The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-08-27


will multiply by two the value Of the
metal in the coin.
The thought occurs at once: If the gov
ernment can do this with silver. why not
with copper; and If with copper why no;
| with iron and if with iron, why not with
paper? What is the sense of putting
nrty cents of good silver into a dollar
| II Bryan and his hoped for silver con-
gress can raise the lacking fifty cents
by act Of Congress, why not create the
Wnole dollar in the same way? Why
stop at halfway measures? If you can
create fifty per cent. of The worth of q
dollar by legislative enactment, you can
| same token.'
The truth is that this free silver move.
ment Just now is coalition for mu-
tual benefit between the silver mines and
the greenback in1ationists They have
| entered into partnership. The mine
owners put in their deprecated silver
and thus supply one-half of the capital
! for the enterprise; the greenbackers and
| infationists put in wind as their contribu-
ton of the other half of the capital.
Fifty per cent. capital the rest initiation
that should be the entry at the head
| of the ledger account of the firm, which
| ought to bear the title: sThe Free Silver
| Greenback Initiation Co.. unlimited"
Go through the list of prominent pro-
/ moJers of free silver coinage you will
find there the old promoters of the green
| back party. The sections that were most
infected with that heresy are now most
violent for silver 1t is believed that if
Bryan were elected, Richard P. Bland. OF
Missouri. would become Secretary of the
Treasury. When he was pressing the
passage of his free coinage bill in Con-
gress in 1878, Mr.. Bland declared his true
sentiments, when he said that IL the sill
yer men could not pass a free coinage
| act, he was lin favor of issuing paper
money enough to stuff down the bond
holders until they are sick.
Those who are tempted to try the ex-
pertinent of imitation should recall the ex-
perience of the Richmond lady. At first
when she went to market with Confeder-
ate currency she took her money in her
! pocketbook and brought home her pur-
chases in her market basket; later she
carried her money in her basket and
brought home her purchases in her pock-
etbook. When suit of clothes cost $500
in Confederate bills they were paying
| their soldiers twelve dollars a month in
the same money. From that we can learn
little Of the way cheap money helps
the wage-earner.
By means of their perpetual agitation,
| by threats and cajoIery, by tears and i'm
/ precautions, by playing upon the fears OF
/ both political parties, the silver men have
1 succeeded in inducing the government,
for account of the people of the United
| States, to buy for purposes of coinage
since 1878. AGO million ounces of silver at
/ for this enormous product of the silver
barons was gold dollar or the equiva-
| lent thereof. The whole purchase today
as metal is worth only S31S, 900, 900. By
| these operations, the government has
| lost $145, 600 600. The silver bought lacks
that much of being equal in value to the
same amount of gold dollars. The United
States is pledged to maintain the two
metals on a parity with each other at
| the ratio at which the silver was coined,
| that is 16 to l. 1t, therefore, will cost
1 the people $145000.000 to maintain this
equality on the transactions in which the
silver interests have heretofore involved
/ the government.
Those purchases of silver were stopped
| in 1898, none too soon. The strength of
| this nation had been already strained by
| limited free coinage almost to the break
ing point. It cannot assume another
| million ounces month. to say nothing
! all the silver mines in the world, without
breaking down in its effort to maintain
| all its money at equality.
| If the government receives from silver
miner silver worth fifty cents and coins
| it into piece Stamped One Dollar, and
/ thens returns it to the owner, what has
| been effected?
The answer depends upon the attitude
| the Government assumes to the coin. If
/ government promises to redeem that
| coin in gold, or to maintain it at a parity
| with gold dollar, then if the govern
| ment is strong enough to keep its prom
ise and the world has faith in its ability,
/ the silver dollars has become worth one
| hundred cents instead of fifty cents; the
mine owner has made profit of one
hundred per cent. on his silver. Who has
| paid this profit? Why. the people of the
| United States. Nobody else The gov
/ ernment has no funds except what il
4 gathers from the people in one form of
taxation or another. Its money in the
/ treasury is the peoples money They
| must make good the amount required TO
1 run the government. The government
| Therefore, every cent the mine owner
gains from free coinage, the people must
| contribute.
If, however. the silver dollar is not in
| tended TO be kept on parity of value
with the gold dollar then what is the
result? The mine owner has fifty cents
| worth of silver stamped "One Dollar
But he cannot use it as the equivalent of
extent. He can. if his silver dollar is
made legal tender, pay off a dollar of
| Indebtedness incurred on a gold basis;
that is, II he Is dishonest enough to take
| such an advantage. But he cannot buy a
dollars's worth of goods with it. The
| merchant will charge him prices based on
| gold currency. He cannot take his silver
| dollar and buy postal order on Ger
for an equal number of dollars in gold
| He can get only half as many dollars in
! gold as he has S liver dollars. They
won't take silver dollars in Europe.
/ They talk with fine phrase and swelling
] conceit of the ability of the United States
| TO maintain monetary system without
regard TO- the action or system of any
| other nations. Independence is fine
thing. 1t Is an inspiring word, calculated
/ like crowns of thorns and gold crosses
/ TO arouse emotions of tremendous ve-
| hemence in the bosoms of the ignora nj
! and hystercal. But when, since America
/ lay bowling wilderness undiscovered
| by White men, occupied only by the saw
| age Indian, whose coin was wampum
| and whose trade was chiefly in the scalps
| of his enemies-when, since then. has
America in any commercial or business
sense been Independent of the rest of the
! world? Independent in government. in
IN n oe,+t-
| happily we are. But there are fundamen-
| tai laws of trade and intercourse arising
| from no enactment OF any parliament Of
nations, but out of the very nature of
| things, which are as obligatory as
\ the laws Of the Almighty and cannot
| be ignored or broken without loss and
| punishment. What is that great com
4 merce that stirS the waters Of the seas
| with its ships, fetching the wares of the
| world to our ports and carrying out
| again the products of American farms
| and factories, except demonstration Of
our dependence upon the trade of the
1 world?
/ The capital OF Europe has been lent to
| build our roads, to develop our mines.
| TO establish our factories. Without That
capital. We would have been han,pered
| and retarded in our marvellous develop
| ment Are we independent of these bene-
acent debts? Suppose the lenders call in
! their loans
| II used to be thought 1t was q good
| thing to extend the trade and commerce
/ or our country, to reach out farther and
| farther, wider and wider, to court COM
mercial alliances. to make treaties for