Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-10-16
THE MONEY QUESTION.
Prof. scott Lectures Before the ". N.
e. A. Senate.

! ihSiO "oo piOtty Gooa o'hSN
audience at the opening meeting
of the Y. M. G. A. Senate last
night. Among those present were
Chief Justice Judd, Revs. S. e.
Bishop, ID. d., and j. M. Monroe,
DIR. A. b. Lyons, DIR. N. b. Emer-
son, Messrs. Tracy, Dumas, G. M.
White, j. S. Martin and a few
ladies'.
! Prof. M. M. Scott, principal of
/ the High School, delivered an adj
dress by way Of inaugurating the
debates of the Senate. His sub
( ject was Money" with incidental
reference to the silver controversy
in the United States, and he spoke
/ for fifty minutes. With great
lucidity and in easy but emphatic
conversational style the lecturer
reviewed the history of the bime-
tallist and monometallist differ.
ences dating back to 1916. While
he intimated that if were in the
United States today he should vote
against the unlimited coinage of
silver, yet the tone of his com.
ments upon the facts of the case
was that of deploring the loss to
the world from the debarring, by
the leading commercial nations,
of silver from its legitimate Office
as a medium of exchange except.
ing as subsidiary coinage. Among
other interesting facts brought
out were that of the premiums on
Mexican dollars when the double
standard prevailed, and of the
time when gold was below the es-
tablished ratio with silver, and
Holland in consequence adopted
silver as the standard.
Chief Justice Judd, on FIVE
minute speeches being called for
after the lecture, remarked that if
the lecturer had advocated I'M
limited silver coinage he should
have been willing to reply to him.
Depositors in savings banks and
beneiiciaries of life insurance
companies would suffer by free
coinage, which would only benefit
dishonest debtors who could then
liquidate their obligations in
dollars worth but fifty cents.
Mr.. Dumas asked if some of the
large creditors had not made
their contracts when gold was un.
duly inflated in value, and thus
by exacting payments now in
gold were imposing unjust bur-
dens upon the debtor class.
Walter E. Lee descanted warm
ly upon the evils the silver stand
ard had brought upon Peru, and
concluded that such examples
followed by the United States
would be disastrous and suicidal.
DIR. Lyons thought the time
would come when neither gold
nor silver would be the standard
of value. Both metals had an in
trinsic value that being liable to
fluctuations constantly tended to
disturbance of the equilibrium
that ought to be durable in the
medium of exchange. He sug-
gested that a neutral medium of |
exchange should be adopted, which
could be created by selecting
specific commodities and award.
ing them normal values, to the
extent, say, OF what 500 in gold
and $500 in silver would buy.
From this thousand dollars of
aggregate values declare unit for
the standard, and ignore entirely
the intrinsic value of mediums of |
exchange.
Prof. Scott in his opening re-
marks had said that a man having
some sugar in Hawaii could get |
for it bit of paper that would |
carry him to the ends of the earth. |
This he regarded as one of the
most marvellous things in the uni
versa! commercial developmentSf |
the nineteenth century. He now
said that it had been in his mind |
to take up the idea presented by
DIR Lyons but want of time pre- |
vented. His views correspondent |
with those of DR.. Lyons, and he |
thought the time would come |
when the present devotion to me
tallic standards would be ridiculed. |
President Towse, in declaring |
the meeting adjourned, intimated !
that the Senate would meet week.
ly in the Association parlors, and
invited young men generally to
attend and participate in its dis,