miju

if
ABOUT

SILVER.

OEO. B, 01UY, PR,

 NATIONAL

Executive Silver Committee,

EDWARDS PIERREPONT, New York,

FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS, Nevada,

L. M. RUMSEY, Missouri.

FRANK M. PI X LEY, California.

JOHN L. COCHRAN, Virginia.

II. 1',. <

HAMBERLAIN, Colorado.

THOMAS II. NELSON, Indiana.

OFFICERS:
A. J. WARNER, CHAIRMAN.

FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS, ViCE-CHAIRMAN.

GEORGE i'.. WILLIAMS, TBEASDBBB,

LEE CRANDAL1

OFFK
1202 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
 FACTS ABOUT SILVER.
EARLY USE OF SILVER AS MONEY.
1. The exact date when silver was

first used as money is not known, but it

was money "current with the mer-
chant" in Abraham's time, and has
continued to be money without limit
throughout the world until within a
short period. It is still the money of
a large part of the world's population.
2. The first use of the metals as
money was by weight.
Silver was coined at an early period
in Greece, but no gold coins were
struck till Philip's time, about 360
years before Christ.
1 n ancient Rome
copper was weighed
out by the pound, but later coined
money came into use.
Silver Rome about 250
was coined in
years before the Christian Era, and
gold about 50 years later.
3. Silver was the standard money of

England till early in the last century,

and was full legal tender until 1816,
when the gold standard was adopted.
From 1257 to 1664 the value of gold
coins, ascompared with silver, was
regulated in England from time to
time by proclamation. From 1664 to
1717 silver was the only legal-tender
money, and gold coins fluctuated ac-
cording to the market value of gold.
In 1717 the relation of the coins of the
two metals was fixed at 21 shillings for
a guinea.
By this law gold was overrated, the
market ratio being about 205. 8d., and
gold, therefore, became at this time
the principal currency of England.
4. Spain, before the revolution which

led to the independence of the Spanish

American States, controlled nearly all
the gold and silver mines of the new
world, and her coins circulated in every
country where commerce was known.
The Spanish milled dollar, or piece of
eight eight reals became a standard
coin in both hemispheres.
COLONIAL PERIOD.
5. During the colonial period of this

country the metallic money consisted

*
entirely of foreign coins Of these the
.

Spanish milled dollar came to be recog-

nized as the money unit and standard
of value in all the colonies.
6. By the Articles of Confederation,

before the formation of the new Consti-

tution, the Spanish milled dollar was
made the unit of value and money of
account.
*A few small silver coins were struck in Massa-
chusetts hi the seventeenth cemtury. Copper was
coined in several other States but no gold or silver.
 At the close of the Revolutionary
War, when the Continental paper
money passed out of use, foreign coins
again became the principal full legal
tender money in this country.

UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

7. Thus, when the Constitution was

formed, the money of the United

States consisted of gold and silver
coins,wholly of foreign mintage, the
recognized standard being the Spanish
milled dollar.
8. By the Constitution the right "to

coin money, regulate the value thereof,

and of foreign coin" is given to the
General Government, and the States
are prohibited from making "any
thing but gold and silver coin a tender
in payment of debts."

FIRST COINAGE LAW.

9. The first law relating to coinage,

under the new Constitution, was the

act of April 2, 1792, establishing a
mint. This act provided for striking
gold coins, called eagles, "each to be
of the value of ten Dollars, or Units."
The weight of the eagle, by this act,
was made 247 grains of pure gold, or
24.75 grains to the dollar. This act
also provided for coining "Dollars, or
Units, each to be of the value of a
Spanish milled dollar, as the same is
now current."
10. Hamilton, the first Secretary of
the Treasury, had a number of the old
Spanish milled dollars, as then in cir-
culation, assayed, and they were found
to contain 371i grains of pure silver,
and therefore the new dollar was made
to contain exactly 371i grains of pure
silver, so that the money unit of the
colonies, as at that time in circulation,
was continued as the money unit under
the new constitution.
11. The first gold coins were ll-12ths
fine. The full weight of the eagle
was 247.50 grains pure gold and
22.50 grains of alloy, making the
total weight of the eagle 270 grains.
The silver dollar contained 371.25
grains of pure silver and 44.75 grains
of alloy, making the full weight of the
dollar 416 grains.
12. The act of 1792 also provided for
half dollars, quarter dollars, and dimes
of silver, weighing, respectively, one-
half, one-fourth, and one-tenth the
weight of the dollar.
13. As gold coins contained 24.75

grains of pure metal to the dollar and

the silver dollar contained 371 grains,
the ratio at this time was exactly 15 to 1.
FREE COINAGE AND LEGAL-TENDER.
14. The same act which established
the mint and fixed the weight and fine-
ness of the coins of the United States,
also provided that any person might
take either silver or gold to the mint
and have it coined for his benefit " free
of expense/' and the said coins were
made EQUALLY LEGAL-TENDER FOR ALL
DEBTS, PULIC AND PRIVATE. By this act
fractional coins were also full legal-
tender.
15. Thus, the first coinage law en-
acted under the Constitution, as recom-
mended by Hamilton, concurred in by
Jefferson,and approved by Washing-
ton, provided for the FREE AND UN-
LIMITED COINAGE Of BOTH GOLD AND
SILVER.
!;. Mibsequent acts fixed the rates
at which IMK i-ii gold and silver
coins should be legal-tender in this
country, and various coins, including
the Spanish milled dollar, continued
to be Ir^al-tender until 1857.

CHANGE IN GOLD COINS.

17. In L884 the weight of the gold

eagle, or ten-dollar piece, was changed

from 247V grains of pure gold, or 270
grains of standard gold, to 232 grains
of pure gold, or 23.2 grains to the dol-
lar, or 258 grains of standard gold, or
25.8 grains to the dollar.
The pure metal in the eagle was
therefore reduced 15 grains, or 1.55
grains to the dollar. This new piece,
 6

however, was made legal tender for all

debts, past and future, the same as the

old one. No change was at this time
made in the silver coins.
By this change in the gold coins the
ratio was changed from 15 to 1 to 16
to 1.

18. In 1837 (January 18) the mint laws

were revised throughout and the stand-
ard for both gold and silver was made
nine-tenths fine that is, nine parts
pure metal and one part alloy. And
since 1837 all our coins of both metals
have been nine-tenths fine.
19. The pure metal in the gold coins
was again slightly changed by the act
of 1837, by adding .02 of a grain, so as
to make it exactly nine-tenths fine.

NO CHANGE IN THE VALUE OF THE

SILVER DOLLAR.

