The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1900-10-26
IF BRYAN WINS, WHAT THEN2

sequences.
On that fatal morning when it shall
appear that Bryan has been elected
or there shall be reasonable ground for
belief even that he may be elected,
and it shall be announced that the for
eigners are getting out from under, by
sale of their American held securities
on the New York Stock Exchange, ne
cessitating the export of gold to pay
for them, or there shall be a sharp up
ward start of a run by the presenta
ton of notes for redemption to the
treasury by our own people, long lines
of clerks of the banks, financial insti-
tutions and financiers, frightening out
through the night, will besiege the
doors of the subtreasury, on Wall
street, and before noon demands will
be made on our government to more
than empty from the public treasury
our governments entire stock Of gold
down to its last dollar. By this move
ment from the few eastern seaboard
cities alone-New York, Boston, Phila-
delphia and Baltimore before the
shadows of nightfall every dollar of
our governments gold will be de-
manded.
What will the banks do with the
gold that they thus acquire? Will they
pay it out in the redemption Of their
own notes? No indeed They will
hold on to it, not as money, but as
property as a convertible asset
which they can always realize upon at
any moment for all that it is worth.
Every individual holder of gold
throughout the country in any amount
down to a single dollar will do the
same thing, holding on to it to the day
of his sorest extremity, when he will
convert it at value vastly in excess
of any needed commodity, for which
be may be compelled by his wants to
exchange it, and it will pass into stron-
ger hands better able to hold on to it.
Thus, in a single day, all of our boast
ed stock Of 5000 100000 Of gold win be
completely retired from circulation as
money.
Taken Completely On Our Feet.
twelve hundred millions of circulating
medium of various kinds? The notes
of our national banks are required by
law to be redeemed in government
legal tender notes. But of what value
to the holder will be the exchange of
national bank note for government
note when the treasury is entirely
emptied of it's gold and the govern
ment no longer has the power to make
,ts own notes good to the holder of
them? The government will be taken
completely off its feet. 1t will not be
able to sell it's bonds, at present in
terest rates, at 60 cents to the dollar.
Nor would it be of ony avail If 1t could,
for the gold would be taken out of the
treasury faster than it could be put in
by renewed presentation of govern
ment notes for redemption, of which a
considerable amount would still be out
standing. All the notes, both national
bank and government, will imme-
diately cease to have negotiable val
ue, except a very trifing and also va
riable one speculatively, and the per-
Torrance of their functions as money
will at once and entirely cease.
We shall have still left our six hun
bred millions of outstanding silver GER
tificates, silver dollars and fractional
coin. Our government, being no longer
able to redeem In gold, will offer to re-
deem it's silver certificates in silver
and, to keep good this offer, will be
compelled to hold on to it's stock of
coined dollars and silver bullion now
in the treasury. At AZ cents to the dol
lar, the present market value of the
amount of silver contained In q silver
dollar, our six hundred millions Of
money, then available for currency pur-
poses, will have a money value, as
compared with our present currency
of less than $3OOOO0,000. We shall be
on a silver basis at once, without
awaiting the installation of Bryan in
the presidential chair and the move
ment of Bryan legislation to this eff
feet Our country, from having TWEEN
ty-one hundred millions of currency to
do business with one day, will have
but three hundred millions the next
day.
Ca1amitOua Consequences.
What consequences will follow? No
taxes will be paid because there will be
no money to pay with. How govern
ment-national, state and municipal
will be carried on under such condi-
tons the writer will leave to others to
guess. Nearly every life insurance pol
icy will be legally terminated by de-
fault of the payment of premiums
thereon, and the business of life insur-
ance will be suspended for an indeti-
mite period Of time. Every national
bank, every state bank, every trust
company, every savings bank, every
building association, every loan associ-
alton, every investment company and
every fire insurance company will go
under Rents will be no longer paid
but the landlord will not eject the ten
ant only because he will not turn out
Jones, whom he knows and who can
not pay. to put in Smith, whom he does
not know and who also cannot pay
Do you wish, reader, to be buried and
to have your country and the world
buried under such an avalanche of de-
struction? Do you wish even this con
traction Of business and labor disturb
ance that we see now, that was upon us
in worse form in the canvass Of 1896
and that we shall have with every sue
ceeding presidential canvass, so long
as the silver issue is kept before the
country. even when 1t has the least