The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-14

cent Oh WnOm are 1ree OF any mortgage
whatever and are thus the creditors of
the world, to give their principal Gus
toners in Great Britain the power to
force British silver costing 25 cents an
ounce less upon them under an act of
legal tender at one dollar and twenty
nine and a half cents ($1.295) an ounce.
or 10 to 1. The force of folly could go
no further"
Mr.. Atkinson then dealt with the his
tory of coinage. He pointed out that
the great bimetallists. President Fran
els A. Walker, defined money as that
which passes freely from hand to
hand" Therefore his theory of bimetal-
lism was wholly opposed to his own
principles; the only kind of money that
passes freely throughout the world be-
ing money made of gold.
Cernuschi defined money as "the coin
of which the bullion is worth as much
after it is melted as it purported to be
worth in the coin; all else bad money"
The only kind of coin in the worlds
market which is worth as much after IL
is melted is gold coin.
The advocates of free silver, BIZ
metallism and greenbacks are alike
misled by the fallacy that all money is
the creation of law and that ii is law
that gives il monetary force. They
have never studied economic history.
They appear to be incapable of dealing
with the great facts of commerce. They
substitute theories and fallacies which
have been exposed over and over again
in the history of the world and which
have brought disaster whenever and
wherever adopted.
Ending with the quotation from the
words of Pelatiah Webster, the patriot
merchant of Philadelphia. who resisted
the issue of the continental legal ten
der paper money, traced all the disas-
ters which it caused and which were
nearly fatal to the patriot cause, and
who after it died wrote of its evil ef-
fects and of the benefit derived from
it's final death. Yet, as Mr.. Atkinson
said, there are men apparently of sim
cerity and ability that propose to renew
all these evils by forcing fiat money on
an unwilling community; winding up as
follows: THE vice of legal tender is
that it deprives men of their right to
free contract; that 1t enforces fraud
upon an unwilling or ignorant COM
munity, whether its members desire to
cheat each other or not. 1t is bar to
the integrity of a nation and to the
people alike. The sincerity of it's pro-
moters can only be justified at the ex-
pense Of their repute for common
sense"
Then Editor Horace White of New
York opened the conference proper with
paper on the History of the Gold
Standard"
Horace White.
Mr.. White said that he had treated
the history of the gold standard at the
Worlds Congress of Bankers and FL
nanciers at Chicago in 1898. bringing it
.dsSn- to that date. He should not re-
peat what he said then. The world
had advanced in knowledge since that
time, and the subject was not so inter-
esting now as it was then. The history
of the gold standard was a narrative of
attempts on the part of the govern
ments and peoples to make two metals.
variable in their nature, stable in ref
erenece to each other. These attempts
were honest but futile. The pursuit
of bimetallism was like the pursuit
of an ignis fatuus. The nations, one
after another, had abandoned il. so that
in 1898 all countries of any commercial
Importance, except four, had adopted
the single gold standard. The four were
India, Chilli, Japan and Russia. All four
were then silver-standard countries.
All have since adopted the gold stand
ard, or have taken steps to that end.
The only nation that has gone back
from gold to silver is Spain. and this
has been i'm consequence of her recent
misfortunes. Mexico and China are the
only countries of any magnitude that
voluntarily preserve the silver stand
ard. There were no bimetallic countries
now. As to international bimetallsm.
Mr. White thought that Senator VOL
colt had preached it's funeral sermon
after he came back from his fruitless
mission some six months ago.
Mr.. White next considered the COM
mon saying that there is not gold
enough in the world to do the business
of the world. He could prove that
there was enough gold to do our busi-
the praGput tivy1a 10 Of
New York and Boston had three dol
lars of gold to one dollar of paper in
their vaults. The reason for this was
that the West and South had drawn
nearly all their paper currency away
from them. Gold had flowed i'm from
abroad to take its place. If the West
and South thought there was not gold
enough to do their business, let them
send this paper back to New York and
ask for gold in exchange. The coun-
tenances of the New York bankers
would be wreathed in smiles while
handing ii over to them. The reason of
this plethora of gold was easy to un-
derstand. The large crops of the last
two years, coinciding with partial fail
ures abroad had turned the balance OF
trade in our favor Accordingly we had
imported one hundred and eleven mill
lions of gold during the fiscal year.
ending June 30, 1898. We had produced
HIly-elsnt mllllOns IN our own country,
which we had retained, and we had re-
ceived somewhere from five to 10 mil
lions from the Klondike. Our stock of
gold has increased about one hundred
an eighty millions in little more than
one year Our holdings of gold were
now fully eight hundred and fifty mil
lions, being larger than those of any
other country in the world. and il was
perfectly absurd to say that there was
pnnt1uh rnld n
with. But the evidence was over
whelming that there was enough for
other nations also. The amount added
to the worlds stock during the last
eight years was one thousand three
hundred and seventy-seven million dol
lars. and it was increasing by leaps and
bounds
Mr.. White thought that a more in
teresting subject for discussion would
be found in the present phase Of the cur