334
A 596469
Carlisle, J.G.
ilar worth
DUPL


ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E-PLURIBUS UNUM
TUEGOR
SI-QUAERIS-PENINSULAM-AMOENAM
CIRCUMSPICE
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529
•11660

SOUND MONEY LITERATURE. £men
66
AP
A DOLLAR
WORTH
A DOLLAR

MARTIN VAN BUREN)
"HEAR BOTH SIDES THEN JUDGE.
PRICE 20 CENTS(

FORD & GARNETT,
PUBLISHERS,
115 and 117 Nassau Street, New York.
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION AMONG
THE MASSES.
A COLLECTION OF ARTICLES AND SPEECHES
ON SOUND MONEY, BY
HON. J. G. CARLISLE,
Secretary United States Treasury.
HON. JOSIAH PATTERSON,
Member of Congress from Tennessee.
PROF. J. WESTON PARISH,
MR. ELI PERKINS,
MR. MATTHEW MARSHALL,
MR. THOMAS J. FORD,
COL. JOHN J. GARNETT,
MR. LOUIS WINDMULLER,
AND OTHERS.
"Our people have never had the subject of the Currency thoroughly
discussed before them. The truth is, the literature which they have
been reading on the subject has been perverted literature; literature
that taught them in the wrong direction."-Hon. JoSIAH PATTERSON.
FORD & GARNETT,
PUBLISHERS,
115 and 117 Nassau Street, New York,
COPYRIGHTED,
July, 1895.
BY FORD & GARNETT.
PUBLISHERS,
115-117 Nassau Street, New York.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1. Frontispiece,
2
To the People,
3. The Sound Money Convention,
4.
General T. C. Catchings' Speech,
5.
Mr. Carlisle's Great Speech,
Opposite Page
Page
3
3
C
7
IO
14
6. The Night Session and Platform,
48
7.
Hon. Josiah Patterson's Great Speech,
53
8.
The Unit of Value (Prof. W. R. Webb),
"
73
9.
How to Get Rich by Unlimited Coin-
age (Prof. J. W. Parish),
83
IO.
II.
12.
The Demagogue in Finance (A. B. Pick-
ett, Esq.)
The History of the Ratio,
Is the Supply of Gold in the World
Insufficient for Its Business? (Matthew
Marshall, in N. Y. Sun),
13. Coin and Credit (Matthew Marshall, in
N. Y. Sun),
14.
Eli Perkins on Free Coinage.
15. The Effect of Free Coinage of Silver
Upon the Working Classes (Thomas
J. Ford),
16. What Would Follow Free Coinage?
(Col. John J. Garnett),
17.
The Currency Question Analyzed
(Louis Windmuller),
90
<<
97
ོ
100
105
IIO
115
132
139
K

C
JOHN G. CARLISLE,
Secretary of the United States Treasury.
TO THE
THE PEOPLE.
In the preparation of this work, the publishers
have had but one purpose in view and that was, to
place in convenient form, for quick perusal and ready
reference, an epitome of the best thoughts and say-
ings of the ablest writers and speakers on the subject
of which it treats.
Disclaiming any desire to be considered origin-
ators of new ideas, they have been inclined to the
single one of placing before the people what has been
written and spoken by some of the most distinguished
men of the country in opposition to a political craze
which has sprung up in the body politic. This craze
they believe to be the result of the fallacious teach-
ings of a few silver-mine owners, aided by a set of
word-jugglers, who have flooded the country with
their iniquitous and lying publications in the form of
seductive stories, calculated to catch the eye of the
ignorant and the unwary.
It has been assumed that the people have become
tired of reading literature which has been the creation.
of the fertile brain of mere adventurers in the "school"
of political science, and that they have wearied of the
'
teachings (?) of boys who should have remained in
the "Financial School" until they had learned their
lesson on this subject from men like those whose
names are to be found in the following pages.
Mere tyros in finance have no business in the
company of such men as the Hon. John G. Carlisle,
Secretary of the United States Treasury, with whom
finance and political economy, generally, have been
life-studies; the Hon. Josiah Patterson, member of
Congress from the Memphis district of Tennessee,
who, in his representative capacity, has equipped him-
self with such knowledge on sound money as to lead
him to risk his great political career on his ability to
convince his constituents of the correctness of his
views; Matthew Marshall, the universally acknowl-
edged able writer on finance, of the N. Y. "Sun;"
Prof. J. Weston Parrish, a recognized student and
teacher for many years, of political economy; the Hon.
John V. Farwell, the great merchant and eminent
politician of Chicago; the Hon. Lambert Tree, the
distinguished Jurist and representative of the United
States at foreign courts, and others, whose thoughts
are embodied in the various articles herein contained.
Besides these, it is proper to call especial atten-
tion to the articles by the publishers. It has been
assumed by those who have written books on the
silver side of the question that the labor organizations
of the country were a unit on that side. Mr. Thomas
J. Ford, himself a representative of the labor organiza-
tions, having made this subject a profound study from
the standpoint of the laboring man, has most clearly
and dispassionately discussed the whole bearing of
the question. As this is the first expression of senti-
ment in favor of sound money by a recognized repre-
sentative of labor interests, it will appeal most earnestly
to those with whom Mr. Ford is in touch and sym-
pathy, whether in mill, factory, farm or mine.
Col. John J. Garnett is a Virginian by birth, but
a long resident of New York City, and is fully aware
of the existing feeling on this question in all sections
of the country. He has lately made an extended tour
of the South and West, after attending the Sound
Money Convention at Memphis, Tenn., May 23d, and
his article on the "results that would follow free coin-
age," is entitled to the weight which is embodied in it
from his personal observations.
The publishers believe that the people desire to
have the knowledge that this book contains, and in the
form that "he who runs may read."
THE PUBLISHERS.
The Sound Money Convention,
HELD AT MEMPHIS, TENN.
May 23, 1895.
The Convention in favor of "Sound Money and
a better system of Banking Facilities" was held at
Memphis, Tennessee, on May 23d, last, and will take
its place in history as one of the biggest of its kind
ever known in the country. Delegates were in attend-
ance from every Southern State, and the number
enrolled upon the books of the Secretary footed up
695.
Being the first great effort of the men of the
sound money cause to stay the tide of popular senti-
ment which was setting in the direction of the free
silverites, it was a notable assemblage of the most pro-
minent men of the South, who represented all walks of
life, the farmer, the lawyer, the doctor, the merchant
and the banker. It had been made notable, also, by
the fact that the great captain and leader in finance,
John G. Carlisle, Secretary of the United States Treas-
ury, would there and then open the campaign of honest
and sound money against the heresy of free silver,
which has sprung up in the nation.
It was here, too, that the Hon. Josiah Patterson,
the old warhorse of sound money, was to realize the
fruits of his labor, and to crown his brilliant efforts
with the grand speech which we publish in full in
these pages. Congressman T. C. Catchings, of Mis-
8
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
sissippi, whose prominence in Congress was great,
and whose views in finance were well known to coin-
cide with those opposed to the free and unlimited
coinage of silver, was there also, that the friends of
sound currency might testify their appreciation of his
services in their behalf by making him the permanent
chairman of the Convention. But we cannot particu-
larize further. Let the proceedings speak for them-
selves.
At 2 o'clock, W. J. Crawford, of the eminent firm
of Crawford & Mallory, grocers, of Memphis, who
was the chairman of the committee of arrangements,
called the meeting to order. He spoke as follows:
"Gentlemen of the Convention-In behalf of the
committee of fifteen, appointed by the business organ-
izations of Memphis, and charged with the responsi-
bility of calling and convening this convention, it is
both my pleasure and my duty to call you to order.
In doing so, I desire, in behalf of the citizens of
Memphis, to extend each delegate on this floor a most
cordial and sincere welcome, to beg that you will
make yourselves entirely at home in the enjoyment
of our hospitality, and I trust you will be so gratified
with your reception that some of you will decide to
make this your permanent home-certainly, God never
made a better country, nor blessed one with a more
generous and magnanimous people. It is neither my
purpose nor my privilege to anticipate the result of
your deliberations, but I trust I may be pardoned for
expressing the hope that in the consideration of the
vast and important question which shall come before
you, all personal interest and all personal prejudice
will be laid aside, and that intelligent, conservative
and patriotic views will characterize your expressions,
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
9
until you shall have reached a conclusion upon which
an applauding and approving country may rest a con-
viction of the integrity, the safety and the soundness
of the South. Recognizing the fact that this is a busi-
ness convention, called for business purposes, let us
proceed to business, and, in pursuance of my duties,
I therefore announce the convention called in the in-
terest of sound currency and better bank facilities now
convened; that the first order of business will be the
election of a chairman, and nominations for that
position are now in order.”
GEN. T. C. CATCHINGS CHOSEN CHAIRMAN.
Hon. R. H. Clark, of Mobile, Alabama, said the
Convention had not met as the members of a hopeless
band, making a desperate fight, but on the contrary to
voice a deep-rooted opinion that is growing in force
and volume, and is destined to control the financial
policy of the country as surely as the calm voice of
reason dominates the storm of passion. “I do not be-
lieve," said he, "that the American people will consent
to be dragged down to the level of a debased coinage.
The clamor for free silver is a thing that cannot be
denied, but it is like a prairie fire which feeds on
chaff and soon dies away. I have the firmest con-
fidence in the Southern people. Two thirds of their
products must be sold abroad, and paid for in foreign
money. The price of cotton is fixed in Liverpool, and
no effort of the people can give a fictitious price to
silver. This Convention is an evidence that the people
do not intend to be placed on the same plane with
Mexico and China. We are not the followers or tools
of any men or set of men, but if we have with us men
of ability, so much the better for our cause. We have
10
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
with us a man who enjoys the confidence of the people
as no President since Jackson has done. At his right
hand we have one whom the Southern people have
been delighted to follow and to honor. They recollect
that in the days when he guided the Democrats in the
hall of representatives, he preserved confidence in De-
mocracy.
I refer to a man whom I honor and revere,
a man who is worthy of all honor and all reverence,
the Hon. T. C. Catchings, of Mississippi, and I nomin-
ate him as the permanent Chairman of this Conven-
tion."
Mr. Clark's nomination was unanimously indorsed,
and Mr. Crawford declared Mr. Catchings elected. G.
C. Matthews was unanimously elected permanent Sec-
retary. Gen. Catchings was escorted to the chair by
Messrs. Clark, of Alabama, and Sannard, of Illinois.
Mr. Crawford introduced him as follows:
"It is eminently proper, gentlemen of the Con-
vention, that a leader who has risen from the ranks of
the people, who is a man among men, by reason of his
own intelligence and integrity, should preside over
the deliberations of a body of Southern delegates,
called in the interest of sound and honest money. It
therefore gives me great pleasure to present such a
character in the person of your permanent Chairman,
the Hon. T. C. Catchings, of Mississippi."
General Catchings spoke as follows:
"Gentlemen of the Convention-There come
times in the life of a man when words fail him when
he wishes to express the emotions with which he is
moved. Such a time has now crossed my path. Could
I live forever, I could not sufficiently express to my
friend from Alabama the impression which his warm
words have left within me.
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
I I
Gentlemen, in my judgment no convention that
ever assembled met for a higher or nobler purpose
than this. Brought together from almost every South-
ern State, coming from every walk of life, represent-
ing, as you do, all vocations, industries and conditions.
in life, I speak the truth that not a man has come
here to advance a personal end or accomplish any
selfish purposes. Believing that the free and inde-
pendent coinage of silver at 16 to 1 ratio would be
disastrous to all private and public interests, we have
laid aside our private affairs for the time to take coun-
sel together how best to oppose it. The character of
the delegates to this Convention is far beyond the
reach of captious criticism or adverse comment. This
body is composed of the great masses of honest, in-
telligent, patriotic citizens. If we are right, we are
not only right now, but we are eternally right. We
have assembled to give open testimony in open church
to the faith that is in us. We have been misrepresented
from one end of the land to the other. Epithets have
been hurled against us. We have been charged with
entertaining views which we scorn and disclaim. It
has been said, for instance, that we are monometallists.
Let us here and now place the lie upon that charge.
It has been said, again, that we seek to so contract
Let us stamp that,
the currency that prices will fall.
also, as a lie. Let us pass a series of resolutions that
will be our declaration of faith, and then challenge any
man to put other words on our lips. Let us, when this
Convention shall have adopted these resolutions, ad-
journ and go to our homes with the determination to
stand by them. Let us organize ourselves into a
movement militant and not quiescent: for, believing,
as we do, we would be recreant to our duty, if we
12
'A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
failed at all times to let our views be known. Let us
nail our colors to the masthead and go on our course
regardless of the obstacles that we may encounter,
having faith that we will reach our destination in
the end.
Gentlemen of the Convention, we should take
heart of the fact that our views are sanctioned by all
the great people of this country outside of political
life. It is only when you find people whose judgment
has been warped by political excitement that you find
one who differs with you. The great part of the Ameri-
can people always recognize the truth in time. They
will be right, and they cannot be wrong after they have
had time to think and to reason. Let us strive then
to set our views before the people. Let us leave all
those who differ with us to use all the epithets. Let us
speak the truth and stand by our colors, and then feel
that repose that a man must enjoy who knows he has
the right on his side. It is impossible to make me
believe that the 67,000,000 people that compose this
great country, with the experience of all nations and
ages, will deliberately cut themselves loose from the
balance of the civilized world and cast their lot with
Mexico, China, Japan and other peoples of that class.
Suppose we adopted the free coinage of silver at the
ratio of 16 to 1. What do we believe? Why, that we
will have silver monometallism, pure and simple. It
has always seemed to me the most impudent proposi-
tion that those who differ with us say we are mono-
metallists, and that they are bimetallists. When the
simple issue is put before the people I do not believe
that they will be willing to put this country on a silver
basis.
Speaking for myself, I will say that I stand with
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
13
Grover Cleveland and John G. Carlisle. (Great ap-
plause.) Why should they attempt to graft upon the
people a ruinous currency? All the honors they have
ever had were heaped upon them by the people. I once
before attended a convention in this city presided over
by John G. Carlisle, for the purpose of securing gov-
ernmental aid for the betterment of the great river
which flows by the foot of the bluffs. The convention
was attended with great results. I believe this con-
vention will accomplish its end, as did the one I refer
to. I will now close, knowing that a great orator is
to speak after me, and that time is precious, by ex-
pressing my most grateful appreciation for the honor
conferred on me by choosing me as your chairman.
Chairman Catchings, at the conclusion of his speech,
asked the pleasure of the convention. U. M. Rose of
Arkansas moved that a committee on resolutions be
appointed, one from each State, by the chairman. The
motion was amended to allow the chairman of each
State delegation to appoint the committeęman from
that State.
A motion that each State delegation appoint a
vice-president was tabled.
The chairmen from the different States recom-
mended the following gentlemen as members of the
committee on resolutions: Alabama, Richard H.
Clarke; Arkansas, U. M. Rose; Mississippi, Leroy
Percy; Louisiana, J. C. Morris; Texas, Rufus Hardy;
Maryland, Daniel Miller; Kentucky, John M. Whar-
ton; Georgia, F. H. Richardson; Florida, S. C. Cox;
South Carolina, George M. Trenholm; Missouri,
George E. Leighton; Tennessee, Josiah Patterson;
Virginia, W. R. Mayo,
14
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
Mr. Carlisle's Great Speech.
When Mr. Cleveland was forming his last cabinet,
it was generally understood that the Treasury port-
folio would be given the strongest man in the party.
The tariff and its revision was then the chief issue, but
the great and vital question of the reform of the cur-
rency was the coming event which was casting its
shadows before, and every statesman knew that upon
the financier of the administration would fall its chief
burdens. The wisdom of the selection of John G.
Carlisle for that great emergency is evidenced in the
following great speech:
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:
I congratulate myself upon my good fortune in hav-
ing the opportunity to appear before this large as-
semblage of Southern business men, and I congra-
tulate the people of the South upon their good fortune
in being able to send here so many real representatives.
of their great industrial and commercial interests. It
has frequently been my privilege to address commer-
cial and financial organizations in other parts of the
country, but nowhere have I met a greater number
of earnest and intelligent gentlemen than I see before
me to-day. I am sure that nothing less than a full ap-
preciation of the vast importance of the questions to
be considered could have secured the attendance of
so large a number of active business men upon this
occasion, and the fact that they have voluntarily
abandoned their usual avocations to participate in the
proceedings of this convention encourages me to be-
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
5
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lieve that their efforts in behalf of a sound financial
policy will not cease when it has adjourned.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF FREE SILVER.
Mr. President, I do not think the importance of
the questions you are called to consider can be over-
estimated, or that the gravity of the situation can be
overstated. The proposition to revolutionize our mo-
netary system and thus destroy the credit of the gov-
ernment and the people at home and abroad, violate
the obligations of all contracts, unsettle all exchange-
able values, reduce the wages of labor, expel capital
from our country, and seriously obstruct the trade of
our people among themselves and with the peoples of
other countries, is one which challenges the intel-
ligence, patriotism and commercial honor of every
man to whom it is addressed. No matter what may
be the real purposes and motives of those who make
the proposition to legalize the free and unlimited coin-
age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, these are the con-
sequences involved in their scheme, and, in my opinion,
they cannot be avoided if it should be adopted. In no
part of the country will the consequences of such a
policy prove more injurious to the material interests.
of the people than in the undeveloped and progres-
sive South. When the great civil war closed, your
industrial system was destroyed, your commercial re-
lations were all broken up, your currency was worth-
less, your farms were devastated, your mines were
closed, your forests were untouched, your water power
was useless, and your railways were unsafe and in-
adequate, even for the limited service they had to
perform; but your great natural resources were still
unimpaired, and upon that foundation you have con-
structed, and are still constructing, a system of diver-
16
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
sified industries and interstate and international com-
merce which, if not disturbed by unwise experiments
in financial legislation, must attract to your section
of the country all the active capital and skilled labor
necessary to make it the most prosperous part of the
continent. Your magnificent deposits of coal and iron,
your fertile soil, adapted to the growth of cotton, sugar,
and many other products which no other part of the
country will yield, your unrivalled facilities for the
manufacture of iron and steel, cotton goods, lumber,
oil, furniture, and almost innumerable other articles.
which can be cheaply produced from the raw material
within your limits, constitute the elements of a mar-
vellous growth and prosperity which nothing can pre-
vent if the people of the South will continue to exhibit
in the future the same spirit of conservatism and the
same devotion to principle that have always character-
ized them in the past. The world has never witnessed
a grander exhibition of courage and fortitude than
was presented here when a defeated and impoverished
people, without money or credit, and almost destitute
of the tools and implements necessary to the per-
formance of manual labor, went uncomplainingly to
work to re-establish their social order, renew their com-
mercial relations, and reconstruct their industrial sys-
tem; and I am unwilling to believe that the same
people can now be so discouraged by a temporary
business depression, or so moved by appeals to their
prejudices, that they will hastily resort to new and
hazardous experiments with the currrency in which
all their transactio... must be conducted.
I do not charge that our fellow-citizens who pro-
pose to revolutionize our monetary system by a sudden
change in the standard of value really desire to see the
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
17
business of the country ruined, or even injured, or
that they believe any injurious consequences would
follow the adoption of their policy, but, in my judg-
ment, the results would be most disastrous to the
material interests of all the people in every part of the
country, and, therefore, I shall apppeal to them care-
fully to review the grounds upon which their opinions
have been formed before it is too late to correct a
possible mistake upon a subject of such supreme im-
portance to themselves and to their posterity. It is
not necessary to impeach their motives in order to
answer their arguments, nor would it be wise or proper
to underestimate the intellectual and material forces
behind this great popular movement in the South and
West, a movement which now seriously threatens to
disrupt existing political organizations and reform
party lines, but, no matter what may be the motives
of the present numerical strength of our opponents
in this controversy, the merits of the policy they pro-
pose to inaugurate must be subjected to the tests of
reason and experience, and, if it is shown to be im-
practicable, or fundamentally wrong in principle, we
may be confident that it will not finally command the
support of a majority of our people.
GOLD AND SILVER HAS BEEN USED AS MONEY
SINCE THE EARLIEST TIMES.
Before proceeding to the discussion of the main
question presented, it may be advantageous to state
as briefly as possible a few admitted or well-established
facts having an important bearing upon it. From
the earliest times gold and silver has been used as
money, not because there was at the beginning any
law declaring them to be money, but because, by
18
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
reason of their limited and regular supply, their great
value as compared with other things in proportion to
weight and bulk and their durability they were more
stable and convenient than any other commodity as
measures of value in making exchanges. Consequently
these metals were used as money by common consent
of the people for centuries before there was any law
upon the subject or any coins in existence; they
passed by weight, and their values in effecting ex-
changes were determined by the quantity of pure metal
contained in each piece. Each metal had a distinct
value of its own, and when it was used in trade neither
the buyer nor seller troubled himself about the ratio
between it and other metal. The laws of trade fixed
and regulated the actual and relative value of both
metals in the purchase and sale of other commodities,
just as they do now. They had been used as money
several centuries before any government undertook,
by royal proclamation or statute law, to establish a
ratio between them, and when this character of legis-
lation was first begun, the public authorities did not
attempt to establish new values or new ratios, but
accepted those already fixed by the laws of trade and
the custom of merchants. Coins were made, not for
the purpose of attempting to add anything to the in-
trinsic or exchangeable value of the metal contained
in them, but for the purpose of attesting, by public
authority, its weight and purity, thus avoiding the
delay and uncertainty resulting from the practice of
weighing each piece as it passed from one to another.
That the coinage of the metals does not now add any-
thing to their actual value in the commercial world,
is conclusively proved by the facts that in all the great
transactions between the people of the different coun-
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
19
tries, the coins are accepted only at their bullion value,
determined by their actual weight and fineness, and
that bullion itself is still used in making payments,
just as it was thousands of years ago. Whatever
effect legislation upon the ratios, in connection with
legal-tender laws, may have had upon the use of the
two metals in the payment of antecedent debts, it has
never had the slightest effect upon the actual or rela-
tive values of the two metals in national or interna-
tional trade. For many centuries, even after the com-
merce of the world had grown to enormous propor-
tions, the propriety of making any given quantity of
bullion, or any particular coin, a legal tender was not
even suggested, and up to the present time there is
no legal tender in international trade. Whether pay-
ments are made in gold or silver coins, or in gold or
silver bullion, actual intrinsic value determines the
amount or quantity to be delivered, no matter what
may be the legal tender laws of the different countries,
and no matter though they may have the same or
different ratios of value between the metals within
their respective limits. The law of France, for instance,
places a higher value upon silver relatively to gold than
is placed upon it by the laws of the United States, the
French ratio being 15 1-2 to 1, and ours being 16 to 1,
but if 16 lbs. of our silver, coined or uncoined, were
sent to that country to be used in the payment of a
debt or in the purchase of commodities it would not
be accepted at the ratio of 15 1-2 to 1, or at the ratio of
16 to 1 as compared to gold, but only at the ratio of
about 32 to 1, which shows that neither our ratio nor
the French ratio has any effect whatever upon the
value or purchasing power of the metal itself. Coinage
is free in Mexico, and the dollar, which is full legal
GA
3
20
DOLLAR."
