Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-10-29
SHOULD BRYAN WIN
WIT THEN WILL INEVITABLY
HAPPEN?
A TRAIN OF ILLS TO FOLLOW
Ali Glasses Affected but Least Of all
the Rich-The Mortaged Farmer
and the Awful Peril He Is in
Those Who Owe in a Position to be
Most Hurt
To the Editor

To the Editor
At Paterson CT September 28th. Mr..
Bryan said: Il ay to you now that
my election meals that this nation
shall open its minis to the free coin
age of both metals at the earliest pos
) lie moment. Not only that, but my
ion means tat TINS nation shall
treat the silver dollar just as it treats
the gold dollar, AIN that we shall not
issue bonds to buy gold" If the
treasury gold reserve is not to be re
plenished by bond sales we all know it
can't last long. Foreigners would I'M
mediately call for their loans and bal
ances here, and holders of the $685.
100000 Of sustaining greenbacks and
treasury notes (accOrding to the U. S.
treasury statement of October list,
1860 would quickly withdraw the
S123 100000 of gold now in the treas
ury, to either export or hoard it, and
leave the holders of the remaining
5000, 100000 to take their pay in silver.
That this gold will almost Immediate
ly be exported Mr.. Bryan admits. On
September 10Th at Tammany hall ne
laid, You know that with gold as our
only primary money and the fact that
lie little quantity of gOIu can be
trained away at a moments notice by
foreign creditors, it leaves u.s." etc.
AS all our national bank notes are re-
deemaDIe in greenbacks. they too
would fall with them to a silver basis
In short MI -,ryan's election would,
as soon as the present gold in the
treasury is exhausted, put our cur
rency on a silver basis. and all debts
except where otherwise expressly stip-
ulated, would be paid in Silver. 1t will
be observed that this would all hap
pen, even if no tree silver coinage act
should be passed.
AS interest on government bonds
would hence forward be paI~ in silver,
and also all dividends on stocks, for
eign capitalists would dispose largely
OF their hOIuingS in these, and thus
necessltate further large remittances
OF gold. Their correspondents here
and borrowers of money, being called
on to pay up, would be compelled to
call in their loans, and draw their bal
ances out of bank.
All creditors in his country who
prefer gold to silver dollars (Which
includes the bulk of them) would de-
mand all debts due them paid, and
getting greenbacks or treasury notes
for their bank balances, would pre-
sent mem at --e treasury for gold be-
fore it was too late. If impossible to
get gold they would buy sterling ex-
change or exchange on Canada The
New YC'k Herald reports that prior
to October 1 over $6,000,000 in gold
had alrciuy been deposited in Canadi-
an BAN to avoid the risk of the COM
ing eleC lion. In short, every man who
had a dollar coming to him would
want that dollar paid him while it was
still worth 1UU cents anu before it got
to be worth but 3d.
The business houses and other
debtors called on to pay up, would be
compelled to call on their debtors
and thus all the debtors in the coun-
try woulu be called on to pay up i'm
mediately. The demands on the banks
would compel them to call in their
loans, and if not paid, to sell or try
to sell the collaterals. Debtors would
be compelled to sell their property at
any price and where all debtors were
sellers at once, the declines would be
such as we have never seen before, be-
cause there has never before been
such a wholesale calling in of debts,
and consequently selling as this would
cause.
Business houses the country over
! being unable to collect balances due
them, or to realize on their stock, ex-
cept at runiously low prices, if at all,
must fail. Nothing could save them.
Small depOsitOrs, nervous and fol-
lowing the larger ones, would draw
their balances and runs on banks
would become general. With these
runs upon all the banks, they must
either break or suspend. In the cities
the stronger ones could combine and
suspend, but the weaker ones, left out
of the combination, and all country
banks, would fail. The panic and ruin
would far exceed that of 1873 or of
1898, the latter Of which, called the
silver panic" was caused by the APP
| prehensiOn only of going on a silver
basis. This panic would be caused in
part by actually going on that basis.
Mr.. Bryan admits this. In the Chi
cagO convention he said: when
you come before us and tell us that we
shall disturb your business interests,
we reply that you have disturbed our
business interests" And the St.
Louis GlObe-Democrat report )
saying Il think it (meaning the victo-
ry of the free coinage movement) will
cause panic. But the country is in a
deplOrable condition, and it will take
extreme measures to restore it to a
condition of prosperity"
In the general scramble by foreign
and home creditors for gold, as there
is not enough to go round, it would
necessarily go to a premium, with the
inevitable result that the S517 900 600
of gold now in circulation in the
United States according to Inc U. S.
treasury circular of October LIST, 1885,
would be exported or boarded
AS the total circulation of gold, sill
yer, greenbacks, treasury notes, bank
bills, silver certificates and all other
kinds of money in the United States
was on October 1, 1896, 1882, 600, 900,
forcing S517, 900, 900 of gold out of cir
culatiOn would reduce the money in
circulation about One-third That is
10 say, where there are now So of mon
ey lncirculatiOn then there would be
but 81. Such radical and sudden
contraction of the currency would of
itself alone, and entirely apart from
any panic on account of the deprecia-
ton of the currency, cause a stringen-
cy and panic such as we have never
known. But coming on top of the
other panic, the ruin it would spread
would be difficult to describe. Thus
railroad stocks with gold mortgages
ahead Of them (as gold must be
bought to pay interest thus increasing