Middletown transcript., 1897-03-13

tiOu does not seem to me to be epen 60 serious
argument, and when 1t is proposed that the
United States shall, in defiance Of our own ex-
perience during period Of 80 years and in de-
dance Of the experience Of other nations dur
ing many centuries, authorize She free coinage
Of legal tender silver at such ratio, 1t is the
duty Of the people and especially the duty Of the
laboring people to pause before it is too late and
carefully consider whether they will deter
mine to overthrow their existing monetary
system and substitute in its place the depre-
ciated silver monometallism Of Asia and Mex
leo and the small states and republics Of Gem
tral and South America, with their low rates
Of wages and their high rates of exchange.
Under the coinage act Of 1903 we had silver,
but no gold, and under the acts Of 1884 and
1887, with free coinage Of both metals, We had
gold, but no silver except the token subsidiary
coins after 1853, while now, with gold as the
standard and limited coinage of silver, we have
both gold and silver as full legal tender money
in larger amounts than ever before In our his
tory and the coins Of the two metals are kept
equal in purchasing power by the credit and
resources Of the government, notwithstanding
the difference in their intrinsic value.
Real Question Shall We Have Silver
MonometaIiism7
We have now about $620 OO0,0 900 In gold and
S4lS 200 In full legal tender silver, besides
SIS, 6,6T In subsidiary silver coins, which
are legal tender In payments net exceeding
$40, and the real question for the people to de-
eide is whether they viii continue to use the
coins Of both metals or adopt monetary sys-
tenn which always has and always viii drive
one Of them out Of the country. am not here,
therefore, this evening to advocate the exclu-
sive use Of gold coin as money, or to oppose
conservative and safe use Of silver coin as
money along with gold and at parity with
gold, but am here to insist that we shall not
= -. Takc.- -5r,. 49,
expel all the gold from the country and adopt
silver monometallism, with free coinage Of
nominal dollar worth intrinsically only 81 or
50 cents. / am here to insist that the mints Of
the United States, which were constructed
and are maintained and operated at the ex-
pense Of all the people, shall not be used for
the exclusive benefit of the owners of silver
bullion under law giving them the right to
have 81 or 50 cents worth Of their silver coined
free Of charge and stamped as dollar and
compelling you and all others to receive it
from them as dollar.
All the mints of the United States, operated
to their full capacity and doing no other work,
could not coin into standard silver dollars two
thirds Of the annual production of silver in
our own country, but notwithstanding this, it
Is seriously proposed to offer free coinage to
all the silver in the world at legal valuation
almost double its commercial value in the
markets of the foreign countries where it is
produced. The annual production of silver in
the world is about S216, 100000 at our coinage
rate, and the annual capacity OF our mints to
coin standard silver dollars is only about $4c,-
OOOO OOO Last year we coined $43, 9S3, 475 in gold
and S9,O69, $50 in silver, SO that if our mi1ts
were devoted exclusively to the free coinage
Of standard silver dollars the addition to our
stock Of metallic money would be about $l5,-
900, 900 less every year than it is now. and it
would not be good money after it was coined.
More than 15 years would elapse before we
could at this rate coin enough deprecated sill
yer dollars to supply the place Of the good
gold dollars expelled from the country, and in
the meantime complete revolution would
have to be effected in our commercial rela-
tions with other nations and in all our domes-
tic business affairs, including readjustment
of the wages of labor, the price Of commodities,
the rates of municipal, state and federal taxa
ton, charges for transportation and every
other matter involving the use of money or
credit We should descend by a single step
from the highest standard Of value to silver
monometallism, with contracted and at the
same time deprecated currency, a financial
experiment which has no precedent in the
monetary interest of the world.
Fortunately when changes have heretofore
been made in the circulation by the substitu-
tion of the coins Of one metal for the coins OF
the other, the difference in their value has
been very small and the process OF ssubstitu-
ton has been gradual and created no great
financial disturbance. Under the act of I792
the difference in value between the coins and
the legal ratio was only little over per
cent, and yet, within less than one year after
the enactment of that statute, congress was
compelled to re-enforce our stock OF money by
making certain foreign coins legal tender in
the payment Of debts, and on the same day OF
the passage Of the act Of 1884, which put the
country on a gold basis by undertaking. sill
yer about per cent, congress passed another
statute making the gold coins of Great Britain,
Portugal, Brazil, France, Mexico and Colon
bia legal tender by weight in the payment OF
debts thus providing as far as possible against
a contraction of the currency on account Of
the expulsion of silver from the circulation.
During the war, when gold was leaving the
country, legal tender treasury notes were
rapidly issued, under authority of congress, to
take its place, and instead of a contraction of
the currency we had an expansion. After the
war, when it was determined to change the
character Of our currency again by the re-
sumption Of specie payments the law was en-
acted four years in advance Of the time when
1t was to take effect in order that ample op-
portunity might be afforded to adjust the bust
ness of the people to the altered conditions.
Now, however, all the, conservative and pru-
Dental considerations that have usually con-
trolled In the settlement of great financial
questions seem to be utterly disregarded, and
we are confronted by an organized and ag
gressive movement to destroy by single blow
the measures of value upon which all existing
contracts are based and thus subvert the very
foundations of our monetary system, without
allowing single day to prepare for the change
In the general confusion and disorder re-
sulting from such a radical measure what viii
be the condition of the American laboreIP Will
he be benefited or injured by reducing the
~, xnyl.s s1b aF
paid and at the same time increasing the prices
Of the commodities for which his wages are
expended
Effect on the waGewOrkers.
After struggling for more than quarter OF
q century, through labor organizations and
otherwise, to secure a rate OF wages which
would make the proceeds of days work
equal to the cost Of days subsistence for the
workingman and his family, you are asked by
the advocates of free coinage to join them in
destroying one-half of the purchasing power
Of the money in which you are paid and inn
pose upon yourselves the task of doubling the
nominal amount of your wages hereafter-that
Is, to struggle for another quarter of CEN
tury, or perhaps longer, to raise your wages
In deprecated currency to a point which
will enable you to purchase with them as
much Of the necessaries Of life as you can
purchase now-and If, after years of conten-
tion, privation and industrial disorder, you
should at last succeed in SO adjusting wages
that they would procure at the higher prices
6e commodities Just what they win procure
now az the existing prices, what would you
have gained by the change from the old to the
new conditionsf
FalIasy Of so Cent Dollars,
Money received foe wages, like money re-
ceived on every other account, Is valuable only
to the- extent that 1t can be exchanged for the
other commodities, and it Is scarcely necessary
to suggest that q dollar worth 80 cents will
not purchase as much in the markets as dol,
lar worth 100 cents To call q dime dollar
would add nothing whatever to its intrinsic
value or purchasing power; IL would still buy
only dimes worth Of goods. II these PROPOSE
tfons are correct, 1t is clear that when wages
are paid in deprecated currency the rates Of
wages must be increased In proportion TO the
depreciation Of the money and in proportion
TO the increase in the prices Of other things, or
the iaborer win suffer loss. But affirm that
1t is the universal rule that the rates of wages
do not increase In proportion to the depreciar
ton In the value Of the money In which they
are paid, and that when the currency is depre-
ciated the rates Of wages do not increase In
proportion to the increase In the prices Of the
commodities the laborer Is compelled to pur.
chase. If there has been a single exception to
this rule In this or In any other country, my
investigations have not enabled me to find IL,
and ] do not believe one can be found.
Our War Experience With Depreciated
Currency.
Ik ia NOT INV purpose to weary Won nv xha