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
tender, contains 377.17 grains of pure silver, while our
dollar contains only 371.25 grains of pure silver; yet
Mexican silver dollars are sent into the United States
and other parts of the world and sold at the price of
the bullion contained in them, which is about one-half
their nominal or legal value in their own country. The
legal-tender laws affect the debt-paying power of the
coin itself in the country where the laws prevail, but
the laws establishing ratio do not affect the value of
the metal contained in the coins either at home or
abroad, because it is the metal that fixes the value of
the coin, and not the coin that fixes the value of the
metal.
For a long time, during the early history of the
world, and even during the mediaeval age, gold and
silver, in bullion or in the form of coins, constituted
almost the entire circulation among the people, even
in the nations most advanced in trade and civilization,
and, consequently, the quantity of these metals that
could be procured and kept in use was a question of
far greater importance then than it is now or ever
can be in the future. When life and property had been
made reasonably secure by the establishment of stable
governments, and regular processes were authorized
for the enforcement of pecuniary obligations, credit or
confidence largely took the places of bullion and coin
in the commercial transactions of the people and a
much smaller amount of metallic money was required
in proportion to the whole volume of business done.
than had been required before. The use of credit in
the form of banknotes, checks, bills and other evidences
of debt has so increased in modern times that in all
highly organized commercial communities the use of
coin, except in making change, has been almost entirely
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
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dispensed with. The percentage of coin actively em-
ployed in conducting business in this country is so
small that it is almost inappreciable; so small in fact
that its disuse in our transactions would not be felt
if we had a substitute for, or a paper representative of,
the subsidiary pieces. In England, France, and some
other countries, a larger amount of coin is used,
because they have no very small notes.
STOCK OF GOLD BULLION AND COIN IN THIS
COUNTRY.
Although we have the gold standard, or measure
of value, in this country, our actual stock of gold bul-
lion and coin amounts to only about one-third of our
actual currency-a condition of affairs which would
have been inconceivable a few centuries ago. We have
about $625,000,000 in gold, $397,652,873 in full legal
tender silver, $346,681,000 in old United States notes,
$149,584,471 in treasury notes issued in the purchase of
silver bullion, $209,719,850 in national bank notes, and
$76,169,569 in subsidiary silver coin, making in all
$1,804,707,763, exclusive of the minor coins, and every
dollar of this vast volume of currency is kept equal
in value to the standard established by law, so that
every man who receives a silver dollar or paper dollar
in exchange for his products, or in satisfaction of a
debt, gets just as good a dollar as the man who receives
gold. This is the monetary system, and this is the
financial condition which the advocates of free coinage
at the ratio of 16 to I now propose to revolutionize
at once by a change in the standard of value, so that
the whole mass of circulation left for the use of the
people would be reduced to about one-half the pur-
chasing power it has now; or, in other words, so that
22
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
it would require about double the amount of currency
that is required now to perform the same service in
the exchange of commodities. But the consummation
of such a policy would produce results more far-reach-
ing and disastrous than the mere reduction of the
standard of value, because, for a long time, at least,
credit, which constitutes by far the most important.
factor in our financial and commercial transactions,
would be substantially destroyed by the confusion and
uncertainty necessarily following such a great and sud-
den change in our monetary system.
IMPOSSIBILITY OF A DOUBLE STANDARD.
But it is contended by a large number of the
advocates of free coinage--perhaps a majority of them
-that the effect of their policy would be, not to abolish
the present standard of value and substitute the
single silver standard in its place, but that it would
establish what they call bimetallism and a double stand-
ard. I confess my inability to understand what is really
meant by a double standard or measure of value; the
idea is incomprehensible to my mind, because I cannot
conceive how it is possible to have two different legal
and authoritative measures of the same thing in use
at the same time, as, for instance, a pound weighing
sixteen ounces and a pound weighing eight ounces, or
only half as much, and both declared by law to be legal
pounds. I agree entirely with Gen. Jackson's secretary
of the treasury, who said, "The proposition that there
can be but one standard in fact is self-evident." The
proposition to establish and maintain two different
measures of value to be in use at the same time, and
to be applied to the same things at the same time,
embodies a physical and metaphysical absurdity, and
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
23
this is so evident that the ablest thinkers and writers
upon the subject have been at last forced to abandon it.
Prof. Francis A. Walker, one of the most distinguished
bimetallists in the United States or in the world, in a
carefully prepared paper recently published, says:-
NOT GENUINE BIMETALLISM.
"But one thing more remains to be said in this
connection; that is, in reply to the allegation of the
monometallist writers that the course of events in
France which has been recited did not constitute a
genuine case of bimetallism. If these writers may be
permitted to impose their own definition upon us, their
contention can to a considerable extent be made good.
What they say is, that France, from 1803 to 1873 did
not enjoy the concurrent circulation of the two metals,
but only an alternate circulation, now of one and
now of the other; and this, they declare, is not bimetal-
lism at all. Therefore, according to their view, there
is no great historical instance of the success of bimetal-
lism. If, on the other hand, we may be permitted for
ourselves to say what we mean and propose by bimetal-
lism, the criticism in question does not touch our case
at all. We flatly deny that bimetallism necessarily in-
volves the concurrent circulation of the two metals.
There is some reason to believe that the French states-
men of 1803 really expected that concurrent circula-
tion would result; but no bimetallist nowadays makes
the concurrent circulation of the two metals in the
same country a necessity of that system. If it results.
only in establishing an alternating circulation, the chief
results of bimetallism will still be achieved, as they
were by the action of France."
This is intelligible, for we can all understand how
4
24
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
it is possible to have an alternating standard and cir-
culation, sometimes gold and sometimes silver, and the
monetary history of the world proves that this is just
what happens whenever the two metals are freely
coined in any country and made full legal tender.
Values will always be measured by the kind of money
in actual circulation, no matter what the law may
declare, and, therefore, if the free and unlimited coinage
of silver at the ratio of 16 to I should drive out gold
and substitute silver and paper redeemable in silver
in its place, we should have a single silver standard
and actual silver monometallism. Instead of using both.
gold and silver as we do now in larger amounts than
ever before in our history, we should instantly expel
the more valuable metal from the country and make
the other the sole basis of our currency. We have now
practical bimetallism-the use of both metals as money;
we should have then practical monometallism-the use
of only one metal as money. This is neither specula-
tion or prophecy, but a conclusion based on facts.
established by the experience of all nations in all ages.
THE PROPOSITION NOW BEFORE THE PEOPLE.
In order to eliminate all irrelevant matter and
simplify the argument, allow me to state exactly what
the proposition now pending before the people is: It
is proposed that the United States, without the co-
operation or assistance of any other government, shall
provide by law that all the silver bullion, or foreign
silver coins, that may be presented at the mints by
individuals or corporations, foreign or domestic, shall
be coined, at the public expense, into silver dollars,
at the ratio of 16 to 1 with gold—that is, that sixteen
pounds of silver shall be considered equal in value
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
25
to one pound of gold, and the weight of the coins shall
be adjusted accordingly-and that the coins so made
at the public expense shall be delivered to the owners of
bullion, or foreign silver coins, as the case may be,
and all the people of the United States, but nobody
else, shall be compelled by law to receive them as
dollars of full value in the payment of debts due to
them from their own fellow-citizens and from the
citizens or subjects of other countries.
It is not pro-
posed that the citizens or subjects of other countries,
with whom our people trade, shall be compelled to
receive these silver dollars in their transactions with us,
because that can be done only by international agree-
ment, and our impatient free-coinage friends declare
their determination to proceed at once independently
of all other governments. All who are indebted to us
are, therefore, to have the privilege of paying in silver,
while all to whom we shall become indebted are to have
the privilege of requiring us to pay in gold.
GOLD AND SILVER MEASURED BY THEIR
PURCHASING POWER.
Measured by their purchasing power in the mar-
kets of the world, which is the only real test, the relative
value of silver bullion to gold bullion is about 32 to 1:.
that is, it requires in all countries, silver-standard coun-
tries as well as gold-standard countries, about thirty-
two pounds of silver bullion to procure the same
quantity of commodities that one pound of gold bullion
will procure, and, therefore, the proposition to author-
ize the free and unlimited coinage of silver into full
legal-tender money at the ratio of 16 to 1 means, under
existing conditions, that the intrinsic value of the silver
dollar shall only be half, or about half, the intrinsic
26
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
value of the gold dollar. My own opinion is that after
we had passed a certain limit the more silver dollars
we coined the less they would be worth, because the
inflation itself would still further diminish their pur-
chasing power. Such legislation by the United States.
alone would not reduce the value of the gold dollar
to any extent whatever, because, as already stated,
the value of that metal in commercial transactions all
over the world is estimated according to its weight and
fineness, and will continue to be so estimated, and con-
sequently the only way in which this country alone
could diminish the value of its gold dollar would be
to reduce the weight of the pure metal contained in it.
COINAGE OF THE TWO METALS WITHOUT LIMIT
A FAILURE.
The attempt to coin the two metals without limit
as to amount into full legal-tender money and keep
both in circulation at the same time has been made by
nearly every civilized nation in the world, and has
failed in every one of them. It has failed because in
every instance it has been found impossible to establish
and maintain a legal ratio corresponding at all times.
with the intrinsic or commercial ratio between the two
metals contained in the coins, and because whenever
either of the metals was under-valued relatively to the
other in the coinage laws it was expelled from the
country. England persisted in the attempt for nearly
five hundred years and, notwithstanding the enactment
of most severe penal statutes against the exportation
of coins or bullion, was at last forced to abandon the
effort and adopt the single standard. France, in her
efforts to keep the coins of the two metals in circulation
at the same time, changed the legal ratio between them
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
27
more than one hundred and fifty times in a single
century, and finally, in 1876, finding that gold was
leaving her and that in ten years her net imports of
silver had amounted to $280,000,000, stopped the
coinage of legal-tender silver, and for nineteen years
the attempt has been abandoned in that country. Many
other nations in Europe and other parts of the world
have subjected their people to great loss and expense
by their adherence to monetary systems based upon
the theory that the double standard could be main-
tained, but in no case have they succeeded in keeping
the coins of the two metals in use at the same time,
except for very short periods. Our own country is
not without experience upon this subject, and the
results here were just the same as they have been
everywhere else. By the act of 1792, which was our
first coinage law, the legal ratio between gold and
silver was fixed at 15 to 1, when, in fact, the true com-
mercial ratio was or soon became about 15 1-2 to 1, and
the result of this very small over-valuation of silver
in the coinage was that gold went out of circulation
and we had practically silver monometallism until after
the passage of the act of 1834. For the purpose of
restoring gold to the circulation Congress in 1834
changed the ratio from 15 to 1 to 16 to 1, and this was
an over-valuation of gold in the coinage, silver left
the country, and from that time on until 1878 we had
practically gold monometallism, whenever we had any
metallic basis at all for our currency.
EFFECT OF LEGISLATION UPON THE CIRCULATION
OF THE TWO COINS.
It would be a useless consumption of time to go
into a detailed account of the monetary legislation of
28
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
this and other countries, or to show at length how it
affected the movements and use of the two metals by
its repeated failures to conform the legal ratio to the
actual commercial ratio between them. The great and
important fact conclusively established by the history
of that legislation and its effects upon the circulation
of the coins of the two metals is, that whenever one of
them is over-valued relatively to the other in the coin-
age laws, with free coinage or coinage upon equal
terms, and both are made legal tender, the coins of
the under-valued metal will be driven out of circula-
tion and out of use as money in the country where the
unequal valuation is made. The reasons for this are
perfectly plain. Both being legal tenders, the least
valuable coins will always be used in making payments,
and will become the measures of value in the exchange
of commodities, and consequently the more valuable
coins will be hoarded or sent out of the country into a
market where their real value will be recognized. Now,
as this is just what has always occurred-at least in
modern times, when commercial relations between
different countries are so intimate and the means of
transportation are so rapid and cheap-even when the
undervaluation or overvaluation amounted to only I or
2 per cent., I think we are fully justified in concluding
that if the United States alone should adopt the policy
of the free and unlimited coinage of legal-tender silver
at the ratio of 16 to 1, which would be an overvaluation
of that metal to the amount of 100 per cent., all the
gold in the country would be immediately hoarded or
exported or be held as a commodity by speculators
engaged in the business of buying and selling it at
a premium. If this should be the result, the free
coinage of silver would not for a long time add any-
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
29
thing whatever, even nominally, to our stock of money;
on the contrary, the immediate effect of such a policy
would be a contraction to the extent of fully one-third
of our present volume of currency by the expulsion of
about $625,000,000 in gold, and it would require more
than fifteen years to supply its place with silver dollars,
even if our mints coined nothing else.
FREE COINAGE MEANS LESS MONEY IN
CIRCULATION.
All who have been or may be induced to give
their support to this revolutionary policy, upon the
assurance that it will give the country more money
for use in the transaction of business, will be greatly
disappointed, for they will find, when it is too late, that
instead of having more money they will have less,
and that it will be depreciated in value besides.
introduction into the currency of a country of any kind
of money about which there is the least doubt will
always operate to drive out the same amount,
or about the same amount, of better money,
and thus leave the people with substantially the
same volume of currency they had at the beginning.
The act providing for the purchase of silver bullion
and the issue of legal-tender treasury notes in pay-
ment for it was passed on the 14th day of July, 1890,
and the purchasing clause of that act was repealed
November 1, 1893. While it remained in force United
States treasury notes were issued to the amount of
$155,931,002, and there were many people who believed
that this was making a material and permanent addi-
tion to the volume of our currency; but the official
records show that during the same time the net exports
of gold from this country amounted to $103,419,491,
30
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
so that the real addition to our circulation accomplished
by the issue of nearly $156,000,000 of new notes was
about fifty-two and a half million dollars during a
period of more than three years. The mere apprehension
that the Government would not be able to maintain
the parity of the two metals under the policy inaugu-
rated by that act, not only discredited the new treasury
notes themselves, but the whole volume of our cur-
rency, and gold went out about as fast as the new notes
came in. While, therefore, it is not at all certain that
free coinage would ultimately make any considerable
addition to our circulation, it is absolutely certain
that it would give us a depreciated and fluctuating
currency, and the question is whether the producers
of cotton, wheat, corn, beef, pork, oil, lard, cheese,
and other exportable articles will be benefitted or
injured by such a result. It is an axiom in trade that
the prices of exportable products are fixed in the foreign
market where the surplus is sold, and are fixed in the
currency of that country according to its nominal value
there. If sold in England, for illustration, the prices
are fixed and paid in pounds, shillings, and pence,
and not in dollars and cents, and, consequently, it
makes no difference to the foreign purchaser what kind
of currency the producer has at home. The character
or value of the currency in use in the producing country
does not affect the price of the article abroad to any
extent whatever, for the purchaser there trades in his
own market and uses his own currency in measuring
values. The establishment of a silver standard here
could not possibly increase the price of cotton or wheat
or any other American product in Liverpool, London,
Paris, or Berlin, whatever effect it might have upon
the nominal price in this country. If our monetary
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
31
}
system were so changed that it would require two
dollars to purchase here the same quantity of com-
modities that one dollar will purchase now, it would
not affect the value or purchasing power of the English.
pound sterling, the French franc or German mark in
the least. The only effect would be that the exchange
would be doubled, and the pound sterling instead of
being worth $4.866 in our currency, as it is now, would
be worth $9.732, and when our people wanted to make
a remittance to pay a debt abroad they would have
to pay twice as much in our money for the same num-
ber of pounds as they pay now, while the foreigner
who wanted to make a remittance to pay a debt here
would pay only half as much in his money for the
same number of dollars as he pays now. But the
exchange would be in a constant state of fluctuation,
jus as it has been between Great Britain and India
on account of the changes in the prices of silver from
day to day; and the American producer would be com-
pelled to pay for the risk taken on account of the
fluctuations by receiving a less price for his cotton,
wheat, beef and other articles. The farmers and planters
do not export their own products, but they sell them.
at home to somebody else who sends them abroad,
and if the exchange is steady and the money in which
he is to pay for the products has a fixed value relatively
to the money in use in the country where he expects
to sell them, the purchaser here can afford to pay the
highest price that would leave him a reasonable margin
of profit in view of the conditions existing in the market
abroad. In other words, he has to incur but one risk-
the possible fall in the price of products abroad; but
if the currency here is depreciated and fluctuating, if
our money has no fixed and certain value relatively to
32
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
the money in use abroad where he expects to sell
the products, there is an additional risk to be incurred
which will have great influence in determining the
price he can afford to pay the producer. In addition
to the risk of a fall in the price of products abroad,
he must incur the risk of a rise in the price of silver
between the time of his purchase and the time when
he receives the proceeds of his sale, for if silver rises
in the meantime he may not get back as many dollars
as he paid out. The producer must pay for both of
these risks by receiving a smaller price for his com-
modities, and hence his prices will never increase in
proportion to the actual depreciation of the money
in which they are paid. To illustrate my meaning,
when silver is worth 60 cents per ounce, the bullion
contained in a silver dollar is worth 46.4 cents, bu if
the price of silver should advance to 62 cents per ounce,
the value of the bullion contained in a silver dollar
would be 48 cents-an increase of over three per cent.
Now, the price of cotton or wheat will not rise in pro-
portion to the depreciation of the dollar in which it
has to be paid; that is, the purchaser for export will
not pay for it at the rate of 46.4 cents for each dollar
when silver is worth 60 cents an ounce, because he
knows that silver may rise to 61 or 62 cents per ounce
before he can sell the product abroad and get his
money for it, and he knows that if this happens the
gold he receives abroad cannot be exchanged for as
many silver dollars as he paid the producer here. He
will not take all this risk upon himself, but will
compel the producer to bear it by receiving a less price
for his cotton or wheat; and this argument applies with
equal force to all other articles. It is impossible to
estimate accurately the amount of loss which this would
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
33
inflict upon the American producer of exportable
products, but it would undoubtedly be very great, as
the value of our exports of domestic merchandise is
nearly $870,000,000 per annum, and a small percentage
upon this large sum would very materially affect the
incomes of our producers.
THE SO-CALLED CRIME OF 1873.
It is argued that the existing standard of value
ought to be abandoned because since 1873 prices of
commodities have fallen, and will continue to fall, if
the standard is maintained, so that it has been, and
will continue to be, more and more difficult each suc-
ceeding year to pay debts; that this fall in the prices
all commodities is attributable to the appreciation.
of gold, and that the appreciation in the value of gold
has been caused by the alleged demonetization of silver
in Germany in 1871 and 1873, the omission of the
standard silver dollar from the coinage of the United
States in 1873, and the suspension of the coinage of
silver by France in 1876. It is true that the prices
of many things have fallen since 1873, but it is true,
also, that the prices of many things had fallen long
before that date. The assertion that the fall in prices
since 1873 is due to the appreciation of gold alone is
based upon the assumption that the relations between
supply and demand have not changed, that there has
been no diminution of the cost of production and
distribution, that the facilities for effecting financial
exchanges have not been improved, and, in brief, that
the world has made no progress in the conduct of its
industrial and commercial operations for more than
wenty years. This assumption is so inconsistent with
well-known economical and historical facts that it
34
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
seems scarcely worth while to give it a serious con-
sideration. Reductions in the prices of commodities.
are generally due to so many different causes that it
is scarcely ever possible to ascertain the extent of their
separate influences. I presume, however, that even
the most ardent advocate of free coinage would be
willing to admit that the invention and use of labor-
saving machinery, the extension of our railroad systems,
the improvement of our water-ways and the great
reductions in the rates for carrying freight, the employ-
ment of steamships, the use of the telegraph on the
land and under the sea, the application of electricity
in the production of light, heat and power, the utiliza-
tion of by-products which were formerly wasted, the
introduction of more economical methods in the pro
cesses of production, the wonderful advance made by
our laborers in skill and efficiency, the greatly reduced
rates of interest paid for the use of capital, and many
other things which would require much time to
enumerate and explain, have affected prices in some
measure, at least, and yet they ignore all these great
influences in their argument upon the subject and
attribute the lower prices of commodities to a single
alleged and inadequate cause-the appreciation of gold.
I presume, also, that our free-coinage friends will admit
that if the change in prices has been caused entirely
by the appreciation of gold, the reduction would have
affected all things alike, because it cannot be denied.
that, in the absence of other influences, gold must bear
the same relation to the price of one article that it
bears the price of another. But we do not find that
the prices of all things have been reduced in the
same proportion, nor do we find that the prices.
of all things have in fact been reduced. It would

"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
35
require far more time than could be devoted to
the subject upon such an occasion
an occasion as this to
discuss the subject of prices in all its details, nor
is it necessary to do so for the purpose of this argument,
because a very few illustrations will serve to show the
weakness of the contention that the decline is due alone
to the appreciation of gold.
•
THE PRICES OF COMMODITIES AND THE WAGES
OF LABOR.
In 1891, 1892, and part of 1893, I had the
honor to serve on a sub-committee charged by the
Serlate of the United States with the duty of ascertain-
ing the course of prices and wages of labor for as long
a period as authentic records would enable us to em-
brace in our investigation, and, after a most thorough
and impartial examination of the subject, a report was
made which fills four large volumes and embodies.
a mass of information upon these subjects which cannot
be found in any other official form. As to the course
of prices and wages the committee was unanimous,
though there were differences of opinion among the
members as to the causes that had from time to time
produced the changes. The prices of many articles and
the wages of labor in many occupations were ascer-
tained during each year as far back as 1840, and for
the purposes of comparison the prices of commodities
and the wages of labor in the year 1860 were adopted
as the standard. The sufficiency of the reasons for
selecting that year rather than any other will not, I
think, be quesioned. There were no great financial or
other disturbances during that year, business was in
a normal condition in all parts of the country, no
changes had been made in the monetary systems of
36
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
the world for many years, the United States was using
gold as the measure of value, just as it is now, except
that there was no legal-tender silver in circulation
as there is now, the people were prosperous and the
prices of commodities and the wages of labor were
fairly adjusted with relation to each other. At the
time when this investigation was made all the legis-
lation in regard to silver now specifically complained
of had been accomplished, and if prices or wages had
fallen there was as much reason to attribute the reduc-
tion to that legislation then as there is now. Ample time
had been afforded for its effects, if it had any, upon
prices and wages to be felt, and the fact that the investi-
gation was not made for the purpose of influencing
legislation upon the silver question adds to the value
of its results.
In the first place, the committee unanimously
selected 232 articles in common use which it was agreed
constituted the great bulk of the consumption and
expenditures of the people, and these articles were
separated into eight classes or groups; that is, clothes
and clothing, fuel and lighting, metals and implements,
lumber and house-building materials, drugs and chem-
icals, house-furnishing goods, and miscellaneous com-
modities. It was found that the prices of articles used
for food, taking them altogether, had fallen less than
10 per cent. since 1873, while the prices of clothes and
clothing had fallen 32 per cent.; fuel and light nearly
24 per cent.; metals and implements, 35 per cent.;
lumber and building materials, nearly 20 per cent.;
drugs and chemicals, 31 per cent.; house-furnishing
goods, 27 per cent.; and miscellaneous articles, 10 per
cent. The prices for the year 1860 being taken as
the standard were represented by 100, and increases.
