332-42
W24
Firth Edition. Revised and Enlarged.
086 Ŀ } ~ / Hɓ ⠀ £ ė 1 1 ñ ↓ ⠀
FACTS
ABOUT
SILVER
BY
A. J. WARNER
tomy Series, No. 2. Bi-Mont
fr
!
PRICE TEN CENTS
WEAT
Cs, per Yeur. May, 1896
BRICAN BIMETALLIC UNION, Publishers
134 Monroe St., Chicago
Entered at the Chicago Postoffice as Second-class Matter
All
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$
Nis
THE LIBRARY OF
61
ONNEN:
THE UNIVERSITY
COMMUNE VINCULUM
OF MINNESOTA
GLASS 332.42
BOOK YY 24
OMNIBUS ARTIBUS
ľ
NUV 2 0 1911 7 106
FACTS ABOUT SILVER
BY
A. J. WARNER
FIFTH EDITION
LIBRARY
PUBLISHED BY THE
AMERICAN BIMETALLIC UNION
134 MONROE STREET
CHICAGO

THIS IS TERRIBLE
Most Scathing Arraignment of "Honest"
John Sherman Ever Seen in
Print.
Insinuating Questions Asked Him in a Man-
ner Which Makes Evasion impos-
sible.
The following open letter has been sent
to Ohio's great Poo Bah, John Sherman,
by Robert T. Warner, of Watertown, S. D.:
Watertown, S. D., Sept. 11, 1896.
"Honest" John Sherman,
Washington, D. C.
Sir: Are you or are you not, commonly
called "Honest" John Sherman? If so,
when and where did you get that title?
How did it originate? You are reputed
to be worth twenty-eight millions of dol-
lars. Is that true? If it is, and it is no
secret and a fair question, how did you
manage to accumulate that amount of
wealth by your labor and by your individ-
ual effort? Your salary as a senator of the
United States, I understand, is $5,000 a
year? How many years, at $5,000 a year,
did it take you to accumulate those $28,-
000,000? I understand that in the year
of 1867, at the time that there was an inter-
national monetary conference in Paris, in
which the United States was represented
by Mr. Ruggles, you were there present and
assisted Mr. Ruggles and the representa-
tive of the British government in getting
said conference to declare for the gold
standard? Further, that before you at-
tended said conference, you visited
Nathan Meyer Rothschild in London, and
also conferred with the governor of the
Bank of England? Did that visit of yours
have any relation to the subsequent action
of said monetary conference? You after-
wards returned to the United States, and
in the following year (1868) you intro-
duced a bill in congress to demonetize sil-
ver, and you followed up that attempt, in
each succeeding year until, in 1873, you
succeeded in demonetizing the silver dollar
of our coinage without getting caught at
it. Had your action in demonetizing silver
any relation to, or connection with, your
visit in London in 1867? If so, what con-
sideration was there at any time, before
ince moving from said Nathan Meyer

ks,
The St. Paul Globe this morning print
ay- the following:
cal
ral
of
the
J. M. Hawthorne, of this city, who wa
sent as a special delegate to Mexico b
the silver convention which met in S
Louis last July, returned home yesterday
in- He was sent there for the purpose of s
gh curing campaign thunder, and as he ha
ha- it all his own way he had no trouble i
in- performing his work.
in
nd He comes back a free silver advocate o
the most pronounced type, and declare
that unless this country adopts the polic
of Mexico the industries of the Unite
States will be ruined by manufacturers o
al- Mexico and Japan. Ten years is the lim
the of time which Mr. Hawthorne gives th
United States to become bankrupt unles
the free silver policy is adopted.
it.
the
ho
nd
ore
To a reporter for the Globe, Mr. Haw
thorne said he found Mexico prosperou
of far beyond his expectations, with a su
nd plus in her treasury and every industr
n- being pushed day and night to meet th
demands of trade. All this has come abo
since the mints of India were closed an
the Sherman act was passed in the Unite
States, according to the St. Paul traveler
view.
on
ve
nd
up-
try
sts
and Gives Reasons for His
Faith,
ich
al-
30-
"All classes of business are prospering,
it said Mr. Hawthorne. "Farmers are mak
of ing money, wages of all classes have in
on creased from 25 to 50 per cent, the finance
of the government are in better shap
than ever before, and, the banks are pros
perous. And this prosperity is directl
due to free silver. Its results are apparen
are on every hand. The country is a paradis
ey for the farmer. Wheat is worth $1.80 pe
to bushel, cotton from 18 to 20 cents a pound
ent butter 55 to 60 cents a pound, corn $2.30 pe
the hundred pounds, and so on. And it shoul
bi-
be remembered that in the purchase o
these articles a Mexican dollar goes as fa
in Mexico in the purchase of the necess
n- ties of life as the American dollar doe
tic in this country. For instance I got a mea
eat that included two kinds of meat, coffe
in two side dishes and dessert for 19 cents.
Following are some of the wages pai
ar-
taken from railroads and other payrolls o
Mexico:
ca-
10-
ed
Conductors on passenger trains, $140 t
$250; conductors on freight, trains, $125 t
n- $200 per month; stenographers and type
his writers, $100 to $300 per month; locomotiv
ceengineers, $150 to $225 per month; station
ar ary engineers, $100 to $200 per month
clerks in stores, $1 to $3.50 per day; clerk
who speak English, $3 to $5 per day; plas
terers and masons (American) $8 to $9.5
per day; boiler makers from $4
on
ed

Rothschild, or the Bank of England, to 'you
as compensation for your services rendered
in the work of causing silver to be de-
monetized in this country? It has been
said that "open confession is good for the
soul." How much cash did you receive
from the Jews of Lombard street, or from
any source, for your services in procuring
the demonetization of silver? Do you not
know that "The wages of sin is death?"
Why is it that you prefer to commit trea-
son against your country and damn your
own soul by receiving blood money from its
enemies, rather than to live the life of an
upright American citizen and to serve the
American people honorably and profitably,
as you ought to do if you were so dosed?
Wuld not the consciousness of a life spent
in the service of your country be a greater
satisfaction to you in your old age than
that of having spent the best years of your
life in the service of your country's ene-
mies?
You must be aware that you have been
honored and trusted by your countrymen
as few Americans have been honored and
trusted. Now in your own sphere you
stand pre-eminent. The treasons of Bene-
dict Arnold and Jefferson Davis pale into
insignificance beside yours. Your grand
larceny of the people's money, in perpe-
trating the English gold standard upon
them by means of the mint act of 1873, by
frand and stealth, has no parallel in the
arrals of time. You have discounted the
efplpits pf Clafide Duval and Jesse James.
You are also the most colossal liar of the
gineteenth century. Your infamy is com-
pete Why seek to damn yourself more
completely or effectually by repeating all
6449
ke Des you have invented and published
during the past 20 years, besides coining
new ones, as you did in your late speech in
Columbus? It is too late now for you to
make a defense. You are already con-
victed of the crime of 1873, before the bar
of the intelligent people of the United
States.. Your ouly hope now is in the par-
doning power.
Now, "Honest" John, you are getting old.
You are falling into the "sere and yellow
leaf." Why not abandon your lust of
power and greed of gain? Why not now
"do works meet for repentance?" Why
nott "n from your evil ways" and "seck
salva and a free pardon" through our
Lord Jesus Christ? In the name of the
American people I warn you to "flee from
the wrath to come." For the "unprofitable
servant" of the people "shall be cast intol
outer darkness; there shall be weeping and
wa:ling and gnashing of teeth."
Yours with aversion,
ROBERT T. WARNER.

y shop machinists, $3 to $5 per da
he wages for unskilled labor are low ar
eet an almost exact parallel in the wag
id in the states of South Carolina, Al
ama and Mississippi by sugar planters
he negroes,
"I found further in Mexico that as th
business was booming new enterpris
were constantly being inaugurated ar
here was an ever increasing demand f
labor, hence I was not at all surprised
the statement of Francisco de Velasco,
Puebla, the owner of the Patriotismo ce
ton mills of that city, when he stated th
he had been obliged to advance the wag
of his employes 25 per cent during the pa
year.
it.
in
"I visited a great many mills and fa
Satories and have found them all runnin
ng and apparently prosperous. The cotto
he mills, some ninety in number in the repu
holic, have run day and night with som
ay
very few exceptions ever since gold we
he to its highest premium in 1893, at the tin
of the closing of the India mints and th
repeal of the Sherman act in this countr
For instance, I visited the mills of Oriza
his
ba, which are known as the Rio Bland
ist mills. They commenced operations
an 1893. There are in those mills 35,000 thro
is tle spindles, equal to 50,000 mule spindle
and there are 1,200 looms for weaving co
ton. Now, mark you, those spindles an
looms have been running day and nigh
for the past three years except Sunday
And what is true of the mills of Orizaba
of true of all the other cotton and woole
smills in the republic.
ns
SO
id.
his
ed
k
e.
of
m- "There are ten woolen mills runnin
in the valley of Mexico and these a
crowded with orders and hate to
double time. The mills are clearing a
the way, over all expenses, from: Cen
forty per cent per annum. Ang E
iron foundries I found none more prospe
hous than those of Monterey, of which I..
in Robertson is the president. Mr. Rolte
tt son has in his employ W. M. and
Bushnell, formerly of this city. He spo
to me very highly of them and of the
reliability and attention to business. E
the way, I saw A. R. Bushnell and ha
ad a long chat with him.
s
of
"The iron works of Monterey are be
t. ginning to crowd the American produc
Mr. Robertson told me that he was sel
ting goods now in San Antonio, Galvesto
and other places, and this is how he doe
It: He manufactures on a silver basi
and sells in the United States on a gol
basis, then as gold is worth a premiur
of $1.90 when his money gets into Mexic
he practically doubles it.
"Silver in Mexico has acted with gol
is at a premium as the most comprehen
sive and equitable protective tariff
country has ever known. It protect
the farmer as well as the manufacture
and stimulates all kinds of business eno
mously. For instance, the price of a farm
eer's wheat is regulated by the marke
t in London or Liverpool. If he gets 9
cents a bushel there, with gold at a prem
ium of from $1.90 to $2. he brings hi
1
108110
S
Early Use of Silver ac Money.
Colonial Period.
CONTENTS.
•
Under the Articles of Confederation.
Under the Constitution.
First Coinage Laws.
Free Coinage and Legal Tender.
Change in Gold Coi
No Change in the Value of the Silver Dollar.
Free Coinage Continued. ⠀
Total Coinage of Silver from 1792 to 1873
At the Level of Resumption in 1874.
•
Increase of Population.
Stock of Gold and Silver.
Recent Production...
Sam
• •
The French Ratio..
The Ratio in India….
The Party of Gold and Silver
Germany Adopts the Gold Standard
Silver Demonetized by the United States.
Why Was Silver Demonetized?
Why Was Silver Demonetized in the United States ?
The Volume of Paper Money at the Close of the War.
Changes in the Volume of Money.
The Public Debt....
•
The Change in the Metallic Money.
Money Standard Changed..
Who is Responsible?...
The Trade Dollar Device.
Law of Value of Money...
The Efect of Silver Demonetization.
.. ·
•
•
•
· •
The Consumption of Gold and Silver in the
More People Using Gold for Money.
• •
The Efect of the Rise of Gold on Farm Fro
The Extent of the Fail of Prices..
The Continuation of the Fall of Prices.
P
→
• •
Change in the Value of Lands
Is the Change in the Land and Commodities or in the Money?.
Loss Sustained by Farmers,
Earnings of Labor.
A
•
•
ว
Page.
Stability of Silver Bullion..
The Direct Relation of Wheat and Cotton to Silver.
The
mon Interest of Farmers, Planters and Miners in Mainta-
alver.
105235
57∞∞ a
8
8
9
10
10
II
II
12
12
12
14
14
15
15
15
16
16

HHH H
788
17
17
18
18
19
21
21
22
22
23
23
24
24
25
26

26
26
27
27
27

20
31
4
Relative Profit to Miners and Farmers of a Rise in Silver...
The Effect on Labor.
Effect of Contraction.
Requirements of Silver.
The Debts of the World.
Money Securities-Increase of.
Who Owns the World's Debts?
Bimetallism..
The Bland Act.
Act of July 14, 1890.
▸
How Notes Issued under the Act of 1890 Are Redeemable.
What is to be Done with the Bullion Purchased under the Act
of 1890...
•
·
Free Coinage Not a Purchase.
•
The Effect of Free Coinage on the Value of Silver.
Will Free Coinage Drive Out Gold?.
Retirerhent of National Bank Notes
Distribution of Silver...
Bank Credits..
Danger to Savings Depositors.
What the Banks Want..
Which Shall It Be?
How Debts Are Payable..
The Best Money and the Worst.
International Bimetallism...
•
>
•
•
•
•
September 1, 1895
•
• ·
Borrowing Our Financial System..
-The Act of 1890, the So-called "Sherman Law".
Maintaining the Parity of the Metals.
•
• A •
·
Purchase and Coinage of Silver under Act of 1890.
Our Stock of Silver-Coin and Bullion..
Influences Which Led to the Repeal of the Act of 1890.
The Extra Session..
The Closing of the Mints of India.
What the Exclusion of Silver from the Money Supply of India and
the United States Means...
The Remedy....
· •
· •
•
The Production of Gold and Silver...
Average Price of Wheat, Colton and Silver Bullion, by Years, from
1872 to 1893-
Average Gold Price of Forty-five Principal Commodities, by Index
Numbers, Acc
The True Volum
Gold
Greenbacks.
National Bank Notes..
Silver Coin..
APPENDIX.
Subsidiary Silver.
Silver Certificates..
Coin Notes Issued under the Act of 1890.
In the Banks and in Actual Circulation
Denomination of Currency Notes....
•
· •
•
Tables by Mr Sauerbeck..
ey Outside the United States Treasury,
• •
• •
•
31
31
32
32
33
33
34
34
35
16600
36
36
37
37
38
38
39
39
42
44
44
44
45
46
46
47
47
48
49
49
50
50
51
51
52
53.
55

ខ អភឌឌឌទន់៩៩៩
59**
FACTS ABOUT SILVER.
EARLY USE OF SILVER AS MONEY.
1. The exact date when silver was first used as money
is not known. Gold, silver and copper were known to the
Greeks in the time of Homer; but oxen were still the
standard by which ather things were estimated.
2. The first use of the metals as money was by weight,
and in some parts of the world their use in this way con-
tinued for a long time. Lenormant says: "Great and
flourishing empires like those of Egypt, of Chaldea, and
of Assyria, have existed thousands of years in wealth and
prosperity, with commercial relations as extensive as these
of any people of antiquity, making use constantly of the
precious metals in their business transactions, but entirely
ignorant of the employment of (coined) money."
In this form silver was money "current with the mer-
chants" in Abraham's time.
3. At what time and place coined money first came into
use is involved in doubt.
Herodotus credits the Lydians with the invention of thə
art of coining money.
Pheidon of Argos is said to have coined silver at Ægina
in the eighth century before the Christian era.
Silver, at any rate, was coined at an early period in
Greece, but gold coins were probably not struck till Phil-
ip's time.
There seems to be good evidence, however, that both
gold and silver were coined in India pricr to the date as-
signed for the first coins of Greece or Lydia.
4. In ancient Rome copper was weighed out by the
pound, but later, coined money came into use.
Silver was coined in Rome about 250 years before the
Christian era, and gold about 50 years later, or, as some
say, not till the time of Augustus.
The earliest coins were formed by impressing seals on
A
6
-?
one side of discs of the metal as a certification of weight
and fineness.
5. At whatever time or place coins may have been first
struck, it is certain that for centuries before the art of
coining was known, gold and silver were recognized as
"precious metals," and in definite proportions had become
the common medium of exchange wherever commerce was
carried on. That is, gold and silver by common consent
had become money metals, and in them and by them the
value of all other things was estimated. Their use as
money, through all the ages of civilization, was unlimited,
and their supply left to the same laws that govern the
supply of other things; AND IN THIS LIES THE PRINCIPAL AD-
VANTAGE OF METALLIC MONEY. The moment we depart fro
the principle of automatic regulation, that moment the
chief advantage of metallic money over other kinds of
money disappears.
