The Yale expositor., 1896-10-02
HON. CARL SCHURZ.
SHOWS CLEARLY THAT FREE
SILVER WOULD MEAN RUIN.
Threat to Put tho United States on the
Silver Basis Would Cause Business
stagnation-Evn Effects of Free Coin
age Agitation.

Hon. Carl Schurz, ex-secretary OF
the interior, addressed an immense
audience in Central Music Hall, Chi
cago, on Sept. 5. Speaking OF pos
sible free silver victory he said:
Consider what the Immediate con-
sequences would be IL Mr.. Bryan were
elected president, with a congress to
match. Mr.. Bryan, of course, would
be anxious to have his free coinage
law enacted, but that could not be, even
IL he called an extra session of con-
gress, until some time in April or
May, five or six months after the day or
election. But as soon as on the 4th or
November the result of the election was
announced everybody would know that
the parity of gold and silver would not
be maintained.
at having been made certain by
Mr.. Bryan's election that the parity OF
gold and silver would not be main
tanned, there would be a rush upon the
treasury for the gold in 1t by persons
holding greenbacks entitled to re-
demption, and the gold reserve would
be exhausted in a twinkling. Gold Will
instantly disappear from circulation, to
be boarded or exported. Why will 1t
disappear? Because every sensible
person when making a payment will
prefer to make II in the less valuable
dollar and hold the more valuable gold
dollar back for more profitable use.
Gold will therefore quickly rise to
premium, and we shall be on the silver
basis long before a free coinage law
can be enacted. Our daily transactions
in buying and selling. in paying and
receiving wages, will no longer be
carried on upon the basis of the gold
dollar worth 100 cents, but OF the sill
yer dollar worth so cents or there
about, for the government will no
longer hold up the silver dollar to the
value of the gold dollar. That is what
the silver basis means. You can
study in Mexico how 1t works.
THE quantity of gold vanishing from
circulation will amount to about $780,
100000, the disappearance of which
will make a tremendous hole in the
volume of our currency. But, says the
silver man, there will be free silver
coinage to fill the gap promptly with
coined silver or silver certificates. Oh,
no, my fellow sufferers. The disap-
pearance of gold will happen prompt
ly after the election of Mr. Bryan, and
there will not possibly be any free
coinage of silver for at least six
months, and 1t will require a great
many more months to fill a gap of
5000, o00.0 900.
What will happen meanwhile? The
Bryan to have said some time ago: 4
think it-meaning the victory of the
free coinage movement-will cause
panic. But the country is in a de-
plorable condition, and 1t will take
extreme measures to restore ii TO a con-
dition of prosperity. Whereupon the
st. Louis paper pointedly remarks,
Evidently Mr.. Bryan has heard of the
doctor who always threw his patient
into fits before administering any cura-
tive medicine Just so.
How, then, would Mr. Bryan's fit
work? The sudden disappearance of
our gold from circulation would pro-
duce the most stringent contraction
Of the currency on record. Business
men who owe money and at the same
time have money due them will be
forced to collect that money by every
means az their disposal. Nobody will
be inclined to lend out any money
except upon extraordinary security
The banks will naturally consider il
their duty to keep themselves strong,
and therefore TO call in loans and to
restrict their discounts and advances
to business men with the utmost eau
ton. Business establishments, manu-
| factories, mercantile houses, unable to
get the money for meeting their obliga-
tons, will by the hundreds succumb
to their embarrassments and tumble
down like row of bricks. Others will
cautiously restrict their operations to
the narrowest possible limit, and wage
earners by the thousands will lose their
employment and be turned into the
street.
How can l foretell these things
with so much assurance? Because
they have already cast their shadows
before. Do you remember the crisis
of 1898, when the silver basis was in
sight? And now again the mere ap-
prehension of possibility of Mr..
Bryan's election and of the con-
sequent slipping of our country up
on the silver basis has already
caused untold millions of our Sc
curities to be thrown upon the mar
ket in Europe as well as here. Scores
of business orders are already recalled
large number of manufacturing es-
Adjustments have already stopped or
restricted their operations, enterprise
is already discouraged and nearly
paralyzed, many works of public util-
ity by industrial or railroad companies
have already been ordered off, thou
sands of workingmen are already
thrown out of employment. gold is al
ready being boarded, capital is al
ready being sent out of the country to
be invested in Europe for safety.
And why all this Not, as the sill
yer men foolishly pretend, because the
existing gold standard has made money