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
37
and decreases were shown by deviations from that
nurnber up or down, as the case might be. The investi-
gation showed that at the time it was made articles
of food stood at 103.9, or nearly 4 per cent. higher
than in 1860; clothes and clothing at 81.1; fuel and
lighting at 91; metals and implements at 74.9; lumber
and house-building materials at 122.3; drugs and chem-
icals at 86.3; house-furnishing goods at 70.1, and
miscellaneous articles at 95.1. These results of the
investigation establish three facts which have an im-
portant bearing upon the present controversy. The
first fact established is that the prices of articles of food
which are the products of the farms, gardens, orchards
and dairies of the country, were about 4 per cent. higher
than they were in the year 1860, long before the silver
legislation now complained of; the second is, that the
fall in the prices of these farm products since the year
1873 has been much less than the fall in the prices of
the commodities the farmers have to buy; and the third
is, that the reductions in price have not been uniform,
either as to particular articles or groups of articles,
and therefore cannot be attributed to one and the same
cause to the appreciation of gold, for instance. The
conclusion is inevitable that various influences have
operated to produce these changes in prices, some
affecting one group of articles, and some another,
and doubtless some affecting all, but to no one influence
dan the whole result be attributed. Cotton and wheat
are the commodities most frequently referred to by
those who contend that the fall in prices is due to the
appreciation of gold, but there is nothing whatever
in the methods of producing those articles or in trans-
porting or selling them, or in the character of the
money received for them, which would make the ap-
ป
38
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
preciation of gold affect their prices more than it would
affect the prices of other commodities produced by
other people. In addition to the various causes which
have more or less affected the prices of all articles,
the prices of these two products have been seriously
affected by the enormous increase in their production
since the year 1872, which was the last crop year pre-
ceding the legislation in regard to silver. The pro-
duction of cotton in this country in 1872-73 was
2,974,351 bales, containing an average of 439 pounds
net weight, while the production in 1893-94 was
7,549,817 bales, containing an average of 474 pounds
net weight, or an increase of nearly 200 per cent. in
this country alone, besides the great increase that has
taken place in competing countries; and in 1894-95
the production here was much larger, being nearly
10,000,000 bales. According to the statistics of the
Agricultural Department, the production of wheat in
this country in 1872 was 249,997,100 bushels, and in
1894, 460,267,416 bushels, or nearly twice as much,
and there has also been an enormous increase of pro-
duction in competing countries. But, gentlemen, not-
withstanding the great increase in the production of
cotton and wheat, here and in other countries, and the
consequent decline in their prices, a given quantity
of either of them will now purchase in our own markets
and in the markets abroad a larger share of many other
useful commodities than it would have purchased in
1872 or 1873, so that in fact, as compared with many
other things, the values of cotton and wheat have
appreciated.
THE RELATIONS OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND AFFECT
LABOR LESS THAN ANYTHING
The one thing which has been less affected by the
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
39
changes in the relation between supply and demand,
by improvements in the methods of production and.
distribution and by the other influences which produce
fluctuations in prices of commodities generally, is labor,
and it is by far the most important single source of
income possessed by our people, a much larger amount
being expended every year in the payment of wages.
than for any other one purpose. The cost of labor in
the manufacturing and mechanical industries alone.
during the census year 1889 was $2,283,216,529, which
was nearly two and one-half times the value of all the
wheat and cotton produced in this country; and if we
add to this the amounts paid for farm labor, for clerical
and other work in mercantile establishments, for do-
mestic service and for work on railways of all kinds,
on water crafts, on streets, and other improvements in
the cities, and in the many other occupations which give
employment to our people, we would have a sum
almost, if not quite, equal to the value of all our
agricultural products. It is evident, therefore, that if
the alleged depreciation of gold alone has caused a
reduction of prices, the wages of labor, the greatest
commodity in the market, should have fallen since.
1873; but exactly the reverse is true. The investiga-
tions of this subject by the sub-committee covered a
period of fifty-two years and embraced all the occupa-
tions in which our people were engaged, and the fact,
unanimously found, was that, although eighteen years.
had elapsed since the silver legislation, the wages of
labor were higher than in 1872 or 1873. Wages were
found to be nearly 61 per cent. higher than in 1860,
which was thirteen years before the silver legislation,
and more than 8 per cent. higher than in 1873, when
that legislation was adopted.
40
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
REDUCTION OF PRICES NOT DUE TO THE
APPRECIATION OF GOLD.
The argument that the reduction of prices is due
to the appreciation of gold is necessarily based upon
the further assumptions that the legislation in regard
to silver has produced a scarcity of redemption or
metallic money in the world, and that prices are fixed
and regulated by the amount of such money in circu-
lation, or available for circulation.
Neither of these assumptions is justified by
the facts. The most exhaustive efforts have been made
from time to time by the Treasury Department, through
the director of the Mint, by careful examinations of
the monetary statistics of other countries, by cor-
respondence with our diplomatic and consular repre-
sentatives abroad, and with foreign financial author-
ities, and otherwise, to ascertain the actual amount
of gold and silver used as money in the world, and the
result shows that there is now more gold and silver
in the aggregate, and more of each one of them, in
use as full legal-tender money than there ever was at
any other time in the history of the world. The gold
in use as money amounts to $3,965,900,000, the full
legal-tender silver amounts to $3,435,800,000, and the
limited legal-tender silver amounts to $619,900,000.
The policy of maintaining, or rather attempting to
maintain, the so-called double standard never suc-
ceeded in keeping so large an amount of full legal-
tender silver in circulation in the world as there is alt
this time, and one of the principal reasons for this is
that the effect of the policy was to drive first the coins
of one metal, and then the coins of the other into the
coffers of the hoarders, or into the melting-pots, because
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
41
they were undervalued in the coinage laws and would
not remain in use as money.
PER CAPITA.
I attach very little importance to the per capita
argument, because the amount of currency required
in a country depends mainly upon the volume of busi-
ness to be transacted and the customs of the people in
conducting their exchanges, and not at all upon the
number of men, women and children residing in it,
but, as there are a great many who believe that the
circulation should be regulated by the census returns,
it may be worth while to state that the production
of gold alone in 1890-and it is much larger now-
was nearly two and a half times greater than the
average annual production of gold and silver both
during the decade which closed with the year 1800.
In 1800 the population of all the countries in Europe
and America was 197,505,895, and the production of
both gold and silver amounted to $24.49 for every
hundred inhabitants, while in 1890 the population of
the same countries was 466,789,341, and the produc-
tion of gold alone was $118,849,000, which amounted
to $25.46 for every hundred inhabitants, or 95 cents
more for each hundred people than was furnished by
both metals during each year in the former decade.
In 1894 the population of these countries was 485,-
180,841, and the production of gold alone was $157,-
228,000, being $32.41 for each hundred inhabitants,
or $7.92 more for each hundred people than the total
of both metals during the last decade of the last cen-
tury. If, therefore, the people of Europe and America
had used as money all the gold and all the silver
annually produced in the world one hundred years
42 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
ago, they would not have received as large a per capita
addition to their stock of money as they would receive
now by adding the gold alone. In view of these facts.
I submit that the silver legislation of 1871, 1873 and
1876 has not diminished the world's supply of metallic
money as compared with former times and prevented
the single gold-standard countries from making as
great an annual addition to their stock of metallic cur-
rency.
Official monetary statistics show that in the gold-
standard countries of the world the stocks of money
are much larger per capita than in the silver-standard
countries. Taking the large gold-standard countries.
and the large silver-standard countries, it appears that
in 1894 the stock of money in the United States was
over $25 per capita, in the United Kingdom nearly $20,
and in Germany nearly $19, while in Mexico the per
capita was $4.71, and Russia and Finland $8.32, and in
China $3.26. The gold-standard countries use large
amounts of silver as money, but the silver-standard
countries use no gold as money, and cannot do so for the
reasons I have already endeavored to explain. But,
gentlemen, for the reasons already stated, the commer-
cial nations of the world do not now require the same
proportion of metallic money in the transaction of
their business that they required a few centuries
ago, or even one century ago. Credit has been
vastly extended and the use of paper in the
form of notes, checks, and bills has almost entirely
displaced metallic money in the daily business of the
people, and as long as these forms of credit are kept
equal in value to the metallic standard, the effect upon
the prices of commodities is precisely the same as if
the whole volume of circulation consisted of standard
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
43
coin, for, as long as equality in their value can be main-
tained the paper representatives of the dollar perform.
exactly the same office in the exchange of commodities
that gold dollars themselves would perform; but if
this equality is destroyed, the paper is discredited, its
purchasing power is diminished, and the people have no
longer a stable measure of value.
THE DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT TOWARD THE
DEBTOR CLASS.
One of the most effective arguments made by the
advocates of free coinage, in some parts of the country,
at least, is that the people are in debt, and that it is
the duty of the Government to relieve them by such
legislation as will enable them to procure cheap money
for the purpose of discharging their obligations, and
in support of this argument the most exaggerated
statements are made as to the depressed and suffering
condition of our farmers, wage-earners, and other pro-
ducing classes. This argument concedes that under
the proposed system of free coinage at the ratio of
16 to 1 all the various kinds of currency in use by the
people, including the silver dollar itself, would be worth
less than it is now, for, of course, if this is not to be the
result money would be no cheaper than it is now. To
assert that the people are in debt is simply to say that
they have traded with each other on credit, that one
part of our fellow-citizens, relying upon the integrity
and financial standing of their neighbors and acquaint-
ances, have lent them money on time and sold property
to them without demanding immediate payment in
cash, and that in this way they have enabled many
people to carry on a useful business and live in com-
fortable homes who otherwise could not have done so.
44. “À DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
If it is a crime to lend money to a man who wants to
borrow it, or to sell property on credit to a man who
wants to purchase it, and has no ready money to pay
for it, let the perpetrators be properly punished, but
let us not involve the whole country in confusion and
disaster and immolate the innocent and guilty alike
in order to punish the real offenders. If our people
are in debt they owe each other, and, consequently,
about as many would be actually injured as would be
apparently benefitted by scaling the obligations down
to a silver standard. The indebtedness of the farmers,
mechanics, and other laboring classes of our people,
although large in the aggregate, is quite small in com-
parison with the whole indebtedness of the great rail-
road and manufacturing corporations, the national and
State banks, savings institutions, trust companies,
building associations, and other organizations engaged
in financial and commercial enterprises. These various
organizations are indebted to the people to the extent
of many billions of dollars, and while it is true that
many of the people are also indebted to them, their
debtors and creditors are not the same persons, and,
therefore, the debts cannot be set off against each
other and extinguished in that way. I deny that there
is any such thing as a distinct "debtor class" in this
country, for, while nearly every one owes some debts,
large or small, nearly every one has also some debts
owing to him; in other words, he is both debtor and
creditor. The laboring people, as a general rule, owe,
very little at any one time, while their employers are
always indebted to them, because wages are not paid in
advance; and besides, many of them have small deposits
in savings and other banks, in trust companies, in
building associations, and large numbers of them have
‘A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
45
their lives insured for the benefit of their wives and
children, and consequently they are creditors to the
banks and the insurance companies. The savings bank
depositors in this country last year numbered 4,777,687,
and the wives and children of the depositors who de-
pended upon these accumulated earnings for future.
support doubtless numbered 10,000,000 more. There
were 1,925,340 depositors in the national banks last
year, and 1,724,077 of them had deposits of less than
$1,000 each, while State and private banks and loan
trust companies held deposits for 1,436,638 people.
Our life insurance companies, to say nothing of com-
panies insuring property against loss by fire and other-
wise, had 7,505,870 policies outstanding last year,
upon which the premiums had been paid, or were being
paid, by the people, and the mutual benefit and assess-
ment companies had 3,478,000 members. The building
and loan associations had nearly 2,000,000 members,
all of whom had paid their money in as required by the
rules of the body to which they belonged. Here, then,
are about 21,000,000 of our people, generally poor,
or at least people of moderate means, who have given
credit to these great corporations and companies, and,
in my opinion, it would be a grievous wrong to adopt
any policy which would deprive them of the legal
right to demand and receive just as good money as
they parted with when they made their deposits in the
banks or paid the premiums on their insurance policies.
The hard-earned savings of the poor ought not to be
sacrificed to the avarice of the wealthy mine-owners
or the ambition of aspiring politicians, and if the people
who have a substantial interest in the welfare of the
country and a just appreciation of their responsibilities
as citizens will exert their proper influence in public
affairs this great wrong can never be perpetrated.
46
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
WE HAVE AN ABUNDANCE OF MONEY FOR THE
PURPOSES OF TRADE.
Mr. President, but little remains for me to say
before bringing these remarks to a conclusion. It is
not my purpose to discuss upon this occasion the
various propositions which have been made from time
to time for the improvement of our banking system,
or for the retirement of United States notes, because
the questions involved in them are so important and
so large that they cannot be properly considered in
connection with the subject to which my time has been
devoted. We have an abundance of money in his
country for all the purposes of trade, and the disturb-
ances and hard times of 1893 and 1894 were not
caused by a scarcity or contraction of the currency,
but by a contraction of credit resulting from a loss
of confidence in the stability and value of our currency.
So far as the mere volume of our currency is concerned,
we had then and have now an ample supply for all
necessary purposes, but under the existing system it
is not properly distributed and is not sufficiently elastic
to meet all the changing requirements of business at
different periods of the year. The United States should
go entirely out of the banking business by the with-
drawal of its arbitrary and compulsory issue of notes.
and afford the people an opportunity to supply their
own currency based upon their own means and credit,
thus enabling every community to utilize its own re
sources when necessary and adjust the circulation from
time to time to the actual demands of legitimate com
merce. In what way this shall be accomplished is a
question which has already engaged the serious atten
tion of the people and public authorities, and it will
no doubt continue to be investigated and discussed
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
47
until a plan is formulated which, if not perfect, will
at least have the merit of being a great improvement
upon the existing system. In the meantime our highest
duty is to preserve the present standard of value, main-
tain the parity of the two metals and keep all the
money in circulation among the people, whether it be
gold and silver coins, or paper based upon them, equal
in purchasing power, so that no discrimination will
or can be made between those who receive silver or
paper and those who receive gold. A great govern-
ment should do nothing to discredit its own obligations
or diminish the value of the money in the hands of
its citizens, nor should the people of a great country
ever consent to the adoption of a policy, through ex-
perimental financial legislation or otherwise, which
would vitiate the obligations of their contracts, inter-
rupt the regular course of their business and destroy
the foundations upon which their industrial and com-
mercial systems have been constructed. The spirit
of conservatism is still strong among our people, and,
notwithstanding the delusive promises and selfish
appeals that are now largelv influencing their opinions
in some parts of the country, the truth will ultimately
prevail and I have no doubt of the result when the
time for final action comes.
Gentlemen, I thank you for your polite attention
and for the opportunity you have given me to say
something upon this great subject to an audience of
Southern men. We are all Americans, all citizens of
the same great republic, and while it endures the for-
tunes of the North, South, East and West will be bound.
indissolubly together. There can be no antagonistic
interest, no prosperity in one section at the expense
of another, but we must all stand or fall together. So
1
48
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
believing, I have spoken to you to-day without reserva-
tion or exaggeration in behalf of that policy which,
in my judgment, will most certainly promote the wel-
fare and preserve the credit and honor of our whole
country.
Great applause followed, at the conclusion of
which the Convention adjourned until 8 o'clock p. m.
THE NIGHT SESSION.
There was some delay in the convening of the
night session owing to the delay of the committee on
resolutions, and before Chairman Rose was ready to
report, there was a slight interim of inactivity. Before
the report was read, S. S. Cobb of Florida offered the
following resolution:
Resolved, That in order to promulgate fully and
freely the principles of sound money so ably set forth
by Hon. John G. Carlisle in his speach before the
convention this day, we hereby recommend that the
local committee arrange for printing same in pamphlet
form.
Resolved further, That we pledge the various
organizations we represent to contribute toward the
expense of above, in proportion to the number of
copies desired by each for free distribution.
This resolution was passed, and Chairman Catch-
ings then stated that Chairman Rose was ready with
his report. Mr. Rose read the report, which is as
follows:
THE PLATFORM.
The people of the Southern States, who believe
the maintenance of a sound and stable currency to bę
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
49
F
"
essential to the prosperity of the whole country and
the welfare of the people in all the vocations of life, do
through their representatives in convention assembled.
at Memphis on May 23, 1895, make the following
declaration of their matured convictions:
1. Believing a uniform and certain standard of
value necessary to the agricultural, commercial and
industrial development and prosperity of our common
country, we favor the maintenance of all our money,
whether gold, silver or paper, on a parity to the end
that each dollar, whatever may be its composition,
shall have equal purchasing and debt-paying power
with every other dollar.
2. Profiting by the experience of Washington,
Jefferson and Hamilton, and the teachings of the great
students of monetary science from the time when John
Locke wrote to the discussion of the present day, we
accept the truth of the principles now universally rec-
ognized and applied in the commercial world, that the
bimetallic standard cannot be maintained where the
ratio fixed by law for the free coinage of gold and
silver does not correspond with the market ratio of
the two metals; and that wherever and whenever the
legal or coinage ratio varies from the market or com-
mercial ratio to any appreciable extent, the dollar,
whether of gold or silver, which thereby becomes more
valuable as bullion than as money, will go to a pre-
mium and retire from circulation. We saw this prin-
ciple applied in our own national experience when,
under the act of 1792, which fixed the coinage ratio
at 15 to 1, gold retired from circulation, because of a
slight decline in the price of silver in the open market,
whereby the bullion in a gold dollar became worth a
few cents more than the bullion in a silver dollar, and
+
50
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
was therefore sold as a commodity, because it was
worth more as bullion than as money, and again, under
the act of 1834, which fixed the ratio at 16 to 1, when
the silver coin retired for a like reason.
We are,
therefore, opposed to the free, unlimited and inde-
pendent coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, when
the market or commercial ratio is more than 30 to I,
and the difference between the bullion value of a gold
and a silver dollar is about 50 cents, on the ground.
that such action, instead of restoring the bimetallic
standard, would inevitably result in silver monometal-
lism.
3. At this time there is no country in the world
which maintains the bimetallic standard; and neither
is there any country where the free coinage of silver
obtains which is not on a silver basis. Each country,
on account of its inability to adopt independently any
bimetallic standard, must elect itself which it prefers,
the gold or the silver standard. We therefore favor,
in the absence of international co-operation, the reten-
tion and maintenance of the existing gold standard;
Because a change from the gold to the silver
standard would have the effect to repudiate all public
and private obligations to the extent of the difference
between the bullion value of the gold and silver dollar.
Because whenever such change should be serious-
ly threatened, it would cause an immediate attempt
at a collection and liquidation of all debts in anticipa-
tion of the result it would produce;
Because such transition from the gold to the
silver basis would destroy public and private confi-
dence, and would involve the country in such panic,
confusion and distress that the products of agriculture
and the wages of labor would be unremunerative; the
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
51
1
business of commerce would become unprofitable, and
our people engaged in industrial occupations would be
thrown out of employment;
Because there is not a progressive, an enlightened
country in the world which has not elected gold as the
preferable standard;
Because gold standard countries retain silver in
their circulation on a parity with gold, whereas there
is no silver standard country which does or can utilize
gold as money;
Because there is not a silver country on the globe
where the wages of labor are sufficient to sustain the
working classes in comfort and independence, and
finally,
Because the high destiny of the United States.
demands for the use of the American people that
money which experience has taught mankind to be
the best suited for the promotion of commerce, the
development of manufactories, the encouragement of
labor and the advancement of civilization.
4. We would rejoice over the adoption of real
bimetallism; but in view of the continued fluctuations.
in the price of silver in the open markets, we realize
that it is impossible for the United States independently
to adopt a bimetallic standard; and we deem it unwise
and hazardous to the best interests of its people for
this country to attempt its establishment. We favor
the policy of this country standing in the attitude of
readiness at all times to co-operate with the other com-
mercial powers in any effort they may inaugurate
looking to the adoption of true bimetallism; but in
the meantime and until successful co-operation is in-
sured, to maintain inviolate its existing standard of
value.
52
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
5. We favor the retention as part of our money
the silver now coined, and in order to give a wider
field for the use of silver, we favor the funding of all
money other than silver and silver certificates below
the denomination of ten dollars into higher denomi-
nations, so as to make our entire circulation below
the denomination of ten dollars, either silver or silver
certificates; and to this end, the secretary of the treas-
ury should be authorized by law to coin from time to
time, as the people may require them, silver dollars.
until the demand of commerce for money below the
denomination of ten dollars is at all times satisfied.
6. We realize that our national banking system
was adopted during a time of war, and that it is not
adapted to existing conditions. We, therefore, favor
such legislation as will secure to the people a system
of banking surrounded by such safeguards as will at
all times furnish them a safe, elastic and sufficient
currency for the transaction of their business.
7. We cannot too highly commend the unflagging
courage and sturdy patriotism of President Cleveland
in his efforts to protect the national honor and to
maintain the public credit during a period of great
financial distress and under conditions which threat-
ened danger to both; and we congratulate him and
the entire country on the evidences of returning pros-
perity.
After the adoption of the Platform, the Hon. Josiah
Patterson was called for, and amidst enthusiastic cheers,
he arose and spoke as follows:
1
J
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
53
HON. JOSIAH PATTERSON'S GREAT SPEECH.
Gentlemen of the Convention-I am not in the
humor to make a speech this evening. Like an old
soldier who has gone through a hard campaign, I
need rest. I have had the success of this convention
greatly at heart, and from the day the business organ-
izations of Memphis called it to assemble I have devoted
my time, unremittingly, to bringing our people to-
gether on this occasion. (Applause.)
I am proud of its success. It is a memorable con-
vention, and its achievements will mark an epoch in
the Southern States.
THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY.
Born and reared in the South, with all my affec-
tions and my sympathies with this people, I was
earnestly desirous for the thoughtful men of the South
to inaugurate a movement in our own midst in the
interest of sound money. I felt that we were misunder-
stood abroad. I felt that there was need of an awaken-
ing, so far as our people are concerned. It seems to
me that I see, in the near future, the dawn of unsur-
passed prosperity. It seems to me that the attention
of the whole country is being turned toward the
Southern States. Our magnificent resources—-agricul-
tural, manufacturing and industrial-the wealth of
our soil, and the salubrity of our climate all conspire
to invite immigration, capital and enterprise to come.
amongst us.
ROTTEN BOROUGH STATES.
I have also been earnestly desirous that these
54
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
i
Southern States should not break away from their old
alignments, and their old allies, to cast their fortunes
with the rotten borough States west of the Missouri
river. (Applause.) I see nothing in store for them but
disaster in that direction. All of our rivers run in the
other direction; all of our railroads run in the other
direction; all of our coastwise trade goes in the other
direction; all of our commercial relations are with the
people who live east of the Missouri river and north
of the Potomac and Ohio rivers. There is the seat
of empire in this great republic, and there are to be
found all the old allies of the Southern States.