20. By the act of 1837 the alloy in

the silver dollar was reduced from 44.75
grains to 41.25 grains, so as to make
the dollar just nine-tenths fine, but
the weight of pure silver was not
changed and its value was therefore
not changed.
Thus, while the weight of pure
gold in the gold dollar has been twice
changed, the weight of pure silver in
the standard silver dollar has never
been changed; it is exactly the same
unit and the same standard as the first stand-
<r/-<! coin minted in the United States.

FREE COINAGE CONTINUED.

21. be seen from the foregoing
It will
that the ratio between gold and silver
coins was changed from 15 to 1, as
fixed by the act of 1792, to 16 to 1, or
(more exactly 15.988-f to 1) by the acts
of 1834 and 1837, but the free coinage
of both silver and gold, as provided by
the act of 1792, was continued unaltered.

THE FRENCH RATIO.

22. In 1803, France by law established
the ratio of 15 to 1, which became the
European ratio. As the United States
at that time had but little power in the
commercial world, the European ratio
prevailed, because, from 1803 to 1834, an
ounce of gold was equal, in our coinage,
to but fifteen ounces of silver, while it
was equal to fifteen and half ounces in
Europe consequently gold mostly
;

went to Europe and silver staid here.

23. But by the change in our ratio
to 16 to 1, the conditions were re-
versed, sn that 16 ounces of silver
were held in our coinage as the equiva-
lant of an ounce of gold, while fifteen
and a half ounces of silver were equal
to an ounce of gold in Europe. Hence,
silver went to Europe, and gold, then
the least valued metal, staid here.
 8

24. Had our ratio in 1834 been made

15| to 1 both metals would doubtless
have remained in circulation here.
But in fact both metals, without
limit, were at that time in use as
money somewhere, and hence it made
practically no difference in the value
of coined money whether both kinds
circulated equally in every coun-
try or whether one country used more
of one and less of the other. All there
woe of both metals was in circulation
somewhere, and all of both
there was
metals was potentially money every-
where. Bimetalism consists in the
RIGHT to have recourse to both metals
for money purposes.
25.The conditions, however, were
changed when the mints of France and
other European States were closed
against the free coinage of silver on
the ratio of 15| to 1. Otherwise silver
would now go there, instead of coming
to our mints, even with free coinage
here, because the ratio of 15| to one is
equal to $1.333 in gold for an ounce of
silver, while, on our ratio of 16 to 1,
the value of an ounce of silver in gold
is but $1.2929.
26. But the coined silver of Europe
still circulates there on a level with

gold at the ratio of 15| to 1, or $1.333 an

ounce in gold. Therefore, to send
such coins here, if we had free coin-
 9

age, the owner must lose the difference

between $1.333 and $1.2929 on every
ounce or, to put it in another form,
;

100 cents of the coins of Europe would

make but 96.95 cents in our coins.
This is enough to prevent the silver
coins of Europe from coming here as
long as the present difference in ratio
exists.
THE RATIO IN INDIA.

27. In India the ratio is 15 to 1, and

the mints of India are open to the free
coinage of silver at that ratio. An
ounce of coined silver, therefore, in
India, is equal to $1.37 in gold, so that
a dollar there would contain but 348.33
grains of pure silver, against 359.91 in
Europeand 371.25 here. Hence, to send
the silver of India here, as some fool-
ishly assert would be done, a loss of
nearly 8 cents an ounce would be in-
curred.*
* This relation may be shown in tabular form as
follows:
S71# grains silver, ratio 16 to 1 $1.0000 gold.
371# grains silver, ratio 15K to 1 1.0315 gold.
371# grains silver, ratio 15 to 1 1.0660 gold.
Or in the following f.nn:
1 oz. silver, ratio 16 to 1, worth in gold $1.2929.
1 oz. silver, rutio 15^ to 1, worth in gold. . . . 1.3337.
1 oz. silvrr. ratio 15 to 1, worth in gold 1.3781.
Or HL'ain:
Our sil vrr unit, 371.25 grains $1.00 in gold.
Unit of France, 359.90 grains 1.00 in gold.
Rupee of India, 348.30 grains 1.00 in gold.
Which shows that the silver unit of the United
States has more silver in it, relatively to gold, than
that of Europe or India.
 10

28. It is always profitable to send

silver from Europe to India and to the;

extent of the balance of trade due to

India, silver goes there from Europe,
and if cheaper silver bullion could not
be had the silver coins of Europe would
be melted down to go not to the
United States but to India.

THE PARITY OF GOLD AND SILVER.

29. From
the adoption of the ratio
of 15i to 1 1803, to the
by France, in
time the coinage of silver was limited
by the Latin Union* in 1873-4, silver and
gold everywhere throughout Europe
and America on that ratio was kept
at a parity by the French mints, there
being no variation throughout this
period not accounted for by the varia-
tion in the exchanges and the cost of
taking one or the other of the metals
to the mints.
The two metals were held together
by the free mintage of both on the
ratio of 15 to 1, and the parity was
broken only when free mintage was
denied to silver.
30. The coinage of silver was first
limited in all the states of the Latin
Union in January, 1874, and in August,
* The States comprising the Latin Union, formed
in 1865, are France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and
Greece.
 11

1876, the coinage of five-franc pieces

was stopped altogether.

GERMANY ADOPTS THE GOLD

STANDARD.

31. In December, 1871, Germany de-

creed the gold standard and com-
menced the coinage of gold and stopped
the coinage of large silver coins.
Before this Germany had very little
gold, but had about $400,000,000 of
silver. These silver coins were not
demonetized until July, 1873, when
the exclusive gold standard was estab-
lislh'd, with the mark as the unit.
Silver was made subsidiary and
limited to tfii marks for each inhabi-
tant, with legal-tender limited to
twenty marks. Germany did not,
therefore, fully demonetize silver till
after the United States had demone-
tized it.

; .'.
Germany began the sale of silver
in 1873and continued it at intervals till
1879, during which time she sold about
7,000 pounds of fine silver at from 59i
pence to 50 pence an ounce, when
sales were stopped. The proceeds from
what she sold was $141,785,000. The
rest of her silver has been much of it

recoined and is still held in circulation.

 12

SILVER DEMONETIZED BY THE UNITED

STATES.
33. The free coinage of silver was
stopped in the United States by the
act of February 12, 1873, and by the
act of June 22, 1874, adopting the Re-
vised Statutes, legal tender was taken
away from any standard dollars then
in existence.

WHY WAS SILVER DEMONETIZED?