6. The ratio at which gold and silver were first coined
was the ratio at which they had previously gone into use
by weight. This, in Lydia, in the Greek cities of Asia
Minor and in Greece, was, about 13 of silver to 1 of gold,
but the ratio fell temporarily to 10 to 1 after the conquest
of Alexander.
پر
*
*
Many of the tables printed claiming to give ratios at
different periods are of little value. The weight, some-
times of gold coins and sometimes of silver coins, was of-
ten changed by kings in order to raise or lower the value
of the coins, and without any purpose to change the ratio
between gold and silver.
Max Mueller, the illustrious Oxford Professor of Phi-
lology, announced at a meeting at the Mansion House,
London, in 1889, as the result of his researches into the
weights of ancient coins, that the ratio between gold and
silver coin 3,000 years ago was 1 to 134.
In India and the far East the two metals were early
used as money in the proportion in which they were found
in the mines, which was 4 or 5 to 1.
In Philip's time, and perhaps earlier, gold seems to
have been the more abundant metal in Persia, Macedonia
and Asia Minor; but in most parts of the world silver was
the measuring metal.
Boeckh, in his economy of Athens, says: "The value
of gold is more variable than that of silver, which, there-
fore, may be considered as the standard of price for gold
as for other commodities."
In like manner the gold of David and Solomon was
valued in silver, which was the standard money of Pales-
tine and the Phoenician cities of the Mediterranean.
Even down to Locke's time silver was considered as the
measuring metal of nearly all ǹations.
In his celebrated essay on money, Locke says: "I have
spoken of silver coin alone, because that makes the money
of account and measure of trade all through the world."
7. Silver was the standard money of England till early
in the last century, and was full legal tender until 1816,
when the gold standard was adopted.
From 1257 to 1664 the value of gold coins, as compared
with silver, was regulated in England, from time to time,
by proclamation. From 1664 to 1717 silver was the only
legal-tender money, and gold coins fluctuated according
to the market value of gold. In 1717 the relation of the
coins of the two metals was fixed at 21 shillings for a
guinea.
By this law gold was overrated, the market ratio being
about 20s, 8d., and gold, therefore, became at this time
the principal currency of England.
8. Spain, before the revolution which led to the inde-
pendence of the Spanish-American States, controlled
nearly all the gold and silver mines of the new world, and
her coins circulated in every country where commerce was
known. The Spanish milled dollar, or piece of eight-
eight reals-became a standard coin in both hemispheres.
COLONIAL PERIOD.
9. Before the Revolution, the colonies were subject to
the English common law, because the colonists were Eng-
lishmen, and subject to English sovereignty.
Coke laid down the English common law on the subject
of money as follows:
"No subject can be enforced to take, in buying or selling
or other payment, any money made but of lawful metal
—that is, silver or gold. The money of England is the
treasure of England, and nothing is treasure trove but
gold and silver. And this is the reason that the law does
give to the king mines of gold or silver thereof to make
money, and not any other metal which a subject may
have, because thereof money can not be made."
}
The coinage of both silver and gold was made free and
unlimited in 1666, in the reign of Charles II., and again
by the act of 1768 under George III., and continued so till
.
а и васпоредени
1798, or twenty-two years after the Declaration of Inde-
pendence.
94. In this country during the colonial period the me-
tallic money consisted entirely of foreign coins.* Of these,
the Spanish milled dollar came to be recognized as the
money unit and standard of value in all the colonies.
UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.
10. By the Articles of Confederation, before the forma-
tion of the new Constitution, the Spanish milled dollar
was made the unit of value and money of account. t
Public loans were made specifically payable in Spanish
milled dollars, or the equivalent of the same in gold or
silver.
11. The Articles of Confederation were framed in view
of all the common law rights as possessed by the people
before the articles were prepared.
By these articles the right to coin money was reserved
to the States, Congress having the right to regulate the
alloy and value of coins to be made.
12. At the close of the Revolutionary War, when the
Continental paper money passed out of use, foreign coins
again became the principal full legal-tender money in his
country.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
13. Thus, when the Constitution was formed, the money
of the United States consisted of gold and silver coins,
wholly of foreign mintage, the recognized standard being
the Spanish milled dollar.
14. By the Constitution the right "to coin money, regu-
late the value thereof, and of foreign coin" is given to the
General Government, and the States are prohibited from
making "anything but gold and silver coin a tender in
payment of debts."
To coin money meant to stamp pieces of gold or silver,
thereby making them money.
To regulate the value of coins is simply to determine the
weight of fine metal that shall be put into a given coin.
15. The right to have gold and silver coined into money
* A few small silver coins were struck in Massachusetts in
the seventeenth century. Copper was coined in several other
states, but no gold or silver.
† See 2 Jour. Cong., 21.
g
was therefore a right the colonists derived from both the
common and statute laws of England. This right was
confirmed by the Articles of Confederation and reaffirmed
by the new Constitution, which went into effect the first
Wednesday of March, 1789.
16. "For one hundred and ten years, as Englishmen,
the American colonists, under the common law and by
the statute law of England, had and enjoyed the right of
free and unlimited coinage of silver.
"Under the Articles of Confederation and resolves of
Congress that right was recognized and declared.
"Under the Constitution of the United States that
right is clear and unmistakable.
"And, for a period of eighty-one years, after the act of
April, 1792, no claim has been made by either the legis-
lative, executive or ministerial departments of the Gov-
ernment, that the acts of 1792 and 1837 did not properly,
lawfully, and rightly define the rights of the people and
the duty of Congress in relation to the mint and it use
by the people. '*
FIRST COINAGE LAWS.
17. The first law relating to coinage, under the new
Constitution, was the act of April 2, 1792, establishing the
mint. This act provided for striking gold coins, called
eagles, "each to be of the value of ten Dollars, or Units.”
The weight of the eagle, by this act, was made 247
grains of pure gold, or 24.75 grains to the dollar. This
act also provided for coining "Dollars, or Units, each to
be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar, as the same is
now current."
✓
18. Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, had
a number of the old Spanish milled dollars,as then in cir-
culation, assayed, and they were found to contain 3711
grains of pure silver, and therefore the new dollar was
made to contain exactly 3714 grains of pure silver, so that
the money unit of the colonies, as at that time in circu-
lation, was continued as the money unit under the new
Constitution.
19. The first gold coins were 11-12ths fine. The full
weight of the eagle was 247.50 grains pure gold and 22.50
grains of alloy, making the total weight of the eagle 270
www
* Quoted from Geo. G. Merrick's argument in favor of the
constitutional right of the people to have gold and silver
coined into money.
ما
10.
grains. The silver dollar contained 371.25 grains of pure
silver and 44.75 grains of alloy, making the full weight
of the dollar 416 grains.
20. The act of 1792 also provided for haif dollars, quarter
dollars, dimes and half dimes of silver, weighing, respect-
ively, one-half, one-fourth, one-tenth and one-twentieth
the weight of the dollar.
21. As gold coins contained 24.75 grains of pure metal
to the dollar and the silver dollar contained 3714 grains,
the ratio at this time was exactly 15 to 1.
?
I
FREE COINAGE AND LEGAL TENDER.
22. The same act which established the mint and fixed
the weight and fineness of the coins of the United States,
also provided that any person might take either silver
or gold to the mint and have it coined for his benefit "free
of expense," and the said coins were made EQUALLY LEGAL
TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. By this act frac-
tional coins were also full legal tender.
23. Thus, the first coinage law enacted under the Con-
stitution, as recommended by Hamilton, concurred in by
Jefferson, and approved by Washington, provided for the
FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE OF BOTH GOLD AND SILVER.
24. Subsequent acts fixed the rates at which foreign gold
and silver coins should be legal tender in this country, and
various coins, including the Spanish milled dollar, con-
tinued to be legal tender until 1857.
CHANGE IN GOLD COINS.
25. In 1834 the weight of the gold eagle, or ten-dollar
piece, was changed from 247 grains of pure gold, or 270
grains of standard gold, to 232 grains of pure gold, or 258
grains of standard gold, making the dollar contain 25
8-10 grains of standard, or 23. 2 grains fine gold.
The pure metal in the eagle was therefore reduced 15
grains, or 1.55 grains to the dollar. This new piece, how-
ever, was made legal tender for all debts, past and future,
the same as the old one. No change was at this time made
in the silver coins.
By this change in the gold coins the ratio was changed
from 15 to 1 to 16 to 1.
26. In 1837 (January 18) the mint laws were revised
throughout and the standard for both gold and silver was
made nine-tenths fine-that is, nine parts pure metal and
one part alloy. And since 1887 all our coins of both met-
als have been made nine-tenths fine
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27. The alloy of the gold coins consists of silver and
copper and the alloy of silver coins of copper only; the
alloy in both cases being provided by the Government.*
28. The pure metal in the gold coins was again slightly
changed by the act of 1837, by adding .02 of a grain, so as
to make it exactly nine-tenths fine.
NO CHANGE IN THE VALUE OF THE SILVER
DOLLAR.
29. By the act of 1837 the alloy in the silver dollar was
reduced from 44.75 grains to 41.25 grains, so as to make
the dollar just nine-tenths fine, but the weight of pure
silver was not changed and its value was therefore not
changed.
Thus, while the weight of pure gold in the gold dollar
has been twice changed, the weight of pure silver in the
standard silver dollar has never been changed; it is ex-
actly the same unit and the same standard as the first stand-
ard coin minted in the United States.
FREE COINAGE CONTINUED.
30. It will be seen by the foregoing that the ratio ´be-
tween gold and silver coins was changed from 15 to 1, as
fixed by the act of 1792, to 16 to 1 by the act of 1834, and
to 15.988+to 1 by the act of 1837; but the free coinage of
both silver and gold, as provided by the act of 1792, was
continued unaltered until 1873.
31. From 1792 to 1853 any one could have silver coined
freely into any of the coins provided for by law, and dur-
ing this period fractional coins were full legal tender, the
same as the dollar piece; and in those times relatively
more of the smaller denominations of money were used
than now, and most of the coinage was in halves and
quarters.
32. Great stress has been laid on the fact that but about
$8,000,000, in dollar pieces, were coined from 1792 to 1873;
but it did not matter so long as coinage was free and all
coins were full legal tender, what particular denomina-
tions were coined.
Fractional coins were made legal tender for only five
dollars by the act of 1858, which reduced their weight.
They are legal tender now for ten dollars.
Silver only is now used as alloy for gold.
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TOTAL COINAGE OF SILVER FROM 1792 TO 1873.
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33. The total coinage of full weight and full legal-
tender silver coins, from 1792 to 1853, was a little over
$87,000,000, and from 1792 down to 1873 over $93,000,000
of full legal-tender silver money had been coined at our
mints.
34. More than this, the principal silver coins of the
world were full legal-tender in the United States until
1857, and they continued more or less in circulation till
- just before the war. Nobody can tell how many of these
coins circulated here. The Spanish milled dollar, the
Mexican dollar, the dollar of Peru and Bolivia were legal
tender at their face value. The five franc piece, the Eng-
lish shilling and other foreign coins also circulated here,
and especially the Mexican and Spanish milled dollars.
Certain foreign gold coins were also full legal tender.
The significant fact in all this is that silver and gold
equally and without limit were money in the United
States prior to 1873, and that coinage was unrestricted
and free for both metals. The money standard consisted
of the two metals together, and not of one alone, and it
made no difference where coins were struck.
L
35. The total coinage of gold from 1792 to 1847, before
the gold discoveries of California and Australia, was but
$43,000,000.
36. In the three years prior to the passage of the act of
1873 over two and a half millions of standard silver dol-
lars were coined, and over a quarter of a million of these
in the few weeks of 1873 before free coinage was shut off
by the act of February 12, showing that silver had begun
to flow to our mints as the contraction of paper took place.
AT THE LEVEL OF RESUMPTION IN 1874
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37. If the act of 1873 had not been passed, this coun tury
would have been practically at the bimetallic level before
the end of 1874, and all the loss and agony of further con-
traction necessary to reach the altered level of gold alone,
would have been avoided. What blunders have beset the
world!
THE FRENCH RATIO. -
38. In 1803, France by law established the ratio of
15 to 1, which became the European ratio. As the United
States at that time had but little power in the commercial
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world, the European ratio prevailed, because, from 1803 to
1834, an ounce of gold was equal, in our coinage, to but
fifteen ounces of silver, while it was equal to fifteen and
a half ounces in Europe; consequently gold mostly went
to Europe and silver stayed here.
39. But by the change in our ratio to 16 to 1, the con-
ditions were reversed, so that 16 ounces of silver were held
in our coinage as the equivalent of an ounce of gold, while
fifteen and a half ounces of silver were equal to an ounce
of gold in Europe. Hence silver went to Europe, and
gold, then the least valued metal, stayed here.
40. Had our ratio in 1834 been made 15 to 1, both
metals would doubtless have remained in circulation here,
except as expelled by paper or lighter foreign.coins which
were still a legal tender in the United States.
41. But in fact both metals, without limit, were at
that time in use as money somewhere, and hence it made
practically no difference in the value of coined money
whether both kinds circulated equally in every country or
whether one country used more of one and less of the
other. All there was of both metals was in circulation
somewhere, and all there was of both metals was potenti-
ally money everywhere. Bimetallism consists in the RIGHT
to have recourse to both metals for money purposes.
I
Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, when testifying before
the French Monetary Commission in 1869, made this idea
very clear.
He said: "Whether gold or silver dominates for the
time being, it is always true that the two metals concur
together in forming the monetary circulation of the world,
and it is the general mass of the two metals.combined
which serves as the measure of the value of things. In
countries with the double standard the principal circula-
tion will always be established of that metal which is the
most abundant."
42. The conditions, however, were changed when the
mints of France and other European States were closed
against the free coinage of silver on the ratio of 15 to 1.
Otherwise silver would now go there instead of coming to
our mints, even with free coinage here, because the ratio
of 15 to 1 is equal to $1.333 in gold for an ounce of
silver, while, on our ratio of 16 to 1, the value of an
ounce of silver in gold is but $1.2929.
43. But the coined silver of Europe still circulates there
on a level with gold at the ratio of 151 to 1, or $1.333 an
why do
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ounce in gold. Therefore, to send such coins here, if
we had free coinage, the owner must lose the difference
between $1.333 and $1.2929 on every ounce; or, to put it in
another form, 100 cents of the coins of Europe would
make but 96.95 cents in our coins. This is enough to
prevent the silver coins of Europe from coming here as
long as the present difference in ratio exists.
THE RATIO IN INDIA.
44. In India the ratio is 15 to 1, and the mints of India
were open to the free coinage of silver at that ratio until
1893.* An ounce of coined silver, therefore, in India, is
equal to $1 37 in gold, so that a dollar there would con-
tain but 348.33 grains of pure silver, against 359.91 in
Europe and 371.25 here. Hence, to send the silver of India
here, as some foolishly assert would be done, a loss of
nearly 8 cents an ounce would be incurred. †
45. It is always profitable to send silver from Europe to
India; and to the extent of the balance of trade due to
India, silver goes there from Europe, and if cheaper silver
bullion could not be had the silver coins of Europe would
be melted down to go-not to the United States-but to
India.
THE PARITY OF GOLD AND SILVER.
46. From the adoption of the ratio of 15 to by
France in 1803, to the time the coinage of silver was
limited by the Latin Uniont in 1873-4, silver and gold
This relation may be shown in tabular form as follows:
3714 grains silver, ratio 16 to 1..
37144 grains silver, ratio 15% to 1.
371 grains silver, ratio 15 to 1...
* The minte of India were closed to free coinage by the order
in Council, June 6, 1893.
Or in the following form:
1 oz. silver, ratio 16 to 1, worth in gold...
1 oz. silver, ratio 15% to 1, worth in gold
1 oz. silver, ratio 15 to 1, worth in gold
Or again :
•
•
to
·
$
...
··
$1.0000 gold
1.0315 gold
1.0660 gold
Our silver unit, 371.25 grains...