Take the eighteen States lying there-the six New
England States, the four Middle States, Maryland,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin
and Minnesota, eighteen in all-and they have thirty
majority in the electoral college, and forty-six majority
in the lower house of Congress. It is impossible for
the people of the Southern States to unite their fortunes
with the people of the Rocky Mountains, and expect to
control the destinies of this great country, or to materi-
ally shape its policy. The idea of cutting loose from
our old associations, political and commercial, and
forming an alliance with the Populists, who inhabit
these sparsely settled States, which were admitted into
the Union for the purpose of embarrassing the South,
would, it seems to me, be an act of consummate folly.
To unite with these States and allow them, through
our instrumentality, to absolutely control the Senate.
of the United States is preposterous. In that case we
could not control the house of representatives, or the
executive department of the Government, and all that
we could possibly accomplish by such an alignment.
would be to control the Senate, and thereby destroy
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
55
confidence in the public credit and prevent remedial
financial legislation.
STATE REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS
Gentlemen of the Convention, think of it. The
great States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and
Illinois have a representation of eight in the Senate
of the United States, whereas the States of Nevada,
Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have an equal number
of senators and only four representatives in the lower
house. Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming have six sen-
ators and three representatives, and the three States.
combined have not the population of my congressional
district. And yet it is proposed for these Southern
States to unite their fortunes with these rotten boroughs.
(Applause.)
TWO PRICES FOR SILVER, ONE FOR COTTON.
I protest against it. I appeal to the people of the
South to desist and not make this fatal blunder.
Should the alliance be formed and should it ac-
complish the behest of the Stewarts and Peffers and
Simpsons of the Rocky Mountains it could only result
in securing for the mine-owners two prices for their
silver bullion, while the deluded people of the South
would continue to receive only one price for their
cotton; for, be it always remembered, no matter what
may be our standard of value, that the people of the
South will continue to clothe the world, and they must,
whether they would have it that way or not, sell their
cotton in the open markets of the world for gold. To
them the free coinage of silver means nothing more.
nor less than the exchange of the gold which they
will receive for their cotton for the cheap silver dollars,
56
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
and, in the process, to be eaten up by the money
changers of the world. (Applause.)
AMBASSADORS OF TRUTH.
Gentlemen of the Convention, after the very
remarkable and able address delivered by Mr. Carlisle,
you will pardon me if I do not undertake to discuss,
in detail, the financial question. You are going to
your homes; you are about to take your leave and go
out among your people. Each one of you should be
an ambassador of the truth, sent out by this great
convention to all the communities you represent to
propagate sound money ideas. Remember, when you
start on this mission, that the Southern people are
the most conservative people in the United States. As
I look into the faces of the men composing this con-
vention I realize that nine out of ten of you are
descended from revolutionary sires. Our people are
not agrarians. Our people are not communists. Our
people are not socialists. By education and tradition
they have acquired no disposition to do otherwise than
to solve public questions, as liberty-loving and self-
respecting citizens; and, in my judgment, when the
currency question is fully discussed before them, and
they are made to understand its merits, they will render
their verdict for sound money. (Applause.) I have
perfect confidence in the result of their action when
the discussion is had, and the problem is understood.
Our people have never had the subject of the cur-
rency thoroughly discussed before them. The truth
is, the literature which they have been reading on the
subject has been perverted literature, literature that
taught them in the wrong direction. What we need
is a more perfect understanding of simple financial
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
57
truths. When you go out among your people do not
content yourselves with the distribution of the great
speech made by Mr. Carlisle, but endeavor to plant into
the minds of your fellow-citizens, everywhere, a few
very plain truths.
PERVERTED LITERATURE.
This man Harvey, up here in Illinois, inaugurated
what he called a financial school. He surrounded him-
self with learned professors, experienced bankers and
business men, learned lawyers and quick-witted editors.
It is true, they all existed, so far as their presence in
his school was concerned, only in his imagination.
He propounded his own questions to gentlemen who
were not present, and then answered them in his own
way, to suit himself. His facts were frequently as
fictitious as his audience, and his logic was as erroneous
as his premises were false. (Applause.)
TEACHERS OF SOUND MONEY.
When you retire from this convention go to your
homes and constitute yourselves teachers of sound
money ideas, in a school composed of your neighbors.
If you have a neighbor who is talking about establish-
ing the bimetallic standard, then show him how im-
possible it is for this country, alone, to accomplish that
undertaking. Tell him it is not a matter of choice; that
we would all establish the bimetallic standard if this
country could do it, but that, judging from all history,
and all human experience, it is simply impossible. Point
out to him the historical truth that gold retired from
circulation under the act of 1792, establishing the ratio
of 15 to 1, because silver bullion declined a few cents
on the dollar in the open market, and thereby the bul-
58
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
lion in the gold dollar became worth 4 or 5 cents more
as bullion than it was as money, and this was a suffi-
cient inducement to cause the speculators to gather
up gold and sell it as a commodity, thereby destroying
its use as money. Tell him that under the act of 1834
silver retired from circulation because the silver dollar
was worth 2 or 3 cents more as bullion than it was as
money. When you have convinced him of these
historical truths, within our own experience as
a government, then ask him how it is possible to main-
tain the bimetallic standard at the ratio of 16 to 1,
when the difference of the bullion value of a gold and
silver dollar is 50 cents? It is impossible for any
thoughtful and intelligent man, in the face of our own
experience, the enlightened judgment of the commer-
cial world and the teachings of all the standard writers,
from John Locke down to John G. Carlisle, to conclude
that the free coinage of silver, at the ratio of 16 to 1,
can possibly result otherwise than in silver mono-
metallism. (Great applause.)
BIMETALLISM AND PER CAPITA.
Gentlemen of the Convention: When you come
in contact with an advocate of free coinage, challenge
him to point out a single country in all the world which
maintains the bimetallic standard. Tell him that you
will wait on him to consult his books; tell him, in his
imagination to travel over the hemispheres and the
continents, and defy him to refer you to one country
in all the world that has the bimetallic standard. He
will not be able to show you one. Then propound to
him another question. Ask him if he knows a country
on the globe where the free coinage of silver obtains
that is not absolutely at the single silver standard.
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
59
When you have propounded this question to him, tell
him to consult his geography; let him read history;
let him think about it, and work over the problem,
and, if he is an honest and intelligent man, he will
ascertain that, in all the world, there is not one country
where the free coinage of silver obtains that it is not
absolutely on a silver basis. (Applause.) You may
come across a neighbor who will tell you that he is
in favor of a larger per capita circulation. To such a
man, you might ask him how the free coinage of silver
would increase the per capita circulation, and call upon
him to name a silver country in all the world that has
as much as five dollars per capita in silver in its circu-
lation. Give him time to inquire, and he will find that
Mexico, the most prosperous of all the silver countries,
has less than $5 per capita in circulation, while this
country has more than $9 per capita in silver, and, in
addition, a vast volume of gold and paper money. When
you have enlightened him on that point, go a little
further, and ask him if he can find a gold country in
all the world which does not use silver very largely
in its circulation. Challenge him to name one gold
country that doesn't use silver as money. After deliber-
ating over that proposition, your neighbor will not
be able to point out one such country. Then when you
have got this fact riveted in his mind, propound to
him another question, and ask him if he knows a silver
country in the world that uses gold at all as money,
or has any gold whatever in circulation. When he
has investigated along that line, he will find that there
is not one silver country in all the world that uses gold
as money. Point out to your neighbor who advocates
free silver which are the gold and which are the silver
countries; say to him, here are the gold countries: The
*F
бо
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
A
United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austro-
Hungary, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Nor-
way, Sweden, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzer-
land, Servia, Greece, Roumania, Turkey, Egypt,
Australia, Cuba, Canada and Brazil; tell him these are
the gold countries of the world, and then tell him that
Japan, China, India, the Straits, Mexico, the Central
American States, the South American republics, other
than Brazil, and the half-civilized nations of Africa,
are the silver countries of the world. He can then,
by his vote, take his choice. At this point you are.
prepared to challenge the intelligence and conscience
of your neighbor by asking him if he can name a coun-
try in all the world which is at the silver standard
where Christianity and civilization are advancing,
where trade and commerce prosper, where schools
and colleges flourish, where the arts and sciences are
in the ascendant, where government is permanent,
where men and women are comparatively happy, and
where the man who toils in the field or workshop gets
a good wage for a day's work, and he will not be able
to name you one. (Applause.)
THE UNIT OF VALUE.
Tell him finally, Gentlemen of the Convention, that
gold does not furnish the unit of value; that silver does
not furnish the unit of value; that the real unit of value
-the unit of value recognized by God and humanity-
is a day's work! (Great applause.)
Tell your people, Gentlemen of the Convention,
that when they find the country where a day's work
will buy the most, there they will find civilization in
its highest development. Tell them the way to measure
the unit of value is to find out how much a day's
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
61
1
work will buy; how much gold it will buy; how much
silver it will buy; how much clothing it will buy; how
much food it will buy; how much rent it will buy; how
much, in short, of all the necessaries and luxuries of
life it will purchase, and when you find that country
where it will buy the most, there you will find the
greatest happiness and prosperity; for, at least, the
whole beneficent structure of human society rests upon
the shoulders of labor. (Applause.) Your people will
agree to this, for it has been taught by the sages, the
philosophers and the benefactors of mankind for
centuries.
+
WAGES IN SILVER COUNTRIES.
But go further, and ask your neighbor to point
to one silver country in the world in which a day's
work will earn a good wage. (Applause.) You may
defy the advocates of free silver upon this point with
impunity, because, in all the broad world, there is not
one silver country where a day's work will secure to
the toiler a wage which will support him in comfort
and independence.
Some few weeks ago I was in the city of Washing-
ton. I handed in to the office of the Secretary of State
a list of the gold and silver countries of the world, and
requested that experts be put to work upon the con-
sular reports from all the countries of the world, show-
ing the weekly wages paid labor in each. I have in
my possession the result of that investigation, and
the report demonstrates the fact that there is not a
country on the earth which is on the silver basis where
the laboring people are prosperous. Some of our free
silver friends are in the habit of referring to the pros-
perity of Mexico. The man who labors in the United
62
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
States-and I refer alike to skilled and unskilled
laborers—is paid about twice as much, in gold, as is
paid in silver in Mexico, and the purchasing power of
a dollar earned by the American laborer is nearly twice
as great as the purchasing power of that earned by the
Mexican.
It may be said that we are a highly civilized and
enlightened country, and should not be contrasted with
Mexico. Well, then, compare Mexico with Cuba. That
is a Spanish country, and the laboring man in Cuba
earns as much in gold as the laboring man in Mexico
earns in silver. Cross the ocean, reduce the currency
of Russia, which until within the last few weeks
was on a silver basis, to a gold basis, and then
compare the wages earned by an English laborer
with those earned in Russia, and you will find
that the Englishman gets nearly three times
as much for a day's work as the Russian. Go
beyond the confines of civilization and compare
the laborer in heathen Turkey with the laborer in
heathen China, and when you reduce the Chinese
money to a gold basis you will find that the mechanic
in Turkey gets nearly three times as much for a day's
work as he does in China; and so it is all over the
world. (Applause.)
SOUND MONEY ADVOCATES THE CHAMPIONS OF
THE POOR.
Gentlemen of the Convention, our silver friends.
will find out, as this discussion progresses, that they are
not the champions of the poor, that they are not
the champions of the farmer, but that the advocates.
of sound money are, in truth, fighting their battles.
(Applause.)
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.” 63
WHO ARE THE DEBTORS AND WHO THE CREDITORS?
•
The advocates of free silver are, everywhere, con-
tending that this is a contest between creditors and
debtors, and they never tire in their efforts to array
class against class. Who are the creditors and who
are the debtors? Our friends say the banks, but I
think the depositors are the creditors, and the banks
the debtors. During this panic where has the gold
been driven? It has been driven into the vaults of
the banks. Force the country to a silver basis, and
gold to a premium of 50 cents, and who is going to
profit by the free coinage of silver? I say the banks.
would reap the profits and the depositors would be
the sufferers. I made this remark one day in the
course of a speech, and a gentleman asked me, "Well
then, if that be true, why do the banks insist on main-
taining the gold standard?" My reply was, "That if
bankers lived to make one great profit out of the
misfortunes of their customers, they would no doubt
want the country to go to a silver basis, but if they
proposed to carry on their business for a lifetime,
and for their children to carry it on after them, they
would, I suppose, rather live in a prosperous country
for all time than to rob their neighbors once.” (Ap-
plause.)
Look at the great life insurance companies of the
country. The agent of one of these corporations told.
me a few days ago that his company carried insurance.
amounting to $800,000,000. I see it stated that the
life insurance in this country will foot up more than
$4,000,000,000. Who pays the premiums on this vast
sum? The people. In what money? In gold or its equi-
valent. How long have they been paying them? Some
Uor M
64
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
of them for a quarter of a century. I ask, who are the
creditors, the life insurance companies or the policy
holders? You and I know that these great corpora-
tions have been investing the premiums paid them by
the people in gold assets for many years. Drive gold
to a premium and the country to a silver basis, and
who will get the difference between the bullion value of
the gold and the silver dollars? Will it be the widows
and children of the insured or the great corporations?
Gentlemen of the Convention, I will tell you who
are the creditors of the country; they are the men and
women who work for salaries, and the toiling mil-
lions who work for wages. Suppose you take your
pencil and make a statement of the amount paid the
men and women who work for salaries, and then the
I
amount paid the millions who work for wages.
do not know what the amount will be, but I believe
it will reach, monthly, a sum almost equal to the
national debt.
Gentlemen of the Convention, I have been drawn
into this discussion much further than I intended to
be, but pardon me, if I engage your attention for a
few moments longer (cries of "Go on!" "Go on!" "Go
on!") in order that I may discuss, for a little while,
one subject which Secretary Carlisle, from motives of
delicacy, omitted to refer to.
I admire the dignity of the Secretary, when he
leaves it to history to defend the administration of
Grover Cleveland, but I cannot let this occasion pass
without referring briefly to the recent panic, the causes
which led up to it, its duration and the course of the
administration in respect to it.
Maou
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
65
THE BLAND-ALLISON ACT. GOOD MONEY ALWAYS
GIVES WAY TO BAD MONEY.
In 1878 what is known as the Bland-Allison act
was passed, by which this country was required to
purchase and coin, at the ratio of 16 to 1, each month
not less than two nor more than four million silver
dollars. This law was to continue forever. Take
the minimum and it meant twenty-four million dollars
annually, or two hundered and forty million dollars.
every ten years, for all time to come. Under that act
we coined about three hundred and eighty-three mil-
lion silver dollars, and it is certain that if it had con-
tinued in force it would ultimately have driven us
to a silver basis. Nothing is truer than that where.
a country has sound and unsound money in concurrent
circulation the sound money will go away and let
cheap money take its place. No American silver dollar
has ever left our territorial limits, because here it is
held on a parity with gold, whereas elsewhere it will
go for its commercial value. Drive a nail through the
center of a silver dollar, and it is worth 50 cents. Drive a
nail through a gold dollar, and it is still worth 100 cents.
Tried by fire, the gold dollar, when melted, is worth
100 cents, tried by fire, the silver dollar, when melted.
is worth fifty cents. From the 1st of January, 1862,
to the 1st of January, 1879, covering a period of
seventeen years, the American people dug out of the
ground and sold to foreign countries gold and silver
which, if coined into dollars, would have made a sum
two hundered and forty-seven millions greater than
the very flood-tide of our greenback and national bank
circulation. This great fact in our history demon-
strates that good money always gives way to bad
66 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
money, and I have no doubt that the four hundred
and twenty-two million of silver dollars which we now
have in circulation, have, in the operations of com-
merce, displaced better money. Mr. Cleveland, time
and again, warned the country, during his first ad-
ministration, that the Bland-Allison act would lead to
disaster. He was not heeded because at that time the
confidence of the people and of the world in our cur-
rency was unimpaired. On the 14th of July, 1890,
the Bland-Allison act was repealed, and the Sherman
law was passed, whereby the Government was required.
to purchase 4,500,000 ounces of silver each month.
This meant 54,000,000 each year, and 540,000,000
every ten years for all time to come. Who, with the
experience through which we have passed, will wonder
that commerce, under these conditions, should have
taken alarm?
DECREASE IN THE PAYMENT OF CUSTOMS DUTIES
IN GOLD FOLLOWED BY THE GREAT PANIC.
When Mr. Cleveland retired from the presidency
on the 4th of March, 1889, such was the confidence
in the currency, that 90 per cent. of all the money
that entered the treasury through the custom houses
was paid in gold. On the 1st of January, 1891, it had
fallen to 75 per cent. Our securities from abroad
then began to seek our markets, and by the 1st of
January, 1892, it had fallen to 40 per cent. We could
then see a cloud in the horizon, which forbode that
there might be a storm. By the 1st of January, 1893,
the gold receipts amounted to only 8 per cent. of our
revenues, and then the rising storm was plainly visible.
On the 4th of March, 1893, when Mr. Cleveland was
inaugurated a second time, it had fallen to 4 per cent.,
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
67
and you could then hear the mutterings of the thunder,
and see the lightning flash, as the cyclone approached.
By the 1st of April, 1893, the gold reserve had fallen
to 2 per cent., and then India suspended the free
coinage of silver, and it took a wild leap downward,
and gold ceased, entirely, to flow into the treasury.
For sixty days prior to the date on which Mr. Cleve-
land called Congress into extra session, not one grain
of gold found its way into the treasury of the United
States. The country, like a heavy-laden ship, storm-
ridden and rocking in the trough of an angry sea,
was literally swallowed up in the maelstrom of a great
financial panic. Now confidence was destroyed between
man and man. First, confidence was impaired in
the public credit, and then the disease reached out,
until it struck private credit, when all money was
hoarded, and all trust between man and man was prac-
tically destroyed.
CREDIT THE BASIS OF ALL COMMERCIAL
TRANSACTIONS.
He who believes the commerce of the world is
conducted simply by the use of money is a stranger
to the laws of trade, and the instrumentalities which
civilized mankind employ for the transaction of their
business. Money is one thing, credit is another.
Ninety-five per cent. of all our commercial transactions
are credit, while not more than 5 per cent. involves
the actual use of money. Money is the standard by
which a people conduct their commerce, but credit
is the instrumentality employed. He who would so
legislate as to inject 5 per cent. of depreciated money
into the circulation, and, at the same time, strike
down 50 per cent. of the credit of the country is a mad-
68
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
man, parading under the guise of a statesman. (Ap-
plause.)
REPEAL OF THE SHERMAN LAW, AND THE
BOND ISSUES.
After a long struggle the purchasing clause of the
Sherman law was repealed, and immediately some.
degree of confidence was felt in the pulsations of trade
and commerce. Gold again flowed sporadically into
the treasury, the receipts amounting one day to 50 per
cent. of the revenues. But Congress again assembled
on the first Monday of December and the country was
again flooded with free silver literature. Such was the
opposition the administration met at the hands of
Congress that returning confidence was chilled, and
gold again ceased to flow through the revenue chan-
nels into the treasury. The whole world seemed to
take alarm at the frantic pleas which were then being
made for the free coinage of silver, and stagnation
ruled in all the marts of trade and commerce. Dis-
trusting our currency, the people were drawing the
gold reserve out of the treasury. Mr. Carlisle adver-
tised and sold $50,000,000 of bonds for gold. The
purchasers drew the gold out of the treasury to pay
for the bonds, and the country secured no relief.
Another $50,000,000 were sold, with the same result.
At this time the country was in extreme distress, and
it is a fact that in the open markets of the world a
preference was shown for the bonds of the little king-
dom of Portugal over the bonds of this great country.
Then it was that Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle called
into consultation the greatest bankers of the world.
It was their purpose not only to bring gold into the
country, but to prevent the gold reserve from further
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
69
drainage. These bankers offered to purchase, at par,
3 per cent., 30-year bonds, payable in gold, or a 4 per
cent. bond at $1.04, payable in coin. This made a
difference in the two propositions of about $16,500,000
to the American people-that is to say, if the Govern-
ment would promise to pay that which it borrowed,
it would make a difference of $16,500,000 to the
people; whereas, if it promised to pay only in coin,
it would lose that amount. At this juncture the Pres-
ident sent his message to Congress, laying the facts.
before it, accompanied with the bold and patriotic
declaration that he intended to preserve the national
honor and maintain the national credit at every hazard.
Under these conditions the fifty-third Congress
not only blew a hurricane of free silver speeches into
the face of the administration, but deliberately voted
$16,500,000 into the gutter, rather than to allow the
Government to make a promise to pay back that which
it borrowed. Mr. Bryan of Nebraska, who is advertised
by the advocates of free silver to reply to Mr. Carlisle
in this city to-morrow evening, declared on the floor
of the house that he would rather lay down his life.
than to vote for a law which obligated the Govern-
ment to return, in kind, that which it borrowed. I
do not understand this sort of public or private
morality. (Applause.) If one farmer borrows from
another a bushel of meal, and the borrower promises
to return a bushel of as good meal, that is considered
neighborly and honest; but when a government bor-
rows gold, and will have nothing but gold, and nothing
but gold will answer its necessities, it is considered
an injustice to the people constituting that govern-
ment to return the thing borrowed. The bonds were
sold at $1.04, and then, because they went up in price,
:
70
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
on account of returning confidence, abuse is heaped
upon the President. The bankers who took the bonds
entered into a solemn contract to keep the foreign
exchanges down below the point where it would be
profitable to ship gold out of the country, and this
has resulted in the preservation of the gold reserve.
intact. Every day since the contract was made, these
bankers, and those who have subscribed for the bonds,
have had a standing offer to sell exchange on foreign
countries at such a rate as to make the shipment of
gold undesirable. The bankers have borne the expense
of this transaction, and yet nothing is said about it
by those who assail the administration. Confidence
is restored in our currency. Prices have gone up,
trade is improving, manufactories are in full blast,
and we have, all around us, the evidences of returning
prosperity. Notwithstanding the commercial world
attributes this result to the able and patriotic states-
manship of the administration, yet the advocates of
cheap money never tire in their denunciation of a
patriotic executive, who never falters in the discharge.
of public duty. (Applause.)
PERIODS OF GREATEST PROSPERITY AND
DEPRESSION.
Gentlemen of the Convention: There is one other
phase of the silver question presented in the history
of the country, to which I would have you call the
attention of the people. If you were to ask the farmers
of the Southern States to state at what period of our
history they were most prosperous, they would answer,
to a man, from 1850 up to the breaking out of the war,
and yet, during that period, it is absolutely true that
the United States was at the gold standard. It had,
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
71
practically, no silver in circulation, except subsidiary
silver, and no silver was being coined, except under
the act of 1853, which provided for the coinage of the
half-dollar, quarter and dime, at the rate of 384 grains
to the dollar. This period stands out boldly and dis-
tinctively as the period in which we coined only gold,
and silver for small change, and which was made a
legal tender for only $5. Again, if you were to ask
the farmers of the South to state at what period of
American history they saw the hardest times, and were
most depressed, they would answer for the past six-
teen years, notwithstanding that during that period
we have coined and put into circulation, independent
of subsidiary silver, 422,000,000 of silver dollars, which
are full legal tender for public and private debts. (Ap-
plause.)
