Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-08-20
Mr.. BRYAN DEFINES IS TO 1.


Now York Times.
The naked doctrine of Reputation has
been ayowed aud accepted by Mr.. Bryan.
In his second speech at Pittsburg on
Monday evening he said.
sixteen TO one means this, that If you
owe debt you can 20 out into the market
and buy silver aud have It coined and use
that silver to pay your debts"
Let us by practical illustration get at
Mr.. Bryan's exact meaning. A man bor-
rows to-day $1,000 and gives his note
payable in two years. At the same time,
being confident of MIR. Bryan's election
and the enactment of free-coipage law,
he gees into the market and purchases
an amount of fine silver, which, when
coined into dollars. will suffice TO pay his
debt. In one standard silver dollar there
are 81. % grains of pure silver. To make
one thousand dollars there would be re-
Quircd $50 grains, or 1884 ounces. At
the quotation for silver yesterday. 6SM
cents per ounce, this amount of fine sill
yer would cost S.j31.59. On the arrival
of the due day, two years hence, Mr..
Bryan in the meanwhile having been
elected and the new Congress having en-
acted and he having signed a law pro-
vding for the free coinage of silver. the
debtor takes his 1884 ounces of silver
to the mint and receives in exchange one
thousand silver dollars. These dollars
being an unlimited legal tender, his credi-
tor is forced to take them. Leaving out
of the account of small loss of interest
on the silver purchase. the debtor has by
this operation made SI6S.41. He has paid
in full his obligation of 1000 by tender
ing commodity which has cost him but
S531.59.
The arithmetic of the transaction would
not be materially modified, and its moral
aspects would remain quite unaltered,
If instead of purchasing the silver now.
the debtor should wait until the note fell
| due. The price under free coinage of fine
silver bullion in silver dollars would he APP
| proximately. the mint rate of $1.29 an
ounce. 1t is unlikely that the price in gold
would be any higher than il Is to-day,
while owing to over-production and
| other causes it might he lower. In spite
of Mr.. Bryan and his free-silver Con-
| gress, gold would still continue to be the
standard measure of value. This would
be shown by the increase in the price of
commodities paid for in silver. Gold
| would increase first and most, furnishing
an exact measure of the depreciation OF
the silver currency. Next, those commo.
dities whose price is fixed in the interna-
tional markets would rise, and they would
be likely to rise to Il figure nearly eaniya.
lent to the discount on silver dollars. II
the debtor should then buy his silver bnl.
lion with commodities mt the enhanced
price, its cost to him would be only the
| gold price, which might he little higher
or little lower than the present quota.
ton. But IL the creditor should expend
his 81 900 In the purchase of -four, beef
pork, building materials. clothing, or ma
chinery, he would find that his thousand
silver dollars would purchase not much
more than could he bought mt present
prices for S531.59. The fraud of the
transaction would then have become effect
ual and apparent. A creditor loans to
day LOCO with which he might have
bought $50 barrels of -four at "a barrel
Two years hence he gets back one thous
and silver dollars. with which he can bu,
but l25 barrels of -four at the free-coinag,
price of IS a barrel.
Mr.. Bryan is squarely and unequiyo
cally committed to the financial doctrin,
of 16 to 1, which, according to his owl
explanation. must work in the way W,
have described. 1t is Reputation ant
robbery unrelieved by any respectable
pietense that il is anything else, for MI
Bryan's talk about the necessity of hay
ing the two metals available for debt
paying purposes so that il one of TIL
metals be cornered the other can be used
is too silly even for the audiences he ad
dresses.