34. England demonetized silver after
the Napoleonic wars in 1816, and by so
doing largely increased her enormous
war debt.
35. But why did Germany demone-
tize silver ?

First, she had exacted a war indem-

nity from France of one thousand mil-
lion dollars, which, it was calculated,
wouldeasily enable her to change her
money from silver to gold ; second, an
immense debt had grown out of the
Franco-Prussian war, and if the money
standard could be increased by increas-
ing the value of gold, the debt would
be increased in the hands of those who
held it.
It was foreseen, too, that if Germany
demonetized silver France would be
compelled sooner or later to close her
mints against silver, and gold would
thus be still further enhanced in value.
Shrewd bankers and credit-holders,
 13

seeing the opportunity to make a great

gain for themselves, did not hesitate
to seize upon it. Bismark after-
wards saw the mistake, and said that
he had left this matter to others, who
proved to be bad advisers.
WHY WAS SILVER DEMONETIZED IN
THE UNITED STATES?
30. In the United States everybody
had possessed the right from the
foundation of the Government, to take
gold or silver to the mint and have it
coined for his benefit into standard
coins which were legal-tender for taxes,
debts and other obligations of every
description.
37. What
reason was there for de-
priving the people of this right in 1873?
There was neither gold nor silver in
circulation in the country at that time.
The resumption act was not passed till
a year later. It was expected, how-
ever, of course, that, sooner or later, we
would return to the metallic standard.
THE VOLUME OF PAPER MONEY.
38. The legal-tender money in circula-
tion in the Northern States at the close
of the war, in 1865, was $985, 000,000.
This was exclusive of a large amount
of Government indebtedness, repre-
sented by paper in various forms,
which for a time was held in circula-
tion.
 14

39. The population of the Northern

States at this time was about 24,000,000.
Thus the per capita of legal-tender
money was not less than $40.
CHANGES IN THE VOLUME OF MONEY.
40. Two changes in the volume of
money took place rapidly after 1865.
First. The money then in existence
was spread over the Southern States,
being soon divided among 35,000,000 of
people instead of 24,000,000.
Second. The volume was rapidly con-
tracted, till in 1869 it was reduced to

lessthan $700,000,000 for 40,000,000 of

people, and was no larger in 1879, when
resumption took place, for 50,000,000
of people, being reduced at this time
to $14 per capita.
41. Of course, prices fell in propor-
tion. We were told, however, that the
cause of the fall of prices was over-
production. People did not under-
stand as well then as they do now that
the real cause was the change in the
money volume.
Commodities are always weighed
against money, and where there is
littlemoney more commodities must
be given for a dollar.

THE PUBLIC DEBT.

42. In August, 1865, the public debt
which grew out of the war reached its
 15

highest point. At this date the inter-

est-bearing debt was $2,381,530,000.
The total debt reached $2,844,649,000.
The debt, less cash in the Treasury,
was $2,756,431,000.
The bonds had all been bought with
greenbacks and had cost in gold but
from 42 to 65 cents on the dollar.

THE CHANGE IN THE METALLIC

MONEY.
43. But while the volume of paper
money was being rapidly contracted,
from 1865 to 1873, both gold and silver
were money, and we had the right to
fall back on the two metals at the
ratio of ID to for money supply, and
1

every dollar of the vast debt stated in

the preceding paragraph, as well as a
much larger sum of State, municipal
and private debts, if not payable in
legal-tender paper, was, at any rate,
payable in either gold or silver coins,
at the option of the debtor.
The general understanding at the
close of thewar was that the public
debt was payable in greenbacks.*
Could there then be any excuse in
the world for striking down half of
the metallic money in 1873 ?
* See platform of Republican party of Ohio for
of Governor Morton. Thad. Stevens,
1868; also, letters
Sherman, and others.
 16

44. No bonds or other Government

obligations were ever made specifically
payable in gold. The interest on the
bonds was payable in coin, the prin-
cipal of the original bonds in lawful
money, and of the refunding bonds, in
coin. No man on the earth had the
legal or moral right to demand gold
payment much less had any one the
;

right to demand that silver be demone-

tized and gold made dearer, and then
that payment of all debts should be
made exclusively in gold.
45. Why, then, was the

MONEY STANDARD CHANGED?

There can be but one reason. A
change in the money standard from
gold and silver to gold alone would
correspondingly increase all debts in
the hands of those who held them.
A proposition to directly increase the
bonded debt of the United States, or
any other debts, would have been too
bare faced a fraud to be made by any
one. Nor would any one have dared
to propose an increase in the weight of
coins as a means of increasing debts,
but if one of the money metals could
be dropped out the effect on the other
and on debts would be the same as if
the weight of coins had been increased.
Hence the device to demonetize silver
and in that way to increase the value
 17

of money, and with it all debts, was

brought forward and clandestinely
put through Congress.*
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
46. Nobody publicly petitioned for
such a change in the money standard.
Nobody except a few cunning bene-
ficiaries knew of the act till long after-
ward. There was no public discussion
of the question, for nobody knew of
it. There was no honest reason for
passing it.
47. President Grant, who signed the

bill, did not know he was approving

an act that demonetized silver. The
Speaker of the House did not know it.
It is not certain that any member of
the House except Mr. Hooper, of
Massa< hii its, who had charge of the
bill, and possibly one or two others of
the committee, knew that it demone-
and it is pretty well settled
tized silver,
that no one in the Senate but Mr. SHER-
MAN, who had charge of the bill in that
*The national debts of Europe had all been con-
tracted in silver and could have been prop* rly liqui-
dated in silver. Suddenly, and without a word of warn-
ing, every contract in Europe was violated by the
closure of rvt-ry mint to silvr. Still, it is only when
we pass on to the deed done at Washington that the
siht r 4 m stion fuirly emerges as the biggest and the
1> st planned financial coup of the century. The whole

affair was a vast "job," and I believe that any grand

jury would find a true bill on the evidence that comes

to us from America.
MOBETON FBEWEN.
Address at Easton Lodge, England, October 4, 1889.
 18

body,knew that the bill changed the

money standard of the United States
from gold and silver to gold alone.
48. The act was undoubtedly a for-

eign device. It came from Lombard

Street, and whatever London advises
Wall Street accepts, and Congress, if
it relates to the finances, usually car-
ries out.
But whoever is responsible for the
was a fraud upon the people
act, it
an act which at one stroke increased
enormously the public debt and
changed every contract involving the
payment of mon ey in the United States.
It was an act that no more admits of

