Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-09-12
MR.. BRYAN'S REASONING
Futile Efforts to Establish His
Jeffersonianism.
COMMERCIAL VS.. LEGAL RATIO,

Free silver Leader Makes to IIar-
monize Thomas JefFerson's Monetary
Principles with BryRu's Theories-Re-
pubIIoans and Jefferson Identical.
The professional candidate of the
Democratic party for the presidency,
William Jennings Bryan, who is said
to have made fortune out of his lee
turing during the past three years,
never loses an opportunity to hitch his
theories to the great name OF Jefferson.
His political yagaries comport we'll
with his own personality, but his per-
sistent efforts to make them fit the
stalwart father of Democracy are ex-
tremely ludicrous. Tom Thumbs gar
ments would have as easily fit Her
cules.
In an article entitled "Jeffersonian
Principles" in the June number of the
North American Review, he begins by
saying THE admirers of Thomas JEFF
ferson have reason to be, gratified at
the growing interest in the principles
enunciated by him" His closing SEN
tence is: "The renaissance of Jeffer
sonian principles is at hand" \
In trying TO make the free and un-
limited coinage of silver at the obso-
lete ratio of 16 to 1 fit with Thomas
Jefferson's financial policy, he says:
Jefferson is also quoted in support
of the commercial ratio as against the
legal ratio"
He then proceeds to show why JEFF
| ferson advocated the commercial ra-
ito as against the legal ratio" saying:
But those who thus quote him ignore
the important fact that when he rec
commended the adoption of the COM
mercial ratio it was at time when
all the gold and silver produced from
the mines could find access to the gov
ernment mints, and when the CONNER
cial ratio was the resultant of the diff
ferent coinage ratios acting on the met
ais. For the United States to have
established ratio appreciably differ
! ent from those then existing, would
! have added new and disturbing fac
! tor"
Eliminate all of Bryan from this
quotation and leave only Jefferson's
principle, and we find that Thomas
Jefferson supported "a commercial ra-
tion as against a legal ratio"
William j. Bryan is in favor of the
very reverse, i. e., a legal ratio as
against the commercial ratio. In this
he is certainly not Jeffersonian.
Thomas Jefferson's own words ut
tered in 1882 are: THE PROPOR-
TION BETWEEN THE VALUES OF
GOLD AND SILVER is A MERCAN-
TILE PROBLEM ALTOGETHER. The
legal proportion in Spain is 16 for 1
in England 151a for l; in France Is for
/. The Spaniards and English are
found in experience to retain an over
proportion of gold coins, and to lose
their silver. The French have greater
proportion of silver. The difference at
market has been on the decrease. The
financier states it at present at 14h
for one. JUST PRINCIPLES WILL
LEAD US TO DISREGARD LEGAL
PROPORTIONS ALTOGETHER; TO
INQUIRE INTO THE MARKET
PRICE OF GOLD IN THE SEVERAL
COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE
SHALL PRINCIPALLY BE CON-
NECTED IN COMMERCE., AND TO
TAKE AN AVERAGE FROM THEM. +"
If Thomas Jefferson's principles
were like Bryans, he would have said:
THE proportion between the values Of
gold and silver is LEGAL problem.
Don't be influenced by the monetary
principles of England, Spain, France
or any other European power, because
the United States is great enough to
establish a ratio between gold and sill
yer, and force every other country in
the world to bow the knee to its fnan-
cial policy. Just principles will lead
us to disregard MERCANTILE pro-
portions altogether. We need not in
quire into the market price of gold in
the several countries with which we
shall principally be connected in COM
merce, and take an average from them.
This would be un-American."
BY a Bryanite juggling of words
white is made black, dametrically op-
posing principles are harmonized, and
the great Thomas Jefferson is present
ed to the American people dressed in
the swaddling clothes of William Jen-
nings Bryan.
Thomas Jeffersons principle was to
discover by Investigations in Europe
the value of GOLD in the markets,
and then coin silver in accordance
with its value as compared with gold.
That is, he made the commercial value
of gold the standard by which to fix
the legal ratio.
But Bryan's principle is the very
reverse of his, In the article referred
to above he says: "The United States
can, by the restoration of free and un-
limited coinage lift the commercial
ratio up to the legal ratio"
Jefferson acknowledged that values
were regulated by the supply and de-
mand in the markets; Bryan's delu-
sion consists in believing that to arbi-
trarily announce legal value will reg
ulate a commercial value. Thus JEFF
ferson and Bryan are at opposite poles
In finance.
Jefferson's idea was that the use of
metal money was contingent on the
values placed on it by the countries
with whom the United States transacts
business. Bryan says that the United