Full text of The Money Question of the 51st Congress : Remonetization of Silver : Speech of Hon. William M. Stewart of Nevada, Debate in the Senate

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REMONETIZATION OF SILVER.

S PE E C H
OF

HON. WILLIAM M. STEWART,
OF

N E V A D A ,

IN THE

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,




Th u rsday, Ma y

22, 1890.

WASHINGTON*
1890*




SPEECH
OP

HON.

W I L L I A M M STEWAKT.
.

Mr. STEWART. I move that the Senate proceed to the considera­
tion of the bill (S. 2350) authorizing the issue of Treasury notes on
deposits of silver bullion.
The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the
Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (S. 2350) authorizing the
issue of Treasury notes on deposits of silver bullion, the pending ques­
tion being on the amendment proposed by Mr. P lumb to the amend­
ment to the bill submitted by Mr. Sherm an .
Mr. STEWART. I ask the Secretary to read the amendment pro­
posed by the Senator from Colorado [Mr. T eller ],
The VICE-PRESIDENT. The amendment will be read.
The Chief Cle rk . It is proposed to strike out all after the enact­
ing clause ot the bill and insert*
That any person may deposit in any mint or assay office of the United States
either fine gold or fine silver bullion, or both, and demand and receive either
coin or coin certificates therefor at the rate of $I in coin or certificates for 23.22
grains troy weight of fine gold, and at the rate of SI in certificates for 371.25 grains
troy weight of pure silver. That the coin certificates provided for in this act
shall be receivable fpr all taxes and dues to the United States of every descrip­
tion, and shall be a lawful tender for the payment of all debts, public and pri­
vate.
Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause a
sufficient number of coin certificates of the various denominations hereby au­
thorized to be prepared and distributed among the United States depositories,
to enable them to comply with the provisions of this act.
Sec . 3. That the coin certificates issued under the provisions of this act shall
be of denominations of not less than one nor more than one hundred dollars,
and such certificates shall be redeemable in coin of standard value. And the
Secretary of the Treasury shall cause to be coined from time to time so much
of the bullion received under the provisions of this act as may be necessary to
furnish coin for the redemption of such certificates. A sufficient sum to carry
out the provisions of this act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the
Treasury not otherwise appropriated. The provision in section 1 of the aot of
February 28,1878, entitled “ An act to authorize the coinage of the standard
dollar and to restore its legal-tender character,” which requires the Secretary
of the Treasury to purchase, at the market price thereof, hot less than $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion per month nor more than $4,000,000 ifrorth per month
of such bullion is hereby repealed.

Mr. STEWART. The question involved in this bill is the money
question.
It must be conceded that modern civilization could not exist with­
out money; that an interchange of commodities is a necessity. Trade
and commerce depend for their existence to such an extent upon the
use of money that barbarism must follow the; extinction or loss of that
important factor. If it be admitted that some money is essential to
civilization, the questions are then presented:




4
H O W M UCH M O N E Y IS N E C E S S A R Y ?

Of what material shall it be made? How is its volume to be regu­
lated?
The first of these questions is not very material in the beginning of
the use of money. If it were possible to suppose that the United States
had reached its present state of development without the use of money,
the quantity might be arbitrarily fixed, and it would make no differ­
ence whether the quantity were fixed at a hundred millions or at ten
thousand millions. In that case the creditor and debtor would have
an even start, and if the quantity were thereafter increased or dimin­
ished with the increase or diminution of the demand for money, oc­
casioned by the growth or shrinkage of population and business,
A N E Q U IT A B L E AD JU STM EN T O F CONTRACTS

would be secured, and the value of money would at all times remain
the same when compared with the aggregate of property and services.
Stability in the value of money is the most important problem in po­
litical economy. The material out of which money is to be manufact­
ured is an incidental matter, and is only important so far as it affects
the stability of its value.
T H E C R E A T IO N OP M O N E Y IS A N ACT OP S O V E R E IG N T Y .

It can not be brought into existence by individual enterprise. Any
attempt on the part of private persons to create money is a criminal of­
fense in every civilized country. Every sovereign power may prescribe
the kind and quantity of money that shall be used in its jurisdiction,
and may also reduce all other descriptions of money to mere commod­
ities.
Fluctuations in the value of money are always disastrous. Fluctua­
tions in the price of property, the value of money remaining the same,
can be remedied by the people. If there is an overproduction of a par­
ticular article, the labor employed in such production can be readily
used in the production of some other article of which the supply is in­
sufficient. An excess or deficiency in the supply of money can be reme­
died only by governmental action. Shall that action be determined by
the avarice O caprice of dealers in money and securities, or by such
r
rules of governmental action as will maintain a fixed ratio between the
supply and demand for money?
The price of all things is fixed by the supply of money. The price
of each commodity, the value of money remaining the same, will fluc­
tuate according to the supply and demand of that article; but
T H E P R IC E OP ALL. P R O P E R T Y A N D SER VICES,

taken collectively, will be governed by the supply of money. While
money measures the price of all things, the aggregate of property in
turn determines the value of money. Money has but one value, and
that is its power in exchange. The material out of which it is made
has no effect upon its value as money. The greenback dollar has pre­
cisely the same power in exchange as the gold dollar. There is no such
thing as intrinsic commercial value.
Q U A L IT IE S AR E IN TR IN SIC .

Value is power in exchange. The light of day, the heat of the sun,
and the air we breathe have intrinsic qualities essential to animal life,
but they have no value. They will exchange for nothing, because the
supply is unlimited, and they are obtained without money and with­
out priced Value, or power in exchange, is determined by two, condi­
tions: the desire to possess and limitation of quantity. In other words,
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5
value is regulated by the law of supply and demand. The failure to
recognize and act upon this law in considering the question of money
has always been disastrous. Depression, hard times, bankruptcy, and
ruin are the penalties inflicted upon the people for violations of this fun­
damental principle.
The most fetish worshippers of gold, the most avaricious and cruel
misers, the most greedy and unscrupulous gamblers in money and se­
curities will admit at all times, when their sordid avarice will allow
them to speak the truth, that if the world’s money were doubled the
average price of property would be correspondingly advanced; and that
if one-half of the standard money of the world were destroyed,
PRICKS M UST D E C L IN E A B O U T O N E -H A L F .

But'when they have selfish ends to promote they tell us that the
value of money is stationary and fixed; that it does not depend upon
the supply; that what is required is good money, and not a regular and
constant supply corresponding with the demand.
It seems impossible for the advocates of an exclusive gold standard
to argue the money question without confounding commercial value
with intrinsic quality. Both the Senator from Ohio [Mr. S h e r m a n ]
and the Senator from Oregon [Mr. D o l p h ] insist that gold has a cer­
tain amount of intrinsic value and that silver has a less amount of in­
trinsic value than gold. How does it happen, if both gold and silver
have intrinsic value, that the relation between their values has been
subject to such frequent changes since silver was excluded from the
mints ? Previous to 1873 the bullion in the silver dollar was worth in
the market over 3 per cent, more than the bullion in the gold dollar.
Now the bullion in the silver dollar is worth from 25 to 30 per cent,
less than the bullion in the gold dollar. By what process was a part
of the intrinsic value which existed in silver seventeen years ago ex­
tracted from that metal ? The gold
M ON OM ETALLISTS A R E A B S O L U T E L Y C E R T A IN

that the intrinsic value of gold has remained the same since the dawn
of creation; nothing has been extracted from or added to the intrinsic
value which is found in gold. Consequently, according to their theory,
the entire operation of extracting intrinsic value must have been per­
formed on silver.
It will be gratifying if the gold monometallists would explain the
method of extracting intrinsic value from silver. Who discovered the
process? Is the person still living ? If so, he should be labelled
E X T R A DAN G ER O U S.