Unit of France, 359.90 grains..
Rupee of India, 348.00 grains..
Which shows that the silver unit of the United
more silver in it, relatively to gold, than that of Europe or
India.
$1.2929
1.3337
1.3781
$1.00 in gold
1.00 in gold
1.00 in gold
States has
The States forming the Latin Union, formed in 1865, are
France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Greece,
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everywhere throughout Europe and America, on that
ratio, were kept at a parity by the French mints, there
being no variation throughout this period not accounted
for by the variation in the exchanges and the cost of tak-
ing one or the other of the metals to the mints.
The two metals were held together by the unrestricted
coinage of both on the ratio of 15 to 1, and the parity
was broken only when free mintage was denied to silver.
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47. The coinage of silver was first limited in all the
States of the Latin Union in January, 1874, and in August,
1876, the coinage of five-franc pieces was stopped alto-
gether.
GERMANY ADOPTS THE GOLD STANDARD.
48. In December, 1871, Germany decreed the gold stand-
ard and commenced the coinage of gold and stopped the
coinage of large silver coins. Before this, Germany had
very little gold, but had about $400,000,000 of silver.
These silver coins were not demonetized until July, 1873,
when the exclusive gold standard was established, with
the mark as the unit. Silver was made subsidiary and
limited to ten marks for each inhabitant, with legal
tender limited to twenty marks. Germany did not, there-
fore, fully demonetize silver till after the United States
had demonetized it.
49. Germany began the sale of silver in 1873 and con-
tinued it at intervals till 1879, during which time she sold
about 7,000,000 pounds of fine silver at from 594 pence to
50 pence an ounce, when sales were stopped. The pro-
ceeds from what she sold were $141,785,000. The rest of
her silver has been much of it recoined and is still held
in circulation.
SILVER DEMONETIZED BY THE UNITED STATES.
50. The free coinage of silver was stopped in the United
States by the act of February 12, 1873, and by the act of
June 22, 1874, adopting the Revised Statutes, legal tender
was taken away from any standard dollars then in exist-
ence.
WHY WAS SILVER DEMONETIZED?
51. England demonetized silver in 1816, after the
Napoleonic wars, and by so doing largely increased her
enormous war debt.
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52. But why did Germany demonetize silver?
First, she had exacted a war indemnity from France of
one thousand million dollars, which, it was calculated,
would easily enable her to change her money from silver
to gold; second, an immense debt had grown out of the
Franco-Prussian war, and if the money standard could be
increased by increasing the value of gold, the debt would
be increased in the hands of those who held it.
16
It was foreseen, too, that if Germany demonetized silver
France would sooner or later close her mints against
silver, and gold would thus be still further enhanced in
value. Shrewd bankers and credit-holders, seeing the cp-
portunity to make a great gain for themselves, did not
hesitate to seize upon it. Bismarck afterwards saw the
mistake, and said that he had left this matter to others,
who proved to be bad advisers.
WHY WAS SILVER DEMONETIZED IN THE
UNITED STATES?
53. In the United States everybody had possessed the
right from before the foundation of the Government to
take gold and silver to the mint and have it coined for
his benefit into standard coins, which were legal tender
for taxes, debts and other obligations of every description.
54. What reason was there for depriving the people of
this right in 1873?
λ
There was neither gold nor silver in circulation in this
country at that time. The resumption act was not passed
till nearly two years later. It was expected, however, of
course, that, sooner or later, we would return to the metal-
lic standard. Let us first see what that meant.
THE VOLUME OF PAPER MONEY.
The volume of currency reached its maximum in 1865,
and according to the report of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury of that year, consisted of the following items: (See
statistical abstract No. 9.)
Gold..
Subsidiary Silver…………….
State Bank Circulation..
Demand Notes....
1 and 2 Year Notes of 1863......
Compound Int. Notes
Fractional Currency.
National Bank Notes....
Greenbacks……….
Total...
•
$189,000,000.00
9,500,000.00
142,919,638.00
472,603.00
42,338,710.00
193,756,680.00
25,005,828.76
146,137,860.00
431,066,428.00
$1,180,197,147.76
17
Monty
the
44
1
Or nearly $50 per capita for the population using it.*
CHANGES IN THE VOLUME OF MONEY.
57. Two changes in the volume of money took place
rapidly after 1865.
First. The money then in existence was spread over the
Southern States, being soon divided among 35,000,000
people instead of 24,000,000.
Second. The volume was rapidly contracted, till in 1869
it was reduced to less than $700,000,000 for 40,000,000
people, and was no larger in 1879, when resumption took
place, for 50,000,000 people, being reduced at this time
to $14 per capita.
58. Of course prices fell in proportion. We were told,
however, that the cause of the fall of prices was over-pro-
duction. People did not understand as well then as they
do now that the real cause was the change in the money
volume.
Commodities are always weighed against money, and
where there is little money more commodities must be
given for a dollar.
©
THE PUBLIC DEBT.
59. In August, 1865, the public debt which grew out of
the war reached its highest point. At this date the in-
terest-bearing debt was $2,381,530,000. The total debt
reached $2,844,649,000. The debt, less cash in the Treas-
ury, was $2,756 431,000.
The bonds had all been bought with greenbacks, and
had cost in gold but from 42 to 65 cents on the dollar.
*The above does not include the $829,992,500 of 7.30 notes,
issued under the acts of July 17, 1861, June 30, 1864, and March
3, 1865, which were legal tender, and of which $182,000,000
were of denominations below $100-the lowest being $10.
Mr. McCulloch, in his report for 1865, said of the 7.30 notes,
"Many of the small denominations of which were in circulation
as money, and all of which tend in some measure to swell the
inflation," etc.
1.
Mr. F. E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United States, when
these bonds were issued, said these bonds were intended to
circulate as currency and did circulate as currency. The Treas-
ury statement issued in 1891, giving the per capita volume of
money at the close of the war and since, does not take into
account the absorption of currency by the Southern States
after the war, nor doesit include all the legal-tender paper
put in circulation, and is at variance with former Treasury
reports.
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18
*
THE CHANGE IN THE METALLIC MONEY.
60. But while the volume of paper money was being
rapidly contracted from 1865 to 1873, both gold and silver
were money, and we had the right to fall back on the two
metals at the ratio of 16 to 1 for money supply, and every
dollar of the vast debt stated in the preceding paragraph,
as well as a much larger sum of state, municipal and pri-
vate debts, if not payable in legal-tender paper, was, at
any rate, payable in either gold or silver coins, at the
option of the debtor.
↓
The general understanding at the close of the war was
that the public debt was payable in greenbacks. *
Could there then be any excuse in the world for strik-
ing down half of the metallic money in 1873?
61. No bonds or other Government obligations were
ever made specifically payable in gold. The interest on
the bonds was payable in coin, the principal of the origi-
nal bonds in-lawful money, and of the refunding bonds,
in coin. No man on the earth had the legal or moral
right to demand gold payment; much less had any one
the right to demand that silver be demonetized and gold
made dearer, and then that the payment of all debts
should be made exclusively in gold.
62. Why, then, was the
MONEY STANDARD CHANGED?
There can be but one reason. A change in the money
standard from gold and silver to gold alone would corre
spondingly increase all debts in the hands of those who
held them.
63. A proposition to directly increase the bonded debt
of the United States, or any other debts, would have been
too barefaced a fraud to be made by any one. Nor would
any one have dared to propose an increase in the weight
of coins as a means of increasing debts, but if one of the
money metals could be dropped out the effect on the other
and on debts would be the same as if the weight of coins
had been increased. Hence the device to demonetize silver
and in that way to increase the value of money, and with
* See platform of Republican party of Ohio for 1868; also,
letters of Governor Morton, Thad. Stevens, Sherman, and
others.
ho
嗑
​at
19
it all debts, was brought forward and clandestinely put
through Congress.*
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
64. Nobody publicly petitioned for such a change in
the money standard. Nobody except a few cunning
beneficiaries knew of the act tiil long afterward. There
was no public discussion of the question, for nobody knew
of it. There was no honest reason for passing it.
65. President Grant, who signed the bill, did not know
he was approving an act that demonetized silver. The
Speaker of the House, Mr. Blaine, did not know it. It is
not certain that any member of the House except Mr.
Hooper, of Massachusetts, who had charge of the bill, and
possibly one or two others of the committee, knew that it
demonetized silver, and it is pretty well settled that no
one in the Senate but MR. SHERMAN, who had charge of
the bill in that body, and perhaps Senator Bayard, knew
that the bill changed the money standard of the United
States from gold and silver to gold alone. The people of
this country were not fools enough to begin preparation
to pay their great war debt by deliberately destroying half
the money by which it could be paid. †
The claim recently widely published that the act de-
monetizing silver was several times printed and freely and
fully discussed, in Congress and out, is absolutely untrue.
* The national debts of Europe had all been contracted in sil-
ver and could have been properly liquidated in silver. Suddenly,
and without a word of warning, every contract in Europe
was violated by the closure of every mint to silver. Still, it is
only when we pass on to the deed done at Washington that
the silver question fairly emerges as the biggest and the best
planned financial coup of the century. The whole affair was a
vast "job" and I believe that any grand jury would find a
true bill on the evidence that comes to us from America.
MORETON FREWEN.
Address at Easton Lodge, England, October 4, 1889.
Lincoln says: "If a government contracts a debt with a
certain amount of money in circulation, and then contracts
the money volume before the debt is paid, it is the most heinous
crime a nation can commit against a people.”
+ Mr. David Watney, testifying before the Royal Commission
in 1866-67, said: "I do not suppose all men to be wise, but
think of the folly of a great debtor nation like the United
States adopting the gold standard. They know nothing
about currency matters. They did not know that it vastly
increased their debt."
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20
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There was no discussion at the time of the passage of
the act, in either House, to lead any one to suppose a
change was being made in the money standard. It is true
that the Deputy Comptroller had recommended that no
more silver dollars be coined, and that this was endorsed
by Secretary Boutwell and printed as a Senate document
as far back as 1871-72, but nobody saw it or heard of it out-
side of the printer who set the type and those who were
at that time intriguing to get the money standard changed.
Mr Hooper also printed a speech in the Congressional
Globe advocating a gold standard, but when the bill that
finally became a law was afterwards up in the House it
was denied by the chairman of the committee that any
change whatever was made in the coins of the country. In
the Senate the remarks of the chairman of the Finance
Committee, in calling up the bill, bear evidence on their
face of intended deception, and senators were deceived
into voting for the measure, and the President of the
United States was misled when he signed the bill, as at-
tested by his own letters, and by the declarations of his
Attorney-General, Mr. Edwards Pierrepont. For proof of
what is here said, see also the testimony of Beck, Thur-
man, Conkling, Allison, Blaine, Holman, Garfield and
others of both Houses; and, as further proof that the deed
was consummated in the dark, it is perfectly safe to say
that the entire population of important States knew noth-
ing of the act till long after its passage. Not a newspaper
anywhere gave notice to the people of any such purpose.
It is perfectly safe even to say that not a man from the
great State of Ohio, except the chairman of the Finance
Committee of the Senate, knew that such a wrong was
being perpetrated upon the people of the United States as
was involved in this change of the money standard, which
would change all debts and contracts, public and private,
in the United States.
66. The act was undoubtedly a foreign device. It came
from Lombard Street, and whatever London advises, Wall
Street accepts, and Congress, if it relates to the finances,
usually carries out.
But whoever is responsible for the act, it was a fraud
upon the people-an act which at one stroke increased
enormously the public debt and changed every contract
involving the payment of money in the United States.
It was an act that no more admits of justification than
spoliation or piracy.
344
The
P
-21
67. Somebody ought to be held responsible. Mr. Hooper,
of Massachusetts, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, Director Linder-
man, and John Jay Knox, of New York, seem thus far to-
be the only ones who knew just what was going on. Were
these representatives of the people dupes of cunning, far-
seeing spoliators, or did they themselves comprehend the
true economic significance of the plundering scheme they
foisted on the country? Let them answer. *
68. The people have themselves to blame for submitting
as long as they have to the great wrong thus perpetrated
upon them.
}
*ES, THE BEWAFS
15
THE TRADE DOLLAR DEVICE.
69. The substitution of the trade dollar-fitly charac-
terized as the "trick" dollar-in the act of 1873, for the
old dollar, was a ridiculous performance all through. It
was originally limited in legal-tender power to five dol-
lars; it was claimed at the time that this dollar, which
was made to weigh 420 grains instead of 412 grains, would
go better in China and the East than the old dollar. But
who was ever fool enough in the East to take 100 trade
dollars in preference to 101.82 standard dollars, which
contain the equivalent in weight of fine silver? Who was
ever foolish enough to suppose that more per ounce could
be got abroad for our silver if coined into pieces of 420
grains instead of into pieces of 4124 grains?
It is hardly possible, therefore, to give credence to the
claim that the trade dollar was submitted in good faith as
a coin better than the "dollar of the fathers."
LAW OF VALUE OF MONEY.
70. The value of gold depends upon the quantity of gold
in the world as compared with its use-not its use in the
arts alone, nor its use as money alone--but all its uses
combined.
If 70 per cent of all the gold in the hands of man is de-
voted to monetary use and 30 per cent to other uses, then
70 per cent of its value comes from its use as money and
30 per cent from its other uses-that is, the demands upon
the stock of gold would come from these uses, and the
* For a full history of the act of 1873, see "Silver in the
Fifty-first Congress;" also speech of Senator Stewart, U. S.
Senate, June 1 and 2, 1892, and "Shylock," by Gordon Clark;
also Monograph No. 28, "The Crime of 1873," issued by the
American Bimetallic Union.
*
}
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*
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22
effect of each on the value of gold would be in proportion
to its intensity.
My grous
翠
​The same law governs the value of silver; and generally,
the value of money depends upon the quantity as compared
with its use, or the demand for it. THIS IS THE FUNDAMENTAL
LAW OF MONEY, and the most important law in economics.*
71. The conditions which determine need for money or
"demand for it, are population and wealth--that is, num-
ber of people to make exchanges and the quantity of things
to be exchanged.
THE EFFECT OF SILVER DEMONETIZATION.
72. The first effect of demonetizing silver was to set
up the single gold standard and then to augment that
standard by increasing the value of gold.
73. The value of gold was increased by increasing its
use as money at the same time that its production fell off.
In 1873 neither the United States, nor Germany, nor Italy,
nor Holland, nor Denmark, nor Norway and Sweden used
gold, but after silver was demonetized all these countries,
containing a population of 150,000,000 people, adopted
the gold standard and went to using gold, and in ten years
these seven States took $1,200,000,000 of gold, so that the
gold money then in use was divided up among more than
twice as many people as used gold in 1873, while the pro-
duction of gold fell off from a maximum of $155,000,000 in
1853 to about $110,000,000 in 1890.†
1
INCREASE OF POPULATION.
74. On the other hand, the world's population is increas-
ing more rapidly than ever before. The population of the
United States doubles in a period of about 34 years. There
is no prospect of any material increase in the supply of
gold, while its use in the arts and dentistry increases every
year. With the single gold standard, what other result is
* Ricardo (reply to Bosanquet) says:
The value of money in any country is determined by the
amount existing.
!
That commodities would rise or fall in price in proportion
to the increase or diminution of money, I assume as a fact
that is incontrovertible.
*
+ The production of gold has increased since 1890 by new
finds in Africa and Australia, but no geologist believes a con-
tinued increase possible, while the population using gold is
constantly increasing.
53
possible than for geld to go on increasing in value from
year to year and prices to continue to fall?*
STOCK OF GOLD AND SILVER.
75. Jacobs, in his "History of the Precious Metals,"
estimates that at the beginning of the Christian era the
precious metals in the Roman Empire amounted to $1,-
640,000,000, but this volume had so shrunk, that at the
date of the discovery of America, the stock of money in
all Europe, according to the same authority, did not ex-
ceed $170,000,00. Prices were then the lowest ever known.
RECENT PRODUCTION.
