Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-01-24
REPUBLICAN PROGRAMME.
They VIII Take the Same Position ON the
Silver Question That They Took
Four Years Ago.

4
In the course of his speech in the
senate opening the debate upon the
| currency bill, Senator Aldrich said +:
| The bill now before the senate con-
| taips no disavowal of the position here
/ tofore taken upon the question of in
| ternational bimetallism and places no
obstacles in the way of its accomplish
ment in the future. If it is possible to
secure permanence of relative value to
| gold and silver coins with the free COIN
age or both metals at a fixed ratio, this
permanence can only be secured by con-
current action of all the leading COM
mercial nations.
No sane man can be found outside of
| the small band of bold, able and aggres-
sive leaders who at present dominate
| the policy of the democratic party, who
| believes for an instant that the opening
OF our mintS to the free coinage of silver
| at the ratio of 16 to will raise the value
| of silver bullion from it's current COM
mercial price to its mint price measured
with relation to gold.
The democratic advocates of free COIN
age are not in any sense bimetallists, but
silver monometallists of the most pro-
nounced type.
In the first paragraph of the fore
going quotation, Mr.. Aldrich reveals
the position of the republican party
in reference to bimetallism in the i'm
pending campaign. The party will
claim to favor bimetallism, but con-
tend that the United States is power
less to act, so long as the other prin-
cipal nations of the world persist in
adhering to the single gold standard
Around this proposition will revolve
the arguments upon the silver issue
and we shall have rehash of the per-
picking and confusing jargon about
bullion and coin and ratio and
parity" and all the residue of the
foolish rot inseparable from discus
sion of metallic money.
Commenting upon Mr.. Aldrich's s
language, the Mississippi Valley Dem
ocrat says:
The mere admission of silver to the
| mints at the ratio of 16 to 1, without any
other conditions, perhaps would not
raise the market price to par with gold
put the senator knows very well that the
Tree admission of silver to the mints at
the legal ratio, and the restoration of
| its full legal tender for all debts would
| lift it to level with gold, and that is
the contention of all bimetallists. 1t is the
legal tender feature that gives "equal
purchasing power at "all times" The
| idiot does not exist who would sell his
| silver for so cents in the market when
| ne could have it coined into full legal
| tender dollars at the mints, and this fact
would make the mint and the market
| price the same.
| Aside from the fact that the stand
ard silver dollar is at present a full
legal tender for all debts, the forego.
ing criticism is hardly broad enough
In its scope, in that it ignores the core
of the issue. 1t is true that, SO fan
| as the jurisdiction of the United
State; extends, the extension to silver
equally with gold, of the privilege OF
unlimited coinage into legal tender
standard money, at the ratio of six.
teen to one, would keep silver bullion
at parity with gold, within the
borders of the United States, but that
S not the problem involved The in.
terrogative proposition may be stated
thus: Will such action by the United
States, acting alone, raise the value
of bullion in an exported United
States silver dollar to a parity with
gold at the ratio of sixteen to one?
| Let us examine this proposition
from another standpoint Gold. to-
day, by virtue of the ''fiat' of the
principal nations of the world, ex-
| pressed through legal tender and coin
age acts, has an arbitrary and ficti-
| tlous monetary value and, at such
value, is the measure of it's own value
| and of the value of all other valuable
things. Gold and silver both have a
certain commercial, or market, value,
for use in arts and sciences. Of such
value we can have only a very general
and imperfect idea, because we have
never had any experience with these
metals in their natural condition, as
| commodities. So, then, we cannot de-
| termine just how much of the value of
| the gold dollar is ''fiat''-some saw 90
| per cent, while others say as per
cent, it being altogether uncertain
| just what 25.S grains of standard gold
would be worth, if such gold were de-
prived of the arbitrary and fictitious
value conferred upon it by fiat or
coinage laws and were measured bv
a purely fiat paper money. But, how
ever that may be, we may be certain
that while in use as money, gold coin
value is all fiat; the value of the ma
terial after the so-called hammer or
"ire' tests have been applied consist
ing almost wholly in the privilege it
enjoys of being again converted into
money by the operation of '.fiat.''
| Now assume that at some certain ne
riod of time, all the gold coin in the
world was put through the "hammer
test except the gold coin of the
United States and that the present
| gold standard nations went upon a
silver basis and extended to silver the
legal tender and coinage privileges
now extended to gold, giving the value
| of one dollar to sixteen times as much
weight of silver as now constitutes
one dollar in gold. Under such con-
ditions. with 50 years supply on hand
for use in the arts, could the United
States, alone, keep gold bullion on a
parity with silver money at the coin
age ratio of sixteen TO one?
| This is the nature of the problem
involved in the proposition that the
United States shall adopt free silver
coinage without the concurrence of
other nations, but such problem is
not so difficult or aggravated as in the
illustration / have outlined. because a
very large proportion of the worlds
stock of silver is already in use as
money by hundreds of millions of peo-
1 nj -ho ell.