justificationthan spoliation or piracy.*

49. to be held re-
Somebody ought
sponsible. Mr. Hooper, of Massachu-
setts, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, Director
Linderman, and John Jay Knox, of
New York, seem thus far to be the
only ones who knew just what was
going on in Congress. Were these
Representatives of the people dupes
of cunning, far-seeing spoliators, or did
they themselves comprehend the true
economic significance of the plunder-
ing scheme they foisted on the
country ?
The people have themselves to blame
for submitting as long as they have to
"
*For a full history of the act of 1873, see Silver in
the Fifty-first Congress."
 19

the great wrong thus perpetrated upon

them.
LAW OF VALUE OF MONEY.
50. The value of gold depends upon
the quantity of gold in the world as
compared with its uses not its use
in the arts alone nor its use as money
alone but all its uses combined.
If 60 per cent, of all the gold in the
hands of man is devoted to monetary
use and 40 per cent, to other uses, then
60 per cent, of its value comes from its
use as money and 40 per cent, from its
other uses that is, the demands upon
the stock of gold would come from
these uses, and the effect of each on
the value of gold would be in propor-
tion to its intensity.
The same law governs the value of
silver and, generally, the value of
;

money depends upon the quantity as

compared with its use or the demand
for it.

The conditions which determine

need for money or demand for it, are
population and wealth that is, num-
ber of people to make exchanges and
the quantity of things to be exchanged.
THE EFFECT OF SILVER DEMONETIZA-
TION.
51. The first effect was to set up the
single gold standard and then to aug-
ment that standard by increasing the
value of gold.
 20

The value of gold was increased by

increasing its use as money at the
same time that its production fell off.
In 1873 neither the United States, nor
Germany, nor Italy, nor Holland, nor
Norway, nor Denmark and Sweden
used gold, but after silver was de-
monetized all these countries, contain-
ing a population of 150,000,000 of
people, adopted the gold standard and
went to using gold, and in ten years
these seven States took $1,200,000,000
of gold, so that the gold money then
in use was divided up among more
than twice as many people as used gold
in 1873, while the production of gold
fell off from a maximum of $155,000,-
000 in 1853 to about $105, 000,000 in 1890.
52. On
the other hand the world's
population is increasing more rapidly
than ever before. The population of
the United States doubles in a period
of about 34 years. There is no pros-
pect of an increase in the supply of
gold, while its use in the arts and den-
tistry increases every year. With the
single gold standard, vrbat other result
ispossible than for gold to go on in-
creasing in value from year to year
and prices continue to fall ?
THE EFFECT OF THE RISE OF GOLD ON
FARM PRODUCTS.
53. In 1873 corn was worth 40 cents
a bushel and yielded a return to the
farmer of $11.41 an acre.
 21

In 1889 corn was worth 28 cents a

bushel and yielded a return to the
farmer of $7.63 an acre.
In 1873 the home value of wheat was
$1.15 ; average yield, 12. 7 bushels, and
worth $14.59 per acre. In 1889 the
home value was $0.69.8 yield per
;

acre, 12.9 bushels ;

value per acre,
$8.98. The quantity per capita was
about the same in 1873 as in 1889.
Oats in 1873 were worth $0.37 in ;

1889, $0.22, and yielded to the farmer

$6.26 an
acre, instead of $10.37, in 1873.
Barley in 1873 was worth $0.91 a
bushel and yielded the farmer $21.15
an acre in 1888 it was worth $0.59 a
;

bushel and yielded $12.57 an acre.

In 1872 10,303,000 milch cows were
worth $339,000,000, or nearly $33 each.
In 1890 15,952,000 were worth $352,-
000,000, or $22 each. The number of
i in 1872 was one to a little less
than four of population. In 1890 the
number was one to a little more than
four of population, so that, relatively
to population, the number of cows had
decreased and their value had fallen
over 30 per cent.

CHANGE IN THE VALUE OF LAND.

Great as has been the fall in
agricultural products, the fall in the
price of farm lands has been greater still.
 22

IS THE CHANGE IN THE LAND AND COM-

MODITIES OR IN THE MONEY ?

55. There must be some cause for this

change in the relation of money to

land and commodities. Is the change
in the things or in the measure in the
land and commodities or in the money ?
It is plainly in the money.
Since the demonetization of silver
the world's money has been shrinking
in volume relatively to population and
wealth and its value has correspond-
ingly increased.
The gold in the world has been
spread over larger and larger areas
and divided among more and more
people and gets dearer and dearer.
LOSS SUSTAINED BY FARMERS.
56. At the price of wheat in 1873 the
value to the farmers of the crop of
1889 would have been $563,000,000, in-
stead of $342,000,000, a difference of
$221,000,000. This would have gone a
long way towards paying off mort-
gages.
The corn crop of 1889, at the price of
1873, would have yielded $1,008,000,000,
instead of $597,000,000.
At the value of milch cows in 1873
the number in 1890 would have
been worth $510,000,000, instead of
$352,000,000.
The cotton crop of 1888, at the price
 23

of cotton in 1873, would have been

worth to the South $515,000,000, instead
of $292,000,000, its actual value in
1888.
57. The difference in the value of
farm products in 1873 and in 1888-'9
correctly marks the difference between
prices with free coinage of silver, as
well as gold, and prices as measured
by the single gold standard. The
value of farms and farm lands has
fallen more than farm products.
It is not easy to calculate the loss to
farmers and planters in the eighteen
years from 1873 to so I by the fall in the
1

value of farms and farm products as

CHANGE IN THE
the direct result of THE
MONEY STANDARD. Their ability to
pay debts and taxes, at any rate, has
been reduced in the exact ratio to the
fall in prices.

EARNINGS OF LABOR.
58. The earnings of labor, counted in

money, have been reduced also. While

many things which the laborer uses
have fallen with his earnings, taxes,
debts, cost of education, and many
other things have not been reduced, the
net result being a proportional loss to
labor the greatest loss being, perhaps,
;

in loss of employment and consequently

in the total earnings of the laboring
class.
 24

THE EXTENT OF THE FALL OF PRICES.

59. The extent of the fall in the gen-
eral range of prices cannot be exactly
stated, but tables made at differ-
ent times by Soetbeer, Sauerbeck,
Palgrave, the London Economist, and
various tables in this country, brought
down to the present year, show an
average fall of prices of from 29 to 34
per cent., which is equivalent to a rise
in the purchasing power of gold of
from 40 to 52 per cent.
60. That is, on the average, three
measures or three weights of every-
thing, or three days' labor, must be
given for the same quantity of gold
which two measures or two weights
or two days' labor would obtain before
silver was demonetized.