Who knows but that he will be wicked enough to invent a plan to ex­
tract some of the intrinsic value out of gold and degrade the god of the
usurers?
The Senator from Oregon tells us that gold would hide or leave the
country if silver could be taken to the mint and coined, as provided in
the Constitution. He tells us that no man would take gold to the mint
when he could get enough silver to make a dollar with 82 cents. In
this he is right. Everybody would swant silver, because they could
convert it into money; and if the gold monometallists had not ex­
tracted, as they claim they have, the intrinsic value from silver, the
increased demand for that metal would enhance the price. But it ap­
pears from the argument, of the Senator from Oregon that, whateyer
the demand may be, silver could not go above 82 cents on the dollar.
Are the contractionists perfectly certain that some of the intrinsic value
might not be extracted from gold without interfering with its chemical
composition?
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0

Suppose the stamp were removed from every gold coin in the world,
and
NO G O LD COU LD H E R E A F T E R B E C OINED AS M O N E Y ,

would gold still have the same intrinsic value ? Suppose, in addition
tp that, that all the rocks were gold; would the intrinsic value remain
the same ? Are the gold standard contractionists sure that value is
really intrinsic; that it does not depend upon the estimation of man;
that supply and demand have nothing to-do with the question of
value? Persons who have not learned the fact that value is always
extrinsic and only exists where the quantity is limited and where there
is a desire to possess; that qualities only are intrinsic and unchange­
able, and that gold and silver possess the same qualities now that they
have always possessed—such persons have but little conception of the
laws of trade.
The value of silver was reduced by cutting off the demand for coin­
age in Europe and the United States.
T H E E X C L U S IO N O F GO LD F R O M T H E M IN T

would have precisely the same effect upon its value as the rejection of
silver has had upon the value of that metal. If the United States will
receive and coin all the silver offered at the ratio of 16 to 1, silver will
be equal to gold at that ratio ’throughout the world. No person would
then sell silver for a less price than he could get in the United States.
Rrance maintained the parity between gold and silver at the ratio of
15^ to 1 for nearly a hundred years. She accomplished this by open­
ing her mints to both gold an4 silver at that ratio. During all that
time no person in any part of the world would part with either his gold
or his silver at a less price than he could obtain for it in France. The
United States is to-day
T H E W E A L T H IE S T N A TIO N I N T H E W O R L D .

Why can not our Government do precisely what France did and main­
tain the parity between gold and silver ^t the ratio of 16 to 1 by opening
her mints to both metals upon equal terms ? Suppose at first a portion
of our gold should leave the country because somebody else was willing
to pay more for it than could be obtained in the United States. What
harm would this do if silver was at par with gold, which it would neces­
sarily be with free coinage in this country ? The world was indifferent
as to which metal it used so long as France maintained the parity be­
tween the two at 15^ to 1. Why wou\d there be any preference be­
tween the metals at the ratio of 16 to 1 if the United States would do
as France did and maintain the parity by free coinage?
A THING- IS W O R T H W H A T IT W I L L B R IN G .

There is not a silver dollar in the United States that will not bring
ahundred cents in gold. The United States buys 412^ grains of bullion
for 82 cents and coins it into a dollar, and makes the difference. Why
should not the owner of the bullion, oh formerly, have it coined and save
the loss ?
I hope no devotee of gold will take it unkindly if I should remind
him that when the mines of California and Australia were yielding up
their treasure for the benefit of mankind a process was in existence
whereby the advocates of contraction contended that a large percent­
age of the intrinsic value of gold had been extracted. Chevalier, of
France, and most of the leading financiers of Europe then worshiped
at the shrine of silver, and exhibited a fetish devotion to that metal
which is only surpassed by the idolatrous worship of gold by the Shylocks of contraction. Chevalier viewed with pity and contempt all
who would not fall down and worship silver, while our own John J.
ST*




7
Knox hasoffered up by his wily arts the happiness and prosperity of
60,000,000 of people upon the altar of his fetish god—gold. The fetish
worship of gold has brought the country to the brink of ruin.
T H E S E D E V O TEES O P GOLD N E V E R A R G U E .

They predict, denounce, and admonish. They raise their hands in
holy horror and exclaim as a final climax, 4 You will drive gold out
4
of the country. 1 If you tell them that the supply of gold is insuffi­
’
cient, that money is growing dearer and property cheaper, that times
are hard, and that the burdens of debt are increasing, they will reply
that the only remedy is to worship gold; that gold is precious; that
the prosperity and happiness of the country all count for naught
compared with the reverential and devout worship of their fetish god.
The advocates of honest money have no fetish love for either gold or
silver. They know full well that neither of the precious metals pos­
sesses any inherent quality that renders its use as money indispensable.
But they recognize the fact that the world has been educated for thou­
sands of years to regard gold and silver as money metals. They also
recognize the further fact that neither of these metals is money with­
out the stamp of the Government, and that it is the stamp and not the
material upon which the stamp is impressed that creates money. They
do not propose, however, to discard either gold or silver. They prefer
to respect the opinions of mankind, even though such opinions are
founded in prej udice. If the automatic theory of limiting the quantity
of money by these metals had not been departed from by the goldstandard contractionists in the rejection of silver the civilized world
would now be prosperous. And this, not because the automatic theory
always produces prosperity, for such is not the case, but for the reason
that the supply of gold and silver, with the use of both metals asTnoney,
was, at the time silver was demonetized and still is, nearly equal to the
legitimate demand for money. How long this supply will continue no
one can confidently predict; but it is certain that the remonetization
of silver would produce good times until another failure in the produc­
tion of the mines. When such failure comes it is possible that enough
will be known of the functions of money, and of the means to supply
the people with that necessary factor in civilization
TO IN D U C E T H E G O V E R N M E N T TO M A N U F A C T U R E M O N E Y

from some other material.
While it is true that repeated? disasters have followed the adherence
to the use of the precious metals as money, and that nations have de­
cayed and lapsed into barbarism whenever the supply of gold and sil­
ver from the mines failed, yet it is better to adhere to the automatic
theory than to trust to the dishonest practices of the possessors of ac­
cumulated capital. When legislation is controlled by the enlightened
judgment of the people, and not by Shylocks or speculators, the value
of money will not be subject to violent fluctuations; but until then
any limitation upon the volume of money is preferable to class legisla­
tion in favor of the non-producing rich against the producing masses.
Since the discovery of gold and silver in the New World the supply
has been more regular than during any other period in the world’s his­
tory. It is a pregnant fact that there has been
N O SEASON O F P R O S P E R IT Y O R A D V A N C E IN C IV IL IZ A T IO N

3> a time when the niines of gold and silver were unproductive.
t

From
the earliest history the growth and prosperity of nations have been con­
temporaneous with large productions of the precious metals, while ruin
and decay have always followed a failure of such production.
STB




8

Modern civilization began in Europe with the new supply of gold
and silver from Mexico and South America. That supply has been
constant and nearly sufficient to keep pace with the growth of popula­
tion and business, except on two marked occasions. The first money
famine lasted forty years, from 1810 to 1850. This was occasioned by
the Spanish-American wars, which interrupted mining operations in
Mexico and South America. The second commenced in 1873, and still
continues. It was occasioned by the demonetization of silver, whereby
more than one-half of the supply of the precious metals was cut off for
the purpose of enhancing the value of money and fixed incomes and
depreciating the pricp of property and services.
During the first money famine it is variously estimated by statisti­
cians that the value of money advanced from 50 to 60 per cent., while
the average price of commodities continually declined. Since the de­
monetization of silver prices have declined over 30 per cent., while the
Value of money has advanced in a still greater ratio. The present
money famine was created and is maintained by legislative enactments.
The mines have not failed,
B U T T H E U SURERS R U L E T H E C IV IL IZ E D W O R L D .