76. But on the discovery of the new continent and the
opening to civilization of the mines of Peru and Mexico,
or from about 1550 to 1600, the stock of money of Europe
was increased to $700,000,000, and, according to Adam
Smith, prices increased in this short period four fold.
The production of the metals kept up through the 17th
and 18th centuries until the coin money of Europe rose
to $1,600,000,000, besides large stores that drifted to the
far East. During this period the production of silver
was from two to three times that of gold.
77. From 1809, on account of the wars between Spain
and her American colonies, the production of the metals
fell off until the stock of money for the Western World-
Europe and America-fell from $1,900,000,000 to $1,500,-
000,000, and according to Jacobs, Jevons, and others the
value of metallic money, during this period, more than
doubled, and prices fell in the same proportion.
78. But from 1849 to 1873 a great change took place.
The production of gold became about three times that of
silver. From 1849 to 1873 the production of gold was
$3,000,000,000 and that of silver about $1,000,000,000.
79. The production of gold between 1873 and 1890, as
given by the Director of the Mint, was $1,796,000,000, or
an average of about $105,000,000 a year. The production
of silver during the same period is given as $1,790,000,-
009, or about the same as that of gold; the production of
A
.
* During the year 1893, the mints of India have been closed
to silver and the purchase of silver in the United States has
been stopped. Austria-Hungary has at the same time decreed
the gold standard. By these acts silver is excluded from money
supply, while at the same time more than 350,000,000 people
are added to those competing for gold
24
24
.5
both averaging about $211,000,000 a year. Deducting
from this annual supply the consumption of the two metals
in the arts and there would still have been left something
like $120,000,000 a year of both metals for money-little
enough surely for the whole world.*
80. But if money supply be limited to gold alone, after
deducting the consumption of gold in the arts and what
is required to make good losses by wear and otherwise,
there will be little, if any, left out of the annual produc-
tion for money.
81. Jacobs estimates that gold in circulation wears out
on an average in 240 years.
THE CONSUMPTION OF GOLD AND SILVER IN
THE ARTS.
82. On the other hand the consumption of gold in the
arts and dentistry is rapidly increasing.
From $20,000,000 to $22,000,000 were used in the arts
in the United States alone in 1891, and at the present
rate of increase, of over a million a year, in ten years
more the United States will consume its entire production
of thirty-two millions of gold in the arts alone.
83. The consumption of gold in the arts and dentistry
throughout the world is variously estimated at from $65,-
000,000 to $85,000,000 a year. The consumption of silver
in the arts is usually estimated at about half that of gold.
MORE PEOPLE USING GOLD FOR MONEY.
84. On the other hand, as shown in paragraph 73, many
more nations and more than three hundred millions more
people use gold as their only money standard, than used
it in 1873.
So that we have a rapid increase in the use of gold in
* Taking the whole period from 1849 to 1893 and the produc-
tion of gold has been $4,915,722,000 and that of silver $3,574,444,-
000. That is, the production of gold for this period has ex-
ceeded that of silver by $1,341,278.000. It cannot, therefore,
be the excessive production of silver that has produced the re-
cent great disparity in the metals. (See Appendix.)
·
+ During 1893, by the repeal of the Sherman law and the
closing of the mints of India and the extension of the gold
standard over Austria-Hungary, 350,000,000 more people are
made competitors for gold for money supply.
•
25
the arts, with a large increase of wealth and seven times
as many people using gold as before 1873.*
--
Again, the value of the total annual products of the
United States probably reaches, in prosperous years, $15,-
000,000,000. Tho annual supply of gold left for money
for the world would not much exceed 1 per cent of the
value of the total wealth of this country alone. And there
is room for doubt whether there is really any new gold
now left over for monetary use, after the demand for the
arts is supplied and loss in various ways made up; and
almost certainly it will not be long until the present stock
of gold money will be drawn upon for the arts..
85. Need any further reason but these facts be sought
for the rise in the value of gold, or in the value of the
money unit? When will this rise stop? Never, so long
as the present conditions exist.
THE EFFECT OF THE RISE OF GOLD ON FARM
PRODUCTS.
86. In 1873 corn was worth to the farmer 40 cents a
bushel, and yielded a return of $11.41 an acrə.
In 1893 corn brought the farmer not more than 25 cents
a bushel, and yielded a return of $5.50 an acre; the yield
per acre and the price both being low.
87. In 1873 the home value of wheat was $1.15; average
yield, 12.7 busbels, and worth $14.59 per acre. In 1893
the home value was $0.45; yield per acre, 11.3 bushels;
value per acre, $5.08. The quantity per capita was less
in 1893 than in 1873, and the world's supply rolatively
less.
88. Oats in 1873 were worth $0.37; in 1893, $0.20, and
yielded to the farmer $6.26 an acre instead of $10.37 in
1873. +
f
89. In 1872 milch cows were worth $33 each. In 1893
not over $20 each. The number of cows in 1872 was one
to a little less than four of population. In 1893 the num-
ber was one to a little more than four of population, so
* Just at this time there is some increase in the production
of gold from the discoveries in Africa, but geologists agree
that in the near future the production must undergo a decline.
See "The Future of Silver," by Eduard Suess, of Vienna.
$
† This year, 1896, west of the Mississippi River, it takes 10
bushels of oats, 6 bushels of corn, 2½ bushels of wheat, 12 bush-
els of potatoes and from 30 to 40 lbs. of side reat to get a
dollar.
{
26
"1
that, relatively to population, the number of cows had
decreased and their value at the same time had fallen 40
per cent.
CHANGE IN THE VALUE OF LAND.
90. Great as has been the fall in agricultural products,
the fall in the price of farm lands has been greater still,
notwithstanding the fact that the area of arable land,
relatively to population, is rapidly decreasing; and no-
where has the value of land fallen more than in the old
settled parts of the country.
".
IS THE CHANGE IN THE LAND AND COMMODI-
TIES OR IN THE MONEY?
91. There must be some cause for this change in the
relation of money to land and commodities. Is the charge
in the goods or in the measure-in the land and commod-
ities or in the money?
92. It is plainly in the money.
Since the demonetization of silver the world's standard
money has been shrinking in volume relatively to popula-
tion and wealth, and its value has correspondingly in-
creased.
The gold in the world has been spread over larger and
larger areas, and divided among more and more people,
and gets dearer and dearer every year.
LOSS SUSTAINED BY FARMERS.
93. At the price of wheat in 1873 the value to the farmers
of the crop of 1893 would have been $455,000,000,
instead of $178,000,000, a difference of $277,000,000. This
would have gone a long way toward paying off mortgages.
The corn crop of 1893, at the price of 1873, would have
yielded $660,000,000, instead of $412,000,000.
The cotton crop of 1893, at the price of cotton in 1873,
would have been worth to the South $496,000,000, instead
of $184,000,000, its actual value in 1893.
94. The difference in the value of farm products in 1873
and in 1893 correctly marks the difference between prices
with free coinage of silver, as well as gold, and prices as
measured by the single standard of gold. The value of
farms and farm lands has fallen even more than farm
products.
27
It is not easy to calculate the loss to farmers and plant-
ers in the twenty years from 1873 to 1893 by the fall in
the value of farms and farm products, as the direct result
of THE CHANGE IN THE MONEY STANDARD. Their ability to
pay debts and taxes, at any rate, has been reduced in the
exact ratio to the fall in prices. *
EARNINGS OF LABOR.
95. The earnings of labor, counted in money, have been
reduced also. While many things which the laborer uses
have fallen with his earnings, taxes, debts, cost of educa-
tion, and many other things have not been reduced, the
net result being a proportional loss to labor; the greatest
loss being, perhaps, in loss of employment and conse-
quently in the total earnings of the laboring class.
F
THE EXTENT OF THE FALL OF PRICES.
96. The extent of the fall in the general range of prices
cannot be exactly stated, but tables made at different
times by Soetbeer, Saurbeck, Palgrave, the London Econ-
omist, and various tables in this country, brought down to
1893, show an average fall of prices of from 33 to 45 per
cent, which is equivalent to a rise in the purchasing power
of gold of from 50 to 80 per cent.
97. That is, on an average, three to three and a half
measures of everything, or three to three and a half days'
labor, must be given for the same quantity of gold which
two measures or two days' labor would obtain before sil-
ver was demonetized, and the fall continues and will con-
tinue as long as the single standard of the gold is adhered
to.
$13
THE CONTINUATION OF THE FALL OF PRICES.
98.. The London Economist of July 2, 1892, says: "There
has as yet been no cessation of the fall in the prices of
commodities."
The table published in the Economist shows that the
index number, adopted years ago by this journal, repre-
senting the prices of twenty-two leading commodities, has
gone down from 2259, where it stood July 2, 1890, to 2081
* At prices which prevailed in 1873, the value of all the crops
of 1894 would have yielded $1,300,000,000 more than at the
prices that prevailed in 1894, or an average of more than $200
to every farm family. The crop of 1895, at the prices which
prevailed in 1873, would have yielded the farmers $1,500,000,000
more than at the prices received in 1895.
:
for July 1, 1892 which shows a fall in the general range
of prices of 7.9 per cent in two years; but from January
1, 1892, to July 1, 1892, the fall has been 2.4 per cent, or
at the rate of 4.8 per cent per annum; and the fall is still
greater for 1893.
13
As a fall of 334 per cent in prices is the same thing as
a rise of 50 per cent in the value of money, so is a fall of
4.8 per cent. in the general range of prices in the year,
equivalent to a rise in the money standard of over 5 per
cent. That is, at the rate of fall in prices shown by the
London Economist, 95.2 cents will buy as much at the
end of a year as $1.00 would at the beginning.*
99. This continued fall of prices is irrespective of tariff,
which proves conclusively that neither protection nor free
trade can prevent, under existing conditions, the continued
downward tendency of prices. It would be idle to claim.
that there had been any material change in the past six
months in the labor cost of producing any of the twenty-
two articles included in the table of the London Econo-
mist. There can be, therefore, but one explanation, and that
is that the change is in the money standard and not in
the commodities, and what is here called the fall of prices
is nothing but an increase in the value of the money
unit, arising out of the growing scarcity of gold. The fall
of prices and the rise of money are here, in fact, one and
the same thing.
An increase of 7 per cent in the value of money in a
single year, means, of course, an increase in all taxes and
debts in the same proportion.
Does anybody need to be told that there must be an end
to this some day, or that revolution and repudiation for
half the nations of the world must be the final outcome
of such a monetary policy?
STABILITY OF SILVEN BULLION.
100. On the other hand, it is admitted that silver bul-
lion has remained practically stable as compared with
commodities generally, although as compared with some
staple commodities, as wheat, cotton, pig iron, etc, silver
bullion has risen slightly since 1873.
101. Eight and a half pounds of cotton would buy an
ounce of silver in 1873. In 1890 it took twelve and a half
pounds to buy an ounce of silver bullion.
* The fall of prices since 1893 has been 20 per cent, which is
the greatest ever known in so short a period. Dun's Review
shows a fall of 7% der cent for 1895-6.
29
#
Less than a bushel of wheat, at the seaboard, would buy
an ounce of silver in 1873. In 1890 it took a bushel and
an eighth to equal an-ounce of silver bullion.
In 1873 a barrel of mess pork was equivalent to 12
ounces of silver bullion. În 1890 a barrel of mess pork
would buy less than 11 ounces of silver.*
A ton of pig iron in 1873 was equal to 344 ounces of sil-
ver. In 1890, 20 ounces of silver was equal in value to
a ton of pig iron. †
In 1873, 2 pounds of wool would exchange for an
ounce of silver. In 1890 it took three pounds to get an
ounce of silver bullion.
A comparison of silver with labor, except where the rate
of wages has been kept up by labor organizations, would
show similar results.
THE DIRECT RELATION OF WHEAT AND COTTON
TO SILVER.
102. Prices generally might advance as the result of an
increase in the volume of money, without materially af-
fecting wheat and cotton and other products that come in
direct competition with India.
103. The reason for this is that silver bullion is admit-
ted to free coinage into rupees in India on the ratio of 15
to 1, or $1.37 an ounce. ‡
Prices in India in silver have not materially changed
since 1873, and in a country of such extent, where habits
are fixed as they are there, changes, if at all, must be very
slow; consequently, as silver bullion falls, it takes less
gold to get the silver to convert into rupees to pay for
wheat or cotton. In other words, the same number of
rupees will buy a given quantity of cotton or wheat in
India, regardless of the gold cost of the rupees; hence, as
silver goes down, the gold cost of wheat and cotton in In-
dia is reduced, and as our surplus wheat and cotton goes
to Liverpool in direct competition with the wheat and
* The difference has gone on increasing from year to year.
Twelve ounces of silver this year, 1896, are equal to a ton
of pig iron.
The mints of India were closed to silver June 6, 1893.
30
my
cotton of India, it must go down as the gold cost of the
same products in India goes down.*
104. India never did compete with us in the markets of
Europe, in wheat and cotton, until the so-called decline
of silver-but in reality the rise in gold-made it profit-
able to the European buyers to purchase these products
with exchange bought at a heavy discount on account of
the fall of silver.
She could not now compete with western energy and
skill were that cause removed by lessening the abnormal
value of gold, which the restoration of silver will do.
105. When silver went up in 1890 the shipments of
wheat from Calcutta, and also from Odessa, Russia, were
checked.
Wheat advanced all over the world; cotton also.†
* In June, 1886, an important meeting of_the_British and
Colonial Chambers of Commerce was held in London, England,
at which there was an animated discussion of the silver ques-
tion and its bearings upon the commerce of India.
Sir Robert N. Fowler, M. P., the London banker and ex-Lord
Mayor, said that "the effect of the depreciation of silver must
finally be the ruin of the wheat and cotton industries of Americo, and
be the development of India as the chief wheat and cotton ex-
porter of the world."
.
+ Moreton Frewen made the following clear statement of the
relation of wheat to silver bullion, before the Second National
Silver Convention at Washington:
"But while many intelligent people here are not always
alarmed at the imaginary dangers of free coinage, they do not
always recognize the immense importance to your farmers of
higher rates for silver-they do not recognize that whenever
the price of silver falls, the price of wheat, cotton and other
produce must fall also. This is a question to which, when in
India, I gave very close study, and I should like to make this
general statement, which I am convinced the experience of the
past and of the future will amply confirm-let me put it briefly
in this way; the price of wheat in this country is its price in
London or Liverpool, less the cost of carriage from here there,
and the London price of wheat is, under ordinary conditions,
one ounce of silver per bushel of wheat. Your farmers will
always have to sell a bushel of wheat, say in Chicago, for an
ounce of silver less freight charges to London; if then, silver is
worth $1.29 per ounce, the London price of American wheat
is a dollar and twenty-nine cents, while, if silver is worth ninety
cents, then your wheat will only realize ninety cents. This is
a statement that will bear close examination, and it is the sum
of the importance of the silver question to your nation.”
31
;
THE COMMON INTEREST OF FARMERS, PLANT-
ERS, AND MINERS IN MAINTAINING SILVER.
106. The farmer and planter, therefore, have as much
interest in maintaining the price of silver as the miner,
and when the aggregate value of our wheat and cotton
crops, as compared with the silver production and their
relation to other products, is considered, it will be seen
that farmers and planters have a much larger interest in
upholding silver than the miners.
RELATIVE PROFIT TO MINERS AND FARMERS
OF A RISE IN SILVER.
ì
107. The total production of silver in the United States
in 1890 was about 54,000,000 ounces. Twenty-five per
cent on the value of that would be but from thirteen to
fourteen millions of dollars, while twenty-five per cent on
the value of the wheat and cotton crops alone, of 1889,
would be $150,000,000.
108. While wheat and cotton (and indirectly other agri-
cultural products in a greater or less degree) rise and fall.
with silver bullion, prices generally will rise only as the
volume of money is increased relatively to population and
wealth.
Economists agre, that with a shrinking volume of
money prices always tend downwards, and with falling
prices industrial prosperity is impossible.
THE EFFECT ON LABOR.
109. It is self-evident that labor fares best when in-
dustries are active; industries are active when they are
prosperous. In other words, labor finds steadier employ-
ment and earns more in good times than in hard times.