STABILITY OF SILVER BULLION.

61. On the other hand, it is admitted
that silver bullion has remained prac-
tically stable as compared with com-
modities generally, although as com-
pared with some staple commodities,
as wheat, cotton, pig iron, etc., silver
bullion has risen since 1873.
62. Eight and a half pounds of cotton
would buy an ounce of silver in 1873.
In 1890 it took twelve and a half
pounds to buy an ounce of silver bul-
lion.
 25

Less than a bushel of wheat, at the

seaboard, would buy an ounce of silver
in 1873. In 1890 it. took a bushel and
an eighth to equal an ounce of silver
bullion.
In 1873 a barrel of mess pork was
equivalent to 12J ounces of silver bul-
lion. In 1890 a barrel of mess pork
would buy less than 11 ounces of sil-
ver.
A ton of pig iron, in 1873, was equal
to 34^ ounces of silver. In 1890, 20
ounces of silver was equal in value
to a ton of pig iron.
In 1873, 2 pounds of wool would ex-
change for an ounce of silver. In 1890
it took three pounds to get an ounce

of silver bullion.
A comparison of silver with labor,
except where the rate of wages has
been kept up by labor organizations,
would show similar results.

THE DIRECT RELATION OF WHEAT AND

COTTON TO SILVER.
Prices generally might advance
as the result of an increase in the
volume of money, without materially
affecting wheat and cotton and other
products that come in direct com-
petition with India.
64. The reason for this is that silver
bullion is admitted to free coinage into
rupees in India on the ratio of 15 to
 26

1, or $1.37 an ounce. Prices in India in

silver have not materially changed
since 1873, and in a country of such
extent, where habits are fixed as they
are there, changes, if at all, must be
very slow ; consequently, as silver
bullion falls, it takes less gold to get
the silver to convert into rupees to
pay for wheat or cotton. In other
words, the same number of rupees
will buy a given quantity of cotton or
wheat in India, regardless of the gold
cost of the rupees hence, as silver goes
;

down, the gold cost of wheat and

cotton in India is reduced, and as our
surplus wheat and cotton goes to
Liverpool in direct competition with
the wheat and cotton of India, it must
go down as the gold cost of the same
products in India go down.
65. India never did compete with us in
the markets of Europe, in wheat and cot-
ton, until the so-called decline of silver
but in reality the rise in gold made it
profitable to the European buyers to
purchase these products with exchange
bought at a heavy discount on account
of the fall in silver.
She could not now compete with
western energy and skill were that
cause removed by lessening the ab-
normal value of gold, which the resto-
ration of silver will do.
When silver went up last summer,
 27

the shipments of wheat from Calcutta

and also from Odessa, Russia, were
checked.
Wheat advanced all over the world;
cotton also.

THE COMMON INTEREST OF FARMERS,

PLANTERS AND MINERS IN MAINTAIN-
ING SILVER.
66. The farmer and planter, there-
fore, have as much interest in main-
taining the price of silver as the
miner, and when the aggregate value
of our wheat and cotton crops, as com-
pared with the silver production and
their relations to other products, is
considered, it will be seen that farmers
and planters have a much larger in-
terest in maintaining silver than the
miners.
RELATIVE PROFIT TO MINERS AND
FARMERS OF A RISE IN SILVER.
67. The total production of silver in
the United States in 1890 was about
54,000,000 ounces. Twenty-five per cent,
on the value of that would be but from
thirteen to fourteen millions of dol-
lars, while twenty-five per cent, on the
value of the wheat and cotton crops
alone, of 1889, would be $150,000,000.
68. While wheat and cotton (and in-

directly other agricultural products

in a greater or less degree) rise and
fall with silver bullion, prices gen-
 28

erally will rise only as the volume of

money is increased relatively to popu-
lation and wealth.
69. Economists agree that with a

shrinking volume of money prices

always tend downwards, and with
falling prices industrial prosperity is
impossible.
THE EFFECT ON LABOR.
70. It is self-evident that labor fares
best when industries are active in- ;

dustries are active when they are pros-

perous. In other words, labor finds
steadier employment and earns more
in good times than in hard times.
Good times never go hand in hand
with scarcity of money.
71. Wages of labor cannot be in-
creased by making money scarce and
dear any more than they could be by
increasing the weight of coins.
If in times when the money vol-
ume is shrinking and money is growing
dearer, the rate of wages of those who
are fortunate enough to get work is kept
up by labor organizations, this fact
is many times overbalanced by the
loss of all earnings by the increased
number who can find no employment.
72.Thus, since 1873, while the rate
of wages in some industries may have
been kept up by strong organizations,
and possibly in some few even ad-
 29

vanced, yet the total earnings of the

entire labor population has been
largely reduced.
73. The only way possible to increase
the earnings of all labor is to increase
products for in the last analysis
;

wages are but the share of products

which labor gets.
74. A
condition, therefore, which
tends, as money stringency always
does, to lessen the total products of
labor and capital combined, tends to
lessen the earnings of the laborer on
which the maintainence of himself
and family depends. No class, there-
fore, has a greater interest in maintain-
ing conditions that promote good times
than the laboring class, and no class
knows better than they that stringency
in money strangulation of industry and
is

of labor.
>n

75. Allison says "the downfall of the

Roman Empire, so long ascribed, in
ignorance, to slavery, heathenism, and
moral corruption, was in reality
brought about by a decline in the sil-
ver and gold mines of Spain and
Greece."*
After the discovery of America he
further says the precious metals were
*
Jacobs, in his History of the Precious Metals, es-
timates that at the beginning of the Christian Era the
precious metals in the Roman Empire amounted to
$1,640,000,000, and that at the beginning of the ninth
century this volume had shrunk to $160,000,000 !
 30

tripled and prices, before a century

had expired, of every species of pro-
duce, had quadrupled. Not till then
did Europe begin to emerge from the
gloom of the dark ages.

REQUIREMENTS OF SILVER.
76. To supply the increase in the
world's population with ten dollars per
capita, would require a production
of the precious metals, devoted to
money from two hundred to
use, of
two hundred and fifty million dollars
each year.
77. The production of silver in 1890
was about $140,000,000 and of gold
$105,000,000, or $245,000,000 of both
metals. But probably $80,000,000 of
the gold used in the arts and dent-
is

istry, and $30,000,000 of the silver,

leaving but $25,000,000 of gold and
$110,000,000 of silver for monetary
use (if there was no restriction on the
use of silver) or $135,000,000 of both
metals and as wealth and luxury in-
;

crease, more and more gold and silver

are used for plate and ornaments.
78. Thus, the supply of the two
metals falls short of the needs of the
world for money, but when the silver
stream is shut off and the world is left
with only the insignificant supply of
gold, what must the consequences be ?
 31

Are we not facing the dark ages again,

and that, too, with mountain loads of
debt never dreamed of in the middle
ages debts too, to be discharged by
the ever-increasing standard of gold ?