The owners of accumulated capital, who have been earnest advocates
-of adherence to gold and silver as a basis of circulation because they
feared that if the subject were regulated by legislation the volume of
the currency would be inflated, have used the law-making power of the
civilized nations to contract the volume of money by rejecting silver.
It may be that they did not fully comprehend the possible conse­
quences of
T H E I R D ISH O N EST USE O F T H E L A W -M A K I N G P O W E R ,

and that they did not realize the importance of the lessons they were
teaching. If a metallic basis will prevent inflation, why should it not
prevent contraction ? Do the usurers suppose that the people will be
satisfied to limit the circulating medium to the amount fixed by the
precious metals when the mines are unproductive, and allow the hold­
ers of accumulated capital to disregard such limitation when the mines
furnish an abundant supply? If there is to be no more money than the
precious metals will furnish, why should there not be as much money
;as can be manufactured from all the gold and silver that can be pro­
duced? If this rule does not work both ways it should be abandoned
;altogether, the automatic theory of regulating the amount of money by
the precious metals should be rejected, and some other rule more in
harmony with justice should be adopted.
The operations of expansion and contraction of the volume of money
are precisely the reverse of each other. Contraction reduces produc­
tion, causes stagnation, and diminishes the aggregate wealth of the peo­
ple, while it gradually transfers the wealth of the people to the pos­
sessors of fixed capital. In former times contraction created landlords
■of the rich, and reduced the middle classes to tenants and dependents.
The expansion of the world?s money during the three centuries pre­
ceding the year 1800 liberated the slaves whom the dark and gloomy
period of contraction had created, and brought into existence the pro­
ductive forces which made modern civilization.
The money famine from 1810 to 1850 bore heavily upon the masses,
and if it had continued ancient feudalism would have been renewed.
The discovery of gold in California and Australia and the revival of
mining which it produced throughout the world infused new life into
commerce and production. Prices advanced from 1850 to 1873 about
30 per cent. Production was stimulated, wealth accumulated, and the
people advanced in everything that promotes happiness and prosperity.
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The annual supply of the precious metals was quadrupled, but it did
not expand the currency too rapidly, and was not more than sufficient
to keep pace with the growth of population and business. Since silver
was demonetized and one-half of the supply cut off. falling prices, stag­
nation, and enforced idleness
H A V E B R O U G H T T H E C O U N T R Y TO T H E B R IN K O P B A N K R U P T C Y .

It is impossible to pay debts contracted when money was cheap with
money made dear by contraction. The vast army of enforced idlers
costs the Government by the loss of production more every year than
the entire national debt. While contraction continues there can be
do relief. Prices will continue to fall, more laborers will be thrown
out of employment, more farms will be taken by the mortgagees, more
farmers will become tenants, the holders of accumulated capital will
become landlords, the tenants will become serfs, and landlords will
take the same position towards the masses that the feudal lords of the
Dark Ages occupied.
T H E L A W OF CON TRACTION IS IN E X O R A B L E .

It transfers property and power from the many to the few, and di­
vides the people into lords and serfs.
The object of the silver men in remonetizing the white metal is to
furnish more money, stop contraction, relieve the debtors and producei s,
and preserve the people in their rights of property and liberty. Free
institutions can not be preserved without free men.
M E N CAN NOT BE F R E E W IT H O U T P R O P E R T Y .

Property can not be retained in the hands of the masses without
money. Every citizen has an inalienable right to pay his debts in the
money of the contract. The creditor is entitled to be paid in money
o f the same value as that which he loaned, and nothing more. It is
also the duty of the debtor to pay in the money of the contract. He
should neither gain nor lose by fluctuations in the value of money.
The value of money, as before remarke d, is governed by the law of
supply and demand. The Government alone has the power and is
<charg6d with the duty of furnishing that supply. If the supply is de­
ficient and not equal to the demand the value of money must increase,
or if the supply is excessive the value of money must decline. Hon­
esty and fair dealing as well as good policy require
A N E V E N A N D U N V A R Y IN G M E ASU RE O F V A L U E S

by which to adjust contracts. Every man has a right to rely upon
stability in the value of money, which it is the duty of the Government
which he supports to maintain. He can then calculate the chances of
business enterprises which are under his own control, but he can not
anticipate, unless he is a gambler in money, the consequences of ca­
pricious or dishonest legislation over which he has no control. Why
should the Government change the value of money to accommodate
speculators? The power to coin money and regulate the value thereof
is lodged by the Constitution in Congress, and Congress is charged
with the duty of maintaining that value unchanged aud unchangeable.
The value of money depends upon quantity or supply as compared
with demand. Its value can not be made stable except by regulating
its quantity.
It is difficult to find in the governmental action of the United States
for the last twenty-five years any evidence of a design to maintain the
value of money unchanged. Every scheme devised has had but a
temporary object in view. It matters not whether that object was
good or bad. The national-bank system was invented under an as­
sumed necessity to maintain the credit of the country, but in reality
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to furnish a subsidy for money-changers.
Europe for

Silver was demonetized in

T H E A V O W E D PURPOSE O F M A K IN G T H E R IC H R IC H E R .

It was demonetized in the United States by accident or caprice. If
the anti-silver legislation in this country had been founded upon any
reason there might be some excuse for maintaining it. No reason was
assigned at the time. No reason has since been given for thus tamper­
ing with the money of the Constitution and the people. If the rejec­
tion of silver had been accompanied by a substitute of some other kind
of money which Congress had deemed better suited to the wants of the
people there might have been no complaint; but the rejection of it
without a substitute was folly, or something worse. Who has ever
heard from a gold-standard contractionist any suggestion to provide for
a regular supply of money to correspond with the growth of popula­
tion and business? Who has ever h<tord one of them suggest a measure
of value that should be just between the debtor and creditor? Who
has ever heard one of them concede that the people had any right that
the money-changers are bound to respect?
The rejection of silver without providing something to take its place
was a gross violation of national faith. If, when the subsidy was
granted to the national banks and when they were authorized to issue
circulation, a law had been so devised that the supply would have been
constant and certain, the present hard times might have been averted.
But the national-bank scheme contained no element of permanency.
Its life depended upon th continuance of the national debt undimin­
v>
ished. The payment of the bonds retires the circulation, and the whole
scheme is but a temporary expedient. It is not a monetary system in
any just sense. The makeshift of the Treasury Department to buy
bonds when money becomes scarce is
A MOST ILLOGICAL. A N D UNPH IL,OSOPHICAIi PR O C E E D IN G .