Good times never go hand in hand with scarcity of money.
110. Wages of labor cannot be increased by making
money scarce and dear any more than they could be in-
creased by increasing the weight of coins.
If in times when the money volume is shrinking and
money is growing dearer, the rate of wages of those who
are fortunate enough to get work is kept up by labor or-
ganizations, this fact is many times overbalanced by the
loss of ali earnings by the increased number who can find
NO EMPLOYMENT.
111. Thus, since 1873, while the 'rate of wages in some
T
82
industries may have been kept up by strong organiza
tions, and possibly in some few even advanced, yet the
total earnings of the entire labor population have been largely
reduced
112. The only way possible to increase the earnings of
all labor is to increase products; for in the last analysis
wages are but the share of products which labor gets.
113. A condition, therefore, which tends, as money
stringency always does, to lessen the total products of
labor and capital combined, tends to lessen the earnings
of the laborer on which the maintenance of himself and
family depends. No class, therefore, has a greater interest
in maintaining conditions that promote good times than
the laboring class, and no class knows better than they
that stringency in money is strangulation of industry and
starvation of labor.
EFFECT OF CONTRACTION,
114. Allison says "the downfall of the Roman Empire,
so long ascribed in ignorance to slavery, heathenism and
moral corruption, was in reality brought about by a de-
cline in the silver and gold mines of Spain and Greece."
115. The total stock of the precious metals in the
Roman Empire referred to in paragraph 75, fell from $1,-
640,000,000 at the beginning of the first century to $170,-
000,000 in the ninth century.
116. After the discovery of America the precious metals
were tripled, and prices, before a century had expired, of
every species of production had quadrupled. Not till then.
did Europe begin to emerge from the gloom of the dark
ages.
REQUIREMENTS OF SILVER.
117. To supply the annual increase in the world's pop-
ulation with ten dollars per capita would require a pro-
duction of the precious metals, devoted to money use, of
from two hundred to two hundred and fifty million dol-
lars each year.
118. The production of silver in 1892 was about $160,-
000,000 and of gold $120,000,000, or $280,000,000 of both
metals. But probably $85,000,000 of the gold is used in
the arts and dentistry, and $35,000,000 of the silver, leav-
ing but $35,000,000 of gold and $125,000,000 of silver for
monetary use (if there was no restriction on the use of
silver), or $160,000,000 of both metals; and as wealth and
མར་
と
​орна
+
сутри
33
luxury increase, more and more gold and silver are used
for plate and ornaments.*
119. Thus, the supply of the two metals falls short of -
the needs of the world for money, but when the silver
stream is shut off and the world is left with only the in-
significant supply of gold, what must the consequences be?
Are we not facing the dark ages again, and that, too, with
mountain loads of debt never dreamed of in the middle
ages-debts to be discharged by the ever increasing stand-
ard of gold?
THE DEBTS OF THE WORLD.
120. It is impossible to state, with even an approxima-
tion to accuracy, the debts of the world. Moreton Frewen
estimates the debts of Great Britain, of all kinds, at $20,-
000,000,000, and of the world at as high as $150,000,000,-
000. This is almost inconceivable. But suppose the world's
debts are but half that, they would then exceed all the
wealth of every description in the United States.
121. Are all these debts to be discharged from the tiny
stream of fifty or sixty millions of gold a year? Who
believes that there is enough of both metals eyen to ever
discharge this huge pile of debts? And ever-increasing
debts mean ever-increasing taxes.
122. And if the money standard is rising at the rate of 5
per cent per annum, as shown in paragraph 98, or at half
that rate, debts and taxes are increased at the same rate.
MONEY SECURITIES-INCREASE OF.
123. The official list of the London Stock Exchange, for
the beginning of 1892, shows securities quoted on that ex-
change, of the market value of $31,750,000,000, of which
$12,500,000,000 were foreign securities.
The increase in the securities dealt in on this stock ex-
change in the five years, from 1886 to the end of 1891, was
$3,350,000,000, or at the rate of $670,000,000 a year. †
* The production of gold for 1895 was about 10,000,000 ounces,
and of silver about 145,000,000 ounces, or $185,000,000 of gold
and about $175,000,000 of silver.
+ Our debt abroad increased from 1879 to 1893 at the rate of
over $200,000,000 a year, and can hardly be less now, including
railroad securities and other investments of foreign capital
here, than $5,000,000,000, calling for not less than $200,000.000 a
year interest. Add to this the cost of the carrying trade and
the gold spent by American travelers abroad, and the annual
*£3
J
"
* D
34
124. The interest on the foreign securities alone reaches
about $600,000,000 per annum in gold. This is the tribute
other nations pay to England.
"me
Every increase in the value of gold increases pro rata
these debts. Great is the power of gold!
WHO OWNS THE WORLD'S DEBTS?
125. The people of one race, the Semitic, are the owners
of a large part of the debts of the world. To them all
Christian nations pay tribute. No people understand the
power of money, or the laws of money, as do this race of
ancient money lenders. They secured the demonetization
of silver in order to increase the value of gold. They op-
pose the remonetization of silver because they want the
increase in the money standard to go on, for every in-
crease in the value of the money unit increases their hold-
ings.
BIMETALLISM.
126. Bimetallism is the unlimited use of gold and silver
for money, or the right to the unlimited use of both these
metals for every money purpose.
127. The theory of bimetallism is that, if there is any
falling off in the production of one metal as compared
with the other, or any tendency from any other cause for
either the gold or the silver to increase in value, the other
is taken up and its use for money increased and its value
thereby upheld.
128. History shows that the production of the two met-
als, while they may vary relatively, has been much stead-
ier than the production of either alone, and at no period
of the world's history has the production of one been suf-
ficient to keep up the supply of money for the world.
129. It has been shown that it was by legislation, and
by legislation alone, that the operations of this law by
demands upon us for gold, after imports are offset by exports,
can hardly be less than $400.000,000.
The debt abroad has been increased from June 30, 1894, to
June 30, 1895, by over $200,000,000.
If this increase of debt abroad, and the increase at the same
time in the value of gold is not soon stopped this country will
find itself in the condition of Egypt, India and the debtor Col-
onies of Great Britain.
*
For English investments abroad, see Gladstone and Thorald
Rodgers. See also Monograph No. 11.
41
30

35
which the parity of the two metals was maintained, was
broker. As illustrating this fact it has also been shown
that during the first half of this century the supply of
silver was in the proportion of about 3 of silver to 1 of
gold.*
130. But from 1849, for about twenty years, the supply
of gold was about 3 to 1 of silver, and in single years
reached 4 to 1.
131. At the present time the production is about 1 of
silver to 1 of gold. The present production of silver, how-
ever, does not equal the production of gold in 1853, which
was $155,000,000.
}
132. But during the periods when the production of sil-
ver was three times that of gold, and when the production
of gold was three times that of silver, the two metals, with
free coinage in Europe on the ratio of 15 to 1, were every-
where kept at parity, except as varied by the state of the
exchanges between different countries.
133. It was the same as if the metals as they came from
the mines had been melted together and coined as a com-
pound metal-sometimes more of the yellow and some-
times more of the white metal-but the value of the whole
depending on the total quantity of both metals in the
world and the total annual supply.
134. If, with the two metals fused together and coined,
one-half the coins should be suddenly destroyed, every-
body would see at once that a change would be made in
the value of money, and that there would be a great fall
in the price of all commodities.
But the fact that the two metals are coined separately
does not change the effect of reducing the quantity of
money by the demonetization of one of them.
135. The law of bimetallism, under free coinage, oper-
ates precisely the same whether the two metals are coined
as a compound metal, the compound varying as the sup-
ply of the metals respectively varies, or whether they are
coined separately as now.
←
**
THE BLAND ACT.
136. The act of February 28, 1878, commonly known as
the Bland act, restored to the silver dollar its legal tender
character, but instead of restoring free coinage provided
for the purchase of silver bullion by the Government at
* See paragraphs 76-78 and Appendix.
=
+
36
its market price, and the coinage of not less than $2,000,
000 or more than $4,000,000 worth each month. Certifi-
cates in denominations of ones, twos, fives and multiples
of five were issued under this act and amendments thereto
on the deposit of silver dollars in the Treasury. Hence,
when the certificates aro out the coin is always in the
Treasury, and when the coin is out the certificates are in;
but both can never be out at the same time. The same
is true of gold certificates.
There was coined under the Bland act, from February,
1878, to the passage of the act of July 14, 1890, $378,-
166,790.
137. Under the act of July 14, 1890, and March, 1891,
there was coined to November 1, 1894, $43,609,615,
making in all $421,776,408 of silver dollars, with about
$70,000,000 of subsidiary silver.
THE ACT OF JULY 14, 1890.
138. By the act of July 14, 1890, the Secretary of the
Treasury was authorized and required to purchase each
month, at its market price, 4,500,000 ounces of silver,
and issue therefor Treasury notes redeemable in coin.
Consequently, under this act, notes to the amount of the
market value of the silver purchased were added to the
volume of money each month. If silver was worth one
-dollar an ounce, then $54,000,000 a year would be added
to our currency. If silver cost more than a dollar an
unce, then more than $54,000,000 would be added; but
if silver cost less than a dollar an ounce, then the increase
of the money volume would be less than $54,000,000.
HOW NOTES ISSUED UNDER THE ACT OF 1890
ARE REDEEMABLE.
139. The notes issued under the above act are redeem-
able, at the option of the Government, in coin, and to give
to the payee the option amounts to the abrogation of the
law of legal tender. The option belongs always to the
payor, and it is the duty of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury to exercise, on behalf of the Government, the option
to redeem notes issued under the act of 1890, in coin of
either gold or silver.*
* In his instructions to the Assistant Secretary at Boston,
Secretary Foster said the holder of a note had the right to de-
mand gold. This is the abrogation of legal tender, and a trans-
fer of the option of the Government to the creditor, a position
that cannot long be maintained. Secretary Carlisle sustains
in practice the instructions of Secretary Foster.
?
$
1
37
140. It is claimed that the Secretary of the Treasury may
sell bonds and buy gold, if need be, to redeem the notes
issued under the act of 1890. But in the first place, no
act of Congress confers this power upon the Secretary,
and in the second place the conditions which make the
purchase of gold necessary would send the gold out again
unless it was kept locked in the Treasury.
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ach of
3
WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH THE BULLION
PURCHASED UNDER THE ACT OF 1890?
141. The question of first importance in connection
with this store of bullion is: Is it held as money, or is it
a mere commodity, held as collateral security for notes
redeemable in gold? I'money, then it should be coined;
that is, put into the form of money, as fast, at any rate,
as may be required to redeem notes issued for its purchase.
If this bullion is not monetized, and is not to be mone-
tized, but is to be treated merely as a commodity, then
some day it may be sold off for what it will bring, and
what then would become of the silver market?
Unless, therefore, the silver purchased becomes, or is to
become, MONEY, it were foolish to continue the purchase
of silver bullion. Greenbacks might as well be issued at
once.
FREE COINAGE NOT A PURCHASE.
142. Under free coinage the Government does not pur-
chase the silver or the gold. It simply receives the bullion
at the mint, sees that it is brought to the proper standard
of fineness for coins, and if the bullion requires to be re-
fined, the Government makes a charge equal to the cost of
bringing the metal to standard fineness, that is, nine-
tenths fine. Then the Government puts its stamp on each
piece and turns the coin over to the depositor, and that is
all there is to it. Or the Government may, if it has the
coins on hand, at once deliver to the depositor coin for
the bullion; but the Government in no proper sense, under
free coinage, buys the bullion, nor does it become the
owner of it. It belongs, and the coins made from it be-
long, to the depositor. Separate provision, however, has
been made on account of the greater convenience of a pa-
per circulation, for the issue of notes, dollar for dollar,
for the coin or bullion, which, in that case, the Gcvern-
ment holds in trust for whoever holds the notes or certif-
icates.
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38
THE EFFECT OF FREE COINAGE ON THE VALUE
OF SILVER.
A
143. It is often said, put a dollar's worth of silver in
a dollar," as if that were solid wisdom. Such a proposi-
tion requires that silver shall have the value of money be-
fore it is made money! Would gold have the same value
if the coining of it into money were prohibited, and its
use limited to the arts? Is it possible for either silver or
gold to have the same value if limited to use in the arts,
that they have or would have if given full monetary use
in addition to their use in the arts? Of course not.
As has been shown, over 70 per cent of the value of
gold comes from its monetary use, and less than 30 per
cent from its use in the arts. ·
144. Silver must have the same mintage right that gold
has before it can have the same value. If the right to
make bread of spring wheat were taken away, would spring
wheat have the same value winter wheat has, or the value
that winter wheat would have if bread could be made
from that alone?
145. First monetize silver, give back to it its ancient
mintage rights, and then if it does not circulate at par
with gold, a good reason might be found for changing the,
coinage ratio, as in 1834, when the weight of the gold
coins was changed.
WILL FREE COINAGE DRIVE OUT GOLD?
146. It is claimed that free coinage in the United States
will immediately expel all our gold.
In the first place it is admitted that a purely metallic
money becomes distributed among the various commercial
nations in proportion to their trade; also that a currency
part coin and part paper convertible into coin, obeys the
same laws as to distribution that govern a purely metal-
lic money; but in the latter case only the metallic part
passes from country to country.
147. The United States at this time has a volume of
money of about $1,500,000,000, consisting of, say:
Gold....
Silver...
Paper.
$500,000,000
500,000,000
500,000,000
Total
$1,500,000,000
This volume, under the law stated above, falls to us as
подобрать издели
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39
our distributive share of the world's money, and is neces-
sary to maintain an equilibrium of prices with the rest of
the world. If we did not have this volume prices would'
be lower here than abroad, and money would come here
until the general level was restored.
148. Therefore, all our gold can be expelled only by at
ence substituting some other money, dollar for dollar for
the gold. Moreover, nearly two millions of people are
added yearly to our population, which means at least 500,-
000 new workers in the fields of labor each year. Not less
than $50,000,000 of new money each year is required for
this new population.
RETIREMENT OF NATIONAL BANK NOTES.
若
​149. There are yet $176,000,000 of national bank notes
o be retired, and if the place of these notes is not sup-
plied with other money, contraction of the currency to
that extent must follow. We may safely calculate, there-
fore, that some $25,000,000 a year will be required to take
the place of bank notes retired, IN ORDER TO PREVENT
*
CONTRACTION.
+19
150. Now, where is the silver to come from for the $500,-
000,000 to take the place of our gold, besides supplying
the 75,000,000 needed for new population and to prevent
contraction?
•
•
DISTRIBUTION OF SILVER.
151. The annual production of silver has been already
stated. The following table shows how this has heretofore
been distributed:
$
* Instead of gradually retiring the bank circulation, it is
now proposed to retire the greenbacks, and turn over to the
banks the issue and control of the entire paper circulation of
the country. With the founders of our Government "sound
currency" meant gold and silver with free mintage for both,
but with paper currency regulated and controlled by the Gen-
eral Government. Webster said in his speech at New York,
1840, "I hold that the regulation of the currency, whether metal-
lic or paper, that a just and safe supervision over that which
virtually performs the office of money, and constitutes the
medium of exchange, whatever it may be, necessarily pertains
to Government, that it is one of the necessary and indispensa
ble prerogatives of Government." The late lidea of "sound
currency" seems to be metallic money limited to gold alone,
with the issue and control of paper currency turned over to
ten thousand banks, to be put out or called in as their own
interests may dictate.
#
*
Y
40
Jos
India...
The United States för coinage purposes
Japan
Mexico, about.
Asia and Africa.
$35,000,000
42,000,000
10,000,000
10,000,000
18,000,000
··
Europe and America, for subsidiary coinage, say 10,000,000
:
·
Total
Leaving for the arts.
Total.....
152. Under the law of July, 1890, the United States
took 54,000,000 ounces a year instead of $24,000,000, as
under the Bland act. So it is quite apparent that silver
to displace our gold could not be got from the annual pro-
duction if we had free coinage.
153. Where, then, is it to come from? The gold mono-
metallists say that the coined silver of Europe will come.
here.