THE "DOLLARS OF OUR DADDIES.”
Gentlemen of the Convention: Tell the people
who are always talking about the dollar of their
"fathers," that their fathers, from the time that Wash-
ington was inaugurated, in 1789, down to February,
1878, when the Bland-Allison act was passed, coined
in all just eight million and thirty-one thousand
silver dollars, all of which, under the act of
1834, retired from circulation, while their children and
grandchildren, at the behest of the silver mine owners
of the Rocky Mountains, for the last sixteen years,
have coined four hundred and twenty-two million
of silver dollars, or more than fifty times as many silver
dollars in sixteen years as their fathers coined in
ninety years. (Applause.)
Tell them that, and tell them, furthermore, that
the four hundred and twenty-two millions of silver
72
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
dollars coined within the last sixteen years, unlike
the $8,031,000 coined previously, are all dollars of
undervalue, which are worth nearly twice as much
in the form of money as they would be in the form of
bullion, and that, everyone of these dollars remains
always with us. (Applause.)
Gentlemen of the Convention: I did not intend
to make you a speech this evening, (cries of “Go on!"
"Go on!" "Go on!") but the subject is so interesting,
and you have been so kind, that I fear I have occupied
too much of your time.
I return to you my sincere thanks for your very
cordial reception of me. I shall ever cherish it as a
grateful remembrance. I thank you for your presence
here, I thank you for your interest in the cause of a
sound currency, which is at last the cause of the
people; and I thank you for the unselfish and patriotic
purpose which prompted you to leave your distant
homes and unite in this great conference of representa-
tive men, to give assurance to the whole country that
the Southern States are not given over to the advocacy
of a depreciated currency, or an unstable standard of
value.
(At the conclusion, Mr. Patterson was greeted
with prolonged applause.)
On motion the convention then adjourned sine die
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
73
THE UNIT OF VALUE.
Professor W. R. Webb, of Tennessee, in an able
and clearly expressed manner, defines the unit of
value. He says:—
Finance is a science. In its study we must follow
the Baconian method of "Facts first, and then the
principles deduced from these facts." Its laws are
inexorable as gravity. They are too strong for the
statutes of men. Every nation on earth has resorted
to all kinds of ingenious devices to subvert or circum-
vent them, but no nation has ever failed to pay the
full penalty for their violation.
The close of the Revolutionary War presents a
most valuable and interesting field for the investigation
of monetary science. No people were ever blessed with
resources so inexhaustible as our forefathers. They
had a continent of virgin soil, on which nature had
lavished her richest stores. The woods were filled
with fruit and game; the rivers swarmed with fish and
fowl. The wide ocean, with no means of transporta-
tion but the wind lay between them and any possible
enemy. A coterie of statesmen, that surpassed for
ability and integrity any the world had ever seen, were
their leaders. But they had violated the laws of finance
again and again, and ruin stalked amid these magnifi-
cent endowments. Our forefathers were practical men.
They defied common sense, ridiculed theory and
laughed at science as doctrinaire. They would not
learn from the experience of others, and seemed re-
solved to prove by their own experience all the evils
which a violation of the natural laws of finance could
74 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
r
inflict. The colonies had gone through the usual paper
money craze to disaster. Every colony and the Con-
tinental Congress itself had issued irredeemable paper,
made it a legal tender and receivable for taxes, had tried
to keep it in circulation by statute law, by mob law, by
social ostracism, by patriotic appeals. The very efforts to
urge or force its acceptance discredited and depreci-
ated it. The ever cheapening paper currency by the
inexorable operation of Gresham's law drove out all
the money that had real and stable value, and then
sunk to almost utter worthlessness. The bullet in
Massachusetts, tobacco in Virginia, and the far-famed
coonskin currency were rude and cumbrous devices;
but they looked in the right direction, for they recog-
nized intrinsic value and universal acceptability as
the essential qualities of money, previous to any offi-
cial stamp or legal enactment. This currency had its
inconvenience. My grandfather's purse was a tobacco
hogshead, to which he attached a pair of shafts and
drove to Petersburg, Va., every year, bringing back
his year's purchases in his saddle bags. The coon-
skin currency, whatever else it might lack, had the
much talked-off merit of elasticity. One night's hunt
supplied the demand for more money, and two nights
inflated the currency.
The vacuum left by the collapse of the paper was
filled by an influx of foreign coins of every name and
nation. Johannes, called Joe for short, doubloon,
moidre, English guinea, French guinea, Spanish.
pistole, French pistole, crown-dollar, shilling, six-
pence, pistareen, picayune, bit, fip, levy, carolin, che-
quin, French sou, ducat-these were a few of the
coins with which our forefathers had to be familiar.
Nor was this all. These coins were so clipped, sweated,
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
75
punched and plugged that no one matched his fellow
in value. Such a currency was a paradise for the
money-changer and sharper, while honest people were
confused, cheated and robbed by shrewd and wily
tradesmen.
The necessity of some common denominator as
a standard of value is proven by the fact that all the
people of all the earth in all ages have had a common
commodity as a unit for estimating the values of all
other commodities. This standard commodity need
not be coined-in many cases it has not been-nor
even used as a medium of exchange. Its chief func-
tion is to serve as a factor in calculation, a means of
estimating values, just as children do in solving the
problems in their arithmetics. Imagine teachers teach-
ing children a dozen different units and systems of
notation, and we can then conceive the difficulties in
which our fathers found themselves. In addition to
tobacco, wheat, bullets, skins, whisky, acres of land,
cow bells and all the coins mentioned above, the cor-
ruption of the English coinage produced still further
confusion. Originally twenty shillings had made one
real pound of silver; but these coins had been suc-
cessively lightened until in England it took sixty-two
to weigh a pound. The colonies had still further de-
creased the weight and value of their coins, each to
a different degree. Eighty-seven shillings weighed a
pound in Virginia, 119 in New York, etc. All these
depreciations were due to the delusion of supposing
that the bullion value of coin can be lessened without
affecting its face value. Exactly the same delusion
reappears in the latter-day heresy that a government
stamp and legal sanction can raise a given weight of
silver to double its former value.
76 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
The confused condition of the currency offered
so many opportunities of cheating and trickery, as
to put an end to all credit transactions except on such
exorbitant terms as would secure the creditor against
all possibility of loss. Now, the chief factor in com-
merce is confidence in the form of credit. The unit
must possess definite fixed value in order to secure
this confidence, and the people must understand it,
and know how to count with it. A standard of value,
invariable, immutable, always possessing the same
purchasing power, is the ideal. As no absolutely invar-
iable unit is obtainable, man has always chosen as
his measuring unit a definite quantity of that con-
crete commodity which possessed this unchangeable
quality in the highest degree. Any attack on the
stability of the standard, or threatened change in it,
unsettles the business world. Such change has been
clamored for by speculators and shrewd debtors, and
those who live by their wits in all ages; and men who
can make a profit at either end of a sliding dollar
may for a time reap a rich harvest during such periods
of unrest. Yet in the end the agitation, by destroying
confidence and unsettling values and producing stag-
nation in trade has always been a boomerang, over-
whelming debtors, speculators and all. The attack
on the standard has always produced a panic.
One of the first acts of the organized government
was to adopt the Spanish milled dollar as the unit of
value, and after a few years of discussion it was adopted
permanently. The beneficent effects were at once
visible. The government set the example by funding
its own debt in terms of this unit. On July 4, 1791,
when books for the subscription to the stock of the
United States Bank were opened, the entire amount,
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
77
$10,000,000, was subscribed in fifteen minutes, and
thousands of applicants were sent away disappointed.
In some cases original purchasers sold their stock at
twice its face value before leaving the room. Now the
curious question arises: "Where did this money so
eagerly seeking investment come from?" The govern-
ment had merely declared the Spanish dollar the stand-
ard of value. It made no provision for actual coinage
until seven years later, and its annual coinage did not
reach $1,000,000 until twenty-five years after that. But
the fact that the government had agreed to pay its
own debts in good money and thereby settled the stand-
ard beyond question, restored confidence, and called
forth from its hiding places an amount of real, hard
money that surpassed the most sanguine expectations
of Hamilton himself. The medley of foreign coins
remained, as before, almost the only circulating
medium; but confidence based simply on the bullion
value of these coins is a giant in commerce.
The discussion which ended in the adoption of
our present coinage was masterly and complete. Such
men as Hamilton, Jefferson and Morris considered
the problem in all its bearings and brought to its solu-
tion a comprehensive and scientific knowledge of all
the factors involved. On many points there was prac-
tical agreement. They had been convinced by bitter.
experience that a measure of value must itself have
value; they knew arithmetic; and knew that to measure
anything is simply to find how many times it contains.
the unit of the same kind; that the only essential
quality of the yardstick is length, of the pound, weight,
and of the dollar, value.
They were not so foolish, however, as to suppose
that value could exist apart from some concrete sub-
78 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
1
stance in which this quality inhered. They knew that
they could not gather a basket full of whiteness with-
out taking the snow along with it, nor feed their
stomachs on abstract nutriment and leave the mutton
chops untasted on the table.
They knew, also, that this valuable commodity
must be universally acceptable, something that every-
body would desire, and which would, therefore, pur-
chase everything that its holder might desire, whether
commodity or labor. This unit must also be stable in
value, if it were to serve as a standard for deferred
payments. Without the assurance of steady value in-
surance policies, government and railroad bonds,
annuities, guardians' bonds, long-time notes-in at
word, differed payments of all kinds would be an im-
possibility; and they lie at the very basis of civilization.
The material out of which money was to be made must
be homogeneous, so that the same weight would
always be of the same value-easily divisible into parts
of any required size-and must contain great value
in small compass, so that it could be carried in the
pocket or transported to great distances at small ex-
pense.
The size of the unit these great statesmen recog-
nized as a question simply of expediency, to be deter-
mined solely with a view to placating the people and
getting it into circulation. "It is difficult to familiarize.
the people with a new unit; still more difficult to
familiarize them with a new coin under an old name.”
The transition from the old currency must not be made
needlessly violent. Morris proposed a unit that would
be contained exactly into each one of the coins already
existing. With this object in view, however, it had to
be made so small that 1,440 such units were requited
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
79
to equal one dollar in value. Jefferson pointed out the
cumbrousness and inconvenience thereby introduced
into the simple calculation, the price of an eighty-
dollar horse requiring six figures to express it. The
discussion ended in the practical adoption of the old
Spanish milled dollar as a unit. Some dispute arising
as to its exact weight, Congress fixed it at 371 3-4
grains of pure silver on April 2, 1792. Silver then
possessed all the essential elements of sound money.
It had been steady in value for many long, long years,
and was the material most widely used and universally
acceptable. Yet Jefferson even then pointed out the
advantage of gold on account of its superior portability.
The act of 1792 fixed the ratio between gold and
silver on the report of Hamilton and Jefferson. I quote
Jefferson verbatim: "The proportion between the
value of gold and silver is a mercantile problem alto-
gether." He then states the legal ratio in Spain at
16 to 1; in France at 15 1-2 to 1; in England at 15 to 1,
adding: "Just principles will lead us to disregard
legal proportions altogether; to inquire into the market
price of gold in the several countries with which we
shall be principally connected in consequence and take
an average from them." He then quotes the market
price in the principal countries of Europe, finding the
average to be 14 5-8. He adds: "I still would incline
to give a little more than the market price for gold,
because of its superior convenience in transportation."
Events proved the correctness of this great states-
man's conclusions. The ratio was first fixed at 15 to 1,
silver being thereby overestimated. In other words,
the government declared that a pound of gold,
when coined into dollars, should purchase just fifteen
pounds of silver, coined or uncoined; but then the
80
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
owners of silver would willingly give nearly sixteen
pounds of silver for one pound of gold. The natural
result followed. Gold owners preferred to keep their
gold uncoined, or rather, got it coined to get the
benefit of the Government free assay; and then required
the holder of silver to pay them sixteen pounds of silver
for their pound of gold. Pray, how could the govern-
ment prevent their doing so, if they could find anybody
willing to pay their price? Gold went to a premium of
5 per cent., and silver became the standard.
If, when bimetallism was practically universal,
and silver, rather than gold, the standard, our govern-
ment could not, by legal enactment, raise the price.
of silver 5 per cent., how can we expect now, when
nearly the entire civilized world has rejected the white.
metal, that we alone, by mere government fiat, can
double its value?
In 1834, under the leadership of Jackson and
Benton, the ratio was changed to 16 to 1, this time.
overestimating gold; and the resulting influx of gold
justified the politicians' promise that "the yellow boys
should jingle in the pockets of the people." I quote
Benton exactly: "It is owing to our gold bill in 1843,
by which we corrected the erroneous standard of gold,
and which is now giving us an avalanche of that metal.
Our specie has increased in six years from $20,000,000
to $100,000,000." Create a demand for coin, and it
flows from every side to that demand, just as air from
every side rushes to fill a vacuum. Since 1834 we have
been on a gold basis; the act of 1873 was a legal recog-
nition of a state of affairs already existing as a result.
of commercial laws.
Those who imagine that an increase in the amount
of money can produce an increase of business totally
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
81
mistake the nature and function of money. Money
is a tool for exchanging, not creating values. Now,
a carpenter cannot make work plenty by buying a
new chest of tools, nor a merchant create a demand
for his dry goods by buying more yard sticks. When
a man has something to dispose of and wants to get
something else in its place then money comes in as a
convenient tool for exchanging the two commodities;
but it cannot create or intensify any desire for the
exchange; nor can it either increase or diminish the
value of the commodities themselves. Under no system
of finance and banking can a man get something for
nothing, or a deadbeat borrow all the money he thinks
he may need.
Nor does it necessarily follow that an increase in
the work to be done requires a corresponding increase
in the number of tools. The farmer does not need ·
a new wagon for every load, nor the carpenter a new
set of tools for every new house. The old tools may
be employed on fuller time, or new inventions may
make them more efficient or substitute better ones in
their place. Let us apply these principles to money.
As population and business increase, money circulates
with increasing rapidity; that is, it is kept at work
a much larger proportion of the time.
The development of our modern banking system
has multiplied the efficiency of money beyond circula-
tion. Money can be telegraphed to the ends of the
earth within an hour's time. With our present methods
of transportation and communication, money can be
so quickly concentrated at any point of need that the
keeping of large reserves is no longer necessary. More-
over, it is only in local and retail trade that the actual
transfer of money takes place. The commerce of the
82
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
world is now carried on through bills of exchange
which simply barter commodities by a transfer of
credits on the books of the banks. Only the small
balances, amounting, according to the best estimates
from data covering the last twenty years, to but 2 per
cent. of the business in international commerce are
paid in cash.
In reviewing the financial history of our country
since the adoption of the Constitution, particularly with
reference to the six great panics, we find the prices
reach a lower level in every one of them than in 1893.
I have been teaching history for thirty years, and
though such financial geniuses as Hamilton, Jefferson,
Morris, Gallatin, Andrew Jackson, Benton, “Old Bul-
lion" come under our review in our wonderful financial
policies, Grover Cleveland and John G. Carlisle will
stand pre-eminent in American history as catching the
broadest, most comprehensive and most vigorous grip
of the financial problem. Their policy has saved, to
the masses of plain people, untold millions by pre-
serving the stability of our unit and thereby keeping
every dollar equal to every other dollar. Of this group
Hamilton and Gallatin showed an accurate and thor-
ough knowledge of the increased efficiency added to
money by correct principles of banking. Banking is
the greatest invention for the advancement of civiliza-
tion since printing. John G. Carlisle has grasped all
the questions in the whole circle of finance with a vigor
and clearness unsurpassed in history. He is facile
princeps in finance. Jefferson, Gallatin, Jackson, Car-
lisle, Cleveland, make me proud of being a Democrat.
*
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
83
How to Get Rich by
Rich by Unlimited Coinage.
Prof. Parish exposes the fallacies of free Silver.
How to become rich! I have a secret by which
anybody can become rich-and I am going to give it
away. I am about to tell everybody how to make a pile
of money.
You can't do it now; you must first vote for
unlimited coinage of gold and silver. What does this
mean? It means that by law the United States Treas-
ury shall coin into dollars all the gold and silver
brought to it. But this is not enough. You must vote
the coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1. This means that
for every 23.2 grains of gold that you bring to the
Treasury the Government is forced to give you back
one gold dollar, and for every 371 1-4 grains of silver
you bring it must give you back one silver dollar.
But 371 1-4 grains of silver, uncoined, will buy only
about 12.8 grains of gold, uncoined, whereas at the
present day a silver dollar buys a gold dollar anywhere.
Now, here's the secret. As soon as the Silverites
have gotten the 16 to 1 forced coinage laws passed
just take a lump of silver, say 371 1-4 grains, to the
Treasury and receive back one silver dollar for it. Now
go to the banker or the money broker and get one
gold dollar for your silver dollar. For the gold in your
gold dollar any mine owner, money broker, or jeweler
will give you 742 1-2 grains of silver. Again take
this silver to the Treasury, and you get two silver
dollars for it. Again go to the broker and get two
gold dollars. Again go to the mine owner and get
84
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
1,485 grains of silver. Now go on to the Treasury, and
get four silver dollars.
And so on. By repeating the process often
enough you can become as wealthy as you please.
Here's the secret of wealth! Vote for unlimited coin-
age at 16 to 1, and carry your silver in quantities to
the Treasury to be exchanged for dollars at twice
what the silver is worth.
FIRST GET YOUR SILVER.
But how to get the silver to start with? That's
not my affair. A day's labor, a piece of furniture or
a sheep cannot be sold for twice what it is worth. I
have told you the secret of becoming rich, provided
you have silver to start with. If you have no silver to
begin with and cannot get wealth, I am not to blame.
The mine owners have plenty of silver. You can do
the voting; they'll do the rest.
But if everybody tries to get 742 1-2 grains of
raw silver for one gold dollar, what will be the result?
The whole country wants to get gold dollars with
which to buy silver. Every man, woman and child
goes around trying to exchange one silver dollar for
one gold dollar. And nobody is willing to work
it the other way. The poor man must pay out his
dollars of all kinds for food; the rich corporations
pay out the silver ones and keep the gold. The result
is evident. Gold disappears; it is shipped to other
countries to buy silver or to buy goods to be sold
for silver.
•
1
In foreign countries you can buy (as soon as the
United States coins unlimited silver at 16 to 1) twice
as much for a gold dollar as for a silver dollar. The
foreign countries do not care about Uncle Sam's
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
85
monogram on the coins, but take them for just what
they are worth.
Here's another way to become rich. Send your
gold dollars, as bullion, to Europe to buy goods and
then sell them for twice as many silver dollars at home,
for which you can get an equal number of gold dollars
at the Treasury. If you have no gold dollars, and
for your labor and farm products can get only silver
ones, that's not my fault. The money brokers know
how to get them; it is a part of their business to watch
for such chances as this. You just do the voting, and
don't bother yourself any further.
A CIRCULATING GOLD PUMP.
If there are, however, any of you who are not
content to be led like cattle to the slaughter, just set
your thinking-machine at work. If everybody can get.
silver coined into twice what it is worth, will anybody
bring gold to be coined? To suppose that any one
will bring the more costly metal to be coined is to
assume that there are sufficient fools at large to
materially affect the situation.
"Gold, gold, gold! Give us gold dollars for cheap
silver dollars!" will be the demand of the money sharps
on the Treasury. All the gold in the Treasury will
be pumped out, melted down and sent to Europe.
Fiat silver-i. e., unlimited coinage at 16 to 1 is a
circulating gold pump. Nothing but silver comes in,
and our money system becomes a silver mono-
metallism.
"The poorer money drives out the better," said
Sir Thomas Gresham. He referred simply to coins
of the same kind of metal; people, especially the
money brokers, want to kep the best, new, full-weight
86
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
coins and shove off the poorer ones on the other
fellow. But Gresham's law works for all metals.
How does silver drive out gold, or gold drive
out silver? The moment any difference exists
between the two dollars everybody grabs for the better.
There is nothing wrong about that; it's just human
nature and common sense. The poorer money
remains in circulation, for if a man has to pay a dollar,
he, of course, pays in the cheapest one he has. Sir
Thomas was too polite and impersonal.
WILL HAVE ONLY THE BEST.
I prefer to state the law thus: People of common
sense circulate the poorer money and hold onto the
better. This has always occurred. So universal and
inevitable is the operation of this law that people of
all lands and all tongues have defied edicts, statutes,
and even military force, they have put aside old preju-
dices and disregarded usage, tradition, patriotism,
public spirit, even what appears to be their own im-
mediate welfare and prosperity, in the irresistible im-
pulse to pursue a course of individual conduct which
when practised by all inevitably results in restricting
the money circulating in the community to the least
valuable and least desirable of elements.
The most extreme instance which has ever
occurred was in the case of the Japanese currency. At
the time of the treaty of 1858 between Great Britain,
the United States and Japan, which partially opened
up
the last country to European traders, a very curious
system of currency existed in Japan. The most valu-
able Japanese coin was the kobang, consisting of a
thin oval disc of gold about two inches long and one
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
87
and a quarter inches wide, weighing 200 grains and
ornamented in a very primitive manner. It was pass-
ing current in the towns of Japan for four silver itzebus,
but was worth in English money about 18s. 5d.,
whereas the silver itzebu was equal only to about Is 4d.
Thus the Japanese were estimating their gold
money at only about one-third of its value, as estimated
according to the relative values of the metals in other
parts of the world. The earliest European traders.
enjoyed a rare opportunity for making profit. By
buying up the kobangs at the native rating they
trebled their money until the natives, perceiving what
was being done, withdrew from circulation the remain-
der of the gold.
It is not even necessary that one kind of
money should be actually poorer than the other, a mere
suspicion or a rumor does the work. "Give a dog a
bad name," etc.
Some people who ought to (and who do) know
better are shouting for "bimetallism at 16 to 1."
"These gentlemen who are making such loud pro-
fessions of their bimetallism are not bimetallists at all.
They are monometallists-silver monometallists-de-
preciated silver monometallists," declared a prominent
member of Congress lately.
MOTIVES OF THE SILVERITES.
These silverites are made up of two classes. First,
men who have silver to sell and want to create a
market for it, by governing interference, at a price far
in excess of what it is actually worth. And, second,
those who have contracted obligations upon the gold
basis and who want an opportunity to liquidate them.
on the basis of a depreciated silver currency, and thus
88
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
cheat their creditors out of 50 per cent. of all that
they owe.
They will, of course, deny, that these are their
motives, but the test is found in the fact that they insist
upon the ratio of sixteen to one. If they were bime-
tallists, in the proper sense of that word, if they desired.
to secure the co-equal and coincident use of both
metals in our money, that and nothing more, as they
profess, then they would not ask for a coinage on the
ratio of sixteen to one, but rather on a ratio of
thirty-two to one, which is about what would be
needed in order to secure that kind of bimetallism.
But that would not answer their purpose at all. For
then the silver-producing gentleman, when he brought
his money to the Government market, would not
obtain for it any more than it was really worth.