Why should the Secretary of the Treasury contract or expand the
currency because it will please those with whom he is acquainted or
who have access to him? How does he know when he makes money
tight and scarce by contraction that he is not ruining honest men
whose obligations are maturing? How does he know when he ex­
pands the currency that he is not playing into the hands of speculators
who want to unload stocks bought at low prices at the time of contrac­
tion ? It is beneath the dignity of a great nation to shut its eyes to
the wants and necessities of the people and to play into the hands of
gamblers in the property of others. Let the volume of money increase
with the increase of population and business by some fixed rule, so
that all the people may know what to expect and upon what they may
relyt and business will take care of itself. Let the law determine the
quantity of money and let that quantity equal the demand and never
exceed it, and we will have prosperity. But this blundering in finance,
W IT H O U T C H A R T OR COMPASS

is not only ruinous in its consequences, but it indicates a lack of states­
manship or lack of honesty, either of which is disastrous.
The unlimited use of gold and stiver and a return to the automatic
theory will serve the purpose for the present, and perhaps for an in­
definite period; but that depends upon the production of the mines.
Contraction is the most disastrous calamity that can happen to a peo­
ple. Inflation is injurious, but not destructive. The creditor, as a
rule, is a non-producer;
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T H E D EB TO R IS G E N E R A L L Y A PR O D U CER .

The prosperity of the world depends upon production. Contraction
destroys the producers and stops production. Expansion may diminish
somewhat the aenmulations of the money-loaners, hut unless it amounts
to inflation, to be followed by a collapse, it does not injure, but stimu­
lates, production.
If it were the declared policy of Congress that the value of money
should always be the same it would not be a difficult task to maintain
such policy and provide money at all times of substantially the same
value. Statisticians would soon ascertain the amount necessary to
keep pace with population and business, and what allowances should
be made lor wear and loss, and for exports and imports of the precious
metals.
When it is understood that the value of money depends upon the
amount of circulation as compared with population and business, or,
what is the same thing, when it is understood that the value of money
is determined by the law of supply and demand, the battle is won.
Laws can then be framed which will accomplish the purpose. If an
increase in the circulation equal to the percentage of increase of popu­
lation is not the true criterion, other considerations must be taken into
account, which can be easily done.
T H E A V E R A G E R A N G E OF PR ICE IS T H E T H E R M O M E T E R

which determines whether or not the supply of money is sufficient.
Such range of price rises and falls with the increase or decrease of the
volume of money with the same unerring accuracy as the mercury rises
and falls with every change of temperature. Overproduction or im­
proved methods of production may cheapen the price of particular arti­
cles; a failure of production may enhance the price by diminishing the
supply of any commodity. But nothing can materially increase or di­
minish the average price of all commodities for any considerable length
of tiine except expansion or contraction. It may be that an increase
of money equal to the percentage of increase of populiation will not be
sufficient.
There are many who think it will not be because they say that as
civilization advances the increase of trade requires more money for the
same number of people. Others contend that the new methods of do­
ing business with checks, bills of exchange, and various other forms of
credit, act as substitutes for money and decrease the demand. These
two considerations must, to a considerable extent, balance each other.
If the experiment of regulating the volume of money by population
were tried, the average price of property would determine whether the
supply of money was too large or too small.
The friends of silver have been misunderstood. It has been assumed
that they desired a market for one of their products. They have been
represented as silver barons, desiring to unload their property upon
others. This is not true.
A L T H O U G H S IL V E R IS A G R E A T IN D U S T R Y

in this country, furnishing employment for a great many people (and
in that sense only it is important), yet if silver is not useful the in­
dustry should be abandoned, and the people engaged in it should find
something else to do. If it is not needed as money then the sooner
that fact is known the better, because the supply on hand for other
purposes is sufficient for the next fifty years. But if silver is discarded
gold must also be repudiated, or perpetual contraction and ruin are
inevitable.
The so-called silver men want silver used as money for the purpose
SIB




12

of obtaining more money and preventing contraction and disaster. The
demonetization of silver, which reduced the supply of the precious
metals one-half, has already cost Europe and America more than all
the wars of the nineteenth century. Contraction is more destructive
than war. It produces more suffering, more starvation, more prema­
ture death. Wars are generally disastrous to the people.
C ON TRACTION IS A L W A Y S D EST R U C T IV E .

Wars are sometimes necessary and can not be avoided. Contraction
can always be avoided. Nothing can justify a nation in depriving its
people of money, or so regulating the volume of its circulating me­
dium as to rob one class while it enriches another.
The Republican party incorporated in its national platform a pledge
which in good faith it is bound to redeem. It declared:
The Republican party is in favor of the use of both £old and silver as money,
and condemns the policy of the Democratic administration in its efforts to de­
monetize silver.

What ,is the meaning of this pledge ? When is either gold or silver
used as money within the meaning oS this plank in the platform ? Gold
is now used as money because the holder of gold bullion may have it
coined, and when coined it is legal tender in payment of all debts, pub­
lic and private.
The declaration that the Republican party is in favor of using both
metals as money, means, if it means anything, that the Republican
party will make
NO D ISC R IM IN A T IO N B E T W E E N GOLD A N D S IL V E R ,

but receive a given quantity of silver in exchange for coin on the same
terms that it now receives gold in such exchange. Treasury notes
issued in exchange for silver bullion which will not pay private debts,
unless the creditor is willing to receive them, and which are redeem­
able in silver bullion, iron, steel, wheat, land, or any other kind of
property, are not money. Such use of silver treats it as a commodity,
not as money. Xny law which denies to silver the quality of legaltender money is in violation of the Republican platform. The plat­
form does not declare that the Republican party will issue paper and
take silver bullion or any other property on deposit as security there­
for, such property to be returned on presentation of the paper.
If silver is to be treated as property and held as collateral security,
as recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury, is there any reason
why all kinds of property should not be taken in the same way? If
the only function that silver is to play in the monetary system is se­
curity, what objection is there to taking security on land, as a large
and influential class of farmers have suggested ? The propriety of doing
this is already before the Finance Committee in the shape of a resolu­
tion of inquiry introduced by the Senator from California [Mr. Stan­
f o r d .]

The more the Windom bill is studied the more clearly it appears that
the practical effect of such a law, if not the original design,
W O U L D B E TO R E D U CE S IL V E R TO A C O M M O DITY.

and take from it its character as money. It seems to be the design
of. the bill to make everything ultimately redeemable in gold so as to
increase the necessity for the use of more gold in this country and com­
pel the people to keep it here at whatever sacrifice may be required.
If gold is to be the only money for final redemption, there is no ad­
vantage in using silver at all. Paper is just as good and better; it is
more convenient. The only possible object in using silver is to increase
the standard money of the country,
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13
N O T T H E C R E D IT M O N E Y .

The people will not be deceived by the offer of the gold-standard con­
tractionists to buy more silver. The reason they give for making such
an offer is unsatisfactory. They say that they desire to enhance the
value of silver, but that they have no intention of using it as standard
money. The Senator from Oregon re-echoes the arguments of the Sen­
ator from Ohio and of the Secretary of the Treasury that everything
shall be measured by the gold standard, that silver itself and the cer­
tificates which represent it shall be anchored to gold prices. Why buy
silver if it is not to be money, but must depend for its value upon re­
demption in gold? Why not buy paper and advance its price? There
is just as much reason for doing so as there is for buying silver if silver
is not to be treated as standard money.
P A P E R CAN B E M A D E R E D E E M A B L E IN G O LD ,

