The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-10-22

the country upon those dreams Would
all the commercial nations together coin
! ing silver at Is to bring up the value of
| silver bullion to $1.29 per ounce? Per-
haps Strong commercial reasons suggest
! the contrary. Would America alone bring
| silver to 1929? Assuredly not; although,
| of course, the new demand for silver
from the minis would give some increase
to it's value, which increase. however,
might again be offset by an increase of
| production.
Some imagine that the ratio of silver to
| gold was always 16 to l or thereabout.
The ratio was constantly changing
throughout historic times; at one time
silver was more valuable than gold; at
the time of the discovery of America sill
yer was ten times less valuable than gold :;
200 years before it had been eight times
less valuable. The ratio is constantly
changing, and the question for us today is
not what the ratio YSas at a preceding
date, but what it should be in our time
But has not Herr Bismarck counselled
the United States to go ahead and make
the experiment all alone? Yes; and some
Americans quote his advice as an author
1ty. The sly old fox would, Indeed, be
pleased to see America make the expert
ment-and go to the bottom of the sea.
Free Coinage, then, will give us money,
worth in the commercial market of the
world little over half its nominal value.
NO one lmagines that the stamp of the
government gives value to a piece of
metal; it merely certifes to the quantity
and quality. Otherwise the government
stamp might as well be affixed. Other
wise the government stamp might as well
be affixed to copper or mere paper. If the
government stamp gave value the debased
coins issued in the past by impecunious
soVerelgns would not have ruined the
subjects OF those sOvereigns and the as
slgnats OF France, and the paper issued by
Ferdinand of Naples a century ago would
not have sold in the government market
as government rags. Legal tender, COM
pelllng men to accept against their will
money above its commercial value in the
the markets of the world, is rank inius-
tlce. The early financial statesmen of
America, Jefferson, Morris and Hamilton
never thought of making the legal value
OF coin higher than the commercial value
of the metal of which the coins were
made.
Therefore, with the passage of free sill
yer coinage we shall have currency re-
jected at it's nominal value from the mar
kets of the world unstable and fuctuat-
ing in real value. Business cannot pros
per with such currency. The first con-
ditiOn OF the life of business is stability of
the currency. None will invest money of
a certain value today in commerce and in
dustry if by the time the raw material has
been turned into marketable wares the
currency is likely to have changed in
value. Business in all branches would
become speculation, a gamble, and con-
sentative capital would keep out of sight
No loans would be made. 1t is nonsense
to say that capital must put itself into the
American market, whether the capital be
American or European. We should not
be deluded by words. We may clamor in
vain for capital. 1t will not come to us
unless there be security for it. 1t will re-
main in the vaults of safety, or go to other
parts of the world, where reward is small
but certain. And without capital there
will be no enterprises and no work for the
people