The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-06-12
SOME HARD FACTS. Y
~ Hit Telling Blows Against Free
Coinage at Sixteen to One.

.sr;or. delivered speech in New Yor
Il Nav 16 on the currency question
a e speech that should be read by a
IN buy and sell or who vote or hav
nauence with voters. 1t is as follows:
The people of this country make thei
Contracts payable in dollars. Uncel
tainty as to the meaning of the wor
E,ollar must create doubt as to the effec
fcontracts and general distrust in busi
hess.
The dollar of the United States at tn
resent time has a distinct meaning
n is equivalent to 1922 grains of pur,
cold. Paper dollars are mere promise
u nav in coin. Silver dollars, while the,
contain bullion worth only about 81
tents each, have been surrounded b,
safeguards of legislation limiting the
humber coined and supporting them by
he credit of the government, SO thai
they have been kept on a parity will
old dollars. Observation-Disclosures
pne-hundredths grains of gold therefore
Measure the value of what is meant by
dollar, when the term is used for
trade here, and this has been true for
bout so years, with the exception OF
he period during which paper dollars
we're deprecated.
Upon the floor of the house of repre-
entatives in 1853, when the bill was
lending which made fractional cur
sncy subsidiary, Cyrus L. Durham, of
indiana, who had charge of the bill,
aid:
San objection urged against this pro-
osed change is that it gives us a gold
Itandard only. \ *# Gentlemen talk
|bout double standard of gold and sill
Ter as thing. that exists, and that we
propose to change. We have had but
Jingle standard for the last three OF four
fears; this has been and now is gold; we
propose to let it remain so and adapt sill
Ter to and regulate it by gold"
| After this long experience in the use
! dollars based upon 1922 grains of
kold the advocates Of silver demand it's
|ree, unlimited and independent coinage
L the present ratio.
This is really proposition to remove
fom silver dollars the safeguards of leg
blation which surround them. to with
RAW the limit and to take from them
Pie support of the government. tits an
Ffort to reach bimetallic currency by
PIE free and unlimited coinage of two
petals at fixed ratio which places 100
|ents' worth of bullion in the gold dol
pr and so cents worth of bullion in |
|he silver dollar.
|Theexperience of every country which
rs attempted the free and unlimited
plnage of the two metals at ratio dis.
Fgarding the commercial value of the
billion of each metal put into dollar
Rs been the coinage and use of the
heaper metal and the loss as money of
be more valuable metal. The prin-
|pe is thus expressed by Sir Isaac
Fesham:
IN debased coin is attempted to be
rculated with full value coin, all of
le latter will disappear from circula-
On, and the overvalued and debased
IN Will alone remain, to the ruin Of
y commerce and business"
This lndisputable doctrine was taught
the 18th century by Nicholas Ores
and again in the 10th century by
cholas Copernicus. Coming down to
Z, Sir Isaac Newton, at that time
'ector of the mint Of England, de-
red:
II silver leaves the shores of Eng !,
ID In crowns or in ingots, the produce
COINS remelted, and gives place to :
d. 1t is because the value which the :,
netary legislation assigns to it, in re- !,
ION to gold, is not correct"
lpply the lesson practically to our =
money. With free and unlimited ;.
mage of gold and silver at the ratio OF :.
teen to one silver monometallisln :,
I'D result, and the measure of the =,
i it OF our dollar would be 371A grains - =,
iiVer, worth about 10 grains of gold. =
Ut the advocates of silver coinage =
81 that with 371A grains of silver :,
lltted in unlimited quantities to the a. =.
Us for coinage, free of charge, the :.
ion value of this number of grains -
"a necessarily be equal, before COIN u
TO the coined dollar. This is true. y
II would be equally true of 100 =.
ns' or OF one grain, if admitted free =
IN unlimited quantities to coinage. :.
ed' II chips were admitted free and "
alimited quantities to the privilege 90
ing stamped into dollars, the chips, -
:, :, they were stamped, would be ~ ~
ii as much as the dollars after they ~
stamped, but unfortunately the no
rs would be worth no more than a.
ooner favorite argument of the free ri M
advocates refers to the experience -;
rance, and they have claimed all -,
lne country that France, frc.,, sos p
~ by fixing a legal ratio for the "A
&c OF silver and gold lat fifteen -.
hal Il