The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-08-26

lict in their guardianship, if even
under a flag of truce, they should
quietly await the coming attack that
has been announced along the line.
Too many States have sounded the
bugle call to lie supinely on our
backs and hug the delusive phantom
of hope The Hon. David Wells,
eminent in political economy, long
ago gave us the history and motives
of that little band of silver-mine own
ers who We're and still are the real
enemy of the camp.
Their old campaign fallacies, re
hashed, reprinted, in new dress and
fascinating form, will again be
brought to the front, to every fireside
and upon every rostrum. Patriotism
will again be brought into the van
guard of the attack. In the face of
the fact that every enlightened
nation on the globe has been on a
gold basis for twenty years, these
spectators would ask our govern
ment to do alone what no other gov
eminent has ever done-tix the UalUe
of gold and silver. That is the work
of merchants, and our government
can just as readily upset the law of
gravitatiOn, or, as some silverite has
declared Mr.. Bryan will do repeal the
law of supply and demand History
teaches us that England for 40 years
has tried to fix the standard of silver
and failed. France changed her ratio
118 times in twelve years. We tried
it and went first to silver basis,
then to gold, then to paper and
back to a gold basis" says Judge
Aldrege, but what nicholas Oresme
announced to Charles V, Copernicus
to Prussia and Gresham to Queen
Elizabeth, stands to-day unchallen-
ged, viz: when two metals are
coined at fixed ratio and both made
legal tender, if either is undervalued
in coinage the undervalued goes out
of circulation" Througout Mr..
| Bryan's late campaign never once did
he by word or act lead any one to
believe that he had ever heard of the
above law of monetary science, and
further, not one of his campaign ora
tors could then give an intelligent
answer to the question - What is
bimetallism? international bimetal-
lism does not imply a double standard.
1t provides a single standard, with
two metals used as a money basis, the
one being simply measured in terms
of the other Under such an agree
ment gold remains the standard and
! silver is given a fixed value in terms
of gold" This true definition is the
work of a careful student of finance,
and may be found in an able little
handbook entitled 1.-The Money
Problem written by Mr.. Theodore
Marburg, of Baltimore, now a condi-
date for the Republican nomination
for mayor of Baltimore city.
1t is this bimetalIism our present
administration is asking the powers
! to adopt, and it is far from that local
bimetallism at a ratio Of sixteen to
one, urged by Mr. Bryan, which
means silver mOnometallism and re-
pudiation.
The former has for its basis the
historic fact that the Latin Union, at
a fixed ratio of silver to gold did
maintain parity, and that fact is an
unanswerable argument in favor of
the practicability of an international
agreement with respect to metals.
Germany, in her demand for five
thousand million francs, payable by
France in gold, struck the first blow
at the international union of the
Latin States, for in 1871 France had
to abandon her silver coinage. and in
1873 adopt the gold basis. 1.-The crime
of 1879 was in Americas repeating
her silver coinage laws to avoid this
rush of silver to our markets, and
this ended international bimetallism.
Silver thus put down as a cOmmOd-
ity and then enormously increased
by improved methods of production,
of course fell in price. At present the
products of the two metals are about
equal-200 millions.
These facts prove beyond question
that the late depression in business
was really beyond our control, and as
nation we really had nothing to do
with it-but, had we followed the
leader who sought to repudiate our
present system of monetary standard,
we might have postponed the return
Of correcting influences.
In fact, the agitation of this silver
question has had its effect in prevent
ing the return of prosperity, but
neither gold nor silver was the cause
of our depression.
THAT cause was the fall of interna-
tional bimetallisIn in 1873, brought
about by the action of Germany, and
the inability of France to continue
the free coinage of silver.
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