Evening journal., 1896-10-19

anu 0to9 bii' ~ufoiNAht 1iuC VI piOo-
perity.
BENEFIT FROM SILVER COINAGE.
Three-fourths of the people are
debtors. Most men mortgage the fu-
ture Wise credit stimulates industry
and promotes vital growth. Under the
present bimetallic system our people
have purchased factories, farms, homes
and reasonable mortgages and incum-
brances have been placed upon their
properties. Business enterprises have
been entered upon in like faith in the
futre and on stable financial policy.
Change the basis now, cut of one
source of coin supply, and all this
property shrinks in exact proportion.
II is claimed by monometallists that
spectators alone benefit by such coin
age
Mr. Bayard, In the speech heretofore
referred to, uses this language. So
say, considering the great fact that
each man in the community sustains
the relation of creditor as well as of
debtor, that if he can pay his debts in
this deprecated money he will be paid
himself in the same money nothing
can be made of it, that / can under
stand. excepting that a class of people
who having purchased property at ex-
aggerated prices finding it now shrink
| ing in value, may have an opportun-
ity of scaling their debts TO the injury
/ the Injustice of their creditors.
| Mr.. Gray iterates the same thought in
markedly similar language,i 1861 his
! speech in the Senate he says the per-
sons who will be benefited "are largely
| those who have embarked in specula-
| tive enterprises, those who have bought
land for which they could not pay
! Now that these men, or some of them,
should see a present advantage in seal
ing the debts they have incurred and
repaying only 80 per cent of the bOr-
| rowed capital with which they have
sought to boone capitalists them
selves, can readily imagine"
The monometallists have quite uni
| formly made similar charges Specu-
lators and every honest debtor share
alike in the abundance of money which
tends to keep all properly on far
average, and are all condemned in this
sweeping manner if they advocate such
financial measures as shall avail 10
equaize and make stable the price Of
lands and all other property.
The reasoning is unsound. Contin-
ued coinage Of silver so long as one
dollar is exchangeable for another, does
not furnish deprecated money, but
gives a sound currency, and by just
equivalence provides coin ratably
keeping pace with the increase OF
wealth. and a fair ratio between wealth
and its metallic measure. It is the
purpose of such coinage to keep this
uniform and equal ratio between them
Silver coinage benefits not the specu'
lator alone. but every laborer, every
mechanic who has bought a home fol
his family, every farmer who has pur
chased a homestead, and every bust
ness man who relying on just legisla
ton in the interest of labor and in
; dustry, as we'll as capital, has builde'
z | upon the future in prudent debt tha
he might procure on credit a home, {
farm. a business that should not b.
legislated out of his hands under pre-
tended promises of protecting his fl
, nancial honor.
Stop silver coinage; let gold con
D tinue to decrease; let houses, farms
o. business and products of labor con
a tinue to increase in normal ratio a
0 heretofore, then measure them by thi
1 diminishing gold supply only; the re
i suit is apparent.
}, No one will buy land which is thu
| constantly growing less in value, or en-
/ gage in business when his plant an
p stock uniformly shrink up from day t
= day, when, Notwithstanding his adde
toll and labor, the debt grows, whil
e. the means of payment diminish simpl
because the supply of money does no
4 keep even pace
S These debts have been contracted o
j the basis of gold and silver supply
D Take away silver coins, one-fourth @
; our coin circulation, and every debto
o would be compelled to pay 1875 cent
D for every dollar. he had borrowed
d Every mechanic who had bought
j house for 81 600 and mortgaged it fo
0 $3.50 would, by this course find a
q margin on his property swept away
a and the mortgage by law, made q
q large as the house So with every hon
+ est debtor whose lands or business wa
r, | encumbered in like manner. Would
largely add to his comfort to kno'
= that the lawmaker was consulting onl
the financial interest and credit Of th
t debtor in the course suggested?
q Even with the abundance Of coin. tn
r farmer gets to-day but so cents pc
o bushel for wheat, 40 cents for corn,
b cents per pound for cotton; the lahore
- from 80 cents to 81 per day for worl
g If he can get work at all
/, Demonetize silver, and how muc
e lower will these prices go? When wi
i- the bottom be reached?
It may be safely said that the classe
r. that will be benefited by the coinage
e silver are the toilers everywhere-th
n producers and the debtors. The latte
are estimated at three-fourths of th
II heads Of families in the United State
n In their prosperity spectators migl
| share. Capital also would find Il
"a truest advancement in such abundanS
/ of coin. On the other hand speculation
a and gamblers would find their choice!
! fields Of labor in the financial cOntrai
tion and ruin that would accompan
y the demonetization Of silver.
l. GOLD STANDARD PROPHECIES.
- In the exhaustive debates in the tw
% lower Houses of Congress when Il
\ Bland act was under discussion in lS'
" the opposers Of silver coinage proph
sled the evils that would follow sue
course. In the light of eight years e.