And then the gentleman who was owing debts
contracted upon a gold basis, when he brought his
silver dollars to his creditor to discharge the obligation,
would be obliged to pay just what he honestly owed.
For that reason they want no ratio of thirty-two to
one, but a ratio of sixteen to one, a dishonest ratio;
a ratio the very least effect of which would be to
bring about genuine bimetallism, but the first and
principal and only desired effect of which would be an
unjust advantage to the silver producers and dis-
honest debtors.
WHAT THE BANKERS WANT.
"How about the bankers? Are they on the side
of gold money? Bankers all want to make some-
thing; therefore we ought to have silver money." Yes,
it is true. I attended a meeting of prominent kankers
the other evening. All the bankers wanted to make
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
89
>
money, and all were in favor of gold money.
But
I'll tell you a thing or two that I picked up. In the
first place, on account of their facilities for dealing in
money, the bankers will be the first-I mean after the
silver miners--to profit by a change in money. It
makes no particular difference what the change is;
if we are foolish enough to change matters at all they
will reap the profit.
And yet the bankers want no change. Why?
Because they make most of their money from the
mass of business that passes through their hands.
When the country is prosperous and business boom-
ing, everybody has use for the banks, but when times.
are hard and people are too suspicious of one another
to do business the banks must fail. Banks! Who
has any use for banks or bankers when people neither
buy nor sell and nobody can get a fair dollar for his
labor or his goods? That's why bankers must fight
for sound money, must struggle for their very exis-
tence. It makes no difference what the money is,
provided it be honest money. To-day we are getting
along swimmingly. Why upset matters? To be sure,
by voting for dishonest silver we will ruin the banks
and ourselves also.
What's the harm with letting the other man make
a living, too, when we get a good thing for ourselves?
To ruin ourselves by swallowing bad dollars in order
to ruin the bankers reminds me of the Chinese who
killed himself in order that his enemy's soul should
live in torment.
PROF. J. WESTON PARISH.
90
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
THE DEMAGOGUE IN FINANCE.
Mr. A. B. Pickett, editor of the "Evening Scimitar"
of Memphis, Tennessee, addressed the Association of
Bankers of Tennessee on the above subject. He said:
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention:
I have been honored by a requst from your committee
to read a paper to-day on the issue now uppermost in
the public mind. The question of finance is one as
broad as civilization itself, and must be of the first
importance to every citizen, however humble his
station. But it is not within the power of every man
to devote to it the time and study necessary to make
him a safe authority on the subject, and I freely con-
fess I have not had the opportunity for its investiga-
tion which my presence before you to-day would seem
to imply. There is one branch of the subject, how-
ever, upon which I feel qualified to speak from the
nature of my occupation and environment-the dema-
gogue as a factor in finance. I desire to say, in the
outset, that I do not believe that all those who argue
in favor of fiat money are dishonest. No doubt there
are a great many honest men who are convinced that
cheap money means general prosperity, and that it is
best for the welfare of the people at large. It is of
the mere selfish schemer and place hunter I would
speak.
I am a firm believer in the honesty and integrity of
the masses of the people, but we require something
more than honesty and integrity when we come to
the matter of selecting a tribunal before which to sub-
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
91
mit a plan for a system of finances. No one would
think of asking his dry goods merchant to pass upon
the title of a piece of property which he desired to
purchase, or going to his lawyer to know what style of
spring bonnet was most likely to be in demand, if
he happened to be in the business of selling millinery.
The doctor is the man to decide whether or not quinine
is the proper remedy for chills, not the carpenter.
Labor is the basis of all values. Labor dignifies and
ennobles. He who labors is entitled to privileges which
the sluggard has no right to enjoy. But the ignorant
laborer, untrained in the business of legislation, is
not competent to make laws, even for the ameliora-
tion of the condition of his own class. He knows
his wants better than anyone else can kw them,
but it does not follow that he can point out the way
to supply them.
Under our system of government the most igno-
rant citizen has as much right to decide upon intricate
questions of policy and government as those who have
made public questions a lifelong study. There are
comparatively few who have made a study of more.
than one business-their own. The masses of the
people are ignorant of the real merits of the great con-
troversy whose discussion and the problem whose solu-
tion is now so vital to the interests of this country.
It is upon this class that the demagogue feeds and
grows fat. He plays upon the prejudices of the people.
He first seeks to arouse the resentment of the poor
against the rich. He talks about the vast hoards of
wealth in the banks which should be in the "pockets
of the people," and he interlards his discourse with
all manner of catch phrases calculated to disturb and
bewilder them, finally pointing to himself as the Moses
92
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
to lead them out of their difficulties. He cares noth-
ing about the stability of the government. It is only
by cultivating a spirit of unrest that he can hope to
be heard at all. The more ignorant the people the
richer his harvest is likely to be, and the more fearful
the consequences to his deluded followers. We owe
the continued discussion of the doctrine of free silver
to-day to the wretched demagogues who have no other
end in view than their own personal advancement.
It has been suggested that the use of this word "free"
has of itself more to do with the spread of the silver
craze than all the arguments which have been advanced
by its advocates. It tickles the ear of the impecunious
debtor and gives him a vague idea that money may
be madee like the air he breathes. Free coinage of
silver n
es him dream of the day when he will go
to the mit with his sack and get it filled with bright
new silver dollars with the privilege of returning again
and again as often as it is emptied. He hears the
candidate for office discourse on the coinage of silver
at the ratio of 16 to 1, and fondly imagines that every
silver dollar which is poured into his sack on appli-
cation at the mint will be worth sixteen of the
yellowest gold dollars the world ever saw.
This is no fancy picture. It is one which the
arch demagogues who occupy the attention of the
ignorant public draw as luridly as they dare every day
in the year.
The people, they declare, are always right; and
the people, they insist, are for the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. But the people
are not always right. They frequently start out wrong.
They will come back into the right path if they are
given time enough, but it not infrequently happens.
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
93
that they must first learn a fearful lesson by experience,
just as individuals often have to do.
Take, for instance, the clamor of the people of
Rhode Island for an inflated currency, just after the
close of the Revolutionary War. They were unwilling
to rebuild their fortunes by a natural process; they
declined to listen to the protests of merchants and
bankers and others who were familiar with the laws
of trade, but they clamored for paper money.
Gaining control of the Legislature by an over-
whelming majority, they passed a law authorizing the
issue of a heavy sum in paper to be loaned to those
who owned land to a sum equal to half the value of
the land. Tradesmen were required by law to accept
this paper money at par and thousands closed their
shops. Factories were idle and all business me to
a standstill. After a fearful struggle the question was
again referred to the people, the paper bank was
abolished and the stigma of repudiation clung to the
State for a generation.
Nearly every reader of history remembers how
the people of France were deluded by an adventurer
named John Law, early in the past century. He per-
suaded the regent that the way to pay the enormous
debt of France was to ise bills equivalent to the
value of all the property in France, and got himself
appointed director of the bank, which was established
for the purpose. His argument was that as land was
worth money, land could be easily coined as gold or
silver, the only difference being that the printing press
could do the work much easily and more inexpensively
than the quartz mill and the stamp of the mint. The
people of France tumbled over each other in their
efforts to obtain stock in the bank. Vast fortunes were
94
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
made in an hour and lost again in a day.
The inevitable crash came and John Law had to
fly for his life. The people were wrong in the first
instance, but right in the second. They had to learn
by experience.
There is no lack of illustrations with which to
prove the position I have taken, that the popular will
is not always a safe guide to determine questions of
finance. Not only States, but nations, have gone
wrong time and again. In every age and in every
clime, in periods of general business depression, the
people have sought a quick and easy solution of their
difficulties, and they have always found an abundant
supply of demagogues ready and willing to show them
the way out. But wherever they have followed them
they have met with disaster, the path which promised
best proving most disastrous.
It is one of the cheap expressions of the dema-
gogue that silver is the "money of the people," as
distinguished from gold, the money of the rich. As
labor is the capital of the people, the money for which
it is exchanged should have the highest purchasing
power. The price of labor is always the first thing
to fall in case of a panic and the last to rise with return-
ing prosperity, so that for a long time, should the
free and unlimited coinage of silver be determined
upon, labor in this country would receive about one-
half of the price it at present commands. Every dollar
would be at par with every other dollar, it is true, but
there would be none except silver dollars with which
to institute a comparison and the silver dollar is worth
only half as much as gold, which is the present basis
of all values, in any of the markets of the world. The
sweat of the day laborer, the skill of the mechanic,
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
95
the toil of the farmer would command but half the
sum, in purchasing power, that it does at present.
The demagogue is also very fond of talking about
the "dollars of our daddies," leaving the impression
that they were of silver, when it is a matter of history
that silver dollars were almost unknown to our daddies.
But the favorite phrase of these friends of the
people is the statement that the vast sums which are
now hoarded in the banks, should be transferred to
the "pockets of the people." It is a noticeable defect
in all their plans, however, that they fail to show how
the transfer is to be made. They invariably fall down
whenever they reach that point in the discussion. It
is easy enough to show how the currency may be
inflated, but not so easy to point out how those who
have no money and no property which can be readily
converted into money, will have their pockets filled
with all the new-made wealth. If the gold bugs are
as greedy as they are supposed to be, they would be
among the warmest advocates of these schemes, because
they are a part of the general mass and could not very
well fail to obtain their share in the general distribution.
Again, we hear these cheerful stumpers after votes
prating of the "dignity of silver," as if it possessed a
virtue all its own and by the laws of God was intended
to be used by man in free and unlimited quantities
as money.
I do not hesitate to say that while there are a
great many honest and able men who believe in an
inflated currency as the best means of preserving
general prosperity the majority of those who shout
loudest about the "dignity of silver" would be equally
as enthusiastic about the dignity of brass if they
could pay their debts with it.
4x
*
96
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
But, gentlemen, it is enough to warm the cockles
of the heart in these degenerate days to know that there
is at least one politician who enjoys a national reputa-
tion and who is yet willing to risk defeat for the
sake of preserving the credit of the nation—one man
who is not a demagogue in this day of demagogues-
one man who dares to stand squarely up for the honor
of the nation-one man who is not frightened or
swayed by popular clamor-one man who believes in
paying an honest debt with an honest dollar-one man
who enjoys the proud distinction of having saved
his country from the disgrace of repudiation-Grover
Cleveland.
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
97
The History of the Ratio.
The act of 1792 fixed the ratio at I to 15. The
act of 1834 fixed it at 1 to 16.002, and the act of 1837
at I to 15.988. There was the same amount of fine
silver in the dollar under the three laws. Under the
act of 1792 the standard of silver coins was fixed at
1485 parts fine to 179 parts alloy, fineness .892.4; that
is, 1485 parts in 1664 parts of the entire weight of
silver coins were to consist of pure silver, and the
remaining 179 parts of alloy. The act of 1837 changed
the standard, so that of 1,000 parts by weight, 900
shall be pure metal and 100 of alloy.
The act of 1792 fixed the standard for gold coins
at II parts fine to 1 part of alloy, that is, II parts in 12
of the entire weight of each coin should be pure gold
and the remaining one-twelfth part of alloy. The act
of 1837 fixed the standard for gold the same as that
for silver, that is, of 1,000 parts by weight 900 shall
be of pure metal and 100 of alloy.
1
The act of 1792 said the silver dollar should be
of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same
was then current, and contain 371 1-4 grains of pure,
or 416 grains of standard silver. The act of 1837 pro-
vided that the silver dollar shall be of the weight of
412 1-2 grains.
1
The act of 1792 said the gold eagle, to be of the
value of ten dollars or units, should contain 247 1-2
grains of pure, or 270 grains of standard gold, fine-
ness, .916 2-3. The act of 1834 provided that the
eagle should contain 232 grains of pure gold, or 258
grains of standard gold, fineness, .889.225. The act
98
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
1
of 1837 says the weight of the eagle shall be 258 grains;
fineness, .900. Owing to the difference in the fineness
under the acts of 1834 and 1837, the quantity of pure
gold in each dollar, that is, in 258 grains of standard
gold, was 23.22 grains, an increase of 2-10 of a grain
in each dollar over the quantity under the act of 1834.
The act of February 9, 1793, making certain for-
eign coins legal tender, made "the Spanish milled
dollar at the rate of a hundred cents for each dollar,
the actual weight whereof shall not be less than 17
pennyweights and 7 grains, and in proportion for
the parts of a dollar," a legal tender.
More briefly stated, under the act of 1792, the
. gold dollar contained 24.75 grains of pure gold; the
silver dollar 371.25 grains of pure silver; ratio 1 to 15.
Under the act of 1834, the gold dollar contained 23.20
grains of pure gold; the silver dollar 371.25 grains of
pure silver; ratio, 1 to 16.002. Under the act of 1837
the gold dollar contains 23.22 grains of pure gold;
the silver dollar 371.25 grains of pure silver; ratio,
I to 15.998.
The silver dollar under the acts of 1792 and 1834
contained 416 grains of standard silver, and under the
act of 1837 it contains 412 1-2 grains of standard
silver.
It will be seen that under the act of 1793 the
Spanish milled dollar was made a legal tender at
415 grains of silver, which was one grain less than
the United States dollar contained. The Spanish
milled dollar was then considered the best silver
dollar in the world, and was worth two or three per
cent. more than any other silver dollar. The United
States dollar, though containing one grain more stand-
ard silver, assuming that the Spanish milled dollar
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
99
actually contained 415 grains, neither more nor less,
was not quite so current, but stood next in value to
it. Hence, while our ratio was I to 15 until 1834, and
our gold dollar from 1792 to 1834 contained 24.75
grains of pure gold, from three to five grains more than
the gold dollar of most other countries, our silver
dollar at the same time contained one grain more of
silver than the best silver dollar in the world. Our
silver dollar in its commercial value was inferior to
our gold dollar, and in competition with it at home
the gold dollar went out of circulation. Not because
it was a coward, nor because it was an aristocrat, for
neither the gold dollar nor the silver dollar has any
characteristics of habits not imparted to it by man,
but because every man, whether rich or poor, aristo-
crat or plebeian, who has any business sense at all,
when he has a debt to pay, or has something to pur-
chase in the market and has two kinds of money in
his pocket, one more valuable than the other, but
equal in the payment of the debt or making the par-
ticular purchase, will in every instance use the less
valuable money in paying the debt or making the
purchase.
But both our gold dollar and our silver dollar
were, in their commercial value, superior to foreign
coins of the same metal, consequently they were sought
after by foreign dealers in bullion and coins, and both
became nearly extinct at home.
After the passage of the law of 1834 the silver
dollar was more valuable intrinsically than the gold.
dollar, because of the reduction of the quantity of gold
in the gold dollar, then the remaining silve· dollars
began to disappear.
100
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
IS THE SUPPLY OF GOLD IN THE WORLD
INSUFFICIENT FOR ITS BUSINESS?
Statistics show that nearly seven-eighths of the
international commerce of the world is carried on by
gold-standard countries; and the commerce of silver
standard countries is relatively insignificant.
Of the gold standard nations, the following are
the values, in millions of gold dollars, of the annual
exports and imports:
Imports.
Exports.
Totals.
United States..
892
655
1,547
Canada
130
118
248
Brazil.
130
160
290
Great Britain.
2,000
1,350
3,350
France..
•
1,000
Soo
1,800
Belgium
315
270
585
Netherlands
Denmark
Sweden and Norway
German Empire.
Austro-Hungary.
350
280
630
!
80
60
140
130
105
235
•
1,000
800
1,800
•
170
200
370
Switzerland..
Italy..
175
140
315
240
190
430
Turkey.
100
60
160
Spain.
Portugal..
•
140
125
265
40
30
70
New South Wales.
Victoria.
衡
​90
110
200
66
66
132
Totals.
7,048
5,519
12,567
Mod
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR." ΙΟΙ
On the other hand, the annual exports and im-
ports of silver-standard countries; also in millions of
gold dollars, are as follows:
Imports.
Exports.
Totals.
Mexico.
15
16
31
Argentina.
96
92
180
Chili..
34
36
78
Other South American States.
48
77
129
India..
180
265
440
China .
100
Japan.
45
+80
80
180
45
00
Ceylon.
Russia...
18
18
•
36
210
250
460
K
Total.
746
879
1,625
That is to say, the foreign commerce of the coun-
tries which carry on their business exclusively with
reference to a gold standard amounts to $12,567,000,000
gold a year, while that of the countries conducting
their business upon a silver basis amounts to but
$1,625,000,000, or a little more than one-eighth as
much. Very clearly the restrictions of the gold standard
have not succeeded in hampering the trade of the coun-
tries that use it, nor has the silver standard done much
in the way of enlarging the trade of the countries where
it prevails.
It will be said, as it frequently is said, that, while
the gold standard may answer very well as between
countries which accept it, it is a disadvantage to those
countries in carrying on their trade with silver coun-
tries. Conceding this to be true in some measure,
the fact remains that the commerce of gold countries
between themselves far exceeds their commerce with
silver countries. In the case of the United States,
102 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
for example, here are the latest returns of its exports
to gold-using countries and its imports from them:
Exports to
Imports from
$4,500,000
Austria-Hungary
Belgium.
German Empire.
France.
Spain.
Sweden and Norway.
Switzerland..
Great Britain
Canada
Brazil
Cuba.
·
•
$500,000
28,500,000
8,500,000
92,000,000
70,000,000
55,000,000
47,500,000
13,000,000
4,000,000
4,500,000
3,000,000
I1,500,000
431,000,COO
107,000,000
58,000,000
31,000,000
14,000,000
79,000,000
20,000,000
75,000,000
$716,500,000
$441,000,000
On the other hand, our trade with silver money
countries presents these results:
Mexico.
Russia.
China.
India .
Japan.
•
Exports to
$12,000,000
Imports from
$29,000,000
7,000,000
3,000,000
6,000,000
17,000,000
4,000,000
15,000,000
4,000,000
20,000,000
South America, except Brazil.
•
8,000,000
16,000,000
$41,000,000
$100,000,000
It thus appears that we export seventeen times
as much to gold-using countries as we do to silver-
using countries, and import from them nearly four
and a half times as much. Whatever advantage we
might gain by adopting the silver standard in trading
with countries where that standard prevails, we should
lose vastly more by putting ourselves out of monetary
harmony with gold countries.
The same facts have also an important bearing
upon the scheme of international bimetallism, which
finds so many advocates among men who disavow all
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
103
sympathy with free silver coinage at the ratio of 16
to 1. Mr. Francis A. Walker, in his tract "Bimetallism,"
is eloquent in pointing out the mischief caused to trade
between gold-using and silver-using countries, by fluc-
tuations in the rate of exchange, and the Hon. A. J.
Balfour, in his latest Mansion House address, char-
acterized the present system of one standard for some
countries and of another for the rest as "a reproach
to our common civilization." Why differing standards
of value should be any more uncivilized than different
standards of weight it is difficult to see. Both are incon-
venient for international transactions, but the incon-
venience can more easily be overcome by adopting
a single standard for all countries, than by trying to
fix a permanent relation between standards which are
perpetually varying. It is claimed, indeed, that under
international bimetallism the value of silver compared
to that of gold would be unchangeably fixed, but this
is disputed by competent experts, and the attempt to
attain the promised result might, and probably would,
end in a silver monometallism which would be destruc-
tive of the present financial order. It certainly is unde-
sirable to risk such a catastrophe for the benefit of
a trade which bears so small a relative proportion to
that which is now carried on comfortably by means
of the gold standard alone.
After all, this is a matter of no immediate practical
moment. International bimetallism has not yet been
formulated into any proposition which the nations
expected to adopt it can discuss, and two of them, at
least-Great Britain and Austria-may be counted
upon to reject it without ceremony. The real issue
before the citizens of the United States is whether they
will maintain the present gold standard, upon which
104 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
they have been doing business for sixty years, or
whether they will abandon it for a silver standard,
under which the dollar will be of one-half the pur-
chasing power possessed by the present dollar in gold.
The change would enable the debtors who are now in
debt to pay off their debts with property of half the
value now required for the purpose, but there its
benefit to them would end. Future debts would be
contracted as well as paid on the silver basis, with no
hope. of a further reduction, but the price of all com-
modities which are either exported or imported being
computed in the cheaper dollar, all holders of bonds
and other money obligations, savings bank depositors,
life insurance policy holders, and creditors generally,
would lose one-half their dues. Wages and salaries.
would, indeed, eventually adjust themselves to the new
standard, but it would be only after years of strikes
and struggles, and in the meanwhile the earnings of
labor would practically be reduced one-half. This i
what the Silverites are aiming at, and no pains should
be spared to defeat them.
MATTHEW MARSHALL, in N. Y. "Sun."
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
105
COIN AND CREDIT.
*
** Value is only the popular estimate of
the desirability of things. The more earnest the desire
for them the greater their value, and the less earnest
the desire the less their value. If nobody cared to pos-
sess diamonds the Kohinoor would be as worthless
as a piece of broken glass, while the eagerness of the
South Sea Islanders for iron made it as valuable to
them in Captain Cook's time as gold is to us.
Of course the ease or the difficulty with which
the desire for the possession of things can be gratified
is also an element in increasing or diminishing value.
If diamonds were as plenty as pebbles and as readily
to be had, they would be as valueless, no matter how
fashionable they might be for ornaments. So, too,
if iron were as scarce with us as it was with the South
Sea Islanders, and as hard to get, we should be willing
to pay as much for it as they were. Not demand alone,
therefore, nor supply alone determines value, but the
action and reaction of each upon the other. Of the
two, however, demand is the primary and more efficient.
factor, since without it the essential element of value
would be lacking. Let nobody want an article, even
as a gift, the fact that it is scarce and hard to get will
not make it worth anything.
It is evident from this, that when the desire to
possess any particular thing or class of things takes
hold of a great number of people at the same moment,
the value of that thing or class of things will increase,
and as value in buying and selling is expressed by the
106 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
amount of money things command, their price in
money will go up. To create and to stimulate this
desire is the aim of the owners who have things to
sell, and to the degree that they succeeded in doing
it, or that it is done for them without effort on their
part, a rise in prices is the result. Correspondingly,
when the desire to buy abates, and especially when
a desire to sell takes its place, prices go down, as so
frequently happpens in the stock market. It is all a
matter of feeling and of imagination, and hence the
difficulty of prognosticating the course of prices either
of stocks or anything else. What ought to take place,
in reason, can be foretold, but, unfortunately, reason
is not always supreme.
Value, too, being the result of mental operations,
cannot be said to be fixed and absolute. It is, in its
very nature, relative, but being usually expressed by
a reference to the single commodity of money, the
relative value of all other commodities to one another
is overlooked. We say that wheat sells for so much
a bushel and cotton for so much a pound, and there we
stop. If we went a step further and compared wheat
with cotton we could as properly say that a bushel of
wheat was worth so many pounds of cotton, or a
bale of cotton so many bushels of wheat. The dollar,
or the shilling, or the franc, or whatever money unit
is employed to express prices, is merely a convenient
common measure by which to get at the relative value
of things, without going into the complicated calcu-
lations which direct barter entails. For, the seller of
wheat or of cotton, while he insists on being paid in
money for what he sells, does so only for the purpose of
buying with that money the other articles which he
desires. The use of money does not destroy barter;
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
107
it only makes it easier to effect. Although the whole
business of the civilized world is, in the first instance,
buying and selling for money, it is, actually, a gigantic
system of exchanges, by which every individual de-
voting himself to the production of a few things, or,
perhaps of a single thing, obtains various other things
which his fellow men produce, and which he needs for
his comfort or his pleasure.
