Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-10-15

offer IL as a remedy for any Of the Ills of
the land, and having no other remedy 20
offer and seeing no prospect Of change
for the better under existing policies they
simply tell the patient that II he will only
lie still he will suffer less than If he at
tempts to bestir himself. They have no
remedy TO suggest, but they strenuously
object to permitting the people tO do any
thing toward helping themselves.
That bishop who told an anxious negro
that there were only two ways open for
him, ard that one led directly down to
hell while the other led away of TO eter-
nal damnation, was evidently the man
who furnished the text for both Of these
speeches The negro scratched his head
and replied. If dat's 80. massa, den dis
chile takes to de woods" And If Nessrs
Schurz and Cochran are correct then the
American people VIII have To take to the
woods
Not a Local Question.
In considering the question as TO wheth-
er the dcmonetization Of silver in the
world reduced prices they shrewdly leave
Europe out of consideration, shut their
eyes to the fact that the effects produced
there ore the same as those produced here,
local to our country and then argue that,
inasmuch as there had not been many sil-
yer dollars coined in our country, and those
that were coined went abroad because of
the fact TINT they commanded a premium
Of ? per cent, therefore the demonetiza-
tion of silver In the United States could
not have affected prices because there was
scarcely any silver here to drive out of cir
CulatiOn.
Silver In Europe Helped to Fix Prices.
Let us first look at this theory. The
greatest markets for most American prod
ucts We're In Europe. Whatever affected
prices Of commodities which wero shipped
there In the end affected the prices Of COM
mndities at home Let us SUPPOSE that there
was no silver In circulation in the Unit
ed States that, as Mr.. Schurz intimatcs, 1t
was all in circulation in Europe. Then 1t
was doing the work of money In Europe;
ii was doing work there which would
otherwise have had to he done by gold
1t practically displaced that much gold
over there and permitted the gold to flow
elsewhere. 1t increased the volume of
money in the world, and in that way af-
fcCtcd prices for the world, not simply in
any one country, but for the world. Tn
der those conditions, so far as prices were
concerned, 1t made little difference wheth-
er the owners of silver bullion brought it
to our mints to be coined or took 1t to Eu-
OpCRn mints to be coined. In either case
it helped to swell the volume of money in
the world, 1t helped to do the business of
the world and helped to fix the standard
of prices of property. Mr.. Schur2 knew
this fact, and l therefore submit that
when he at the outset tried to treat the
question as local one and to conceal from
view the fact that If silver was circulating
in Europe 1t was just as good as If 1t were
circulating here, SO far rs prices were con-
cerned, he was not making fair presenta-
tion of the question. do not care to use
severer language although am aware
that If man speaking for the silver side
was to pursue such n course he would be
vehemently denounced as pettifoggcr.
Coinage In This Country.
Now let us look at the facts in regard to |
the coinage of silver in this country 1t Is
true that Jefferson for u time suspended |
the coinage of silver dollars. The reason
was that half dollars were full legal ten
der for any amount, just as much as dol
lars were and inasmuch as the country
was new and poor, 1t was thought that
half dollars would be more convenient In
circulation than dollars, and, inasmuch as
they could be used in payment of debts the
same as dollars, 1t made no difference, but
the coinage was on the same basis rs that
Of gold and any man having silver bullion
could convert 1t into money just the same
MS though 1t were gold, and the treasury
tables given out at Washington show that
from 1906 down to 1873 there was $l54,-
3lS, OIL of silver coined in this country In
1871 there We're Liz, l27 silver dollars
subsidiary coins, but dollars
and In 1872 there were 1,l1S,6 GOO sill
yer dollars coined, being nearly twice the
number ever before coined in one year
Bear this in mind-the two years before
silver was stricken down there were near
ly twice as many silver dollars coined as
In any previous year. Mr.. Schurz knew
these facts and yet he presents his figures
in such "a way as to mako the impression
that no silver had been coined in this
and therefore we demonetized
nothing.
His next claim Is that we had more
money per capita in circulation in 1895
than we had prior to the decentralization,
and that, therefore, there was no reduction
in the volume of money, and that cOnse-
quently characterization had nothing to do
with the fall of prices. He says that in
1896 we had total of S2,217, 600, 900 in
making S22.06 per capita
while in 1873 we had only S1S.04 per cap
lta in circulation.
Tables Wrong.
Now, this Is based on the tables given
out by one branch of the treasury depart
is, the director of the mint
and sometimes copied In the reports of
other branches of the treasury but they
emanate originally from the office of the
director of the mint, and they are not on
ly wrong but are we'll known to be wrong
In his report for the year 1892 the director
Of the mint explains the origin of these To-
blcs. They ascertained what specie there
was in the country at the time Of rasnmp.
tion, and they have added to it year by
year the coinage and what the custom
house records show to have been imported,
and they have deducted only what the rec
Ords show to have been used in the arts
and what the records show to have been
and they assume that all the
balance is still in circulation. They make
no allowance for what was carried over
our southern boundary In u quarter of n cen
tury unSC0rded, nor for what was carried
over our northern boundary during that
time unrecorded, nor for what was carried
to China during that time unrecorded, nor
for what was lost during that time, nor
for what WAS used in tho arts for quar-
ter of century without record having |
been made of 1t, and they make no allow
ance for what was carried to Europe in
the pockets of American citizens travelling |
abroad and of which no record Is made, |
Yet in ono of his reports the director of the
mint says that it was estimated that the
American travellers in Europe during the
year of the Paris exposition spent 500, OG0,-
600 OF course the most of that we may |
presume was in the shape Of Letters of
credit, and therefore u record was made OF
/ h,,f pf.J ,n1n nf hat fhnU