In paragraphs 43 and 44 the relative value of the silver
coins of the United States and other countries is given,
from which it is clear that European coins cannot come
here AS COINS.
$125,000,000
35,000,000
$160,000,000
154. The table on the opposite page, furnished bythe Di-
rector of the Mint, gives the coined money of the various
countries. It is proper, however, in this connection to state
that the money of India, China, and the Straits, and prob-
ably some other countries, is an estimate but little better
than a guess, for there are no reliable statistics concern-
ing the money of these countries, which for ages have been
known as the sink of the precious metals.
155. All FULL-WEIGHT coins are full legal tender in their
respective countries, while the subsidiary coins are under
weight, and, like our subsidiary coins, legal tender for
limited amounts, generally up to about ten dollars.
By reference to the table of values of the standard silver
coins of Europe and India, as compared with our dollars,
the loss on sending these coins here can easily be calcu-
lated.
您
​156. Before the silver coins of any country will go to a
country where silver is rated lower, as compared with gold
(as 15 pounds of silver to 1 of gold in Europe, and 16
pounds of silver to 1 of gold in the United States), the
COINS MUST FIRST BE DEMONETIZED,
157. It is claimed, again, that whether silver comes
here to displace the gold or not, gold will go to a premium
*
Table showing the estimated stock of silver held by foreign countries, the statement of each and the ratio of gold to silver in coinage,
Ratio of | Ratio of
full legal- limited
tender tender
silver to
silver to
gold.
1-15.5
1-15.5
1-15.5
1-15.5
1-15 5
1-15.5
1
Countries.
United Kingdom.
France.
Germany
Belgium
Italy
Switzerland.
Greece.
Spain.
Portugal.
Austria-Hungary
Netherlands.
Scandinavian Union
•
•
●
Russia.
Turkey
Australia.
Egypt..
Mexico.
Central American States.
South America.
·
Japan,
India.
China.
The Straits.
Canada.
Cuba, Hayti, etc.
Total
•
··
…
Full legal
tender.
48,400,000
25,800,000
11,400,000
$650,000,000
$100,000,000 $100,000,000 Gold
50,000,000 700,000,000 Bimetallic
102,000,000 43,000,000 145,000,000 Gold
6,500,000
55,000,000 Bimetallic
34,200,000
3,600,000
2,200,000
35,000,000
10,000,000
1,800,000
90,000,000
90,000,000
61,800,000
22,000,000
50,000,000
500,000
25,000,000
50,000,000
Limited
tender.
900,000,000
700,000,000
100,000,000
1,200,000
2,929,900,000
3,200,000
10,000,000
38,000,000
45,000,000
7,000,000
15,000,000
Total. Standard,
5,000,000
800,000
60,000,000
15,000,000
4,000,000
125,000,000
10,000,000 Gold
90,000,000 | Silver
1--15.3
65,000,000 | Bimetallic | 1-15.5
10,000,000 Gold
1-15.5
60,000,000 | Silver
45,000,000 Gold
7,000,000 .do
15,000,000 .do
50,000,000 | Silver
.do
..do
.do
.do
500,000 ...do...
25,000,000 ...do..
1-15.5
50,000,000 | Bimetallic | 1-16.18
1-15
900,000,000 ...do..
700,000,000
..do.
100,000,000
.do.
408,600,000 3,338,500,000
1-16.5
1-15.5
5,000,000 | Gold
2,000,000 | Bimetallic | 1-15.5*
* Hayti.
T
gold.
1-14.28
1-14.38
1-13.957
1-14.38
1-14.38
1-14.38
1-14.38
1-14.38
1-14.08
1-15
1-14.85
1--15
1-15.1
1-14.28
1-15.68
1-14.95
1
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42
and go out of circulation and out of use as money, and
that we will be left with a volume of only $1,000,000,000
instead of $1,500,000,000, and that the $1,000,000,000
will be at the same time DEPRECIATED-that is, prices would
rise! This is queer logic. How can a dollar of a volume
of $1,000,000,000 in the same country at the same time
be worth LESS than a dollar of a volume of $1,500,000,000?
The absurdity of this proposition is self-exposed.
158. If by any possibility the volume of our money
could be reduced to $1,000,000,000, it would be APPRE-
CIATED-money would rise and prices fall; in other words,
it would be the smaller volume of money that would go
up, and not gold, which amounts to saying that what is
predicted cannot possibly take place. If money should
rise here, prices fall, gold would come to us instead of
leaving us.
莆
​BANK CREDITS.
159. But gold, silver and paper are not the only kinds
of money that act on prices. Bank credits, or credits on
the books of banks subject to check, perform within cer-
tain limits the chief functions of money. They not only
take the place of money, but they effect exchanges and
close transactions the same as actual money, and to the
extent they do this they affect prices the same as so much
money would.
160. So that the real effective currency, acting on prices,
is made up of gold, silver, paper and bank credits, which
might fittingly be called confidence money, since the ex-
tent of this character of currency depends largely on the
confidence people have in it
161. The relative proportion of this credit currency to
the actual money in the country is difficult to state accu-
rately, nor can the relative efficiency of this form of cur-
rency, dollar for dollar, be closely estimated, but the re-
port of the Comptroller of the Currency for 1893 (pages
134 and 240) gives the deposits of 5,685 State, private and
savings banks and trust companies as.... $3, 125, 333,000
And for 3,830 national banks as
Making a total for all the
banks of..
.1,910,000,000
•
$5,035,333,000
*
Against this the national banks
held in lawful money.
And all the other banks.
Or a total of...
..
$322,800,000
193,187,000
.$515,987,000
•
43
162.
Thus, altogether, the banks held but $515,987,000
of actual money, and on this built up a structure of credit
currency of $5,035,333,000.
163. The real condition of the currency of the United
States July, 1893, may, therefore, be stated in round num-
bers as follows:
Actual money in the hands of the people.
Actual money in the vaults of banks.
Total actual money
Bank credits...
•
$1,000,000,000
515,000,000
.1,515,000,000
.4,500,000,000
··
165. This is currency as much as if notes were issued for
this amount-currency as much as were the old State
bank issues-and it inflates and contracts in the same way.
This volume of credit is a creation from nothing-rest-
ing on confidence alone, and amounts to more than eight
dollars to one of the money it is based upon.
166. A withdrawal of $100,000,000 of actual money
from the banks, therefore, compels the contraction of their
credit volume of eight hundred millions! It is plain
enough to see that right here, in this purely credit cur-
rency, is where all the sudden contraction and expansion
of money takes place. It is in this credit currency that
our money troubles originate. Here all panics begin.
The withdrawal of a large part of the reserves from the
banks in July and August of 1893 practically extin-
guished, for the time being, a large part of this volume of
bank credits.
Even in times of undisturbed confidence the relative
efficiency of actual money and bank credits, or confidence
money, is by no means equal, dollar for dollar. If it were,
the proportion of the whole business done by each kind
of currency would be in the proportion of $4,500,000,000
to $1,600,000,000, or of 73 to 27. But bank credits are
created and destroyed with each transaction, while actual
money works on all days and all seasons, and the propor-
tin of work actually done by money is undoubtedly much
larger than the above proportion, and in times of panic
the work falls mainly on ready money. Hence, it will be
seen, that the claim so often made that 95 per cent of the
business of the country is done by credit appliances has
no real foundation, for in and by this volume of money
and bank credits, all transactions of every nature and
kind, calling for money, are liquidated; there is nothing
outside, and we see in the above figures the proportion in
$
1
44
на т
which the two kinds of currency exist, and from that judge
of the work done by each. One thing is made apparent to
all reflecting minds by these proportions and by the ex-
perience of 1893, that stability and security cannot be
gained by narrowing the basis of actual money and in-
creasing the superstructure of credit. They who would
withdraw half of the metallic money from the foundation
of our present currency system, and then proceed to raise
higher the superstructure of credit, can hardly be counted
sane, and to call such a policy "sound finance" is cold
irony.
167. It is by loaning this form of credit at interest, this
burrency created from nothing, that banks derive their
large dividends. Their loans must be largely on call, so
that when confidence is shaken they can call in their loans
and let the borrower take the consequences.
DANGER TO SAVINGS DEPOSITORS.
168. It is claimed that the restoration of silver would
reduce the value of the savings of poor people in savings
banks and trust companies.
But who ever sustained a loss from a bank having too
much actual money in its vaults, or from too much gold
and silver in a country? The real danger, and the only
danger to savings deposits, comes from the over-expansion
of bank credits and loss of value in their securities, and
not from too much gold and silver money.
WHAT THE BANKS WANT.
169. The great banks of the cities want the single gold
standard maintained, silver and paper restricted and made
redeemable in gold, and the supply of currency left for
them to provide in the manner just set forth. This is the
English system, only their bank credits reach 10 to 1 of
actual money.
WHICH SHALL IT BE?
170. Which, then, shall it be, an enlargement of basic,
primary money, accessible to all through the mines, or
bank-credit currency created, contracted and expanded, as
the interest of the banks alone may dictate?
171. The wise thing to do at once, it would seem, would
be to restrict bank credits and enlarge proportionately
the metallic basis, and if this is not enough to raake up
45
for the restrictions of credit, enlarge the volume of paper
money.
172. This would be but substituting a substantial kind
of money for a very unsubstantial kind, and one not regu-
lated in the interest of the few, but self-regulating through
the mines, or, if paper, regulated in the interest of all,
and not of one class.
T
173. No question before the people so deeply concerns
all classes, the farmer, the laborer, the producer, as this,
which affects the welfare of all.
HOW DEBTS ARE PAYABLE.
174. When in any country there is more than one kind
of money which is a legal tender in the payment of debts,
the debtor may elect which kind of money he will pay in.
If the creditor had the choice there would be no need of
legal tender.
175. When the public debt was refunded the new bonds
were made by law payable in "coin of the standard value
of 1870," and this provision is printed on the face of the
bonds. The Government, therefore, has the option to pay
the bonds in either gold or silver coin. It is sometimes
claimed that the creditor has the right to choose whether
he will take gold or silver; but this is not so. The option
is with the Government. There is no debt of the Govern-
ment of any kind not legally and equitably payable in
coin of either metal.*
O
176. Prior to 1873 every obligation of every description
was payable in either silver or gold coin, at the option of
the debtor. These two metals were universal solvents in
which all obligations could be liquidated. No obligation.
could be made stipulating value that could not be dis-
charged in coins of either metal. If the creditor was
left to choose the kind of money he would take in payment
of debts, legal tender, as already stated, would be of no
effect, and there would be but one kind of money and that
the dearest.
177. Recently, and since gold has been tending upward,
there has been a tendency to make contracts payable spe-
cifically in gold. But States have the right, under the
Constitution, to make gold and silver coins legal tender
* This statement does not apply to gold or silver certificates
for which the Treasury merely holds the gold or silver in trust
for the depositor.
46
for everything, and States may find it necessary to provide
that all debts shall be dischargeable in coin or paper made
legal tender by the Government, stipulations in contracts
to the contrary notwithstanding.
THE BEST MONEY AND THE WORST.
178. The BEST money is that which is most stable and
constant; the wORST money is that, no matter of what it
is made, which is constantly increasing in value, for that
means that everything else is decreasing in value. From
no other cause, in no other way, has mankind suffered
greater wrong or more injustice than from alterations in
the value of money. By no other agency have those who
did not create wealth, and were not entitled to it, been able
in times past to gather to themselves what rightfully be-
longed to others, as by changing the money standard; and
the creation and perpetuation at the present day of vast
debt unknown a century and a half ago, increases enor-
mously this power and multiplies beyond calculation the
danger.*
179. Gold as a money standard is itself a commodity,
and, like all other commodities, is governed by the law of
supply and demand. Hence, under a diminishing supply
and increasing demand, as has been shown, it is rapidly
increasing in value and prices as rapidly declining.
180. The two metals, it is believed, would afford a sup.
ply sufficient for a long time, at any rate, to maintain
comparative stability in the value of the money unit,
but there has never yet been w excessive supply of the
two metals.
INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM.
181. A concensus of leading commercial nations on a
common ratio between gold and silver, with an agreement
to keep open mints for the free and unlimited coinage of
both metals at an agreed ratio, is no doubt a thing to be
desired, but all efforts to that end have thus far failed.
K
182. Creditor nations gain by making gold dear, and
England, as the greatest creditor nation, with large in-
comes from other countries, payable in gold, has refused all
overtures looking to international bimetallism.
* Since the above was written, in 1893, the rise of gold has
been 20 per cent. How long will it take in this way for the
world's debts to absorb all its wealth?
47
BORROWING OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM.
183. Have we not long enough depended on London
and Frankfort for our financial system?*
184. Our accumulated wealth exceeds that of any other
country. The value of our annual products is equal to
that of any other two nations. We save up annually more
than England, France and Germany combined.
185. By the middle of the next century, at the present
rate of increase, our population will be 250,000,000.
To supply this population alone with $25 per capita
would take as much silver as the continent of America,
from Alaska to Patagonia, has yielded since its discovery
by Columbus, 400 years ago; or as much of both metals
as was produced in the first 300 years after its discovery.
Little danger, then, of an over-supply of the precious
metals.
THE ACT OF 1890-THE SO-CALLED "SHERMAN
LAW."
186. This act, as stated in paragraphs 138 and 139, pro-
vided for the purchase of 4,500,000 ounces of silver each
month, and the issue therefor cf legal-tender Treasury
notes. It also provided that the Secretary of the Treasury
should coin two million dollars a month till July 1, 1891,
and after that time the act provided that he should "coin
of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this
act as much as may be necessary to provide for the re-
demption of the Treasury notes herein provided for."
Section 2 of the act provided that the Secretary of the
Treasury should "redeem such notes in gold or silver coin,
at his discretion."
187. Two million dollars a month were coined up to
July 1, 1891, and there the coinage of the bullion stopped.
While the Secretary of the Treasury has the option to re-
deem the notes issued under this act, designated as coin
notes, in either gold or silver coin, whichever might be
most convenient, the only provision made by the act for
supplying the coin for redemption purposes was to coin
the bullion, for the purchase of which the notes were
issued. But this was not done and both Secretary Foster
* What our financial system shall be is a question that can
no more be left to the control of foreign powers than can our
industrial system.
N
48
į
↓
and Secretary Carlisle, instead of exercising the option to
redeem these notes in silver, gave the option to the holder
of the notes, and, of course, he took the gold, especially
if he wanted it for export.
188. By giving the option to take gold to the holder of
the notes, the Treasury reserves of gold were left abso-
lutely unprotected, and at once became the main source
of supply for speculators and exporters to satisfy the for-
eign demand. Indeed, it has come to light that the syn-
dicate contracting to supply Austria-Hungary with gold,
to enable that country to establish the gold standard, did
not close the deal till they had ascertained definitely that
gold could be drawn from our Treasury without let or
hindrance. The Bank of France regularly refuses gold to
speculators for export; so does the Imperial Bank of Ber-
lin. The Bank of England protects her gold by raising the
rato of interest. But, under the policy of our Secretaries,
our stock of gold is open to all comers, and in this way
over $108,000,000 were withdrawn from the Treasury in
a few months in 1893.
MAINTAINING THE PARITY OF THE METALS.
189. It is claimed by the Secretary of the Treasury that
the law requires him to maintain the "parity of the met-
als" and that to do this the option to take gold or silver
must be given to the holder of the notes. That is exactly
the reverse of what should be done, if he would uphold
the value of silver coins.
Bimetallism rests upon the law of legal tender, which
gives the option to the payor and not to the payee. If the
one who receives money is given the option to say which
kind of money he will take, legal tender is annulled, and
without legal tender, as before stated, there never would
long be but one kind of money, and that the dearest. For
as soon as any one kind of money tended to become more
valuable than other kinds, everybody would choose that
kind of money.
The principle on which bimetallism rests is the same as
that of legal tender. With the right to pay in either met-
al, if one becomes more abundant and tends to become
cheaper, or can be more easily obtained, this is the metal
that is selected to pay in, and in that way its use is ex-
tended and the use of the other metal is restricted. It is
not by increasing the use of the metal tending to become
49
dearer and restricting the use of the other, that the two
metals can be kept together, but by the opposite policy of
using less of the dearer and more of the other.
