Birmingham state herald., 1897-07-07
Ex-Gov. BoIEs, POSITION.


 gold standard advocatss published at Chicago. gives the following as Governor Boies' new theory on the money ques- tion:
 "Ex-Governor Boies, of Iowa, who, 1t will be remembered. was a strong candi- date fer the Chicago nomination last year against Bryan, has a pet theory of his own corcerning coinage. His Idea is that there shall be free coinage of both metals by the government, but that in- stead of issuing silver money to any large extent silver certificates shall be issued, backed up by the bullion in the treasury. Gold certificates shall also be issued on the same basis. and each such kind of certificate shall be redeemable by the government on presentation at the par value of the bullion represented by such certificate on the day of it's redemption
 The Phi&delphfa American, discuss ing Governor Boies' position. offers this timely andaable editorial. The editorial is prefacedsby saying that Ex-Governor Boies never espoused the cause of free silver, and therefore could not abandon it. He simply suberdinated his views to the views of the maj6fity of his party:
 "The evident suggestion of the eX- governor Is to compromise the monetary question by dropping the demand Tor the free coinage of silver at the ratio of l6 to 1, or anA other ratio. Ird ed, that thls is ex-Governor Boies suggestion, thus far, is undeubted His plan is apparent ly to substitute for the free coinage or silver and gold, for it appears that ne would close our hints to the free coinage of gold, the issue of se-called "bdmetallic certificates" redeemable, al the disere- tion of the government, in either gold or silver bullion. at the market value. In other words, the hints would be closed u. oFa1 l. yer, but the government would receive deposits of gold and silver without limit, and issue, therefore, "bmetallic certiti- cates," redeenna ble. in either gold or sil- VET. at the market value. And right here we have the first objection. How are we to arrive at this market value? Are We to quote the price of silver in gold that is, are we going to be guided by the quo- tationS for silver in London, or are we going to quote gold and silver and be guided by the quota tions for gold and silver using countries, say, in Mexico? It makes a vast difference which. If we pursued the first method, we would place our so-called ''bimstallic certificates' on a gold basis. If we pursued the latter we would place them on silver In short, WE would have gold moaometallism or silver monome ta laism; we could not get bimetallsm."
 We may safely assume that when ex- Gov. Boies speaks of redemptions in gold or silver bullion at a market value he has in view the quotations now made in our markets and 1she markets in London for gold and silver. And these quotations are all made on basis of gold. That is, gold is taken as the measure, and al though it is not an invariable measure, II is regarded as such. Consequently, gold appears stable, and silver. alona, fluctu- ates. And under seX-Gov. Boies' proposed makeshift, if we continued to measure silver in gold, there would be no change in his status. The value of gold would remain apparently unchanged, the mar ket value of silver would fiuctuate from day to day. So when we came to redeem ing our '4bimetalEc certificates" the gov erpment would have to pay out gold bull lion e. the invariable rate of 29,2 grains for dollar-or so long as gold was made the measure, a .his. the present rate, it would have an apparently invariable value-or silver bullion of the market value of 23.2 grains of gold for each dol lar of 'bimetalic certiicates' presented. So the proposed bimetallic certificates would be, in reality, gold cerifeates, for they would be virtually red enable in gold, whether actually so redeemed or not.
 What is more, we could not preserve a stable ratio between the TWO metals un- der any such system. There is but one way to keep gold srd silver at an agreed parity. and thet is by treating each metal at such ratio as the equal of the other in all money payments. When we do so the demand for money will ever fall with greatest force upon that money, whether it be gold or silver. which is in fullest supply and most readily obtainable Con- seqlently. any tendency of one metal to fall below parity will be checked by am increasing demand falling upon it, while any tendency of he other to rise above parity will b checked bv the falling away of the demand. Thus by an automatic transference of the money demand from one metal to another. as occasion re- quires a parity can be kept bel. ween gold and silver without friction. But wh= we me,a sure silver in gold, and when sil- yer falls insist upon using ii as money at the.diruinshed valua, as MT. Boies sug- gests. there would be no hope of pre- serving parity, for no incrs ased demand for silver would follow fall in its price, and mo force would be set in motion 10 check the fall and restore fihe price level.
 It is proper to say that MT. Boise is fully alive to the evils of gold monomst- allisn, and that if the choice in the fu- ture lies between the gold standard and the free coinage of silver at the ratio of Is to 1. as the issua was made in the last campaien. he, says. he will take, as he took last year. the silver sise.