and although the material may have little market value, the paper
currency redeemable in gold may circulate as money.
What the Secretary of the Treasury, the Senator from Ohio, and the
Senator from Oregon desire is the single gold standard, nothing more
and nothing less. The suggestion to buy more silver and use it as
credit money on the gold standard can have no object but to deceive.
The Windom bill repeals the Bland act. That act, so far as it goes,
treats silver as money. It requires the purchase and coining of not less
than $2,000,000 worth of silver every month. The gold monometal­
lists indorse the Windom bill, because it does repeal the Bland act, and
because it does not contemplate the use of silver as money. They are
even willing to degrade the Government and make the United States
a purchasing agent for the benefit of speculators in silver bullion. In
other words, they* would make the Government of the United States a
broker for the Rothschilds, the Barings, and other purchasers of silver
on foreign account without any commission for such services.
Why do not the gold monometallists meet the issue squarely and de­
mand the repeal of the Bland act? Why are they willing that the
Government should go into the brokerage business if they do not de­
sign to deceive the people by a flimsy pretense that they are in favor
of silver when they are in fact seeking its demonetization? President
Cleveland was more courageous and direct in his opposition to silver.
He met the issue squarely and took the consequences. He was de­
feated, but he can not be charged with an attempt to deceive the peo­
ple. The failure of President Cleveland to secure the repeal of the
Bland act warned the gold monometallists to make no more open fights
against the wishes of the people. It proved that open warfare on sil­
ver can not be successful in this country. Have they come to the con­
clusion that if the Bland act is repealed at all, it must be done by some
secret device ?
H A V E T H E Y A D O P T E D T H E T A C T IC S O F T H E C U T T L E -F I S H ?

They have certainly done all in their power to darken the waters
and escape observation. This sudden conversion is suspicious. Why
should the monometallists pretend to be friends of silver? “ Beware
of the Greeks bearing gifts ! ’ ’
What confidence can the people have in the good faith of the Secre­
tary of the Treasury when he tells them that he is in favor of purchas­
ing more silver and increasing the volume of the circulating medium?
They know that he has had the power to do this ever since he has been
in office. The Bland act requires him to purchase at least $2,000,000
worth of silver per month, and authprizes him in his discretion to pur­
chase $4,000,000 worth whenever there is a demand for more money.
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14

He admits that such a demand exists now, that more silver should be
used, and that there ought to be an addition to the circulating me­
dium, but he refuses to carry out that provision o f law which author­
izes him to buy more silver and relieve the stringency o f the mon'ey
market. “ By their fruits ye shall know them.” The fruit that the
Secretary offers is
LIKE THE APPLES OF SODOM,

fair to the eye, perhaps, but bitter to the taste, and ashes in the
mouth. There is another objection to the Windom bill, and to all bills
which provide for the issuance of paper which is not a legal tender.
What the people want is money with which to discharge obligations,
to tender in payment of debts, and in compliance with contracts. The
only money now in the country in any just sense of the term consists
o f greenbacks and coin. Nothing else will pay a debt, if the creditor
objects. It is doubtful if there is a bank outside of the money centers
and the Pacific coast which would not be compelled to close its doors
if its customers demanded legal-tender money. The only reason why
the business o f the country can be carried on at all is the tolerance of
those who are entitled to recieve payment. No person could be com­
pelled to receive in payment o f dues anything but coin and legal-tender notes of the United States. The time once was when nothing else
was received. It lasted but a very short time. This event is known
in history as “ Black Friday.” It may-be repeated, .and certainly
w ill be if a panic ever occurs. The issuance of a large amount of pa­
per which is not legal tender is
AN INVITATION TO SPECULATORS TO COMBINE AND CREATE A PANIC.

The gold coin and greenbacks of the country are mainly locked up in
the Treasury or used as bank reserves. There is very little o f either in
actual circulation. As the volume o f circulation that will not pay
debts accumulates, as compared with the legal-tender money, the dan­
ger of panics will increase.
What earthly reason is there for the Government of the United States
to issue paper
W HICH IS NOT MONEY AND W IL L NOT PA Y DEBTS?

It is the duty o f the Government to issue money that will perform
all the functions of money, and not paper which will only circulate
while the community by common consent allows it to do so. What
reason can there be for putting out paper which does not possess all the
functions qf money ? It costs the Government no more to issue legaltender money than it does to issue promises payable in money or prop­
erty; nor does it cost the Government any more to redeem legal-tender
money than it does to redeem a mere promise to pay. Why, then,
should any kind of circulation be in existence under authority of law
which is not good money ? There is no wonder that' the people have a
love for our greenback currency.
IT IS THE V ERY BEST KIND OF MONEY.

It is more convenient than coin and will discharge every obligation
and perform every function that coin can perform.
The automatic theory can be maintained as well with legal-tender
money, representing gold and silver on deposit, as with the actual use
of those metals in circulation as coin. It is difficult to conceive why
gold or silver should be used at all, except as a limitation of the quan­
tity of money that may be in circulation. I f the paper in circulation
is represented by bullion or coin in the Treasury, dollar for dollar,
every imaginable benefit the precious metals confer as money is se­
cured.
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15
As before remarked, the creation of money is an attribute o f sover­
eignty. It can not be created by private enterprise. The Constitu­
tion expressly confers upon Congress the power “ to coin money and
regulate the value thereof. ’ 1 Many able lawyers and judges under­
took to constrlie this language without Understanding the functions o f
money or how its value could be regulated. They contended that the
power o f Congress was confined to the act of coining gold, and silver
and prescribing the weight and fineness thereof. This was a miscon­
ception o f the whole subject. They ignored the fact, which intelligent
people now understand, that the value of money does not depend upon
its weight or fineness, but
UPON THE VOLUME OP THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM,

compared with the demand for its use as money.
There is another provision of the Constitution which, taken in con­
nection with the clause above quoted, removes all doubt as to the pow^r
of Congress to issue legal-tender money without regard to the material
of which it is made. It is provided in section 10, Article I, of the Con­
stitution that—
No State shall coin money, emit bills o f credit, or make anything but gold
and silver a legal tender in payments o f debts.

The sovereign right to create money was thus surrendered by the
States. In making that surrender it was assumed that the States orig­
inally had the power to make other things besides gold and silver a legal
tender in payment o f debts. This power must exist somewhere in
every government
AS A NECESSARY ATTRIBUTE OP SOVEREIGNTY,

because if neither gold nor silver can be obtained for use as money,
which has frequently been the case in history, some other kind of
money mufe^ be substituted to preserve national existence. This pro­
hibition upon the States was an implied grant of power to the General
Government, for it can not be supposed that the framers o f the Consti­
tution intended that there should be no money in the country if the
mines failed to produce the precious metals in sufficient quantities to
be used as money. The necessities of the Government during the war,
however, forced the United States to exercise its sovereign right to
issue legal-tender money, which right is denied to the States by the
Constitution. The controversy between lawyers sticking in the bark,
and statesmen construing the provisions of the Constitution in the light
o f the subject-matter, was long and bitter. It was finally and forever
decided by the Supreme Court that
THE UNITED STATES HAS THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER

to issue legal-tender money without regard to the material o f which it
is made.
There is an irrepressible conflict between those who collect usurious
interest and those who pay it. Formerly the collectors of interest re­
sorted to every conceivable trick and device to obtain more for the use
of money than the law allowed. They were called usurers and were
denounced and abhorred by the good of all ages. From the time the
Israelites reached the Promised Land until the new system o f defraud­
ing the debtor by governmental action was suggested by Chevalier us­
ury was denounced as robbery. .Before the time o f Chevalier the civ­
ilized nations of the earth regarded gold and silver as standard money,
the quantity to be determined by the supply o f those metals. Alter
the discovery of gold in California and Australia Chevalier suggested
the demonetization of gold lor the benefit of the non-producing moneySTE




16
loaners, who previous to that time had been odious on account o f their
usurious practices. He argued that the rejection of gold
WOULD DIMINISH THE SUPPLY OF MONEY AND ENHANCE ITS VALUE.

