Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-05-14

were not in fact worth as much in the mar
kets as 57l14 grains of fine silver. Although the
difference in value was very small, il proved
sufficient to change the whole character of our
metallic currency, and under this ratio gold
and silver exchanged places. Silver went out
of the country and gold came in, and from
that time until after the passage of the act of
1878 we had practical gold ~monometallisn,
except during the period of the war, when we
had no metallic money of any kind. When the
great civil war began, we had no silver in
circulation except the subsidiary coins author
lied by the act of 1858, but we had gold and
paper r~edeemable in gold, and it was not long
before we had another practical illustration of
the natural law that the inferior OF less valu-
able legal tender currency will expel the su.
perior or more valuable legal tender currency
from circulation.
Paper Currency of War Period.
Early in 1852 congress, most unwisely, in my
opinion, authorized the issue of legal tender
paper to circulate as money, and the usual and
inevitable result followed. Gold ceased to be
used as money and the banks and the treasury
having suspended specie payments. the coun-
try was flooded with "a depreciated currency
worth at times less than 30 cents ON the dollar.
Later on fractional paper currency was au-
thorized by congress, and the effect OF this
was to drive out of circulation even the light
weight subsidiary coins, and for many years
not a single piece of metallic money Of any
kind was used by the people except on the Pa
ciic coast, where gold continued to circulate
at its actual intrinsic value without regard to
the fictitious value which the acts Of congress
attributed to the legal tender paper,
will endeavor to show you hereafter what
effect this deprecated currency had upon the
wages of labor and upon the prices Of com.
modities which the laborers were compelled 70
purchase with their wages, my purpose at the
present moment being simply TO prove, by our
own experience, that it is impossible to retain
in circulation at the same time legal tender
gold and silver coins of the same denomina-
ton at any ratio which does not correspond
with the actual commercial values of the two
metals in the markets of the world, and that
therefore, the free and unlimited coinage of
legal tender silver by the United States alone
at the ratio OF l6 to /, when the true CONNER
cial ratio is about 81 to /, would instantly con-
tract the currency by the expulsion Of all the
gold now in the country.
If the generalization of silver TO the amount
Of a little over l per cent in the coinage law of
1872 expelled gold and established silver mono
metallism, and If the generalization of gold to
the extent of less than / per cent in the acts of
1884 and 1881 expelled silver from circulation
and established gold recommendation is not the
conclusion Irresistible that the free and I'M
limited coinage OF legal tender silver at the
present time, at an generalization of nearly
100 per cent, would at once place the country
upon "a monometallic silver basis? This ques-
ton does not seem to me to be open TO serious
argument, and when 1t is proposed that the
United States shall, In defiance Of our own ex-
perience during a period of 80 years and in de-
fance of the experience of other nations dur
ing many centuries, authorize the free coinage
OF legal tender silver at such n ratio, 1t is the
duty of the people and especially the duty of the
laboring people to pause before ii is too late and
CT refully consider whether they will deter
mine to overthrow their existing monetary
system and substitute in its place the depre-
ciated silver recommendation of Asia and Mex
leo and the small states and republics Of Cen
trail and South America, with their low rates
of wages and their high rates Of exchange.
Under the coinage act of l192 we had silver,
but no gold, and under the acts Of 1884 and
1887, with free coinage of both metals. we had
gold, but no silver except the token subsidiary
coins after 1853. while now, with gold as the
standard and limited coinage of silver, we have
both gold and silver az full legal tender money
in larger amounts than ever before In our his
tory, and the coins of the two metals are kept
equal in purchasing power by the credit and
resources of the government, Notwithstanding
the difference in their intrinsic value.
Real Question Shall We Have Silver
Monometallism?
We have now about $3.50, 600. 900 In gold and
s4l3. 600, 00 in full legal tender silver, besides
SIS, 2l6, 677 in subsidiary silver coins, which
dIc ieSul JSiiutT III pay IlcutS HUt tACsculuk
$40, and the real question for the people to de-
eide Is whether they will continue to use the
coins of both metals or adopt a monetary sys-
TEN which always has and always will drive
one OF them out of the country. / am not here,
therefore, this evening to advocate the exclu-
sive use of gold coin as money, or to oppose a
conservative and safe use OF silver coin as
money along with gold and at q parity with
gold, but l am here to insist that we shall not
abandon the present legal standard of value,
expel all the gold from the country and adopt
silver monometallism, with free coinage OF "A
nominal dollar worth intrinsically only 81 or
81 cents. ! am here to insist that the minis of
the United States, which were constructed
and are maintained and operated at the ex-
pense ofAll the people, shall not be used for
the exclusive benefit Of the owners of silver
bullion under a law giving them the right to
have 81 or 81 cents worth of their silver coined
free of charge and stamped as n dollar and
compelling you and all others to receive it
from them as u dollar.
All the minis of the United States, operated
to their full capacity and doing no other work,
could not coin into standard silver dollars two
thirds of the annual production of silver in
our own country, bat, notwithstanding this, it
is seriously proposed to offer free coinage to
all the silver in the world at a legal valuation
almost double its commercial value in the
markets of the foreign countries where il is
produced. The annual production of silver in
the world Is about s@lo,JUJ,UO Ut cur coinage
rate, and the annual capacity OF our minis to
coin standard silver dollars is only about S4c,-
100000. Last year We coined sis, 953, 475 in gold
and So, 1859, 40 in silver, SO that if our nfints
were devoted exclusively to the free coinage
of standard silver dollars the addition To our
stock Of metallic money would lie about Sl5,-
COO.0O0 less every year than it is now, and it
would not be good money after it was coined.
More than Is years would elapse before we
could at this rate coin enough deprecated sill
yer dollars to supply the place of the good
gold dollars expelled from the country, and in
the meantime a complete revolution would
have to be effected in our commercial rela-
tions with other nations and in all our domes-
tic business affairs, including u reimbursement
OF the wages of labor, the price Of commodities,
the rates of municipal, state and federal taxa
tion, charges for transportation and every
other matter involving the use of money or
credit. We should descend by a single step
from the highest standard of value to silver
monometallism. with a contracted and at the
same time deprecated currency, a financial
experiment which has no precedent in the
monetary interest of the world.
Fortunately when changes have heretofore
been made in the circulation by the substitu-
ton of the coins of one metal for the coins Of
the other, the difference in their value has
been very small and the process Of substitu-
tion has been gradual and created no great
financial disturbance. Under the act of 1902