The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-11-15

DIS are not Is
KAH RHI
tage to trade, even at the market ratio,
for the same value will weigh much
less in gold than in silver. What is
the result? Suppose now, my silver
friend, that you owed me a 500 debt,
and had in your pocket 800 gold piece,
and you have read in the morning paper
of this transaction between the gold
broker and the Englishman. Will you
now pay me the $40 debt with the 500
gold piece, or will you send your gold
to Wall Street and Herewith purchase
forty silver dollars. pay me twenty of
them, and keep twenty yourself. In
fact, you do not need to go to Wall
Street; you can with your 500 gold
piece purchase bullion enough to make
forty silver dollars. If you have pa
triotism enough, my silver friend, to
pay out your gold at par after learning
that gold has gone to a premium, will
you please hold up your hand? AS /
see no commotion in the audience, 1
think you will concede that you are
about as mean as the gold broker, and
l will concede that I am also. We
would all do the same thing. Our gold
would retire from circulation instant
ly as it did retire from circulation when
the owner of greenbacks was unable to
exchange them for gold at par. Every
dollar of gold went out of circulation.
Gold then became not medium of ex-
change, but commodity of commerce.
This condition existed Notwithstanding
the fact that both the greenback and
the gold possessed equal debt-paying
power. A premium between one kind
of money and another will invariably
drive the more valuable out of circula-
ton, and into the hands of the specula-
tor.
Here Governor Shaw exhibited a
card, constructed in different sections,
representing the kinds of money, the
gold, the silver and the paper money
OF the country, SO arranged that it could
be folded; first to exhibit the volume
of currency remaining after the gold
had been retired from circulation, then
to show the purchasing power of the
remaining money after silver had gone
to its bullion value, and the paper had
become redeemable in silver rather
than gold. In this way, he demon
strated that within twenty-four hours
from the time the first man bought gold
at a premium over silver, there would
be left in circulation a volume of cur
rency, the purchasing power of which
would be less than one third of the
volume now in existence.
He further said, a man sitting near
the platform in the audience the other
night, asked me to explain the reason
why the government now gives the
creditor his choice in the kind of coin
he will receive upon his coin demands;
why it is that the government pays out
gold in redemption of its greenbacks,
rather than to compel the creditor to
accept silver. l explained to him that
it was for the sole purpose of maintain
ing the parity between gold and silver,
and illustrated it, as I have illustrated
Mr.. Bryan's proposition. The man
dropped his head, and was unable to
catch bis eye again. | walked over in
front of him and said to him, .sWhen
you were in school, and you were un-
able to solve an example. and you ask
ed one of the other boys to solve it for
you, did you hang your head because
he was both able to solve it and also to
demonstrate the correctness of his
methods? Did you take your books
and go home, or did you thank him and
adopt his method?n He didn't tell me
and if he ever sends me word, I'll lei
you know.
This card, my friends, represents the
proportion of gold, and silver, anG
paper in circulation in 1896. Since
1896 however, we have been in bust
ness. Our factories have been ruDning
our laborers have been employed; oul
farms have been producing; our mer
chants have been in business; and the
owners of our ships have united then
from the wharf, loaded them with the
products of the farm, and the factory
taken them across the sea, and into th,
foreign ports; and as a result of tn,
restoration of confidence, and the re
sumption of business, we have soll il