Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-05
FREE COINAGE AND IMPORTS.


Owing to the almost unprecedent crop
conditions we are now, exporting about
i $40 900 900 per month more than we are
| importing. The money for the wheat,
cotton and manufactured goods is be-
ginning to come into the channels Of
trade. Now, as it ever has been, this
large influx of money induces rise in
prices. 1t was the same when gold was
struck in California, the large ship
ments to Europe and the free coinage
in our own country increased the vol
ume of the worlds money, perhaps 20
per cent, and consequently times were
made better all over the world. This
same condition was produced when the
bonanza mines were sending out their
millions of silver which were converted
into money under the laws of free coin
age which were then in force all over
the civilized world excepting England.
The demand for gold and silver was
unlimited, and because of free coinage
all the worlds product of the precious
metals was converted into money ex-
cepting only what was consumed in the
arts.
Going back to the early days of the
gold discoveries in California and sub
sequently in Australia, out of which
probably $500 900, 900 were added to the
money of the world, we find that no
great change in the par of exchange
between silver and gold was experience
ed. Silver was little higher in the
markets, never extending per cent
Then the great silver mines were struck
and a steady stream Of coined silver
went into all the channels of business,
and yet after $500, 900 of silver had
been converted into money, no break
came in the par of exchange. A silver
dollar was the equal of gold dollar,
silver franc the equal of it's nominal
equivalent in gold, and the same was
true of the pound in England and the
mark in Germany.
To-day, because of the short crops in
Europe and the great demand for wheat,
we are receiving from Europe much
gold that goes into the channels of
trade, but this changing of the money
from Europe to America does not in
crease the volume of sound money in
the world. Free coinage would increase
that volume. Whatever of gold is pro-
duced in the world and coined into
money is Just so much of an addition
to the money volume. If silver were
coined free, just as gold is, then there
would be a doubled increase in the
volume of money and consequent
healthy increase in prices and business.
There is no hope, however, that the
administration will be able to secure an
international congress that will be IA
vorable to free coinage or even larger
use Of silver All the nations are WILL
ing to act but England. whose life and
soul are bound up in the gold standard,
of which England alone among the
nations reaps the advantage. And Eng
land will continue to reap this advan-
tage until the minis of America are
opened to the free coinage of silver
with gold once more as they were prior
to the secret crime of '73, in the COM
mission of which an emissary OF the
Bank of England played the leading
role America alone can lead the way
for the world to throw off the monetary
shackles of England. And when that
is done there will be witnessed the
dawning Of an era of prosperity such as
few men alive have ever seen.