THE DEBTS OF THE WORLD.

79. It is impossible to state with even
an approximation to accuracy the debts
of the world. Moreton Frewen es-
timates the debts of Great Britain, of
all kinds, at $20,000,000,000, and of the
world at as high as $150,000,000,000.
This is almost inconceivable. But
suppose the world's debts are but half
that, they would then exceed all the
wealth of every description in the
United States.
80. Are all these debts to be dis-

charged from the tiny stream of

twenty or thirty millions of gold a
year ? Who believes there is enough
of both metals even, to ever discharge
this huge pile of debts? And ever-
increasing debts mean ever-increasing
taxes.

INCREASE OF POPULATION IN THE

UNITED STATES.
81. The increase of population of the
United States now reaches nearly2,000,-
000 a year. This means at least 500,000
new workers in the fields of labor each
 32

year. Not less than $50,000,000 of new

money is required for this new popu-
lation.

RETIREMENT OF NATIONAL BANK

NOTES.
82. There are yet $170,000,000 of
national bank notes to be retired, and
if the place of these notes is not sup-

plied with other money, contraction of

the currency to that extent must fol-
low.
PRODUCTS OF THE UNITED STATES.
83. The value of the total annual

products of the United States probably

reaches, in prosperous years, $15,000,-
000,000. The annual supply of gold left
for money for the world would not
much exceed 1 per cent, of the value
of the total wealth of this country
alone. And there is room for doubt
whether there is really any new gold
now left over for monetary use, after
the demand for the arts is supplied
and loss in various ways made up, and
almost certainly it will not be long
until the present stock of gold money
will be drawn upon for the arts.

BI-METALLISM.
84. Bi-metallism the unlimited use
is

of gold and money, or the

silver for
right to the unlimited use of both these
metals for every money purpose.
 33

The theory of bi-metallism is that,

if there is any
falling off in the produc-
tion of one metal as compared with the
other, or any tendency from any other
cause for either the gold or the silver
to increase in value, the other is taken
up and its use for money increased
and value thereby upheld.
its

History shows that the produc-

85.
tion of the two metals, while they may
vary relatively, has been much
steadier than the production of either
alone, and at very few periods of the
world's history has the production of
one been sufficient to keep up the
supply of money for the world.
86. It has been shown that it was by

legislation, and by legislation alone

that the operations of this law, by
vv-hirh thr parity of the two metals
was maintained, was broken. As illus-
trating this fact, during the first half
of this century the supply of silver
was in the proportion of about 3 of
silver to of gold.
1

But from
1849, for about 20 years, the
supply of gold was about 3 to 1 of
silver, and in single years reached 4
to 1.

At the present time the production

is about li of silver to 1 of gold. The
present production of silver, however,
does not equal the production of gold
in 1853, which was $155,000,000.
 34

87. But during the periods when the

production of silver was three times
that of gold and when the production
of gold was three times that of silver,
the two metals, with free coinage in
Europe on the ratio of 15| to 1, was
everywhere kept at parity, except as
varied by the state of the exchanges
between different countries.
88. It was the same as if the metals
as they came from the mines were
melted together and coined as a com-
pound metal sometimes more of the
yellow and sometimes more of the
white metal but the value of the
whole depending on the total quantity
of both metals in the world and the
total annual supply.
89. If, with the two metals melted
together and coined, one-half should
be suddenly destroyed everybody
would see at once what a change
would be made in the value of money
and what an overthrow there would be
in the prices of all commodities.
But the fact that the two metals are
coined separately does not change the
effect of the demonetization of one of
them.
90. The law of bimetallism, under
free coinage, operates precisely the
same whether the two metals are
coined as a compound metal, the com-
 35

pound varying as the supply of the

metals vary, or whether they are
coined separately as now.

THE BLAND ACT.

The act of February 28th, 1878,

!M.

commonly known as the Bland act, re-

stored the silver dollar to full legal
tender, but instead of restoring free
coinage provided for the purchase of
silver bullion by the Government at
its marketprice, and the coinage of not
less than $2,000,000 nor more than
$4,000,000 worth each month. Certifi-
catea in denominations of ones, twos,
fives, and multiples of five were issued
under this act on the deposit of silver
dollars in the Treasury. Hence, when
the certificates are out the coin is
always the
inTreasury, and when the
en in is out the certificates^ are in but
;

but 1can never be out at the same time.

1

Tli same is true of gold certificates.

There was coined under the Bland
act,from February, 1878, to the passage
of the act of July 14th, 1890, about
$370,000,000.
Under the act of July 14th, 1890,
there have been coined to April 1st,
1891, about $18,000,000, making a little
less than $400,000,000 of silver dollars
altogether, with about $50,000,000 of
subsidiary silver.
 36

THE ACT OF JULY 14, 1890.

92. the act of July 14, 1890, the

By
Secretary of the Treasury is author-
ized and required to purchase each
month, at its market price, 4,500,000
ounces of silver", and issue therefor
Treasury notes redeemable in coin.
Consequently, under this act, notes to
the amount of the market value of the
silver purchased are added to the vol-
ume of money. If silver is worth one
dollar an ounce, then $54,000,000 a
year would be added to our currency.
If silver costs more than a dollar an
ounce, then more than $54,000,000
would be added but if silver costs
;

less than a dollar an ounce, then the

increase of the money volume would
be less than $54,000,000.
FREE COINAGE NOT A PURCHASE.
93. Under free coinage the Govern-
ment does not purchase the silver or
the gold. It simply receives the bul-
lion at the mint, sees that it is brought
to the proper standard of fineness for
coins, and if the bullion requires to
be refined the Government makes a
charge equal to the cost of bringing
the metal to standard fineness that
is, nine-tenths fine. Then the Gov-
ernment puts its stamp on each piece
and turns the coin over to the de-
 37

positor, and that is all there is to it.

Or, the Government may at once de-

liver to the depositor coins for the
bullion if it has the coins on hand;
but the Government in no proper sense
under free coinage, buys the bullion,
nor does it become the owner of it. It

belongs, and the coins made from it

belong, to the depositor. Separate pro-
vision, however, has been made on ac-
count of the greater convenience of a
paper circulation, for the issue of notes,
dollar for dollar, for the coin or bullion,
which, in that case, the Government
holds in trust fur whoever holds the
notes or certificates.
WILL FREE COINAGE DRIVE OUT GOLD ?