He urged upon France and the other Governments of Europe the
necessity for making money scarce in order that it might become more
valuable to those who possessed it. Germany, Austria, and* several
other European powers, following the suggestion of Chevalier, demone­
tized gold, but before united action could be secured to reject that
metal it became apparent that silver would become more plentiful
than gold. Germany after the close of the Franco-Prussian war was a
creditor nation, and resolved to enhance the value of the securities she
held by the demonetization of silver for the purpose of compelling pay­
ments in dearer money than was stipulated in the contract. The United
States by some unknown device or accident, although a debtor nation,
joined in the conspiracy to enhance the value of njoney and bonds and
depress the price of labor and property. Under various pretenses all
Europe followed Germany and the United States and joined the “ com­
bin e” to
MAKE MONEY SCARCE AND DEAR AND LABOR AND PROPERTY CHEAP.

The combined governmental action of the United States and Europe
accomplished for every creditor far more than the most extortionate
usurer had been able to achieve by the wicked device of usury, which
had been denounced by Moses and all the rulers of Israel and con­
demned with the thunderbolts of excommunication by the Christian
Church for nearly two thousand years.
The artful manipulators of modern times discovered that if they
could cut off or diminish the supply of the precious metals by reject­
ing silver, the value of the money and bonds they held would be en­
hanced one-half. By this device they doubled the value of their own
property by legislation and relieved themselves from the odium of rob­
ing their neighbors by usurious contracts. The scheme has worked to
perfection. Wealth has accumulated in the hands of the non-produc­
ing cutters of coupons immensely. They have received not only in­
terest, but the value of their money has increased faster than interest.
They have re-invested their ill-gotten accumulations in new loans un­
til they have enormously swelled the indebtedness of the world. The
national dfebts, which are but a small part of the actual indebtedness
of the people, illustrate how rapidly the savings of the masses are be­
ing transferred
TO THE NON-PRODUCING POSSESSORS OP F IXE D CAPITAL.

The following table from Professor Adam’s learned work on Public
Debts shows the growth of national debts at stated periods:
1714............................... ....................................................... $1,500,000,000
1793............................... ;...................................................... 2,500,000,000
1820 ......................................................................................
7,750,000,000
1848 ....................................................................................... 8,650,000,000
1862 ...................................................................................... 13,750,000,000
1872 ...................................................................................... 23,025,000,Q00
1882 ....................................................................................... 26,970,000,000
According to American Almanac:

1889......................................................................................

32,317,336,421

The private debts o f the people is an unknown quantity, which can
only be estimated.
Sir Moreton Frewen estimates the public and private debts of the
people of Great Britain at <£4,000,000,000 or nearly $20,000,000,000.
The indebtedness of the people of the United States must be much
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17
larger. The following is given in a note to Dr. Denslow’s work on
Political Economy, page 448:
The Iron Age, referring to an address to the National Board ©f Trade by
Mr. Price, quotes Lord Derby as having predicted that European nations must
repudiate.
THE ANNUAL BURDEN OP $800,000,000 OF INTEREST
is a load tHey can not carry. It continues:
“ Spain, Portugal, Austria, and Greece are bankrupt: Russia and Italy are
without credit; and the great states o f Great Britain, France, and Holland are
exhausting every measure o f taxation to maintain solvency and credit.
“ To the constantly growing sum o f obligation^ which constitute our credit
system must be added an enormous total o f public indebtedness contracted by
minor divisions o f the state, corporations, firms, and individuals. For our ow n
country the showing is assumed j-o be about as follow s:
Present national debt, December 1, 1887.......................................... $1,675,816,660
S tate.............................................. .......................................................
226,597,594
County and m unicipal........................................................................
821,486,447
Railway................................................................................. ............... 4,163, 640,144
B anking................................................................................................. 4,581,706,203
Private banking...................................................................................
1,500,000,000
R e c o rd ..................................................................................................
6,000,000,000
Mercantile.............................................................................................
3,000,000,000
Individual, otherwise than a b o v e .................................. ,................
6,000,000,000
Aggregate..................................................................................- 27,969,247,048
“ This total is more than one-half the entire census valuation o f 1880. If our
population is 60,000,000, it means a per capita indebtedness of $465, or more than
the average income of the family in Massachusetts.”

The annual interest on $27,969,247,048 at 5 per cent, is nearly four­
teen hundred millions. The assessed value of the property of the United
States in 1880 for the purposes of taxation was $16,902,993,543. In
1888, according to the American Almanac, the assessed value of the
property of the thirty-eight States then in the Union was $22,637,383,298. The estimate in Dr. Denslow’s note may or may not be an ex­
aggeration. It is highly probable, however, that the indebtedness of
the people of the United States, public and private, is fully equal to
the assessed value of the entire property in this country. In other
words, the liabilities of the people are about equal to the assessed value
for the purposes of taxation of their assets. They are, however, solv­
ent if permitted to pay in the money o f the contract, because the as­
sessed value is less than half the market value, even at the present range
of price.
The present rate of contraction would at no very distant day reduce
the market value as low as the present assessed value, but the liabili­
ties would continue to increase until canceled by bankruptcy or by a
transfer of property to the creditor. The importance of maintaining
an honest measure for the adjustment ol contracts and the payment of
this enormous indebtedness can not be overestimated. The weight of
this debt has already been about doubled by contraction, and the proc­
ess of contraction still continues. Property must be sacrified to ob­
tain legal-tender money to pay this debt. The creditors will accept
nothing else and they are empowered by law to demand payment in
gold or its equivalent, and they insist that nothing shall be legal tender
but gold. When they are told that the production of gold is not more
than sufficient to keep good the stock of that metal on hand without
any increase of the volume of circulation on account of the increasing
demand for money caused by the growth of population, they revile those
who call attention to this fact
AS INFLATIONISTS AND REPUDIATORS.

When they are told that the price o f property and of labor is rapidly
declining, that stagnation and hard times exist, they bring to bear the
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18

great power of their accumulated wealth through the public press,
which they control, and the obligations of the people, which they hold,
to silence opposition and crush those who have the temerity to raise
their voices in defense of the people.
The vast indebtedness of the people of the United States, consisting
o f bonds, mortgages, and other securities, is conc entrated in the money
centers, principally the city of New York, where the interest is paya­
ble. A large portion, perhaps more than one-half, of these obligations
is owned in Europe, but managed by agents in the United States who
are aliens to our institutions and hostile to the freedom we enjoy.
These Europeans are not only monarchists in sentiment,
B U T T H E Y B E L O N G TO T H E A R I S T O C R A C Y O P U S U R Y ,

which has been made respectable by law, and which dominates, con­
trols, and dictates the legislation of every civilized government, includ­
ing our own. We are told that we must not differ with the professional
usurers of modern times, whether they are citizens or aliens; that they
are the business community, and whatever laws are passed must be
satisfactory to the usurers or the party will be destroyed. They
threaten and intimidate politicians, and, failing to make them sub­
servient to the money kings, they use the press to disgrace and destroy
them and use their money to defeat their aspirations. They frighten
political parties and significantly declare that no party can succeed in
this country without the aid of the money power, and they point to the
victories which that power has achieved in the elections for the past
thirty years in proof of their assertion.
There is too much truth in what is said of the power of the usurers.
I call them usurers advisedly. It is true they are no longer in the
habit of making what was formerly known as usurious contracts, but
they have done and are still doing
W H A T IS M O R E W I C K E D A N D F A R -R E A C H I N G .