The money with which this great exchange of
commodities among men is effected may be anything
which is so generally desirable that it will be readily
taken in payment for other things. In different ages.
and in different countries it has been cattle, salt, wam-
pum, cowries, furs, teas, tobacco, and, in short, almost
every kind of non-perishable commodity. The metals,
from their superior durability, gradually supplanted,
as civilization progressed, everything else, and iron,
brass, silver, and, finally, gold, shaped into convenient
form and size as coin, successively became the only
money used. The result is that when money is spoken
of hardly any one thinks of anything but coin, or of
paper representing coin.
Coin, however, is by no means the last stage of
the development of money. With the growth of com-
merce, especially in these days of railroads, steamers,
and electric telegraphs, the actual passing over of coin
from hand to hand in every transaction has become too
laborious an operation. Where the aggregate of pur-
chases and sales amounts at a single point, as it fre-
quently does, to hundreds of millions of dollars, pay-
ment in coin is physically impossible. A hundred
thousand dollars in gold weighs 370 pounds, and in
silver, at the ratio of 16 to 1, it weighs nearly three
tons. A million of dollars in gold weighs nearly
108 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
two tons, and the same amount of silver nearly thirty
tons. We have only to fancy the employment of the
actual gold or silver in effecting the exchanges of
commodities in the city of New York to become con-
vinced of its impracticability. All the horses and carts.
at our command would not suffice to carry the stuff
around, even if men enough and time enough could
be had to count it.
To overcome this difficulty the practice was long
ago introduced, and has continually been more and
more extended, of substituting for coin, in business.
transactions, first, paper money representing coin, and,
what is of far greater utility, bank credits. Within
a month the banks of the city of New York in one
day exchanged among themselves credits representing
$137,000,000, and settled the resulting balance not in
coin, but in paper and in warehouse receipts for coin.
In London, which is the great commercial and financial
centre of the civilized world, the bank exchanges aver-
aged last year on Stock Exchange account days.
$400,000,000, and amounted for the year to $31,000,-
000,000. What is done in these two cities is done in
like manner on a smaller scale, but still, in the aggre-
gate, to an enormous amount, in other commercial
cities all over the world. Only the smallest con-
ceivable fraction of the business transacted involves
the use of actual coin, nearly the whole being accom-
plished by the use of credit.
The truth is, that just as coin supplanted cattle,
shells, and other inconvenient kinds of money, and
as gold and silver supplanted iron, copper and brass,
so paper money and bank checks have supplanted
gold and silver coin. Under the pressure of the same
progressive movement silver is disappearing from
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR." 109
civilized countries as a medium of exchange, and is
used only as subsidiary or token money in the same
way that paper or bronze might be used. In process.
of time gold itself will be no longer coined, but kept
in the shape of large ingots, and in that form employed
to settle international balances, as it is now to a great
extent.
The more ignorant and fanatical of the Silverites
are also fond of descanting upon the enormous aggre-
gate of the world's national, State, county, city, rail-
road, and private debts, amounting, as they truly
say, to many thousands of millions of dollars, and of
pointing out triumphantly the inadequacy of the small
stock of gold coin in the world to pay all this debt
if payment of the whole of it were demanded at the
same time. This is as silly as to descant upon what
would become of the inhabitants of this earth if its
atmosphere were suddenly to be annihilated. The
⚫debts, which are thus paraded as a standing menace
to debtors, are not payable on demand, and the cred-
itors to whom they are due are only too happy to
renew them as they fall due, at steadily decreasing
rates of interest.
The issue which the Silverites are forcing upon
the country is, whether the industrious and the thrifty,
having lent their savings to people who hoped to.
profit by borrowing them, shall be punished for it
by being deprived of half of what they lent, or whether
their just rights shall be protected. The result will
show whether the majority of our voting fellow-citizens
are honest or dishonest.
}
MATTHEW MARSHALL, in N. Y. "Sun."
IIO
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
ELI PERKINS ON FREE COINAGE.
(FROM AN INTERVIEW PUBLISHED IN N. Y. Sun.)
A man was expressing the manuscript of a book
and a box of electro cuts to illustrate it to Chicago
publishers yesterday. The book was entitled "Eli
Perkins on Money-Gold or Silver?" Mr. Perkins
volunteered this explanation:
"It is an answer to Coin and all the farce coiners.
I have had the assistance of Mr. Carlisle and Super-
intendent Preston of the Mint, and I try in this book
to show in plain, simple Anglo-Saxon, that a house.
painter can understand, that the arguments of the
free coinage people are simply wind and whitewash."
"Are you a bimetallist in this book?" was asked.
"Certainly. Every civilized nation uses the two
metals-gold and silver-but the United States is the.
only nation that has coined as much silver as gold.
We have been rank bimetallists. We have stood by
silver too long. We have coined $625,300,000 worth of
silver and $626,600,000 worth of gold."
"What have the other great nations coined," was
asked.
"Why, they have coined less than half as much
as we have. England (the United Kingdom) has coined
and has on hand $112,000,000 worth of silver and
$550,000,000 in gold; France has $492,200,000 in silver
and $825,000,000 in gold; Germany has only $215,-
000,000 in silver and $625,000,000 in gold; Russia has
only $48,000,000 in silver and $455,000,000 in gold."
"Then we have coined about as much silver as all
of them together?"
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
III
"Not quite. These four great nations, with a
population of 249,000,000 people, have on hand $876,-
000,000 in silver, while we, with 69,000,000 people, have
$625,000,000 in silver."
“Where is our silver now," was asked.
"Why, $508,000,000 lies piled up in the Treasury.
It is rusting in the vaults, paying no interest, and
dropping in value. Carlisle is begging the people to
take it, freight free, but he can only get $56,000,000 in
circulation. The people won't have it. They sling it
back to the banks, and then the free silver men jump
up and cry 'We want more silver!' They say, 'The
poor people are dying for silver. Coin more!'"
“And how much of our gold is in circulation?”
"Why, every solitary dollar-$626,000,000 worth
of it. The banks only hold $128,000,000."
"You don't say the nation has no gold at all?"
"No gold of our own. We borrowed $100,000,000
from a few Americans at three per cent., and spent
that running the Government and we've got to
pay it back. Then Cleveland borrowed $60,000,000
more from the Rothschilds and the English at four
per cent., while our own people were crying for it at
three per cent., and that we've got to return in gold.
To tell you the honest truth, this nation has got just
$90,000,000 worth of borrowed gold in the Treasury.
It isn't ours. It is borrowed to prevent a run on the
Treasury, with $100,000,000 in gold due the people
besides. O, if we had bought gold when we coined
that $508,000,000 worth of silver now lying idle in
the Treasury, as England, France, Germany, and
Russia did, we would be on top to-day. We wouldn't
be the laughing stock of Europe then.”
"
112
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
"Did England and the other nations stop coining
silver?" was asked.
"Of course they did. They rang the bell and
put out the red light against silver years ago. Since
1890 England has coined $146,000,000 in gold and
only $14,000,000 in silver; France has coined $13,000,-
coo in gold and not a cent of silver, and Germany has
coined $49,000,000 in gold and only $4,500,000 in
silver. They have been hugging the shore, while our
miners and Populists have piloted us into deep water."
"How much silver is there for each person in the
big nations?"
ورا
"We have $9 in silver for each person in this coun-
try, but the people only take 70 cents. They kick $8.
back into the Treasury. England has $2.88 per person;
Germany has $4.35, and France $12, but $9 of it lies
idle and all silver coinage is stopped, and their red
lantern hangs out."
"Some nations have free coinage?" suggested the
reporter.
"Certainly-and look at their condition! They
are bankrupt. Our silver dollar is still worth 100 cents
in gold anywhere on earth. But in the free coinage
nations, like Mexico, Japan, China, and India, where
free coinage has bankrupted those nations, their dollars
are worth 50 cents. They have no gold. Gold fled
with free coinage. It will do so again."
"China has no gold at all, you say?”
"None at all. China has $750,000,000 worth of
50-cent silver, but no gold; India has $950,000,000 in
silver, and no gold; Spain, wrecked by too free coinage.
of silver, has $166,000,000 in silver and $40,000,000 in
gold, and Mexico has $50,000,000 in silver and $5,000,-
ooo in gold."
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
113
"How much money to the person circulates in
those free coinage countries?"
"China has $3.26, while the United States has $25;
Mexico has $5; India, $3.33, and Japan $4. There is
poverty for you!"
"Who suffers from free coinage there?"
"Every one. Every man has lost half his wealth.
A man in Japan, Mexico, China, or India, who' was
worth $1,000 thirty years ago is worth $500 to-day.
The pay of the laborer has not been changed, but a
man who gets ten cents a day in China, Japan, or India,
really gets five.
"When I went to China," continued Mr. Perkins,
"my letter of credit called for $5,000 in American dol-
lars. When I got there I found $10,300 to my credit
in Mexican or Japanese dollars. Now who has ever
lost anything by the Mexican dollar? Not a man. It
is as good as gold. Our good Government has put
gold under it. But free coinage would break the
camel's back. It would bring us to the level of Mexico
and India."
"What would be the first result of free coinage?"
"All gold would hide away. Then we are now
exporting annually $40,000,000 worth of commercial
silver and selling enough to make a dollar for 50
cents. That is 32 to 1. The free silverites want their
silver coined like our coined silver, 16 to 1, and handed
back to them. With the Government paying a double.
value for silver, exportation would cease, and the Gov-
ernment would pay the miners $80,000,000 for what
they are now selling for $40,000,000. Then the out-
put would increase. We mined $82,000,000 worth of
silver in 1892. In 1896 we would mine $200,000,000
with the price doubled. We would have to take it and
114
*
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
guarantee it legal tender with gold under it. It would
take $400,000,000 to do this-16 to 1. Can we do it?"
"How about Mexican and India silver?"
"Ah, that would come to us like a deluge! We
have no tariff against silver. It would pour in upon
us: 1,200,000,000 people would unload on 70,000,000.
There has been mined during the last 400 years $10,-
000,000,000 worth of silver. The world mined $209,-
165,000 worth of 50-cent silver last year. This would
come rushing in upon us. We would be the dump-
ing ground of the world. We could not coin it, and
when we stopped our guarantee all our coined silver
would fall back from 16 to 1 to 32 to 1. We would
have the 50-cent dollar of China and Japan, with no
gold in our Treasury, and be the laughing stock of
the world. Keep out the red lantern," said Eli, "there.
is danger ahead!"
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
115
The Effect of the Free Coinage of Silver
upon the Working Classes.
By THOMAS J. FORD,
of the United Brassworkers' Association.
(From a Letter to Edward E. Kunze.)
In answer to your letter of inquiry in reference to
my views as to the present discussion on the financial
question, and its bearing upon the wage earners of
the country, permit me to say that I have noticed
the keen interest manifested by all classes of our people
upon this vexed question, and, as I believe that work-
ingmen have a right to be heard from their standpoint,
I venture to give expression to my views.
While I do not profess to speak for all the working
classes of the country, I do contend that the best inter-
ests of the people will be best conserved by opposition
to the heresy which is now running riot among the
working classes, known as the "Free and Unlimited
Coinage of Silver."
I am aware of the fact that a number of the leaders
in the labor movement are hand in glove with the
projectors of the "Free Silver Movement," but I am
satisfied that as soon as the rank and file of our people
have given this question, which, to them, is one of
vital importance, their calm and earnest consideration,
they will repudiate the efforts of the "silver kings" to
array them against their own best interests.
The favorite argument of the silver people to the
farmer and the workingman, is that of cheap money,
and in the excitement of the fray our people have been
116 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
misled into the belief that cheap money means gen-
eral prosperity, and better prices for their labor and
farm products, but they should have said that free.
coinage means cheap labor and cheap prices to the
farmer for what he raises, and cheap wages to the
workingman for what he produces.
I trust our people will realize this important fact
before they commit themselves entirely to the mercy
of the silver fanatics.
Now, why does free silver mean cheap labor, cheap
men and low prices?
We all know that the law of supply and demand
is more inexorable than the fiat of any nation or ruler
on earth, and, as with labor or any commodity that
is sold in the markets of the world, if there is an
overplus, prices go down; if there be a scarcity, prices
go up, and so it is with silver.
Just now, the commercial value of our silver dollar
is about fifty cents, and if its full value were not
guaranteed by the Government, backed by the reserve
of gold in the Treasury, the purchasing power of a
silver dollar would be only fifty cents.
The silver people want Congress to enact a law
allowing all who have uncoined silver to send it to
the United States mints and have it coined into our
dollars free. What would the result be to the wage-
earner? His employer, who is a capitalist, would buy
silver bullion at thirty-five pence, British money-
which is the quoted price in London-have it coined
into American dollars, and pay off his employees in
that coin, and then, when the workingman wanted to
expend his money for his necessities, he would find
that the store-keeper would say to him-if he wanted
to buy a suit of clothes, for instance, which, prior to
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
117
the passage of the bill, he could have purchased for ten
dollars-that the price in silver was twenty doilars.
"Oh! but," says the silver champion, "we should
have the credit of the Government behind all the
silver that would be issued." Very true, but let me
call attention to the fact that the credit of the Govern-
ment was behind the greenbacks issued during the
War of the Rebellion, but that did not prevent the busi-
ness community from refusing to accept them, except
at a depreciation of from one-half to two-thirds of
their face value, and the same thing would happen in
case of the passage of a free coinage bill.
Again, suppose Congress were to pass a free coin-
age bill, with the credit of the Government behind
it, how long, do you suppose, would that credit remain
unimpaired, with the Government paying out gold.
dollars for depreciated silver dollars! Why, immedi-
ately all the silver of the world, coined and uncoined,
would be sent here to be exchanged for our American
gold dollar which is worth a dollar the world over
-and the result would be that the Government would
either have to go bankrupt, or else repeal the bill
inside of the first three months.
Add to this the fact, that foreign investors in our
securities and business enterprises have all stipulated
that both principal and interest on their investments
would have to be paid in gold, and would at once have
those securities presented for payment, and the con-
sequences would be-supposing that the Government
should have to buy gold to meet these liabilities-
that it would be obliged to pay two dollars in silver
to get one dollar in gold: our national debt would be
increased, and every ounce of silver mined in this
country, instead of being a blessing to the country,
118 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
1
would be a curse, for the Government would have
to assume the increased indebtedness, and the working
people would have to pay it in the form of increased
rent and depreciated wages. Of course, wages would
go up in the silver mines, and the owners thereof (the
silver kings) would wax strong and control the policy
of the national government, and, eventually we should
be ruled by an oligarchy of silver mine owners.
I do
not think this is a pleasant prospect for our people
to contemplate, but it is the truth. We see the evi-
dence of this in the threats made by the Silverites in
Congress, that they propose to ruin both the existing
political parties, unless they come to their way of think-
ing; they propose to impede all kinds of legislation—
no matter how patriotic, wise, sacred or necessary,
until their views prevail.
Says the Silverite, "Your argument that the wage-
earner would suffer, is not tenable, even supposing
the purchasing power of the silver dollar was impaired
to the extent you say, for his wages would go up in
accordance with the purchasing power of the silver
dollar."
Now, on this point, friend Kunze, you, as an old
and prominent member of the Order of the Knights
of Labor, will agree with me in my answer to this
favorite argument of the silver men with our people.
I have, for twenty-five years, been identified with labor
organizations, and I have never known wages to be
advanced voluntarily, and never, until all the necessities
and commodities of life, as well as rent, had risen
in value.
My experience has been, that, at the first sign
of hard times or depression in business, wages is the
first that feels the depression, and on the return of
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.” 119
J
good times and increased prosperity, the buoyancy
is first felt by the wage-earner in the increased rent
he has to pay to his landlord, and the increased price
he has to pay for everything he consumes, his wages
being the last thing that feels the return to better days.
The "Silverite" may use that argument with those who
have not passed through those crucial epochs, but to
the intelligent and thinking workingman, that argu-
ment is a fallacy. My whole argument on this point
may be summed up in this axiom: "That wages is
the first to feel a depression, and the last to receive.
an accession."
The Silverite argues that we are a nation of
debtors, and that it is to the interest of the farmer
and the workingmen to pronounce in favor of the
"free and unlimited coinage of silver," so that they
may be enabled to pay off their indebtedness in dollars
that have only one-half the purchasing power of the
dollars that were current at the time the debt was con-
tracted! What do you think of a political party that
shamelessly acknowledges that one of the fundamental
planks of their party platform is to encourage dis-
honesty, or what can be said of the morality of the
leaders of such a party, some of them holding places
high in the Government of the nation, who go from
place to place throughout the land preaching their
policy of infamy? The Roman Empire in its most
degenerate days, when citizenship was at its lowest ebb,
always held sacred, that debt honestly incurred should
be paid back in full value, and imposed severe penalties
as to the payment. A party that will openly advocate
such a policy, cannot succeed, and cannot receive the
support of the honest and God-fearing wage-earner.
An attempt is made by the free silver theorists to
120 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
show that the banks, rail road corporations, trusts,
and their following, are behind the opposition to the
"free coinage" of silver, and in this way incite the
animosity of working people towards those who are
in favor of honest money. I have no special love for
the plutocracy myself, and I am not writing this letter
to in any way aid or comfort them, but it is just as
well to set matters right in regard to that statement.
It has been ascertained that a majority of the
railroad corporations, a fair proportion of the banking
interests, East and South, and nearly all the bankers
in the Far West are in favor of "free silver," and I
have been assured that quite a number of the trusts
of the country are hand in glove with the leaders of
the free silver movement,. So much for the reliability
of the statement of the silverites.
Again it is argued from the silver standpoint, that
by a free coinage act, the volume of the currency
would be increased to such an extent, that money
would be so cheap that the rates of
of interest
would decline, and in consequence thereof, work
would be plentiful and opportunities for the working-
man would be abundant. If that statement were
true, perhaps the increased circulation would help the
working classes to better opportunities, but is it true?
Like most of the statements of the silver kings, it is
made purposely to blind our people to the actual con-
dition of affairs that would ensue in the event of the
adoption of their ideas. Secretary Carlisle stated in
a recent speech that the volume of gold coin in our
circulation was more than one-third of the entire cir-
culating medium, including silver certificates, bank
bills and greenbacks. If that is true then just as soon
as the free coinage of silver became a law, everyone
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
121
would commence to hoard the gold or lay it away for
speculative purposes. To illustrate what I mean, let
me say that Mexican dollars or bullion can be pur-
chased at their commercial value, which-taking gold
as the standard of value-would be in the ratio of 32
to I, or in other words, enough silver could be pur-
chased for one hundred dollars in gold to coin two
hundred silver dollars. No one would be willing to
exchange a gold dollar for a silver dollar, when he
could buy enough silver for his gold dollar to make
two silver dollars by sending it to the mint, having
it coined free, and so, in less than three months, our
entire gold circulation of $620,000,000 would disap-
pear, and what would take its place? The silverite
will say, silver, but let me say that all the United States
mints, run at their utmost capacity, will only coin.
$40,000,000 per year, so that, if we desired to restore
the circulation to what it was before the passage of
such an act, it would take our mints fifteen years to do
so, and instead of increasing the circulation, it would
contract it to two-thirds of its present volume, so
that, with the currency contracted to the extent
mentioned, we would have a recurrence of
the hard times we have so recently experienced, but
in a greater and more disastrous degree. The banks
would be unable to loan money to the business
houses, and the consequence would be suspensions and
failures throughout the land; factories, foundries,
mills and workshops closed, and hundreds of thou-
sands of working people thrown out of employment.
The farmer would be unable to get the value of his
products, for the very good reason that the people
would have no money with which to buy, and prices
in all kinds of merchandise would decline for the same
122 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
reasons, and those of the working classes who would
be fortunate enough to be in employment would have
to submit to greatly reduced wages, and an era of dis-
tress and misery, such as this country has never ex-
perienced, would be inaugurated, and for what? So
that a few silver mine owners may be enabled to obtain
two prices for their product, and as by this time all
the gold would be out of circulation, we would have
silver monometallism pure and simple. And yet the
silver people pretend to say that they only want a bi-
metallic standard of value in the ratio of 16 to 1, assum-
ing gold to be the unit of value, when, what they really
want is, that all values should be judged from a silver
standard, which would mean for the working classes.
a depreciated currency and double prices for every-
thing that ministers to their wants.
Congressman Josiah Patterson of Tennessee,
says, "The only God-given unit of value is a day's
work," and I agree with him when he says that wherever
a day's work is paid the highest in the commodities of
life that the wage-earner needs, there is where civi-
lization exists in its highest form.
Men of finance will tell you that the reason why
gold is used as a standard in measuring values, is
because it is less liable to fluctuation than any other
standard, and because that from remote antiquity in.
all countries it has been used in measuring the values
of all other commodities, but all financiers agree that
the highest and most unerring standard of all values.
is labor, for the reason that the prices paid for labor
in the mines, mills, factories and workshops measure
the value of the output, no matter whether the wages
paid is in gold, silver, or paper: and currency, no matter
of what kind, is only valuable for the amount of prod-
ucts it will buy.
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
123
1
Permit me here, in refutation of the statements
made by the silver people in reference to the prosperity
of countries where free coinage is established, to call
your attention to the condition of the people of Mexico,
Russia, China, Japan, and India—all silver countries.
In Mexico, the principal industries are agriculture
and mining, and the average wage paid there to
workingmen does not exceed twenty cents per day-
Mexican money-or ten cents per day-American
money. The people in that country exist on the
coarsest food and live in huts to which our dog kennels
would be palaces, and this is in a country that has
received the advantage of free and unlimited coinage.
of silver.
Take Russia, another silver country, and compare
the abject condition of the toiling massses of that
country with those of any of the countries where the
gold standard has been adopted. Have you ever
seen such abject misery as is stamped upon the features.
of those poor unfortunates who have emigrated in such
overwhelming numbers during the past four or five
years to this country from that silver-ridden land, and
unfortunately for the laboring interests of all the great
cities of our country-are the only employees that can
be obtained for the sweater shops. Pay a visit to
Ellis Island, in New York City harbor, and contrast
the appearance of the Russian emigrant with the
emigrant of any other nationality, and it is an answer
to the inflamed and pernicious statements of the sil-
verites that free silver is a good thing for the wage-
earners' interest.
In China and India the condition of the artisan
or farmer is truly deplorable: they work sometimes as
long as fifteen and sixteen hours a day for a few cents
124
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
I
of our money, just enough to keep body and soul
together, and if, through illness, the workman should
be unable to attend to his work for a day or two, he is
brought to the verge of starvation: for out of the
miserable pittance he receives, he is unable to lay away.
any for a rainy day, and, unless assisted by the charity.
of his neighbors he actually dies of starvation, and in
case of the failure of the crops for only one season
hundreds of thousands of the unfortunate people of
those countries perish absolutely of want and hunger.
