In France the standard is gold and silver; the monetary unit is the franc; the value in United States coin is $0.19.3. The coins are gold: 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 francs. Silver: 5 francs. The ratio of gold to silver is 1 of gold to 15%1⁄2 of silver, and 1 of gold to 14.38 of limited silver. No. 157. FREE COINAGE DEFINED. Free coinage means coining all the bullion an individual mag bring to the mints into full legal-tender money, or the rights of individuals to deposit standard silver in any amount at the mints and have it coined into full legal-tender coins. FREE COINAGE OF SILVER-A National Issue in 1896. No. 158. The Republican party declares in its platform "We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote." The Democratic party declares in its platform "We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." By this language the issue is to be presented for the decision of the fifteen million voters. The following are some of the reasons why the Republicans contend for international agreement: If we take up the metal alone and that course results in the expulsion of gold, we shall have in the first place a financial crisis FREE COINAGE OF SILVER-Continued. worse than ever sutiered in this country. This because we can not in a long time, even by working our mints day and night, coin silver enough to take the place which would be vacated by gold. Prices would sorely fall. Immense numbers of failures would occur. Laborers would be thrown out of work. Altogether a dreadful paroxysm in our business would be precipitated. Slowly the gap left by gold would be filled by the mining and coinage of silver. Prices would then gradually rise. At last they would become higher than now, more and more approaching the Mexican and Japanese level. Some advantages would doubtless spring from this elevation of prices, but it is a mistake to suppose that it would redress the iniquity caused by the fall of prices since 1873, because the rise and the fall would in the overwhelming majority of cases not apply to the same parties. In most instances the very men who have profited by the fall would manage to profit again by the rise. Moreover, wages would rise more slowly than values at large. But a consequence far worse than any of these would be that our passage to a silver basis would erect against foreign exchange between Europe and the United States just such a barrier as now exists between Europe and Mexico. It would annihilate all fixed par between New York and London, repeating the terrible inconveniences in our European exchanges which we suffered in war times, when we were upon a paper basis. We are now using as much silver as gold, and as silver has never been demonetized it is as good as gold everywhere. The standard silver dollar of 4121⁄2 grains has never been anything less than legal tender, but there was never any considerable number of them in circulation prior to 1880. There were, March 1, 1895, 422,826,749 standard silver dollars, which are full legal tender, and $77,071,747 of subsidiary silver, which is legal tender in amounts of $10. There were at that date $150,705,157 of Treasury notes based upon the silver bullion purchased under the Sherman law, which are legal tenders. Under the free coinage of silver, the ratio of 16 of silver to 1 of gold could not be sustained, as sixteen ounces of silver now is worth in the markets of the world only a little more than one-half · an ounce of gold. No man would take gold to the mint and get dollar for dollar when he could go into the market and purchase with that gold dollar enough silver to make one and a half, one and a quarter, or even one and an eighth legal-tender silver dollars. FREE COINAGE OF SILVER-Continued. There would be no ratio. The United States would be on a silver basis. After the ratio was made 16 to 1 in the United States, little silver was coined here, because the European ratio of 15% to 1 made silver worth more there than here. What is needed to estabJish a parity between the two metals is an international ratio. That would be bimetallism, which the Republicans are contending for, while the Democrats have openly announced that they are in favor of silver monometallism, FREE COINAGE OF SILVER AND A PANIC, No. 159. [From correspondent of Washington Post, July 21.] MR. BRYAN ADMITS THAT THE TRIUMPH OF SILVER WOULD CAUSE A PANIC. Mr. Bryan declared a short time ago that the free and unlimited coinage of silver at this time would produce a panic. He made this statement in Ackley, Iowa, but a short time since, in answer to a question put to him by a prominent merchant of that place during a lecture Mr. Bryan delivered there on the subject of free coinage of the white metal. Mr. Pleasants asked the lecturer this question: "Mr. Bryan, will the adoption of free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 cause a business depression and panic, as Secretary Carlisle and other great financiers predict?" Mr. Bryan answered promptly as follows: "Yes, in my opinion, it would have that tendency. But if a man is sick there is no use putting off giving him his medicine and letting him get worse. I think it will cause a panic. But the country is in a deplorable condition, and it will take extreme measures to restore it to a condition of prosperity." I saw this statement in an Iowa newspaper, and I wrote to a friend in Ackley for a verification of the correctness of the state ment. He answered: "I heard the lecture-every word of it-and I can vouch for the absolute correctness of the newspaper statement. I also refer you to Mr. P. C. Waters, a prominent citizen of this place. If necessary I can give you the names of a hundred of our most reliable citizens, who will testify to the same thing. More than that, I can give you the names of several of our business men who were in favor of the free coinage of silver until they heard this statement made by Mr. Bryan. Many here will not vote the free-silver ticket for the reason that they heard the head of the ticket make this fatal admission." |
