The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-11-02

on hand, (U, $. Treas. report Oc-
tober I, 1900
If, with all our power in 1860, we
were unable to raise the bullion
value of gold but 3 per cent, how
can we expect to raise the bullion
value of a still larger quantity of
silver not merely 3 per cent, but
more than I6 times 3, lie. 4o per
cent?
If, with over 80, 900, 900 of peo-
pie in 1860, we had been able to
raise the bullion value of gold just 3
per cent to par, then, being two and
half times as great people now
as we were then, we might expect to
raise the bullion prices of silver two
and half times as high, that is 71a
per cent, but how could we expect
even then to raise its price not 73
per cent alone, but more than six
times ~ per cent, lie. 40 per cent?
especially when the only power
we have to raise it with is our de,
mand for silver dollars, AND ,th4 DEF
mand is already supplied I'd the ex-
tent of S4oS, 900, 900.
How futile any such expectation
must prove seems apparent.
Yet unless the price of the worlds
stock of silver is nearly doubled, the
price of bullion must, as we have
seen, inevitably pull the value of the
silver dollar down, as bullion would
be coined as long as there was a
profit, lie. till the values met.
At the present rate two such sill
yer dollars would be worth less than
$1.o2 in gold; and if you owe debt
of $500 today, and did not pay it
till then, insterd of having to pay
5000 in gold, you could pay it with
200 silver dollars, worth only $roz.
While this might save you So8 in
gold, would not your creditor lose
SOS, nearly half his debit
Now if you have debts out, owing
to you, and you saw that Congress
was going to pass law authorizing
your debtor to pay them in 5J-cent
dollars, would you wait until Con-
gress passed that law, or would you
insist on your debtors paying you at
once in gold Cor its equivalent) so
that you should receive the same
value that you lent him-that is,
100 gold cents on the dollar-and
not only about one half of it? And
would you not proceed to collect in
at the earliest moment?
In short, every man who had
money coming to him and expected
silver dollars to depreciate, would
want that money paid to him at the
earliest possible moment, and would
proceed to collect with the least
possible delay; and if he got it he
would Immediately put it into gold
if he could, to prevent its depreciat
ing on his hands, and as there are
but 81, $50, 900, 900 of gold coin in
the country, including that in the
U. S. Treasury (by U. S. Treasury
report, Oct. I, I9oo) and as the
total amount of money in circula-
ton if $2,II3,ooo, 900 (same re-
port) it is apparent that many Of
those holding bank notes and silver
certificates and silver dollars would
be unable to get gold for them. So
he must start in as early as possible
and get in before others bent on the
same object, and if possible escape
the crash and the crush.
The immediate effects, then of
having to face the passage of free
silver coinage bill three years hence
would be, first, a steady and ever in
creasing curtailment of credit; a
steady pressure to collect all out
standing debts; and as time progress
ed, more urgent and strenuous ef-
forts in this direction. Business
houses and other debtors called on
to pay up, would be compelled to
call on their debtors, and thus all
the debtors in the country would be