94. It is claimed that free coinage in

the United States will immediately
expel all our gold.
In the first place it is admitted that
a purely metallic money becomes dis-
tributed among the various commercial
nations in proportion to their trade;
also that a currency, part coin and part
paper convertible into coin, obeys the
same laws as to distribution, that gov-
erns a purely metallic money; but in
the latter case only the metallic part
passes from country to country.
VOLUME OF MONEY.
95. The United States at this time has
 38

a volume of money of about $1,500,000,-

000, consisting of, say :

Gold $600,000,000
Silver 450,000,000
Paper 450,000,000

Total $1,500,000,000

This volume, under the law stated

above, falls to us as our distributive
share of the world's money, and is
necessary to maintain an equilibrium
of prices with the rest of the world.
If we did not have this volume prices
would be lower here than abroad, and
money would come here till the general
level was restored.
96. Therefore, all our gold can be ex-
pelled only by at once substituting
some other money, dollar for dollar,
for the gold. Moreover, we require
annually, as shown before, $50,000,000
of new money to supply increasing
population, and for some time, say
$25,000,000 a year, to take the place of
bank notes retired, IN ORDER TO PRE-
VENT CONTRACTION.
Now, where is the silver to come
from, for the $600,000,000, to take the
place of gold, besides supplying the
$75,000,000 needed to prevent contrac-
tion.
DISTRIBUTION OF SILVER.
97. The annual production of silver
has been already stated. The follow-
 39

ing table shows how this has hereto-

fore been distributed :

India f 35.000,000
The United States for coinage purposes. . .
32.000,000
Japan 10.000,000
Mexico, about 10.000,000
Asia and Africa 18,000,000
Europe and America, for subsidiary coin-
age, say . .
10,000,000

Total 120,000,000
L;tv ing for the arts 32,000,000

Total 142,000,000
Under the law of July, 1890, the
United States takes 54,000,000 ounces
instead of $32,000,000, as under the
Bland act. So it is quite apparent
that silver to displace our gold cannot
be got from the annual production.
98. Where, then, is it to come from?
The gold monometallists say that the
coined silver of Europe will come here.
In paragrahs 28, 29 and 30 the relative
value of the silver coins of the United
States and other countries is given,
from which it is clear that European
coins cannot come here AS COINS.
The following table, furnished
by the Directors of the Mint, gives the
coined money of the various countries.
It is proper, however, in this connec-
tion to state that the money of India,
China and the Straits, and probably
some other countries, is an estimate
but little better than a guess, for there
are no reliable statistics concerning
the money of these countries, which
for ages have been known as the sink
of the precious metals.
 40
1C 00 O
OO i-l CM Q
1C"* IOIO"<* U
1 (r-lCOr-(i ITH-I-HT (T
I l-T t J lit

1C 1C lO 5O
1C iO lO 1C 1C

2
9

S
rrj <U
>-
yr3
flr^
^"X.X
>-F-i drcJ p 2f
>

-T (=T o" o" o" o' o" o o" o' o" oo

o
H
OOOO
2 OO
CO OO
OO 0_

a .
-
-i

I
O
 i

I
4 . . *-

go:
-r '

I|l!j|
iiillill
OOQ>?i3oHOQ
 42

All FULL-WEIGHT coins are full legal-

tender in their respective countries,
while the subsidiary coins are under
weight, and, like our subsidiary coins,
legal tender for limited amounts,
generally up to about ten dollars.
By reference to the table of values
of the standard silver coins of Europe
and India, as compared with our dol-
lars, the loss on sending these coins
here can easily be calculated.
100. Before the silver coins of any

country will go to a country where

silver is rated lower, as compared with
gold (as 15 pounds of silver to 1 of gold
in Europe and 16 pounds of silver to 1
of gold in the United States), the COINS
MUST FIRST BE DEMONETIZED.
101. It is claimed again that whether
silver comes here to displace the gold
or not, gold will go to a premium and
go out of circulation and out of use as
money, and that we will be left with
a volume of only $900,000,000, instead of
$1,500,000,000, and that the $900,000,000
will beat the same time DEPRECIATED
that is, prices would rise This is queer
!

logic. How can a dollar of a volume

of $900, 000,000 in the same country at
the same time be worth LESS than a
volume of $1,500,000,000 ?
dollar of a
The absurdity of this proposition is
self exposed.
If by any possibility the volume of
 43

our money could be reduced to $900,-

000,000, would be APPRECIATED
it

money would rise and prices fall in ;

other words it would be the smaller

volume of money that would go up
and not gold, which amounts to say-
ing that what is predicted can not
possibly take place. If money should
rise here, prices fall, gold would come
to us instead of leaving us.
BANK CREDITS.
102. But gold, silver and paper are
not the only kinds of money that act
on prices. Bank credits, or credits on
the hooks of hanks suhjrrt to check,
perform, within certain limits, the
chief functions of money. They not
only take the place of money, but they
effect exchanges and close transac-
tions the same as actual money, and
to the extent they do this they affect
prices the same as so much money
WOUld.
103. So that, the real effective cur-
rency, acting on prices, is made up of
gold, silver, paper and bank credits,
which might fittingly be called confi-
dence money, since the extent of this
character of currency depends largely
on the confidence people have in it.
104. Therelative proportion of this
credit currency to the actual money in
the country is difficult to state accu-
rately, but the report of the Comp-
 44

troller of the Currency shows that in

October, 1890, the 3,546 national banks
had on deposit, subject to check,
$1,596,000,000, and that all other banks
and trust companies had on deposit,
subject to check, exclusive of sav-
ings deposits, $1,014,000,000. The de-
posits in savings banks was $1,524,000,-
000.
Against this credit money the
national banks held of actual money-
gold, silver, greenbacks and bank
notes $290,500,000, and all other banks
$185,254,000.
Thus, altogether, the banks held but
$475,689,000 of actual money, and on
this built up a structure of credit
money of $2,604,000,000, or, including
savings deposits, of $4,128,000,000.
It is impossible to give the relative

efficiency of this credit currency and

actual money, but it performs a very
large per cent, of all transactions in
the large cities.
105. The real condition of the cur-
rency of the United States last October
may, therefore, he stated in round
numbers, as follows :

Actual money in the hands of the

people $1,025,000,000
Actual money in the vaults of bankj 475,000,000. . .