They constantly change contracts by legislation after they are made,
whereby they increase their demands while they diminish the capacity
of the debtor to pay. They are most cruel and relentless oppressors.
They are usurers by nature and love money.
Martin Luther, the originator of religious reformation, if not of civil
liberty, in his Table Talk described his abhorrence of usury as fol­
lows:
The civil laws themselves prohibit usury. To exchange anything with any
one and gain by the exchange is not a deed of* charity; it is robbery. Every
usurer is a robber worthy of the gibbet. I call those usurers who loan at 5 or 6
per cent. To-day at Leipzig, he who loans 100 florins asks 40 for them at the
end of the year as interest on his money. Do you think God will tolerate such
a thing? There is nothing under the sun I hate so much as that city o f L eipzig;
there is so much usury, avarice, insolence, trickery, and rapacity there.—Cyclo­
paedia of Political Science , etc., volume 2, page 547.

I f Martin Luther could have anticipated that usurers would take
possession -of the governments of the civilized world, and not only
change the civil law so as to legalize interest, but use those govern­
ments to contract the circulating medium at pleasure and increase the
burdens of the debtor beyond what the most unscrupulous usurer of
ancient times would have dreamed of demanding, his prolific mind
would have been inadequate to conceive terms in which to express his
abhorrence.
It may be said that the words of Martin Luther were inspired by
passion or prejudice. That may be true, but he only re-echoed what
had been said by the divines and reiormers who had preceded him.
This wholesale denunciation against the payment of interest seems un­
reasonable. Legitimate interest is right, proper, and just.
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CREDIT IS A GREAT BOON.

It furnishes an opportunity fpr the enterprising and industrious to
develop the resources of the country and adds to the wealth and pros­
perity of the people. Without it little progress could be made. The
evil connected with it in former times was usurious contracts. The evil
connected With it in modern times is legislative interference with ex­
isting contracts. Formerly individual usurers overreached and robbed
their debtors by special contracts. Now a combination of all the usur­
ers of the world, known as the creditor class, manipulate the standard
money to rob all debtors.
In Europe the aristocracy of usury and the aristocracy of birth have
combined. The divine right of kings has been reinforced by the de­
votees of gold.
ACCUMULATED CAPITAL AND HEREDITARY MONARCHY

are again fast accomplishing the subjugation of the people. While
the masses could obtain money by delving in the bowels of the earthy
thrones tottered and the whole fabric of despotism in the Old World
was trembling before the onward march of the triumphant aiid pro­
gressive masses.
Money makes a people independent and brave; poverty reduces them
to want and submission. The combination of the usurers with the des­
pots to deprive the people of money was an artlul and effective mode
of reducing them to submission and dependence. During the last sixteen
years, since silver was demonetized, despotism has grown stronger,
while poverty and want have weakened the power of the people to re­
sist oppression. There is no hope for progress or improvement of the
masses of Europe except by bloody revolutions. It is yet possible /o r
the people of the United States
TO REGAIN THEIR LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE.

There is yet time for them to resist their oppressors.
It is true that a combination of non-producing money kings who
hold a mortgage upon the productive energies of the people nearly or
quite equal to the assessed value of all the property in the United
States is a formidable enemy; and it is all the more formidable because
the devices by which it robs the people are subtle, secret, and hard to
understand. If the masses could but know that a conspiracy exists
among the possessors of accumulated capital in Europe and America
to rob them of their property and their liberty, a speedy and effective
remedy would be applied.
It is unfortunate for the people that they do not understand the
magnitude or the extent of the wrong that was inflicted upon them by
the demonetization of silver and the loss of more than one-half of the
supply of the precious metals for use as money. They do know, how­
ever, that their farms and their products are declining in value; that
the obligations of their contracts for the payment of money are grow­
ing heavier year by year; that stagnation and hard times exist, and
they will inquire the reason why. They are already contemplating
the vast accumulations of the coupon-cutting class. They behold for­
tunes accumulating to hundreds of millions,
W H IL E THEY ARE REDUCED TO POVERTY AND WANT.

They know that the purchasing power of money has increased in the
last sixteen years from 35 to 40 per cent., and that if it continues they
and their families must be reduced to tenants and serfs. They are be­
ginning to inquire how this change was produced. They are begin­
ning to understand that the legislation of the last twenty-five years
STB




20
has continually reduced the supply of money as compared with the de­
mand until a money famine exists among the masses. They are be­
ginning to demand that the Government shall furnish more money to
enable them to save themselves from ruin and bankruptcy.
The cutters of coupons demand further contraction, cheaper labor,
and dearer money. Behold the financial condition of the United States I
The amount of the circulating medium, exclusive of the surplus
and reserves in the Treasury and the reserves in banks, can not exceed
$900,000,000. Of this sum over $600,000,000 consists o f credit paper,
"WHICH IS NOT LEGAL TENDER,

and will not pay debts without the consent of the creditor, as follows:
Gold certificates........................................................................................ $134,642,839
Silver certificates...................................................................................... 292,923,348
National-bank notes outstanding according to the last report of the
Com ptroller............................................................................................ 202,023,415
T o ta l.................................................................................................

629,589, 602

The greenbacks and gold in actual circulation among the people
amount to less than three hundred millions.
Any suggestion to increase the legal-tender money o f the country
which will pay debts is met by the united opposition o f all who cut
coupons or live on fixed incomes. The proposal to use silver as money
is denounced by the metropolitan press and every servant and depend­
ent of the money power.
THE CUTTERS OP COUPONS

fear that the people may regain their independence and become able to
pay their debts if more legal-tender money is put in circulation.
The miser is as jealous of.his prerogative as the tyrant o f heredi tary
birth. The despots of gold know full well that the volume of the cir­
culating medium must continually shrink if the single standard can be
maintained. They know that contraction will increase their hoards
while it impoverishes the people. They know wealth is power and
dominion, and that poverty is the badge of slavery and submission.
They care not for the solemn declaration o f the Republican party in
favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, but insist that silver
shall be reduced to a commodity and gold alone be the standard of
value. They compel the Secretary of the Treasury to declare that he
will do all in his power to anchor the money of this country to the
values of the commercial world, which are gold values,
WITHOUT THE USE OP SILVER AS MONEY.

It is impossible for the usurious possessors o f accumulated wealth to
make the slightest concession to the people. The advantage they have
already obtained by the destruction of one-half of the world’s money
has not only enormously increased their wealth and power, but it has
also added to their arrogance and intolerance.
The money question is not a party question. It is a contest between
the lords of accumulated wealth and the struggling masses. It is barely
possible that these money tyrants have overestimated the ignorance o f
the people of the United States, and that the time may yet come when
retaliation will be possible. If the money of the world can be con­
tracted by the destruction of one of the precious metals, why may it
not be expanded by the use of both those metals, or by a resort to legaltender fiat money, issued in such quantities as will enable the people
to discharge their obligations and save their homes ?
The advocates of the use of silver as “
money do not seek to defraud
the creditor class. They wish simply
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TO RESTORE THE MONEY OF THE CONTRACT,

to enable the people to pay their debts in money o f the same value as
that mhich was loaned, nothing more and nothing less. I f the money
kings who have hitherto controlled legislation deny them this, who can
say that they shall not rise in their mighty power and demand justice?
Nothing but more money will right the wrong that the gold-standard
contractionists have perpetrated.
The people now demand the remonetization of silver, and give notice
that if that is not enough they will demand sufficient legal-tender pa­
per money to enable them to retain their property, maintain liberty
and independence, and enjoy something of the wealth their labor has
produced* Let the money kings take warning
AND CEASE T H $IR DISHONEST PRACTICES.