If the two metals were at a parity to begin with, parity
would be broken by the course pursued by the Secretary
of the Treasury.
190. Equally ineffectual will be the policy to borrow
gold by issuing new bonds.
Gold that does not come to us in the course of trade will not
stay here when bought with bonds. This is so evident a
truth that elucidation is hardly necessary.
PURCHASE AND COINAGE OF SILVER UNDER
THE ACT OF 1890.
191. There was purchased under the act of 1890, from
August 13, 1890, to November 2, 1893, when the act was
repealed, 168,674,590 fine ounces, at a cost of $155,930,-
940, or an average of .9244 per ounce.
Of this silver there has been coined to December 3, 1893,
27,911,259 ounces, making $36,087,285. The seigniorage
on this coinage was $6,977,098. There was left on hand
at the date given above, 140,699,760 fine ounces, which
would make, if coined, $181,914,840.
192. What is to be done with this silver? Why not coin
it, and keep on hand the amount required to redeem the
notes issued for it, and cover the seigniorage into the
Treasury for current use, instead of issuing bonds to buy
gold? This would give us, as new money, the difference
between the uncovered notes and the coin this bullion
would make, which amounts to about $61,000,000.
OUR STOCK OF SILVER, COIN AND BULLION
193. The total amount of standard dollars
coined under the act of 1878 was…………. . . . .
The total coined under the act of 1890 has
been...
Total...
Subsidiary silver coins...
Silver bullion on hand, ounces.
$378, 166, 793
43,609,615
$421,776,408
77,521,478
140,699,760
The fractional silver coins here given include all that
have been coined since 1853. No doubt some of these have
left the country or otherwise disappeared,
i
50
INFLUENCES WHICH LED TO THE REPEAL OF
THE ACT OF 1890.
<<
194. In January, 1890, Austria-Hungary decreed the
gold standard and entered into a conract with a syndicate
of bankers to provide $150,000,000 of gold for resumption
purposes. A new scramble for gold set in.
Next came the failure of nearly all the banks of Aus-
tralia, as the result of long continued shrinkage in
prices.
European holders of American securities began to send
them back, and as gold could be obtained withont restric-
tion on the presentation of coin notes, gold began to go
abroad. This was declared by the banks to be the result of
the Sherman law, and a clamor was raised for its repeal.
The banks at the same time, apparently with the sans-
tion of the Government, determined to give the country
an "object lesson" by "squeezing the South and West"*
in order to force immediate repeal. The course pursued
by the banks precipitated a panic, which reacted on the
banks and led to a withdrawal of their cash reserves, until
there was scarcely a bank that was not imperiled, and at
one time nearly all the banks in the large cities refused
currency on checks, except in very limited amounts.
THE EXTRA SESSION.
195. An extra session of Congress was called to meet
August 7, 1893, for the sole purpose of repealing the act
of 1890.
The Repeal Bill passed the House August 28, by a ma-
jority of 131. The vote for repeal by parties stood 138
Democrats and 101 Republicans; against repeal, 76 Demo-
crats, 24 Republicans and 8 Populists. In the Senate,
after perhaps the ablest debate ever conducted on an econ-
omic question in any parliamentary body, the final vote
was taken October 31, with the following result:
For repeal, Democrats, 20; Republicans, 23. Against
repeal, Democrats, 19; Republicans, 10; Populists, 3.
The bill was signed by the President and became a law
November 2.
* There is now no longer room to doubt that a collusion
was entered into between the banks and the Treasury to pro-
duce a "squeeze,” or, in other words, bring on the country
such a financial stress as would aid those determined to repeal
the so-called Sherman law. See pamphlet by J. W. Shuckers,
1804.
51.
THE CLOSING OF THE MINTS OF INDIA.
196. In June, 1893, by an order in council, the mints of
India were closed against the coinage of silver on private
'account. The repeal of the act of 1890 stopped the pur-
chase of silver for coinage in the United States, and thus
during the year 1893, silver as a source of money supply
has been shut off from the United States and all India.
WHAT THE EXCLUSION OF SILVER FROM THE
MONEY SUPPLY OF INDIA AND THE UNITED
STATES MEANS.
197. For ages, India, with a population of 270,000,000
people, has derived her money supply from imports of sil-
ver, which has been converted, without limit, into rupees
for the benefit of the holder.
In the United States, since the passage of the Bland-
Allison Act in 1878, from twenty to fifty million silver
dollars a year have been added to our money volume. The
total increase in the money volume since 1878, from this
source, has been, including the coin notes of 1890, nearly
600,000,000. This is now shut off entirely, and money
supply for all Europe, Australia, India and the United
States is limited to gold, while at the same time, includ-
ing Austria-Hungary, which within the same year has de-
creed the gold standard, more than three hundred and
fifty millions of people have been added to those compet-
ing for gold!!
198. Is it possible that such a tremendous change can
be made in the monetary condition of the world without
unsettling everything? Such a disturbance of the money
standard in so short a period of time was never known be-
forg in the whole history of the world, and we have as yet
but seen the beginning of the consequences that must fol-
low this change. The pricing instrument has thus at last
been completely changed from gold and silver to gold
alone, while gold, under present conditions, must rise in
value faster than ever, which means that prices must
go down faster and go lower than ever. But the number
of dollars required to discharge debts and pay taxes will
not be less. How long will it take under such conditions
for those who own the money and the debts of the world,
to own the world? At the same time nearly all the gold
is hoarded in a few great banks and treasuries and is con-
trolled by, at most, a few hundred men.
52
The following table will show where most of the gold is
held:
Admitting the general estimate that Asian hoards con-
tain $1,250,000,000 of gold, there remains to the rest of
the world somewhere about $2,500,000,000, the bulk of
which is stored in the banks and treasuries here given.
Bank of France...
Imperial Bank of Germany.
Russian War Chest..
Bank of England..
Other banks in England.
Austria-Hungary for resumption.
•
Spain, Netherlands, Italy and Turkey.
United States Treasury, May 1, 1893, including that
·
covered by certificates.
Banks of the United States.
$345,000,000
215,000,000
500,000,000
130,000,000
95,000,000
150,000,000
125,000,000
189,000,000
175,000,000
*$1,325,000,000
$575,000,000
Leaving for the rest of the world perhaps......
199. While the mints were open to the coinage of sil-
ver, the people had a source of supply of money that could
not be controlled by combinations of banks. But this is
the case no longer.
THE REMEDY.
200. The only remedy is the restoration of the bimetal-
lic standard of money, leaving the supply of metallic
money to be regulated by the same laws that govern the
supply of everything else.
The people themselves, in this country, must take the
matter in their own hands and rescue themselves, or suffer
the consequences; and the consequences will be that they
will lose their homes and their independence and find
themselves, in no very long time, in the condition of the
laboring classes of Europe or the serfs of Russia and the
tenant farmers of Ireland. †
M
* Ellissen (London, 1895) puts the hoards as high as $2,500,-
000,000. The great hoards of Europe have absorbed not only
the entire excess of the production of gold over consumption
in the arts, since 1892, but have absorbed more than $100,000,-
000 of the stock previously on hand.
* This condition is being hastened by the destructive compe-
tition which the fall in the gold price of silver enables silver-
using nations to maintain against debtor gold-standard
countries.
In his recent prize essay on this subject, Mr.George Jamieson,
British Consul at Shanghai, China, says: "The result of all
this must be that in the competitive manufacturing industries
of the world the divergence of value between gold and silver
will inevitably lead to a gradual transfer of the seat of all the
great manufactures from gold-using to silver-using countries."
Nor can a debtor nation prevent this by protective tariffs.
A
======
}
para qu
APPENDIX.
THE PRODUCTION OF GOLD AND SILVER.
BY PERIODS, FROM 1792 to 1892.
Production of gold from 1792 to 1850.....$ 848,186,000
Production of silver from 1792 to 1850.... 1,690,217,000
Excess of production of silver over gold...$ 842,031,000
Production of gold from 1850 (gold of Cali-
fornia and Australia) to 1873....
$2,724,825,000
Production of silver from 1850 to 1873.... 1,150,025,000
Excess of production of gold over silver...$1,574,800,000
Production of gold from 1873 to 1892, in-
clusive..
Production of silver from 1873 to 1892, in-
clusive....
$2,060,897,000
2,264,419,000
Excess of production of silver over gold...$ 203,522,000
Total production of gold from 1850 to 1892,
inclusive ...
Total production of silver from 1850 to
1892, inclusive..
•
Excess of the production of gold over silver
from 1850 to 1892, inclusive...
Total production of gold from 1792 to 1892,
inclusive....
Total production of silver from 1792 to
1892, inclusive...
$4,785,720,000
3,414,444,000
$1,371,278,000
$5,633,908,000
5,104,961,000
Excess of production of gold over silver for
one hundred years, from 1792 to 1892...$ 528,947,000
53
54
b
1
#
An analysis of these figures shows that from
1792 to 1850 the production of silver was
about double that of gold (for a part of
this period, or prior to the increase in the
production of gold from Russia, the pro-
duction of silver was more than three
times that of gold) yet, with coinage free,
the ratio of silver to gold did not change;
on the other hand, from 1850 to 1873, the
production of gold exceeded that of silver
by....
}
St
$1,574,800,000
and still there was no change in the ratio,
as all of both metals was absorbed in
coinage or used in the arts.
Again, the production of silver has slightly
exceeded that of gold from 1873 to 1892,
the excess, however, being but.....
But with silver demonetized, a change in
the ratio has gone on till it has reached
about 30 to 1.
..$ 203,522,000
If, again, we take the entire period from
1850 to 1892, the production of gold has
exceeded that of silver by......
$1,371,278,000
Showing conclusively that it is not the excess of silver
production that has caused a fall in silver, but the exclu-
sion of silver from coinage, thus concentrating the entire
demand for money on gold, that has caused the enormous
rise in gold, and a corresponding fall of silver, and of
prices generally.
•
Del Mar gives the world's production of gold for 1893 as
$132,000,000, and the production of silver as 80,000,000 ounces
of the value of (at the average price of $0.77+) $61,600,000, or,
if taken at its coining value in the United States, $103,200,000,
which is a material reduction from 1892. The Mint Report
«gives the production of gold for 1894, $179,965,600; silver, coin-
ing value, $215,404,600, or of the commercial value of $105,757,-
300. The Treasury estimate of gold production for 1895 is
$203,000,000, which is doubtless excessive. The Treasury esti-
mate of silver for 1895 is 174,000,000 ounces, which is also ex-
cessive.
-
w
a per a MASAKYA
>
55
AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT, COTTON AND
SILVER BULLION, BY YEARS, FROM 1872 TO 1895.
Wheat.
Cotton.
Silver.
1872..
1873...
1874
1875.
1876....
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882.
1883
1884
1885.
1886.
1887..
1888.
1889..
1890.
1891.
1892..
1893.
1894.
1895.
•
•
• Đà
...
... ·
..1.47
..1.31
..1.43.
..1.12
..1.24
..1.17
..1.34
.1.07
..1.25
1.11
.1.19
..1.13
.1.07
.86
.87
.89
.25
.90
.1.08
.85
.80
.62
.51*
.50
..
моно
1
•
❤
•
··
Value of an
acre's
product.
1866 70.
Corn. $12.84.
..
Wheat...13.16.
Oats. ..10.92
Hay,
13.28.
Cotton ...28.01.
Totals.. $78.21.....
Avr. acre $15.64.
Value of an
acre's
product.
1886-90.
$ 8.81.
9.07.
7.50.
Corn..
Wheat.
Oats..
Hay
Cotton.
Totals...
$49.44
Avr, acre…………$ 9.89
•
1872..
1873...
1874..
1875
··
.10.19....
.13.84.
1876..
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882
1883.
1884
1885
1890
1891
1892
1893.
1894.
1895.
1886..
1887.
1888..
1889.
•
ท
•
• •
D
•
11.90
9.81
.14.38
28.55.
•
·
•
$75.94.
$15.19..
..
.19.3
.18.8
15.4
15.0
·
ง
•
•
FROM 1866 TO 1895.
Value of an Value of an
acre's
acre's
product.
1871-75.
product.
1878-80.
$11.30.
$9.62..
Shipment of wheat from British India to England increased
from 730,485 bushels in 1873 to 56,566,393 in 1892.
AVERAGE VALUE PER ACRE OF FARM PRODUCTS
12.9
11.8
11.1
9.9
11.5
11.4
.11.4
10.8
10.5
.10.6
•
··
•
•
9.9
9.5
9.8
9.9
.10.1
10.0
8.7
7.0
51/2
514
12.00..
.8.58
.11.57.
..17.65..
•
Value of an
acre's
product.
1893.
•
$ 8.25....
6.00
5.75.
.10.00.
10.65...
..
1872,.
1873.
1874.
1875.
1876.
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
...
$59.42...
$11.88...
$40.75.
8.15...
1882..
1883..
1884.
1885.
1886
1887..
1888...
1889.
1890.
1891
1892.
1893..
1894..
1895..
CONTEN
•
•
•
•
..
A
.1.32
1.29
··
•
• •
..1.27
.1.24
.1.15
..1.20
.1.15
.1.12
•
..
.1.14
.1.13
.1.13
.1.11
.1.10
.1.06
.99
.97
.93
.93
1.04
.98
.87
.75
.65
.645
Value of an
acre's
product.
1881-85.
$10.25
10.20
.9.17
11.15
.15.63
$56.40
$11.28
Value of an
acre's
product.
1895.
$6.75
5.95
4.00
8.75
9.25
$34.70
6.94
58
喜
​The above tables, up to 1893, are taken from an editorial
in the New York Sun of September 10, 1893. The column
for 1895 is made up from the most reliable current reports.
Nor is it the increased production of wheat, nor the in-
creased acreage devoted to supplying food, that has caused
the fall in price, as the following table will show.
Year.
World's Production.
Bushels.
.2,432,000,000.
.2,403,000,000.
.2,306,000,000.
.2,440,000,000.
2,415,000,000.
1891.
1892.
1893..
1894.
1895..
•
J
1873……..
1874..
1875.
1876.
1877..
1878.
1879..
1880....
•
Average Home Price in
the United States.
The number of people classed as bread eaters, now
aggregate 470,000,000 as against 398,000,000 in 1870.
The average acreage devoted to food supply in 1870 was
1.37 per capita; in 1895, 1.24.
…….1.02
1.02
.96
.95
.94
87
.83
.88
$ .839
.624
.538
.491
.479
AVERAGE GOLD PRICE OF FORTY-FIVE PRINCI-
PAL COMMODITIES, BY INDEX NUMBERS
ACCORDING TO TABLES OF MR.
SAUERBECK.
1881...
1882..
1883.
.85
.84
.82
UDU
..
.76
.72
1884.
1885.
1886..
1887..
1888..
.69
.68
.70
• Laskerinden for a hand
1889...
1890..
1891..
1892...
1893.
1894..
1895..
72
.72
.72
.66
.63
.62
.59
THE TRUE VOLUME OF MONEY, OUTSIDE OF THE
UNITED STATES TREASURY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1895.
1. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his report for 1893,
puts the volume of money, outside of the United States
Treasury, at $1,718,544,882, consisting of gold and silver,
silver certificates, greenbacks, National Bank notes and
coin notes.
But is this the true volume in circulation?*
* The total volume September 1, 1895, is stated as $1,603,
583,028,a decrease of $114,961,852. Estimated population 70,127-
000. The total volume for July 1, 1896, is given as $1,506,631-
026, a further reduction in less than a year of over $96,000,000.
200
57
***
GOLD.
frast
Take first the volume of gold.
The total gold, coin and bullion, in the country, ac-
cording to the Treasury statement for September 1, 1895,
$629,198,579
89,202,384
was..
Deduct from this the free gold in the Treas-
ury belonging to the United States..
And we have as held or owned by the banks
and in actual circulation....
$539,996, 195
Of this, $49,290,909 were certificates for which gold
was held in the Treasury.
