means at his command TO
avert IL.
.'The situation would be very greatly
aggravated by the fact that the pur-
chasing power of the remainder of our
currency would be suddenly reduced
about one-half We should have only
about two-thirds as much currency as
we have now, and at the same time il
would be so deprecated in value tina,
At would require about twice as much as
we now have to transact the business of
the country, provided there should be
any business to transact.
.The attempt to maintain what is
called the double standard of value
that Is the attempt to keep the legal
tender coins of the two metals-gold
and silver-in use as money at the same
time upon a ratio Of value fixed by law.
has repeatedly been made by Kings and
Parliaments in every civilized country