The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-09-19
SPEECH
wM. P. 81. JOHN


dent Of bank in New York city. He
has been bimetallist for some years, and
was chairman of the convention of the
National Silver Party, held July 22-24.
At that convention he made a speech, and
we give it almost entire below
1t is among the first principles in finance
that the value of each dollar, expressed in
prices, depends upon the total number of
dollars in circulation The plane of prices
is high when the number of dollars IN cir
culation is great in proportion to the num-
Der of things to be exchanged by means of
dollars, and low when the dollars are pro-
portionately few. The plane of prices at
present and for some time past Is and has
been ruinously low. The increase of our
population at about two millions year,
scattered over our immense territory, calls
for increasing exchanges and thereby de-
mands an increasing number of dollars IN
circulation. The increase in the number
of dollars when dollars are confined to gold
is not sufficiently rapid to meet the growth
of our exchanges. The consequence is a
growing value of dollars, or a diminishing
value of everything else expressed in dollars;
which is. to say tendency toward con
stantly declining prices.
The fountain head of our prosperity has
run dry. Our farmers all over the coun-
try have endured the depression in prices,
until they get about IS or 80 an acre for
an expenditure of $40 per acre, and the
like. The credit is exhausted at their
country stores. The country store ceases
to order from the city merchant, the city
merchant reduces his demand upon the
manufacturer Manufactures are curtailed.
The consequence is that employees and all
elements of labor are being discharged.
and wages are lowered to those who con-
tinue in employment. The sutierings Of
the farmers. who constitute nearly one-halt
our population, is thus enforced upon the
city merchant. the manufacturer and all
forms of labor. These combined elements
constitute the overwhelming majority OF
voters. Their intelligent conclusion will
be felt when expressed at the polls.
The banker also is without prosperity
unless prosperity is general throughout the
United States. He must learn to distin-
guish between cheap money and money
commanding a low rate of interest The
dollar worth two bushels of wheat is a dear
dollar, and yet it commands interest IN
Wall Street at present of but two per cent.
per annum on call If the dollar can be
cheapened by increasing the number OF
dollars so that each dollar will buy less
wheat the increasing price of wheat will
increase the demand for dollars to invest
in its production. Then the borrower OF
dollars to invest in the production of wheat,
being reasonably sure of profit from that
employment of the money, can afford TO
pay interest for its use as part of its profit
In other words, interest is share of the
profit ON the employment of money. so
that abundant money, money readily OBJ
tainable. which is to say really cheap mon
ey. is the money which commands high
rate of interest, as share of the profit OF
the borrower in using ii.
As we appeal to the country, IN the
Justice of our cause, one or two points OF
common inquiry must be satisfied as fol-
lows
The experience of Mexico is held up for
our alarm. We answer, first that Mexico
is conspicuously prosperous at home Her
increase in manufactures, railway earnings
and the like in recent years is phenomenal
Second. Mexico is no criterion for the
United States, for the reason that she has
a foreign trade Indebtedness of about $40
900, 900 annually in excess of the value OF
her exports of cotton, sugar, coffee, hides
and the like, which must be paid for In
the surplus product of her mines. Her
silver therefore goes abroad as merchan-
disc and at valuation fixed by the out
side world The United States on the
other hand is a nation of seventy millions
of people, scattered over territory seven
teen times the area Of France. \ single
one of our railway systems, the Erie, ex-
ceeds the aggregate railway mileage of all
Mexico. We offer an employment for
money to an aggregate greater than the
world spare silver will furnish us. Hence,
our silver money, at home and abroad, will
be valued as the money of the United
States.
The opposion threatens us with flood
of Europe silver upon our reopened mnts
We answer, Europe has no silver but her
silver money. Her silver money values
silver at from three cents to seven cents on
the dollar higher than ours. Hence the
European merchant or banker must sacri-
flee from three to seven per cent. OF his
full legal-tender money in order to recon
it at our minis. Europe's silverware, ike
America silverware, carries in it the adj
ditional value of labor and the manutac-
turer' profit.
They threaten us with food of silver
from the far East. We answer that the
course of silver is invariably Eastward and
never toward the West. British India is
a perpetual sink of silver, absorbing it,
never to return, by from thirty to sixty
million dollars worth every year. And
India's absorption of silver will be enlarged
by the steadiness of price for silver fixed
by our reopened mints.
They threaten us with sudden retire
ment of 5000, 900, 900 gold with the ac
companying panic, causing contraction and
commercial disaster unparalleled. y We an
swer that our total stock of gold, other
than about $40, 900, 900 or sl5, 900, 900
circulating on the Pacific Coast, is already
in retirement. Practically all our gold is
in the United States Treasury or held by
banks. The gold in the Treasury will re-
main there, if the Secretary avails of his
option to redeem United States notes in
silver. The gold in the banks constitutes
the quiet and undisturbed portion of their
reserves against their liabilities. 1t will
continue to do money duty as such reserves
after free coinage for silver is enacted.
Hence premium on it will not contract
the currency. The utmost possible con-
traction of the currency viii be the few
millions circulating on the Pacific Coast,
and this will be retired but slowly
A similar threat of flight Of gold was