Of this the banks hold about..
Leaving, as in circulation outside of the
banks..
$175,000,000
.. $364,996,195
This would give over $5 per capita of gold in actual cir-
culation among the people.
Now, where is this gold? Who has it? There are pos-
sibly $40,000,000 outside of the banks on the Pacific slope
and in the mountain States and Territories, and if we add
to this $10,000,000 for the rest of the territory west of the
Missouri River, making $50,000,000 of gold coin in actual
circulation west of the Missouri, we have given what is be-
lieved to be a full, if not an excessive, estimate. This
leaves $314,996, 195 in circulation east of the Missouri
River, and outside of the Treasury and the banks.
Does any sane man believe that any such sum, or half
of it, or one-third of it, is in actual circulation, or is held
in any way by the people east of the Missouri River. The
best estimate of the gold in circulation in the whole of
Great Britain, where they have an almost exclusive gold
currency, is only between $350,000,000 and $400,000,000.
We are obliged, therefore, to say there is absolutely no
foundation for this extravagant estimate of gold in the
country, which has been running for years through pub-
lic statements.
These estimates have been made up from guesses and
from statistics of production, exports and imports, with-
out sufficient allowance being made for consumption in the
arts, and for gold coin taken out of the country by Amer-
icans traveling abroad. Such estimates are not only wild,
but dangerously misleading. Foreign statisticians have
commented upon our extravagant estimates of gold in this
country, and for good reasons. At least $150,000,000
58
ا
should be deducted from this estimate of the stock of
gold in the country, which would make the total volume,
say $475,000,000, instead of $629, 198,579, and would leave
outside of the Treasury about $325,000,000 Deduct from
this the amount held by the banks, say $175,000,000, and
we would still have left as in actual circulation in the
country, or held by the people, gold coin amounting to
$150,000,000, or over $2 per capita, which is undoubtedly
a full, if not still an excessive, estimate.
GREENBACKS.
2. Take next the greenback currency.
The nominal amount of this currency is $346,681,016,
no allowance being made for loss. But the greenbacks
have been in circulation since 1862, or more than thirty
years. Many people do not believe more than $300,000,-
000 are left in circulation. But although the loss during
the war and in first extending the new circulation over
the country, when there were fewer banks and safes and
more were carried in the pockets of the people than now,
and especially by such fires as that of Chicago, was doubt-
less greater than in later years, still so high an estimate
of loss is hardly warranted by any actual data in our pos-
session.. But if we put the loss at twenty millions, or all
over $326,000,000, which is a little less than one-fifth of
one per cent per annum, we include, it is believed, every
dollar now in existence.
Deducting from this estimated volume of $326,000,000
the amount held in the Treasury, January 1, viz., $44,-
139,202, and it would leave in circulation in the country,
and in the banks, in round numbers, $282,000,000.
In addition to this volume of notes, there were out-
standing, January 1, certificates for currency deposited in
the Treasury amounting to $39,045,000.
These certificates, however, are always given in very
large sums and are mostly held by the banks and used
principally in clearing-house transactions, forming no
part of the real circulation. But counting the certificates
as a part of the volume of outstanding greenbacks, and
it gives in round numbers $321,000,000 as the true, effect-
ive volume in circulation and in the banks.
NATIONAL BANK NOTES.
The Treasurer reports the total issue of National Bank
notes, January 1, as $208,538,844. From this should be
-
趣
​59
deducted-$12,375,628, as cash in the Treasury; also $6,817,-
395, fund held for redemption of uncurrent National Bank
notes; also $23,015,908, held now under the act of July
14, 1890, for the redemption of notes of banks failed, in
liquidation, etc., making a total of $42,190,133, which
would leave in circulation, $166,347,911.
But, as in the case of greenbacks,no allowance has ever
been made for loss of National Bank notes. The same
proportional allowance for National Bank notes, as is
made for greenbacks, would require a deduction of at
least $10,000,000, which, taken from the above total,
would leave, in round numbers, $156,000,000, as the true
volume of National Bank notes in circulation, or held as
cash in the banks.
SILVER COIN.
3. The amount of standard silver dollars outside of the
Treasury, January 1, was $57,869,589.
SUBSIDIARY SILVER.
4. The report of the Treasurer gives for January 1, $77,-
494, 207, as the volume of subsidiary silver in the country.
This rather large amount of subsidiary silver is made
up by first estimating that some $21,000,000 of the frac-
tional coins, minted under the act of 1853, and which en-
tirely disappeared in 1862, had come back again in 1879;
and to this has been added all the subsidiary coinage
since, no allowance whatever being made for loss or ex-
portation since 1879. The original estimate of the return
to this country of $21,000,000 of the old coinage is be-
lieved to be excessive. For this reason, and for losses
since, a deduction of from $5,000,000 to $7,000,000 would
still leave us with as large a volume, no doubt, as actually
exists in the country. If, therefore, we allow $72,000,000
as the total volume of fractional coin in the country, in-
stead of that above given, and deduct from this the amount
in the Treasury, say $12,000,000, we will have left in cir-
culation $60,000,000, which, it is believed, is all there is
of this kind of currency.
SILVER CERTIFICATES.
5. The volume of silver certificates outstanding, Janu-
ary 1, 1894, was $329,545,650.
4.
60'
COIN NOTES ISSUED UNDER THE ACT OF 1890.
The volume of coin notes outstanding, January 1, was
$151,965,267.
Putting these several amounts together, we have a total
volume of gold, silver, greenbacks, silver certificates, Na-
tional Bank notes, and coin notes, outside of the Treas-
ury, as follows:
IN THE BANKS AND IN ACTUAL CIRCULATION,
Gold, coin and bullion.
Standard silver dollars.
Subsidiary silver
Greenbacks, including currency certificates.
•
National Bank notes.
Silver certificates.
Coin notes of 1890..
Making a total actual volume of
··
$386,000,000
57,869,589
.60,000,000
321,000,000
156,000,000
329,545,650
151,965,267
*$1,461,880,506
>
··
Gamer data to digna trans
•
Which, for 68,000,000 people, gives a per capita of $21.49.
The next question is as to how this volume of money is
distributed.
•
The latest report of the money of all kinds
in all the banks of the United States is
for July 12, 1893, when it amounted to.. $515,987,740
(It was much less later in the summer, when
individual deposits were drawn out, but
has, doutless, much increased again since
October.)
The above taken from the total volume out-
side of the Treasury of the United States,
viz....
Leaves, as in actual circulation, that is, in
the pockets of the people, the tills of
merchants, etc., performing the every-day
work of money...
. $1,461,380,506
$945,392,766
Which gives $13.90 as the per capita circulation outside
of the Treasury and the banks. †
* Orsay $1,400,000,000 for July, 1895, But even of this volume
at least $125,000,000, besides the gold reserve in the United
States Treasury, must be held as redemption money, and
while so held does not affect prices, thus reducing the actual,
effective per capita circulation to something like $18 per capita.
+ How much of this is on the average held in State and other
public treasuries we have no means of knowing.
$
-61
*
-
These amounts are not separated on the theory that
money in the banks is not performing a part of the legit-
imate work of money-for while in the banks it really be-
comes the basis of an enlarged credit currency-but to
show how the actual volume of money is distributed. We
might go farther and show its distribution over the coun-
try, but that would be outside of the object of this analy-
sis of the constituent parts of our money volume and its
division between the banks and the people.
DENOMINATIONS OF CURRENCY NOTES.
There is, however, one other feature pertaining to the
currency of the country, which has an important bearing
on the efficiency of currency for performing the office of
a circulating medium; that is, the denominations in which
the currency is put out. If, for instance, half the currency
issued were in $1,000 notes it would be almost equivalent
to a reduction of the volume by one-half, except for clear-
ing house purposes.
The report of the Treasurer for December 31, 1893, .
shows that out of a total of $1,160,156,065 in notes of all
denominations, $913,340, 155 were in denominations of
$50 and under; $82,583,000 in denominations of $100;
$164,205,000 in denominations over $100, $67,220,000 of
this last amount being in certificates of $10,000 each, with
$27,840 reported as "fractional" and one of $1,000,000 as
"unknown."
Of course, the larger deuominations are mainly in the
banks.
The Treasury statement of gold and silver coins and
certificates, United States notes, and national bank notes
in circulation September 1, 1895, is as follows:
Gold coin...
Standard silver dollars.
Subsidiary silver..
•
Gold certificates.
Silver certificates.
Treasury notes, act July 14, 1890..
United States notes
Currency certificates, act June 8, 1872
National bank notes...
$479,787,653
.52,584,843
.60,090,158
.49,081,089
323,772,261
109,436,662
247,536,753
.76.555,000
.204,738,609
·
Total..
$1,603,583,028
If the same deductions are made from this table as
from the above table for January 1, 1894, we will have the
62
following as the true amount of currency in the banks
and in circulation in the United States, except that there
should still be deducted the amount required by law to be
held as reserves by the banks, since such reserves do not
affect prices:
Gold and gold certificates, $328,000,000; standard silver
dollars, $52,584,843; subsidiary silver, $53,000,000; silver
certificates, $323,772,261; Treasury notes, act July 14,
1890, $109, 436,662; United States notes (greenbacks), $227,-
000,000; currency certificates, $76,555,000; national bank.
notes, $162,000,000; total, $1,332, 348,766. If from this.
the reserves of banks, as required by law, be deducted, it
will reduce this sum by about $70,000,000, which leaves
$1,262,348,766, or about $18 per capita. *
*The treasury statement for July 1, 1896, shows a reduc-
tion from Sept. 1, 1895, to July 1, 1896, of $96,952.002, which
would reduce the actual per capita now to less than $17.
LO
AMERICAN BIMETALLIC UNION,
134 MONROE STREET, CHICAGO, Ill.
EASTERN OFFICE, SUN BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.
A. J. WARNER, President.
GEO. E. BOWEN, Sec., Chicago, Ill.
E. C. WARNER, Sec., Washington, D. C.
July 1, 1896.
wyl
***
$
X
MONOGRAPHS.
;
ܚ ܘܚܙ
k
1. Intrinsic Value.
2. Profit to the Miner.
3. "Put a Dollar's Worth of Silver in a Dollar."
4. What is an Honest Dollar?
5. "A Depreciatod Dollar for the Laborer."
6. "A Dumping Ground for Silver."
7. Bimetallism./
+
8. Money and Credit.
9. Prices on a Gold Basis.
10. The Future of Prices under the Gold Standard.
}
11. Our Debt Abroad.
12. Should Banks or the Government Issue the Paper
Currency?
26. True Volume of Money now in Circulation.
27. The Coinage Laws.
28. The Crime of 1873.
123 £62
13. Greenbacks and the Gold Reserve.
14. Silver and Cotton.
15. A Silver Basis.
16. Agricultural Prices and How Price Levels are De-
17. Money and Property.
[termined.
18. The Gold Standard.
19. True Volume of Money at Close of the War.
20. The Alleged Swindling of the Creditor with Cheap
Money.
21. An International Agreement.
22. The Overproduction Absurdity.
23. Effect of a Fifty Cent Dollar.
24. Independent Bimetallism.
25. The Advantage which a Premium on Gold Gives to
Silver-using Countries in the Trade of the World.
I
29. How the Free Coinage of Silver will Affect Prices.
30. Silver aud Mexico.
31. Protection and the Gold Standard.
32. How the Free Coinage of Silver will Affect Labor.
These monographs are especially valuable to students.
of the money question. Each one in itself is a complete
argument for bimetallism at 16 to 1. We will mail them
postpaid to any address at five cents each, or the full set
of thirty-two numbers for twenty-five cents. Write us for
quantity price.
THE NATIONAL BIMETALLIST,
134 Monroe St., Chicago.
*
~


GOOD BOOKS
ON THE MONEY QUESTION.
'History of Monetary Systems," by Alexander Del Mar, cloth.
"Cur Money Wars," by Samuel Leavitt, Paper, 50c, cloth......
"The Money Question," by Geo H. Shibley. (“Justice,") Illustrated,
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"Bimetallism," by Wharton Barker.
"Money vs. Products," by James W. Wilson. Paper..
"The Koynote." by Albert Griffin.
Monographs, by Warner, Bartine and others, per set of 32.
"Our Silver Coinage: The Burning Question of 1896," by John A. Grier 250
"National Platforms and Political History of U. S.," by L D. Raynolds 25c
"Gold and Silver Coinage Under the Constitution and Laws Enacted
250
Thereon".
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"Effects of Gold Standard," by W. H. Smith.
"Money"-"Deuteronomy Jones.”
"A Few Financial Facts," by S. S. King..
"The Banker's Dream," by Thos. H. Proctor.
"Shylock," by Gordon Clark...
"Democratic Gospel," by C. R. Tuttle.
"Chapters on Silver," by Henry G. Miller.
"The New York Bankers' Conspiracy,” by J. W. Schuckers.
"Letters from Jimtown,' by William Dana Wilcox...
"Statesmen Three," by Col. A. C. Fisk..
"The Fifty-cent Dollar," by Neil W. Carothers……….
"Bimetallism and Monometallism,' by Archbishop Walsh
• The American People's Money," by Ignatius Donnelly.
"The Gold Standard," by Brooks Adams....
"Danger Line Reached," by Hon. O. A. Hadley.
"These Hard Times," by Rev. J. C. Elliott..
“The Battle of the Standards," by James H. Teller.
"Object Lessons," by D. G. Merrick..
4.
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"Commerce and Money," by James H. McConnell.
"Money and Prices," by Perry Prentiss.
“The Condition of the American Farmer,” by H. E. Taubeneck.
"Facts About Silver," by A J. Warner..
"Honest (?) John Sherman," by Mrs. Marion Todd..
"Seven Financial Conspiracies," by Mrs. S. E. V. Emery
“The Bond and the Dollar," by J. C. Ridpath.
"The Voter's Guide," by Henry Allen Bell...
"Platforms and Nominees of Every Party,” useful and convenient..
"Value and the Money Question," by John Phillip Phillips..
"Andrew Jackson Against the Banks," by J. C. Roberts..
Any of the above books sent postpaid on receipt of price.
For $1.00 we will mail any list of paper covered books selected
amounting to $2.00. No discount on cloth editions.
• ...
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THE AMERICAN BIMETALLIC UNION.
134 Monroe Street, Chicago.

ܢܚܪ
ALEX
AGRANTE VERISUREN TENAGA
- R * BaANAL BOA
C
X

Tama
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
wils
332.42 W24
Warner, Adoniram Judson, 1834-
Facts about silver.
Org
Unless the IITOS”
this country, and
the gold standard po
will destro the pros
nently overthrow th
Washington and Jeff
Lincoln.
****
Subscribe f
3 1951 002 097 376-Z
WILSON
ANNEX
AISLE 78
The American Lim.
ganized by p
triots of every party to conduct a non-partisan Campai a
of Education and Orgai ization, favorable to the rester.
ation of our coinage laws as they existed prior to the a
of 1873. We appeal for your cooperation; at once ta re
up the work of organization, through which education
may be extended, and the cooperation of every loyal
American secured.
Write to us at once for organization papers and full i
structions, which will be furnished free, and ask your
friends in other places do the same. We will assist yo 1.
THE AMERICAN BIMETALLIC UNION,
134 Monroe St., Chicago,
rekindled in
ULIQUESZI
American Financial policy adopted,
in operatio
ic, and perm
established
y
by Jackson a d
THE NATIONAL BIMETALLIST.
It should Lead by every person interested in the re --
toration of ver to the monetary position it occupied
prior to 1878. It contains the latest silver news and is
the leading silver paper in the United States. It is the
only paper published by the American Bimetallic Union.
Every Bimetallist desire to keep in touch with the Na-
tional organization aerate with it, should subscribe
for and read the BIMEL, thereby aiding to maintain
this valuable paper. Sample copies forwarded upon app.
cation with two-cent stamp enclosed. Edited by ex-Con-
gressman Bartine, of Nevada. Weekly, only
year. Address,
per
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THE NATIONAL BIMETALLIST,
134 Monroe Street, Chicago,
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