, 1896-10-05
What Would Follow E+yan.s Election.

qucncus ,youll b. If Mr.. Bryan were elected
president with u congress to match. Mr..
Bryan would Of course be anxious to h.vo
his free coIGlcu law enacted, but that could
not lie, even i: he called an extra session OF
congress, until som. time in April or May,
1--WE or six months after the day of election.
But rs soon On the itn u. November a. the re-
suit of the el elton WIS a%nrcunced everybody
would know that u. parity of gold and silver
wouli not he maintained.
1t having been ma lie certain by Mr.. Bryan's
election that the parity of gold and silver
would not be maintained, there would hr n
rush upon tho treasury for the gold in il 10y
persons holding gro1nbacks entitled to re-
demption, and the gold reserve would be OK.
haustcd in IA twinkling. Gold will instantly
disappear from circulation to be boarded OF
exported. Why will it disappearr Because
every sensible person when making n payment
Will prefer to make it In the less valuable dol
lar and hold the more valuable gold dollar
back for more profitable use. Gold will there
fore quickly rise to a premium. and we shall
be on the silver basis long before u free coin
age law can be enacted. What does it mean to
be on the silver basis? The word ''coiu." whrr.
ever it appear in the law, will no longer mean
gold, as 1t was so far understood, but silver
alone. The grecnback or treasury note re.
deemble in COIN will no longer he redeemed
in gold, as heretofore, but only in silver. The
United states bond payable in coin. no matter
whether gold was paid for it or whether il had
been sold for the very purpose Of buying gold
for the treasury, will be paid, principal and
interest, in silver-repudiation rs fragrant as
the world ever witnessed. Our daily trans.
actions in buying and selling. in paying and
receiving wages, will no longer be carried on
upon the basis of the gold dollar worth lU
cents, but of the silver dollar worth 80 cents
or thercabout, for the government will no
longer hold up the silver dollar to the value CT
the gold dollar. That is what the silver basis
means. You can study in Mexico how it
works.
The quantity of gold vanishing from circula.
ton will amount TO about 5000, 900, 900. the dis.
appearance of which will make n tremendous
hole in the volume of our currency. Nearly
one-third OF it will be gone, and what remains
will be reduced nearly one-half in purchasing
power. But. says the silver man, there will be
free silver coinage to fill the gap promptl
no. my fellow sufferers. The disappearance of
gold will happen promptly after the election
of Mr.: Bryan. and there will not possibly be
any free coinage of silver for at least six
months, and it Will require n great many mo:e
months to fill a gap of $500, ", 90.
The Free Coinage Panic.
What will happen meanwhileP The st. Louis
Globe-D Democrat reports Mr.. Bryan to have
said some time ago: 81 think it" meaning the
victory Of the free coinage movement. "will
cause n panic. But the country is in a deplor.
able condition, and it will take extreme meas
ures to restore it to condition of prosperity"
Whereupon the st. Louis paper pointedly re-
marks, "Evidently Mr.. Bryan has heard of the
doctor who always threw his patient into fits
before administering any curative medicine"
Just SO.
How. then, would Mr.. Bryan's "fit' work?
The sudden disappearance of our gold from
circulation would produce the most stringent
contraction of the currency on record. Bust.
ness men who owe money and ut the same
time have money due them will be forced to
rn11.rf that Ylnpny hv var ,u.1 ~. al fi1atr
disposal. Nobody will be inclined to lend out
any money except upon extraordinary sccu-
rity. The banks will naturally consider it their
duty to keep themselves strong. and there
fore to call in loans and to restrict their dis.
counts and advances to business mCn with the
utmost caution. Business establishments,
manufactures, mercantile houses, unable to
get the money for meeting their obligations,
will by the hundreds succumb to their cmbar-
easements and tumble down like a row of
bricks. Others will cautiously restrict their
operations to the narrowest possible limit, and
wage earners by the thousands will lose their
employment and be turned into the street.
No class of society will DO spared the de-
structive consequences. Every frightened
creditor, pressed by his own creditors and APP
prchcnsivc of Il growing loss by every days
delay, will eagerly pounce upon his debtors.
The prompt settlement Of every account will
be percinptorily demanded. Our farmers who
have mortgages on their property and who
have been told that free coinage will make
things exceedingly easy for them will have
some unexpected experiences. Every mortgage
debt that is due will be quickly called in. The
mortgaEeor who tries to have his bond extend
ed will find an unwilling car. He who seeks
to borrow money in order to replace the old
mortgage with u new one will be told that this
is no time for loans, except, perhaps, upon ex-
orbitant conditions. The mortgageor may find,
too, that his bond is payable in gold coin, and
he will have to buy the gold Mt the premium
then ruling. Foreclosures will DO the order Of
the day. The mortSageor who seeks shelter I'M
burden his property with the cost of legal pro-
ceedingS. Everywhere anxiety, embarrass.
ment, sacrifice, loss and distress, even before
Mr.. Bryan could ascend the presidential chair.
organs Eimetallism.
After Ave or six months of such q deadly
crisis, Mr.. Bryan's extra session of congress
would begin and give us free coinage. Then,
as Mr.. Bryan solemnly promised us in his
great New York Grafton, free coinage will give
us bimetallism, bimetallism will give us an
abundance of money, and all will be right.
BimetallismI What is bimetallism? 1t Is u
monetary system in which the two metals cir.
culate together for all the purposes of money
on n parity with each other upon q fixed legal
ratio, which in our case is 10 to l. Evidently
to have bimetallism gold must DO on hand
as well as silver.
How will Mr.. Bryan get the gold back from
the money powerr Evidently he must offer
an inducementp What inducencnt? To he
sure, the mints will be open to gold as well as
silver. But who will offer gold bullion to have
it coined into dollars for circulation when he
can have silver dollars with the same legal
tender power ut half the price? Only an idiot
would do that. OF COURSE, gold will be offered
only when the silver dollar is up again to the
gold standard. There is the rub. But here
Mr.. Bryan steps in with Il theory which is a
curiosity in Craftsmanship. He said in his
IN,,,C Vel, .-..l, 4 Ar,. --k
ready to take the entire supply Of any article
at a certain price can prevent that article from
falling below that price. SO the government
can fix u price for gold and silver by creating
a demand greater than the supply" And
again. "When u mint price is thus established,
it regulates the bullion price, because any per
son desiring coin may have the bullion con
verted into coin nj that price, and any person
desiring bullion can secure it by melting that
CON-
Would lie Silver Monometallism.
What2 Is this to mean that under free coin
age the government will purchase silver bull
lion and pay a certain fixed price for itf II
30, then Mr.. Bryan, the great free coinage
apostle, does not know what free coinage is.
Let US remind him. 1t means that the owner
of silver bullion may take it to the mint and
have 1t coined and returned to him in coined
pieces, so many dollars for 30 much weight OF
pure silver. 1t does not mean that the govern
ment Stands ready to purchase the entire
supply Of silver Mt u certain price," The gov
eminent does not purchase u single ounce of
it. 1t merely receives the bullion, stamps IL
and returns 1t. And as to fixing n price, as
soon AS the government stops holding up the
silver dollar TO the gold standard. as it would
with Nj. Bryan's ~eleaiion, the silver dollar.
measured by its purchasing power. will be
worth not q ceus more than the market value
| Of the silver contained in It. II the market
value Of that quantity is 60 cents. and you
present at the mint 50 cents worth of bullion,
Ynu net back. NOT a gold dollar, but a silYer