The herald., 1896-08-16

visionary schemers, "calamity howlers."
"disturberS of conservative business inter-
ests," "revoutionists." etc. and say that
the "silver craze" will ruin this country
If its adherents are successful at the polls
next November. BY the way, the dire con-
sequences of free coinage of silver is the
last argument that the sodites fall back
on when all others have been punctured
and swept away. They say IAN the silver
bullion of Europe will be dumped on u.s. ;"
There is not the slightest danger of that,
for America produces over three-fourths
of all the silver of the yorld and ten times
more than Europe.
An expert who recently visited Europe
to hunt up the amount of surplus silver
bullion there says that there is not over
S., 900. 900 worth in the whole of Europe. She
annually consumes double the amount she
produces. Outside of America there is not
enough silver produced in the world to
supply India alone, which is an enormous
consumer of silver. Europe and Asia buy
annually of America about s122. 000. 900 worth
of silver bullion for coinage purposes. and
to be used in the arts. Statistics show
that If all the silver of the world were
scraped up and dumped on us 1t would not
exceed $4669 per capita. or only about what
France keeps constantly in circulation in
her various kinds of money. Our foreign
trade is but per cent of all our commerce.
and by remonetizing silver our people
would thus be benefited twenty times more
than we would lose in making exchanges
with foreign customers. Nearly all the
countries of Europe and America, includ.
ing France, have the ratio of 15L to l for
silver coinage. hence IL it was brought for
recoinage in our mints at 16 to they would
lose three cents ON each dollar, besdes
having to pay seigniorage and freight
charges both ways across the ocean. Mex.
leo being the largest silver producer in the
world (40 per cent of the total product)
would be the only country we might fear.
as her ratio is 16ls to 1. Some of her bull
lion might seek our mints. but small
tariff could be levied on her bullion to
eQualize ours, in case of any excess from
that source.
Our gold standard friends also claim that
IL we have free coinage of silver all the
gold Will be driven out of the country. That
is another bugaboo, and mere guesSwork.
Free coinage of silver has never driven
gold out Of this country, but the cessation
of silver coinage in 1898 did drive gold out.
and the present administration has been
compelled to borrow s262. 900 900 of gold from
Europe in consequence of that act. Dur
ing the eleven years of the Bland-A1lison
act, while coming from two to four million
silver dollars per month, we imported $227-
900 more gold than we exported. When
the Sherman silver purchasing act was re-
pealed three years ago the gold standard
advocates asserted that the coinage of four
and one-half millions of silver dollars per
month was the cause Of hard times, and
that If further coinage Of silver were stop
ped we would have prosperous times again.
But alas and alas! the good times are as
far from realization as ever-in fact, the
country is in worse condition financially
than in 1893 and will continue so until the
greed of the money power Is checked.
The next series of pointers" will refer
to the one hundred million dollar gold re-
serve and other interesting features of this
alI-absorbing money duestion.-"Multum
in parvo."
Mr.. Bryan is popular Just where candi-
- - lor- -xxrfth he