Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-15

Says the great English economist, Jevons:
 "Prioes temporarily may rise or fall in- dependently of the quantity of gold in the country. Credit gives certain latitude without rendering prices ultimately indo- pendent of gold" investigations In Currency" page 92.)
 And Huskisson, the famous British statesman and finanoier, in his pamphlet on the depreciation of the currency, sus- tains the propositions
 "Price, therefore is the value of any given article in the currency with refer ence to which that article is measured, and must, of course, be varied by any vari- ation in the quality of gold and silver con- tained in such currency"
 An acute writer, Dr. W. H. Smith, in Q recent work, says:
 "The volume of basic money fixes the volume of representative money (paper money issued by the goyernment). In turn, tho volume of both representative money and basic money controls the vol ume of credits that act as money and tho quantity of all these with tho exchanges to be made and payments to be met fix prices. Thus indirectly the prices of com moditios in a country arc fixed and con trolled by the volume of basic money"
 Sir, under tho stress and impulse of commercial development the worlds need of money has overtaken and passed the supply of metal for the purpose long ago and has for many years explored all the avenues of invention for substitutes and economics to eke out tho inadequate amount of ultimate money. The limit was long since reached. I cannot now take tho time to provo, but I assert, with no dread of contradiction, that tho actual proportionate uso of money among the people today is very much greater than it was 40 years ago. Says great authority Professor Finley (Journal of Political hoonomy, March, 1S95);
 After certain point of development in the uso of credit instruments there Is no further relative increase, but rather, possibly, slight decrease"
 The True Fiatist.
 The true flatlst, Mr. Chairman, is your modern American gold standard advocate. The logic of his argument leads to mon- ey base so smail and a credit top so large that confidence" is to take the place of redemption, and confidence never realized is only another name for irredeemability. For "popuism" that out-Populists your Populist commend mo to your gold stand ard extremist
 Sir, think have heard the gentleman from Massachusetts speak of increasing tho resources of the banks so as to permit them to enlarge their accommodations to customers. We are to assume, then, from these arguments that the extent of accom- mediation Is limited to tho present. rate of expansion, and that there must be some way of increasing tho reserves in ordor to permit the piling on of additional credits at the rate of $4 or $5 for $1. Increasing the reserves means increasing the ultimate substance that must in the end make good every dollar of credit and every promise made by bank or government in the na- turo of credit. It is more ultimate money that the world wants and must have. And 1 warn gentlemen upon this floor not as a prophet, but as ono who has al- ways lived near the people-our duty must not be neglected. I tell you I know what tho people are thinking and what they are feeling in this year of grace 1896. They know that the constructing gold standard is existing by the permission and growing at the cost of the manhood and the enterprise of the universe and that the time will come when stop must be put to 1t.
 MT. Hardy--After your elaborate re- marks will you now state in a few words what you want the Republican party to do?
 MT. Chairman it is to the great Repub- lcan party a1 such a crisis that the people turn with hopefulness, oven as in times past when the hour was heavy and the way dark they groped anxiously that they might find and clasp with their hands the hand of the Republican party and thus be led again to tho heights of peace and along the paths of prosperity. The Republican party has not yet declared for single gold standard
 MT. Hardy and othors-And never will.
 MT. Towne-And pray heaven it never will. But what Is expected now, MT. Chairman, of the Republican party is prompt and definite proposition as to what it intends to do.
 Sir, I am not strenuous upon having my way. While Ishould infinitely prefer that the nations undertake this regeneration together, yet 1 believe that the United States of America, with it's unlimited re- sources with its manhood representing an energy that Mulhall says Is quite equal to that of the Englishman, the German and the Frenchman combined with population of 70O00, GOO, with an area equal to all Europe, and largo part of which Is undeveloped and needs the quick enng assistance of an affluent, ultimate money, with one-third of the banking power of Christendom, showing its absorp- tive capacity over tho money of all the world that should seek employment here, with ne-third of the steam power (which is the basis of industry and of business to- day) of all the earth I believe the United States could, with all this marvellous en- ergy, with its multiplicity and variety of commerce, proper caro for which would enable it to become the clearing house for this hemisphere, as Blaine fondly hoped 1t might become. I say the Republican party might, by opening tho hints of this gov ernment and giving to silver the same privileges now bestowed upon gold, main- tain the two metals at a parity at the old coinage ratio. It would be easier for us to do it than it was for France, because France had to do 1t and did it when the natural bulk ratio of silver to gold was 32 to 1, while with us it is proposed to mako the ratio practically Identical with that which the metals sustain to each other by bulk today. Nor, sir, Is there anywhere any ''f1ood of silver' to swamp the mint cannot pause to prove this, but 1t is ab- solutely true Nearly all existing silver now circulates at token parity or vir- final redemption parity with gold and