The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-07-11
commercial failures and decreasee Of


May of this year was 81, ,095, 55S, 92O,
and of paper 81 13l ,463, COG.
Striking features of the detailed Treas
ury statement are 1 } that we have more
paper than metallic money, and that it
will take more than all our metal money,
in the Treasury and in circulation, to re-
deem the paper CD that our gold is but
little more than fourth of all our circula-
ton; (3) that we have in circulation
nearly twice as much paper as specie, and
| (4) that more Of our circulation is silver,
or based on silver, than of gold.
The gold certificates, S43, Sl7, 469, are
redeemable in gold only: the silver certif-
Gates, $3.50, 412, 504, are redeemable in
silver only; the currency certificates, S33,
295, 900, in greenbacks only; the Sher-
man notes, s33, 069, $50, are redeemable
in silver or gold, at the discretion Of the
Secretary of the Treasury; the greenbacks,
S346, 69l ,016, are redeemable in ''dol-
lars, = which include gold dollars or silver
dollars, as the Supreme Court has held,
and the national bank notes are redeemable
in lawful money" which means gold,
silver or paper money Shall this mass of
paper be paid in gold, or according to the
contract? In any dealing with it | con-
tend that two considerations must be re
spected
First, the credit of the government.
Second, the common welfare of the
people.
To sustain the credit of the government
we must, therefore, pay the gold certif-
Gates in gold, as matter of course, and
as none dispute, but the greenbacks, the
silver certificates, the Sherman notes and
the currency certificates amount to $685.
457, 800.
Two methods of dealing with them are
proposed
The one is to pay them according to
their tenor, in silver in the case of silver
certificates, in currency in the case of cur
rency certificates, and in gold or silver, at
our pleasure, in the case of the Sherman
notes and the greenbacks
The other is to redeem them at the
pleasure of the holder in gold.
This latter plan is the one adopted by
President Cleveland and the gold-bug Re
publicans If we pursue it we must issue
gold bonds and purchase 1868, 457, 600
Of gold-minus what is in the Treasury
and retire this outstanding currency. If
we retire it there will be vast contrac-
ton, and there never has been contrac-
tion of the currency without fall in the
values of property and the consequent en-
barrassment resulting therefrom.
The only alternative is to maintain the
parity of silver by the only method that
the parity of the two metals has ever been
continuously and successfully maintained.
That is, by giving to silver equal coinage
rights with gold and equal legal tender right
with gold.
From 1901 to 1873 silver and gold were
maintained at parity, with trivial varia
tions, by being given equal coinage rights
at the legal ratio, and never, during all
that period of ~ years, was the value of
silver below that of 16 to |.
The value of gold is sustained by the
fact that it has ree-coinage right and
legal-tender function by law of great ma
tions, and further by the fact that under
act of Parliament the Bank of England is
required to purchase all the gold offered at
93 lis Sd per ounce of standard gold
With fixed price put upon it by law, and
unlimited market for every ounce that is
brought for mintage or sale, it is impossible
that gold can fall below the price that is
paid by law. Hit the gold dollar with a
hammer and the law puts the dollar back
into the bullion at public expense. Hit
the silver dollar with hammer and the
life is knocked out of it, for the law will
not put the dollar back in it. The law in
sures gold value. 1t refuses to insure
silver value. 1t should act, as the Demo-
cratic platform said in 1892, ''without
discrimination against either metal.
Our area is as great as that of Great
Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark,
Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portq-
gal, Greece, Italy, European Turkey, Pal
estine, Japan and China proper. We have
more effective power than Great Britain,
France and Germany combined. We are
more independent of the nations of the
earth than any people that ever existed,
and the European nations are largely de-
pendent upon us for their breakstuffs and
raw materials. We are great debtor ma
tion, with twenty billions of public and
private debt. We are the greatest silver
producing nation in the world, and the
second in gold production. We have the
power and resources to take the lead Of the
world, and should do it by utilizing these
resources, instead of entering upon the
other alternative of borrowing more money
from Europe and prostrating our own in
dustries.
1t is estimated that if the prices of 1872
now prevailed our balance of trade with
foreign nations would be over 5000, 900,
600, instead of about 10 per cent. thereof,
and while | do not contend that the free
coinage of silver will restore those prices.
it would certainly have a tendency to
greatly increase them.
The agricultural products of this coun-
try netted a billion and half less in 1895
than they did in 1S72-then the farmer
realized $l2 per acre, now but Sc per
acre-and the accursed sinking Of prices
still goes on, it being estimated that they
have fallen 16 per cent. in the last four
years.
We have now s4 less per capita of cir
culation than we had when the Sherman
law was repealed, aud just as the currency
is contracted prices have fallen. It is an
axiom, indeed, of political economy that the
whole volume of money is the standard of
value of the whole mass of property. 1t
results that small diminution of the cur
rency is an enormous diEsinution in the
value Of property
The talk about silver dollars being so
cent cheap dollars is absurd, and it is
shown to be absurd by the fact that those
who call them such contend that the free
coinage Of silver would drive away all our
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