Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-09-14
MONEY CONFERENCE,
A Highly Distinguished Gathering
Of Financial Students,
FORCE BILLS OR LEGAL TENDER
Paper With This Title, by Edward At
kinsOn, Read by Sterling Morton.
HISTORY OF THE GOLD STANDARD
Horace White, of New York Post,
Opens Conference Proper with
Paper on This Subject-Congress-
man Bnrtine Replies to Mr. White.

lIe must ulSllhSulSl'u gatherings VI
financial students that ever assembled
opened three days session of the None
tary Conference at the Nebraska building,
Exposition Grounds, to-day. Hon. j..
Sterling Morton presided.
Messrs. Warner, Towne, Bartine,
Weaver, Reynolds, and other leaders Of
the silver and paper-money sides took
part in the joint debate to-day.
Shortly after 10 o'clock Mr.. Morton
called the convention to order. and with
out any unusual formality, beyond a few
words of explanation and welcome, said:
Three questions demanding your So
luton are:
q. Is it the fixed legal ratio enacted
between the coins which governs the re-
lative value of the metals in bullion, or,
"2. Is it the relative value of the
metals in bullion which governs the re-
lative value of the coin?
"3. If no single and separate State can
maintain a fixed legal ratio between the
metals, when coined in unlimited quanti-
ties, can an international agreement
among the principal mercantile countries
of the world do so?"
FORCE BILLS, OR LEGAL TENDER.
"Mr. Edward Atkinson, the distinguish
ed economist and publicist of Boston, was
prevented from attending because of i'll
health Therefore, he sent for presenta-
ton his paper entitled Force Bills, or
Legal Tender and without further pre-
lude | proceed to read it,"
Mr.. Atkinson's paper dealt with the
question of legal tender, saying good
money needs no act Of legal tender. Only
bad money calls for an act Of force or
legal tender to make people take It,
whether they want it or not. He held
that the so-caled free coinage act pro-
posed in 1893, was nothing but a pretext.
Free coinage could be admitted, of gold
silver. copper, or nickel, if that were the
end of the matter. The vice of the free
coinage policy is hidden under the name
of legal tender. Legal tender acts were
born in fraud and have been nursed IN
corruption ever since. That is the record
from the dawn Of financial history TO the
present day.
"All legal tender acts or decrees, with
the exception of those relating to subsi-
diary coin, have been intended for one of
two purposes. They have either been the
acts or DEGREES Of absolute rulers or de-
spotic governments, for the purpose OF
cheating their people and defrauling them
Of their earnings, or else they have been
acts for the collection of a forced loan in
the conduct Of a war, like our 'egal-ten-
der acts Of 1S6l-'62; or else for the collec-
ton Of a forced loan for the purchase OF
silver under the Bland and Sherman acts,
which is now resting in noXious disquiet-
ude in the vaults of the Treasury OF the
United States.
FREE COINAGE "AUDACITY."
"Money Is necessary TO the conduct OF
commerce; commerce is the exchange or
nroducts or services for mutual benefit.
II any farmers are fools enough 10 want
silver money. or cattle money, or skin
money they can get it-silver in Asia
cattle money I'm Africa, fur or skin = oney
I'm Nova ZembIa. The free coinage OF slI-
yer of full legal tender Is almost gro
tesque i'm its audacity, asking farmers IN
the great Mississippi Valley, 80 per cent
of whom are free Of any mortgage What-
ever and are thus the creditors OF the
world. TO give their principal customers
I'm Great Britain the power TO force Brl-
tish silver. costing % cents an ounce or
less. upon them. under an act OF legal
tender. at 81 .29 1-2 an ounce, or 10 10 l. Inc
force of folly could go no further
There was no debate on Mr. Atkinson :
EarQCp White or fne
New York Evening Post, opened the con-
ference proper with a paper on the HIS
tory Of the Gold Standard
BINETALLISM AN IGNIS FATUUS.
Mr. White said the history Of the gold
standard was a narrative of attempts on
tho mart of governments and peoples 10
make two metals, variable IN their nature,
stobla in reference TO each other. These
attempts were honest but futile. The
nursuit of bimetallism was like the pur-
suit of an ignis fatuus. The nations
one after another, had abandoned II, so
tbot in 1Sq3 all countries OF any CONNER
cial importance, except four. had adopt
ed the single gold standard. Inc tour
were India, Chile. Japan, ana RUSSIA. All
fonr were then silver-standard countries
All have since adopted the gold s'ahuaru'
nr have taken steps to that end. The
IL. ,,otion that has gone back from gold
to silver is Spain. and this has been IN
consequence Of her recent mlstortunes'
As 10 international blmetallism' Mt:
White thought that Senator Wolcott had
n,eoched its funeral sermon after he came
bacE from his fruitless mission some six
months ago. ,,o,,, ,,.er>.r,ee
COLD ENOUGH FOR BUSINESS.
AR White next considered the com
ION saving that there is not gold enough
=, The world 10 do the business OF the
morlJ ~ He could prove that there was
a,,o,,gh gold TO do our business The
'.nasnn Of this plethora Of gold was easy
- understand. The large crops OF the
,ost two years. coincding with Npartlal
.a,,,res abroad, had turned the balance
- ,rade in our favor. Accordingly, we
b, Sad imported one hundred and eleven
m,;Il,ons OF gold during the fiscal year
n,'Iino June 30. 1895 We had produced
es,,,'sIeht millions in our own country,
n'hich n we had retained. and We had re
snI,ed somewhere from five to ten mil
,,n,,s from the Klondike. Our stock OF
aoId no had increased about one hundred
ga eighty millions in little more than one
an or holdings OF gold were fully