Will our silver friends deny this? And yet those are
silver countries.
In Japan and the South American silver countries
the conditions surrounding the workingman are not
much better, the tendency in those countries being that
the few absorb all the money and value and the masses
are plunged in degradation and untold misery, and
yet, knowing these things, some of our most intelli-
gent leaders in the labor movement are endeavoring
to lead astray the bone and sinew of the land. I am
not astonished at the rank and file of our people being
misled for the time being, for the silver agitators with
honeyed words and delusive promises have made.
it appear to their hearers that the millennium will come
when the free and unlimited coinage of silver is estab-
lished in this country. It is necessary, therefore, that
a halt should be called, and the eyes of our people
opened to a realizing sense of the importance of the
financial issue, and steps taken to make them ac-
quainted with the truth, and then I have no fear of the
result.
Another important matter in connection with this
issue is the fact that nearly two billion dollars are de-
posited in the savings banks of this country, and by
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
125
whom? The rich, the merchant, the politician, or the
speculator? Oh, no, the amount of interest they would
obtain from the savings banks would not suit them.
If they have any surplus cash, they invest it in stocks,
bonds or real estate, which pays a better rate of
interest. The industrious and frugal workingman who
saves from his necessities is the one, who, through the
savings bank, keeps the money in circulation, and is
the creditor for that vast amount of money. All this
immense sum was deposited when, silver was of equal
value with gold, and consequently, would purchase
a dollar's worth in value in any of the markets of the
world. Allow the silver fanatics to have their way,
and what would be the result to the savings bank
depositors? The banks would be unable to pay their
depositors in gold, for the speculators would have.
discounted the passage of a free silver bill long before
it would be enacted, by obtaining all the gold in our
circulation, and as the silver men would legalize the
silver dollar according to the laws of this country,
the poor depositor would be forced to accept a fifty-
cent dollar for the gold dollar he deposited, if he could
get even that for, to add to the panic that would pre-
vail, the savings bank depositors would cause à run
on all the savings institutions throughout the land,
and the result would be ruin, quick, terrible and
tremendous in its effects, and yet we have our silver
senators and silver mine owners who can complacently
sit down to their dinners of planked shad and stewed
terrapin and calmly smoke their Reina Victoria cigars,
knowing full well the wide-spreading ruin and misery
that would ensue if their views should prevail, and
all this for the enrichment of the few multi-millionaires
who control the silver industries of the country.
126 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
Why do the silver kings desire to enact laws
making the coinage of silver unrestricted, and are they
actuated by a sincere desire to better the condition
of the masses of the people? I think the following
explanation will satisfy you that their desire is en-
tirely selfish, and that, instead of being the friends.
of the workingman, they have proven that they are
his most bitter enemy.
In 1873 the price of bar silver in London was
$1.30 per ounce, or, in other words, you could obtain
in any of the markets of the world, one ounce of
gold for sixteen ounces of silver. In 1888 it had
fallen to $0.94; at the beginning of 1895 it had fallen
to $0.60, less than one-half its value in 1873. Why was
this? Because the output of silver was continually
increasing year by year, and as I have stated before,
the law of supply and demand regulates the price of
silver just as it does every other sort of merchandise,
and there being an overplus of silver, of course the
price of silver went down.
In 1873 the production of silver was 63,267,000
ounces. In 1892 it was 152,061,800 ounces, an increase
of 88,794,800, or over 4,673,410 ounces per year.
In 1834 Congress adopted the ratio of 16 to 1,
which put both gold and silver on an equality, and
at a time when there was a scarcity of silver in the
markets of the world; and now, with twenty times
the amount of silver in the world than there was
then, when silver can be mined with improved appli-
ances and absolutely no waste in the process, at about
twenty-five per cent. of the cost of production in 1834,
with an inexhaustible supply of mineral to mine from,
and with a continually increasing output of silver,
those people ask the nation to double the price of their
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
127
product at the expense of the whole people. But that
is not all. Can we, as members of organized labor,
forget that the very men now making such
blatant and loud-mouthed protestations of their sym-
pathy with the working classes were the people that
called in the troops to shoot down the Coeur d'Alene
silver miners when they struck against a reduction
of their wages by the silver kings? Those miners
belonged to organized labor, and they were hunted.
from their homes and shot down like dogs because
they rebelled against the tyranny of the silver ring.
Does not that show the entire selfishness of their
issue for free silver, and does it not also show that
they care nothing for the interests of the workingman,
unless to serve their purposes? What right have they
to expect the Government to subsidize the silver
industry any more than the mill or factory owner,
or the head of any business enterprise? If their busi-
ness cannot stand on its own bottom, then they should
have no special advantages guaranteed by the Gov-
ernment. It has been demonstrated that silver can
be produced profitably for commercial purposes for
35 cents per ounce. If it can be sold for 60 cents per
ounce, surely that is a reasonable enough profit. What
business man but would be glad to make such a ratio
of profit? But it seems to me that the silver kings
imagine they are made of better clay than the ordi-
nary man of business, and should be entitled to ex-
ceptional privileges. Show me a class of business
men in the country who are richer than the silver
mine owners. Being thus equipped with great wealth,
they are enabled to control legislation in the Far
Western States, and either get themselves elected to
seats in Congress, or send their representatives there
128 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
to endeavor to dictate legislation in their interest.
To the farmer the silverite appeals touchingly by
stating that he at least is justified in favoring the free
and unlimited coinage of silver, for the reason that
he has been paying a high rate of interest on the
money he borrowed on bond or mortgage, and, there-
fore, according to the free silver advocates, he is
excusable even if he could evade the payment of both
principal and interest to those from whom they obtained
the loan. But surely, according to the silverites' school
of economics, it would be entirely proper for the
farmer to have half his indebtedness cancelled by the
passage of a free coinage act.
Let us see if in the end this new way of paying
off old debts would benefit the farmer.
As you are aware, our organization is in sympathy
and affiliation with the National Farmers' Alliance,
and I deplore the fact that the farmers of the West and
South have to pay a higher rate of interest for the use
of money than the business man of the East, and I
fully agree that steps should be taken to reduce the
rates of interest in those sections of the country. But will
the free and unlimited coinage of silver bring about the
desired result? It would perhaps, temporarily, and if
the farmer had a mortgage of $2,000 on his farm, the
shrinkage on the amount of this loan would amount
to $1,000, and if he had $1,000 in gold, he could pay
off his mortgage of $2,000 with it; but, as I have
explained previously, all values would shrink in the
same ratio as the money value, and for wheat, corn and
cotton that prior to the passage of the bill sold for
80 and 50 cents per bushel, respectively, and 7 cents
per pound, the price would be just one-half those
figures in gold, and how much better off would the
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.
129
farmer be than he is now? But now comes in a factor
that the silverite has not calculated on in his presenta-
tion of the question from his standpoint.
The middleman with whom the farmer does the
most of his business, and who handles all the farmer's
products, advances the money necessary to buy seed
and agricultural implements, and furnishes him with
supplies that the farmer cannot raise, is also a creditor
of his, and, as is usually the case, even after he has
taken the farmer's crop in payment for money ad-
vanced and merchandise bought, the farmer is still
in his debt. Now the middleman has to obtain his
supply of ready money from the bank that loaned the
money to the farmer on his mortgage, and who, in
most instances, is simply an agent for the bank in
his locality. All the banks would feel that they have
been defrauded out of one-half of their outstanding
accounts by the passage of the silver bill, and the
first thing they would do would be to take steps to
recoup themselves, and from their creditors, the
farmers, and so when the farmer would call upon the
banks or the middleman-the bank's agent-for
another loan or an extension of credit, he would
be met by the reply that money was scarce, and that,
if he desired any further accommodation, it must
be on a different basis, and, as necessity knows no law,
the farmer would have to agree to the terms that the
bank or the middleman imposed. A new basis would
also be arranged for the extension of debts, if the
farmer could not meet them, which would have to be
satisfactory to the bank. But, says the silverite, all the
necessities that the farmer uses would also be cheapened
(and which, for the sake of argument, I will admit)
and he could obtain all the articles of consumption
130 "A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
which he needs at the reduced price. Let us see. When
he would go to the middleman to obtain credit, he
would be met by the reply that all his business was
done now on a cash basis, but that, if he desired a
cash loan, he would be willing to oblige him, and that
then he could purchase his supplies for cash, thus
making two profits on his merchandise, so that the
farmer, unable to raise ready money, or obtain credit,
would have to re-mortgage his property and pay a
higher rate of interest than ever for the aid the bank
or middleman would afford him, and thus, in a few
years, with lower prices for his products, and higher
expenses for the depreciated money he needs, he would
be worse off than ever, and by that time the bank
would have gotten back from him the $1,000 they lost,
with double interest.
Do you doubt this? If you do, ask the silverites
themselves, and they will tell you that there is a class
of speculators, not to be confounded with reputable
bankers, whose practices out-Shylock Shylock him-
self, and who often exact from the farmer as high
as 25 to 40 per cent., paid in bonuses, for an accom-
modation. Does the picture strike you as favorable
to the American farmer whom we boast of as being
the most independent man on God's green earth! Is
it possible that for the sake of a temporary advantage
that can be called by no other name than dishonest,
the American farmer will knowingly allow himself to
be blinded to his own disadvantage.
I do not think so. The farmer and the working-
man have been deluged by free silver literature that
promises them everything, but is nothing but an iri-
descent dream. Now, let the truth be known, let the
sound money people take up the gauge of battle flung to
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
131
them by their opponents. Let the masses of the people
be educated on the financial question. Let sound
money literature be disseminated among the rank and
file, and sound money advocates present their views.
to the people direct. Let not the false statements of the
silverites go unrefuted. Root out the silver heresy,
now and forever, before it has time to take deep root,
or the consequences in the future may be direful in
the extreme to the masses of the people who are at
once both producer and consumer, and out of whose
pockets all the expenses of Government must be paid.
Carry the gospel of honest money from one end of
the land to the other, and prevent the silver kings
from bringing the working classes of the country to
a level with that of the peon of Mexico, the moujik of
Russia, the ryot of India, or the coolie of China. Up-
hold the dignity and self-respect of wage-earners. Let
his wages be good, his surroundings pleasant, and his
treatment fair, and the stability of our institutions
will be assured.
I have endeavored to give, in the foregoing, my
ideas of the financial situation, as they honestly occur
to me, and to the honest and dispassionate working-
man I commend this epitome.
132
“A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
What Would Follow Free Coinage.
(By COL. JOHN J. GARNETT.)
Free coinage cannot create capital. We (the
United States) borrow money from Europe for the
simple reason that Europeans have more uninvested
or free capital than we have. This foreign money is
borrowed in order that it may be productively em-
ployed, and thus enable the borrower to return it with
interest at the expiration of the time for which it was
borrowed. The interest on this foreign money amounts
now to about $50,000,000 annually. If we were to
enact the free-coinage bill, we would be compelled to
use the gold of the country to pay off these foreign
loans which are keeping our people at work, and
which is paying for every American borrower five per
cent. on every dollar which he borrows at four per cent.
The mere fact that the Government would call its new
coinage money would not make it such. A million
of their 50-cent dollars would only represent 500,000
100-cent dollars. Hence, legislative enactment would
not create capital, and the borrowers of foreign capital
would be without recourse. Now, as it is impossible
for the American Congress, by enactment, to make
all the European countries, or even 70,000,000 of our
own people, sell an ounce of gold, or what is worth
an ounce of gold, for sixteen ounces of silver, what
but ruin can result from the passage of such a law? I
say ruin, for by the adoption of such a course, debtors
would be relieved of just one-half of their debts, all
credits would be ended, enterprises of every kind
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
133
would be stopped, and, in fact, the prosperity of the
country would be utterly ruined. We will not, we
cannot be released from the coils of the reptile, hard
times, until this free silver craze has been utterly
eradicated from the body politic. Foreign capital is
now ready to embark in American enterprises, but we
must assure it that we will return it, principal and
interest, in what it gives us, "a dollar worth a dollar,"
before we can expect it to seek investment here. In
order that we may trade with the world we must be
content to use that circulating medium which the rest
of the world likes best. Just so soon as this hydra
of silver monometallism has been crushed, just so
soon will gold pour from the treasuries of wealth
and enter into commerce and the development of
American enterprises. The evidences are all around
us of a desire on the part of those who have main-
tained their credit and outlived the dangers of the
recent disastrous panic to resume their labors and
re-establish their partially shattered fortunes. The
conditions for an era of prosperity are more favorable
than ever before, and despite the maligning influ-
ences of the free silver craze we see wages being
increased, new enterprises springing up, and our cereal
and fiber products steadily advancing to their normal
position in the markets of the world.
The panic of the last few years would be nothing
in severity to that which would follow the passage
of a free, unlimited and independent coinage of sil-
ver bill. The fear of it is all that restrains thousands
of establishments form resuming work and the employ-
ment of the idle; the fallacy once established, all those
that have resumed would, at once, shut down. Judge
Tree, of Illinois, says:-
134
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
"It would mean the partial repudiation of debts
and obligations, public and private.
It would mean pinching thousands of old soldiers
in their pensions by paying them with a money worth
less than fifty cents on the dollar.
It would mean the victimizing of every farmer
and workingman in the country, who would be paid
for their products and their labor in debased and
depreciated money.
It would mean the removal of the United States
from the plane of equality on which they now stand
with the great commercial powers of the world, and
placing them on that with Mexico, the Central and
South American Republics, and India and China.
It would mean the paralysis of every industrial
enterprise in Illinois and infinite injury to every one
of her sons who has to earn his money by the sweat
of his brow.
It would mean the transformation of hundreds
upon hundreds of millions of 100-cent dollars belong-
ing to industrious and frugal working men and women,
now on deposit in the savings banks of the country,
into 50-cent dollars, so that every one of these persons
who now has $100 saved from his or her earnings
would find, on the adoption of free coinage, that he
had but $50 in the money of the world.
Do you doubt this? If you do, take a hundred
American dollars to Mexico, and you will find that
anybody there will give you one hundred and ninety-
seven Mexican dollars for them, although the Mexican
dollar has more silver in it than the American dollar,
the Mexican ratio being 16 1-2 to 1. Why will they
give you one hundred and ninety-seven Mexican dol-
lars for one hundred American dollars? Because
4
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
135
the American dollar has the credit and faith of the
United States Government back of it, coupled with the
ability, under present circumstances, to maintain parity
between the two metals. In other words, every silver
dollar has a gold dollar back of it, and the applicant
at the Treasury of the United States can take his choice
whether he will have silver or gold.
But is there anybody so insane as to really believe
that the United States, rich and great as they are, can
alone and single-handed, maintain equality of value
between the metals with the silver of the world dumped
upon our mints for free coinage? Do they realize the
$100,000,000 of silver in the vaults of Germany, the
$500,000,000 in the treasury of France, accumulated
under the treaty of the Latin Union; the untold mil-
lions in India, China, Mexico and the South American.
states which those countries would eagerly seize the
opportunity to exchange for our gold at 16 to 1, with
which they could buy more silver at the ratio of 32 to 1,
and again exchange it at 16 to 1? How long would
it be after the approval by the President of an act of
Congress providing for free coinage on a ratio of 16-
to I that we should have silver monometallism pure
and simple? Would it be one month, one week or one
day? Does anybody want silver monometallism in
this country?"
The Hon. John V. Farwell, the eminent merchant
of Chicago, has, also, tersely summarized the results.
of free coinage as follows:
"1. Premium on gold, measured by the violence
of the panic which would follow the withdrawal of
gold from our currency, and the enforced payment of
gold mortgages at a premium.
2. Practical repudiation of debts not payable in
gold up to the difference between the value of gold and
136
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
silver as established by such a law and by the aid of
the panic that would follow.
3. A complete revolution in business methods
to conform them to the new silver standard of value."
Besides these results, there are those which affect,
in a greater degree, the interests of the laborers and
producers of the country.
The cry has been raised that this question is one
of the rich against the poor. Now the remonetization
of silver, helping only those interested in silver bul-
lion, would mean ruin to the debtor class (so-called),
who, while they are arguing that the whole people
are in favor of free silver, lose sight of the fact that
the bankers and capitalists are against it. And why
are the bankers and capitalists against it? Because.
they belong to the creditor class, and would profit
most by it? Let us see if this view is correct? The
amount of silver in the dollar would be worth say
50 cents, the capitalist and the banker would take the
money belonging to others, buy silver with it, get it
coined by the Government for nothing, and his 50
cents would be returned to him worth 100 cents,
making 50 cents on every dollar in the transaction.
The poor man cannot do this, for he has not the
money to do it with, and it is clear that this very thing
can and will be done, thereby making the rich richer,
and the poor poorer. But the bankers and capitalists
oppose free silver, notwithstanding this opportunity,
and because they have large interests in the Govern-
ment's stability and honesty, and because they believe
that it is better for the existence of the country's com-
mercial relations thar that they should derive a tem-
porary benefit from such an enactment.
Any depreciated currency is offset by a correspond-
ing rise in the prices of all commodities. Every one
:
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.”
137
knows that this condition takes place at once, while
the corresponding increase in salaries and wages
comes, if at all, by degrees and slowly. If a salaried
man has been prudent and put by his earnings in life
insurance, savings banks and other institutions, just
one-half of these hard-earned savings would be lost
to him and his family by the passage of this iniquitous.
measure.
A distinguished financier and student of political
economy says: "The passage of a free coinage bill
would not make money cheap, but dear; money, in-
stead of becoming more plentiful, would become
scarcer; labor would everywhere be idle, and idle labor
means the ruin of the little shopkeeper, which, in turn,
means largely decreased profits to the middleman and
wholesale merchant, who, in turn, would be compelled
to throw themselves upon the mercy of their bankers.
No policy, be it financial or otherwise, which
means absolute dishonesty can but be the menace and
the ruin of a nation. The nation which attempts to
meet its obligations in a coin at a price which is not
universally accepted by the world cannot and will not
expect to enjoy the confidence of and to maintain
friendly relations with her sister nations. From the
moment its commercial honesty is questioned, its finan-
cial integrity is undermined and the very life of the
government threatened. Nations long ere this have
stamped copper and iron and other baser metals, and
they have passed at the price stamped upon them
within their own confines, but other nations have
declined to accept them at more than the universally
accepted value of the bullion. And so to-day this coun-
try must be honest and honorable, and any attempt to
deviate from that principle will mean for any party
defeat, its disruption and ruin forever."
138
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR."
No matter what the standard may be which the
Government may adopt, gold will be the standard of
business. Business men, for many years past, have
made all their contracts covering future deliveries,
loans, etc., in gold. Why have they done so? Is it
because they have a grudge against silver? Certainly
not. It is bcause they find greater stability in gold,
and it permits those who are fortunate enough to be
the holders of savings to get something in the way of
income from them. Would any one loan money at
all unless they believed it would be returned in the
same money or its equivalent? Without a fixed stand-
ard-an unvarying standard-can there be any loaning
of money, or safe and profitable investments? Without
these can there be any interest accruing? Without
interest domestic and foreign industries come to a
standstill. Who is the great sufferer in such an event?
Not the banker, the capitalist or the millionaire, but
the workingman who is left without employment.
There are many other results of a serious and
pernicious character that would follow the passage
of a free, unlimited and independent silver coinage.
bill, but for the purposes of this work I think I have
recounted enough.
The highest patriotic duty as well as the most
essential to the real health and well-being of the nation
is that all its citizens shall aid the Government in pre-
serving its credit among the family of nations.
Simple truth is easily stated. The only hope of
the silverites is to hide the question beneath a heap
of verbiage to give it an air of mystery by quoting a
mass of statistics that nobody cares to take the trouble
either to understand or to prove, and, in fact, to throw
chaff into the eyes of the people and blind their intel-
ligence by a lot of fiction and cheap literature.
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR." 139
The Currency Question Analyzed.
BY LOUIS WINDMULLER,
Chairman Committee on Internal Trade and Improvements of
the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York.
If this country should ever adopt the silver basis,
contracts would still be made in gold. Senator Stewart,
a representative silver mine owner, one of the biggest
fish in the silver puddle, stipulates that gold payments
be made by his tenants when they pay him their rents.
Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, protects himself by sim-
ilar agreements. The Supreme Court has decided that
such contracts are binding; even Congress cannot abro-
gate them.
HOW VALUES ARE DETERMINED.
Money is not a fixed measure, like a yard-stick;
values are fixed by comparing the price of one com-
modity with that of another. Inasmuch as money is
a fluctuating measure, it is of great importance that
the commodity selected for use as money should
change in value as little as possible.
In the history of our country we find that the
colonists of Virginia used tobacco as money; in New
England, New York, and South Carolina commodity
currencies of different kinds were used at different
times. The currency of superior quality has always
superseded the inferior one.
Metallic money displaced cruder forms, and the
metals in turn displaced one another. Iron was used
in Sparta, copper in Rome. If the Greeks had piled
140
"A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR
up iron in vaults to sustain its value they would have
committed no greater act of folly than we did by hoard-
ing silver. Ever since gold has become the most stable
and precious commodity almost all nations have agreed
to adopt it as the best qualified measure.
Edward Atkinson says, in Harper's Weekly: "Coin
made of gold is the only kind that meets the fire test.
It is worth as much after it is melted into bullion as it
purports to be worth in the coin
Every man wants
the kind that will
the best kind of money he can get
buy anything anywhere. There is but one kind of
money that meets the test of the hammer-only one
kind that is worth as much after it is hammered smooth
as it is while the stamp of the government is visible.
Every man must trust his neighbor and be trusted by
him, but no man can trust any one else if the money
in which the trust is measured is not fit to be trusted.
What kind of money can be trusted except sound
money? Can any one trust money that is only worth
half its face value when it is melted? Can any man
of common sense let silver miners put cheap dollars
on him that are worth only fifty cents? If so, he
will vote for the free coinage of silver at sixteen
pounds of silver to one of gold, although he can buy
thirty pounds of silver for a pound of gold.
'The people have lost two hundred million dollars.
on five hundred million ounces of silver, which the
owners of the silver mines have made; that they made
the profit is shown by the fact that since we stopped
buying silver they have improved their processes, by
which they now produce as much silver at the pres-
ent price as they did when they got a dollar an ounce
for it at our expense.
J
((
141
'A DOLLAR WORTH A DOLLAR.'
In 1878 the production of silver in the world
was 80,000,000 ounces, which was valued at $1.15
per ounce. Since that time the supply has in-
creased until it now amounts to 160,000,000 ounces
yearly. Gold having also become more abundant, the
demand for silver had fallen off until the price declined
to 65 cents. That this was a natural result of the cir-
cumstances will be conceded by everybody who is not
blinded by interested motives. Free Coiners of silver
persist in claiming to possess the magic power of mak-
ing fifty cents equal a dollar, while the adoption of
their measure would actually bring about the opposite
result, namely, diminish the value of our dollar to fifty
cents. Pretending to be actuated by feelings of com-
miseration with the poor workingmen, the chivalrous
Knights of Silver would really injure them more than
any other class; their future as well as accumulated
earnings, whether in the form of life insurance policies.
or as deposits in the savings banks, would shrink to
one-half their present value.'

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