Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-05-12


one positive statement. His state
ment was carefully written out for
/ publication and furnished 10 the Or
egOnian as the important part Of his
opening campaign speech at Toledo
I LincOl1 county, and | suppose IL will
be repeated by him in his tour Of the
COW counties
This positive statement embOdies
the Republican candidates, position
on the silver question, aud was i'm
mediately endorsed by the leading
editorial 10 the Oregonian; so It
must stand as the accepted state
ment Of the gold standard pOlit iciaus.
| II is as follows: 'There has never
been a time when silver was rot
growing cheaper. II this were not
true the ratio Of one TO one, which
prevailed in early ages, would still
be the recognized ratio, because. the
first change from that ratio could
have been for no other reason than
10 prevent the coinage Of too many
silver dollars from given quantity
OF silver bullion. No other reason
has ever been given or ever can.
From the beginning silver has grac'
ually grown more abundant, and
therefore cheaper, until 10 order TO
sufficiently restrict the number OF
silver dollars the ratio Of 16 TO
was reached. have never heard Of
any unfrie1dly legislation causing
the commercial ratio to change from
TO to Is TO ], although many CEN
turies elapsed during that time. 1t
IS so well understood that the discov-
cry of increased quantities of silver,
as compared with gold, made it de-
sirable .to restrict the number Of
silver dollars that the stale cry Of un-
friendly legislation was never heard"
"The necessity of limiting the num-
Der OF silver dollars has always been
recognized. That end bias heretofore
been reached by chan&. &.ig the ratio
to keep pace with the relative produc-
tion of silver and gold, but during
the last thirty years it has been done
by closing the mints instead OF chang
ing the ratio"
/ do not pro pose to discuss Mr..
Geer's present utterances from the
standpoint Of party politics. To do
so would disclose a complete change
of the Republican party's position on
what is now considered the para
mount national issue.
As a devoted partisan Mr.. Geer
would reply: "Party first, party last:
right or wrong, my party" Itwould
be an useless appeal to his sense of
! justice, his ideas Of consistency or his
devotion to principle TO call his atten.
tion ID the Republican platforms ad-
opted by his own votes in conventions
cial science exactly the opposite from
those now proclaimed by him as can
didate for governor. So / will treat
his statement from the standpoint OF
political economy, and trust to the
sense Of honor, intelligence and pat
riotism of all persons who have in the
past called, or who do now call them
selves bimetallists.
Let us take up his first statement OF
the alleged ratio Of / to /. He cites
no authority for the assertion that
there eyer was legal ratio fixing the
bullion value of gold and silver ounce
for ounce. The bullion ratio of gold
and silver which is referred to in the
sacred scriptures has been figured out
by some mathematicians as being ex-
actly l6 to l. But we will not claim
that to be a tact. Certainly his au-
thority must antedate the mosaic
scripture, and his alleged parity of
to l was probably confined TO the
Garden of Eden the first few years it
was occupied.
There are plenty of authorities du-
ring the middle ages citing ratios OF
OF 10 OF " to l. In Spain in the
fifteenth century the ratio was l0t to |
/. In the sixteenth century Spain
monopolized the supply Of precious
metals and fixed the ratio for the en-
tire world at l3t TO l. In the seven
teenth century Portugal obtained
control OF the gold supply, and the
gold product OF Spain fell of TO almost
nothing. Portugal now governed the
ratio aud in 1855 raised the value OF
gold TO l6 times that OF silver. A
century later Spain got control of the
ratio and as her product was chiefly
silver she raised its value, in IT'S,
from l6 10 i TO l5i TO Ia Europe,
but left it l6 10 In her colonies.
That act OF legislation fixed the orig
inal ratio OF the standard American
dollar. France had ratio OF l4i 20 /.
prior TO i7s5, when she adopted the
standard ratio OF l5i tol.
These figures are taken from the '
Enclyoopaedia Brittanica, volume
xxi, page 70, concluding In these 1
words: "These three historical ra- {
tiOs and the bearing Of each upon the I
Others, have Influenced all legi>,ai ion I
on the subject, ard ~unrs ,here Mas |
no legislation, ia } s.,.s bul {