Total actual money 1,500,000,000

Bank credits subject to individual
check 2,604,000,000
Savings deposits subject to call on vari-
ous conditions 1,524,000,000
 45

If we leave out the savings deposits

we still have a credit currency created
by the banks from $475,000,000 of
actual money, of $2,604,000,000, or, de-
ducting the $475,000,000, and we have
a purely credit currency of $2,129,000,-
000.
This is currency as much as if notes
were issued for this amount currency
as much as were ever the old State
bank issues and it inflates and con-
tracts in the same way.
106. This volume of credit is a crea-
tion from nothing resting on confi-
dence alone, and amounts to more than
five dollars to one of the money it is
based upon, and if savings bank de-
posits be included, it amounts to 8 to 1.
A withdrawal of $100,000,000 of
actual money from the banks, there-
fore, compels the contraction of their
credit volume of from five hundred to
eight hundred millions It is plain
!

enough to see that right here, in this

purely credit currency, is where all the
sudden contraction and expansion of
money takes place. It is in this credit

currency that all our money troubles

originate. Here all panics begin.
107. It is by loaning this credit at
interest, this currency created from
nothing, that banks derive their large
dividends. Their loans must be largely
 46

on call, so that when confidence is

shaken they can call in their loans and
let the borrower take the consequences.
DANGER TO SAVINGS DEPOSITORS.
It is claimed that the restoration of
silver would reduce the value of the
savings of poor people in savings banks
and trust companies.
But who ever sustained a loss from
a bank' s having too much actual money
in its vaults, or from too much gold and
silver in a country? The real danger,
and the only danger to savings depos-
its, comes from the over-expansion of
bank credits, and not from too much
gold and silver money.
WHAT THE BANKS WANT.
108. The great banks of the cities
want the single .gold standard main-
tained, silver and paper restricted
and made redeemable in gold, and the
supply of currency left for them to
provide in the manner just set forth.
This is the English system, only their
bank credits reach 10 to 1 of actual
money.
WHICH SHALL IT BE?
109. Which, then, shall it be, an en-

largement of basic, primary money,

accessible to all through the mines, or
bank-credit currency created, con-
tracted and expanded, as the interest
of the banks alone may dictate.
 47

The wise thing to do at once, it

would seem, would be to restrict bank
credits and enlarge proportionally the
metallic basis, and if this is not enough,
to make up for the restrictions of
credit, enlarge the volume of paper
money.
110. This would be but substituting a
substantial kind of money for a very
insubstantial kind, and one regulated
not in the interest of the few, but self-
regulating through the mines, or, if
paper, regulated in the interest of all
:m<l not of one class.
111. X<> question before the people so

deeply concerns all classes, the farmer,

1
aborer, the producer, as this which
1 1 < 1

affects the welfare of all.

THE FORCE OF LEGAL TENDER.

112. When in any country there is
more than one kind of money which is
a legal tender in the payment of debts,
the debtor may elect which kind of
money he will pay in. If the creditor
liihl the choice there would be no need

<>f
legal tender.
When the
public debt was refunded,
the new bonds were made by law pay-
able in "coin of the standard value
of 1872," and this provision is printed
on the face of the bonds. The Gov-
ernment, therefore, has the option to
pay the bonds in either gold or silver
coin. It is sometimes claimed that the
creditor has the right to choose whether
he will take gold or silver; but this is
not so. The option is with the Gov-
ernment. There is no debt of the Gov-
ernment of any kind not legally and
equitably payable in COIN OF EITHER
METAL.*
113. Prior to 1873 every obligation
of every description was payable in
either silver or gold coin, at the option
of the debtor. These two metals were
universal solvents in which all obliga-
tions could be liquidated. No obli-
gation could be made stipulating value
that could not be discharged in coins
of either metal. If the creditor was
left to choose the kind of money he
would take in payment of debts, legal
tender, as already stated, would be of no
effect, and there would be but one kind
of money and that the dearest.
114. Recently, and since the gold
has been tending upward, there has
been a tendency to make contracts
payable specifically in gold. But
States have the right under the Con-
stitution to make coins legal tender
for everything, and several of the
States have wisely provided that all
obligations of debt shall be discharge-
*This statement does not apply to gold or silver
certificates forwhich the Treasury merely holds the
gold or silver in trust for the depositor.
 49

able in coin or legal-tender paper,

stipulations to the contrary notwith-
standing.*

THE BEST MONEY AND THE WORST.

The BEST money is that which
115.
ismost stable and constant; the WORST
money is that, no matter of what it is
made, which is constantly increasing
in value, for that means that every-
thing else is decreasing in value. From
no other cause, in no other way, has
mankind suffered greater wrong or
more injustice than from alterations in
the value of money. By no other
agency have those who did not create
wealth and were not entitled to it been
able in times past to gather to them-
selves what rightfully belonged to
others, as by changing the money
standard and the creation and per-
;

petuation at the present day of vast

debts, unknown a century and a half
ago, increases enormously this power
and multiplies beyond calculation the
danger.
* The following has just passed the Senate of Penn-
M An
sylvania: act to prescribe the mode of payment
of obligations of debt contracted to be paid in money/ 1
which provides " that from and after the passage of
this act all obligations of debt contracted to be paid
in money shall be payable all stipulations to the
contrary notwithstanding in either the notes, cer-
tain silver, or gold coin authorized by the Congress
of the United Staes as a legal tender."
 50

INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM.
116. A consensus of leading commer-
cial nationson a common ratio between
gold and silver,with an agreement to
keep open mints for the free and un-
limited coinage of both metals at the
agreed ratio, is no doubt a thing to be
desired, but all efforts to that end have
thus far failed.
117. Creditor nations gain by making

gold dear, and England, as the greatest

creditor nation, with large incomes
from other countries, payable in gold,
has refused all overtures looking to
international bimetallism.

BORROWING OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM.

118. Have we not long enough de-

pended on the Jews of London and

Frankfort for our financial system ?
119. Our accumulated wealth exceeds
that of any other country. The value
of our annual products is equal to that
of any other two nations. We
save up
annually more than England, France
and Germany combined.
120. By the middle of the next cen-
tury, at the present rate of increase,
our population will be 250,000,000.
To supply this population with $25
per capita would take as much silver
as the continent of America, from
Alaska to Patagonia, has yielded since
 51

its discovery by Columbus, 400 years

ago or as much of beth metals as was
;

produced in the first 300 years after

its discovery, to say nothing of the rest
of the world. Little danger, then, of
an over-supply of the precious metals.
RCULATION DEPARTMENT
2 Main Library
1
GENERAL LIBRARY -U.C. BERKELEY