before they compel the people to pay their debts in inflated paper
money to save themselves from want, starvation, and slavery. Fourteen
hundred millions of gold annually extorted as interest lrom the pro­
ducers of the United States is a burden too grievous to be borne. The
Republican party promised to relieve this burden by the use o f both
gQld and silver as money. The time has come for redeeming that prom­
ise. Shall it be done, or shall the money o f this country be anchored
to the gold standard of Europe in pursuance of the declaration of the
Secretary of the Treasury ?
This country has been too long anchored to the gold value of Europe.
In 1873 silver was rejected as money. Immediately thereafter the
United States resumed specie payments, not in gold and silver, the
money of the Constitution, bnt in gold alone. All debts were con­
tracted, not only on a basis of gold and silver, bi^t also when the United
States was not using either gold or silver and Germany was using silver,
not gold. In consequence of the suspension of specie payments in the
United States and the demonetization of gold in the German states, gold
was cheap. The people of fche United States became involved in a vast
amount of indebtedness. Europe and the United States combined to
make gold dear by rejecting silver.
The United States by resuming specie payments in gold became an
immense purchaser of gold. Germany also became a buyer of gold and
a seUer of silver. All this put up gold. The people of the United
States were bound to buy gold, because the Government wqoild not al­
low them to pay their debts in any other kind of money. The prod­
ucts of this country have been sold at a discount o f 33J per cent, to
buy gold to pay debts contracted
WHEN GOLD WAS CHEAP AND GREENBACKS WERE PLENTY.

It was the legislation of Congress that compelled the people to do
this.
During the time of the suspension of specie-pay men ts contracts in
the United States were payable in lawful money—greenbacks. By the
act of March, 1869, “ to strengthen the public credit,?, the bonds were
made payable in coin. The funding act of J uly 14, 1870, expressly
stipulated that they should be paid in coin of the then standard value—
gold and silver dollars. This contract is printed upon every bond now
outstanding. By a trick silver was demonetized in J873, since which
time all debts have been paid in gold or on a gold standard; not the
gold standard of twenty years ago when the contract was made, but
the gold standard created by the demonetization of silver, and by the
vast purchases of gold by Germany and the United States—a standard
made dearer because the power of the civilized world was exhausted
to corner the gold market.
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22
Well might the bondholders boast o f the credit o f the Government
o f the United States. It costs them nothing to buy gold, but it has
cost the people of this country, the producing classes, more than all
the wars that have afflicted us from the foundation of the Government.
Who would have thought, when the people were pouring out their blood
as water to save the country, that a non-producing oligarchy o f bond­
holders,
COMPOSED LARGELY OP ALIENS,

would force the masses to sacrifice their property and their liberty to
•purchase gold to enrich money-lenders and coupon-cutters? The Gov­
ernment has good credit, but it was bought at the expense o f the pros­
perity, happiness, independence, and freedoiq o f the people.
The gold-standard contractionists are not yet satisfied, but are using
every effort to continue the process of contraction to further oppress
and destroy the masses. Now that the people have risen in their might
and demanded justice, they resort to every trick, and to slander and
abuse to disparage the efforts of all who have the boldness to stand up
and demand some measure of justice, some relief from bankruptcy and
ruin.
Who are benefited by the rejection of silver?
WHO ARE BENEFITED BY CONTRACTION?

None but bondholders who are rich in rnonty futures and the drones
who live on fixed incomes, while the producers are oppressed and de­
stroyed. Not only has the country been obliged to sacrifice its prop­
erty to buy gold with which to pay debts contracted in cheap money,
but thousands and millions of people have been thrown out of employ­
ment by business depression caused by contraction. The sources ol
wealth have been dried up to satisfy the lust o f gamblers in gold and
combinations o f usurers and money kings. I f the non-producing drones
o f society had to sacrifice their property to buy this dear money there
might be some excuse for their advocacy o f that kind of money. They
want money made dear because they have it, and because they have
bonds which command it. Thev do not care how much other people’s
property is sacrificed to acquire it. They care nothing for the suffer­
ings of the people. All they want is more gold, and
THE SCARCER AND DEARER IT IS THE BETTER.

It is better money, not because it is gold, but because it is dearer.
Mr. Maclaren, of England, and Mr. Chevalier, of France, were the
two great leaders who inaugurated the war for the demonetization of
one of the metals. Each published a book in 1857 and 1858, in which
they prove most conclusively that the new discoveries of gold in Cal­
ifornia and Australia were reducing the value of money and enhancing
the price o f property. They maintained, and with good reason, that
the addition to the circulation caused by the new gold depreciated
'the value of money and bonds
AND ENHANCED THE VALUE OP PROPERTY.

They therefore urged most vehemently the demonetization of gold and
the adoption of the single-silver standard. Holland, Germany, and
Austria listened to their arguments and demonetized gold.
I hold in my hand these two celebrated volumes in which may be
found all the arguments for the demonetization of gold which the most
talented gold-standard contractionists now make for the demonetiza­
tion of silver.
Mr. Maclaren, in his work on the History o f the Currency, published
in 1858, in a long review deprecates the want o f appreciation on the
part o f Mr. Tooke, Dr. Smith, Lord Overstone, and others in not seeSTE




23
ing the great danger to be apprehended from the new discoveries o f gold
in California and Australia, and compliments the financiers on the Con­
tinent for their wisdom in this respect. He says:
Our neighbors on the Continent received the announcement o f these remark­
able discoveries in a different spirit; from the first they have considered them
o f the greatest importance, and have expressed great solicitude for the main­
tenance o f the standard o f value. Immediately that the fact o f a great increase
in the production o f gold was established, the Government o f Holland, a nation
justly renowned, says M. Chevalier, for its foresight and probity, discarded
gold from its currency. They may, says the same author, have been rather hasty
in passing this law, but in a matter o f this nature it is better to be in advance
o f events than to let them pass us. (Page 351.)

Mr. Maclaren winds up his elaborate argument in favor o f the cred­
itor class in* the following language:
The author o f these pages feels very strongly on this subject, believing that a
very great amount o f suffering will be inflicted upon a very large numerical
portion o f the community in the pursuit o f a shadow, for what good can result
from a failure in one o f the most important institutions o f civilized society, and
he can not conclude the preseut work without appealing to the economists o f
this coiintry at least to give the question o f the probable depreciation of the cur­
rency an unprejudiced consideration. (Page 368.)

The work of Chevalier was so highly prized by English financiers
who represented the possessors o f accumulated capital that Richard
Cobden, the founder of the Cobden Club, translated it into the En­
glish language, and in his preface commends it as eminently wise and
patriotic. Mr. Cobden said that the question o f the probable fall in
the value o f gold and the consequent rise in that of all other commod­
ities, wherever gold is the standard of value, has not hitherto attracted
so much attention in his country as it had in France, or as its great
importance would seem to demand. Mr. Cobden concurred with Che­
valier, that any increase of money is injurious to the bondholding class;
THAT CONTRACTION ONLY BENEFIT THEM.

In speaking o f the effect o f the new discoveries on bond investments,
he said:
W ith respect to those who have property to invest, they would, as a rule,
avoid those investments which yield incomes o f a fixed amount o f money, such
as dividends from the funds, interest from bonds and mortgages, as well as an­
nuities, rent charges, ground rents, guarantied stock, etc,; whilst property o f an
expansive nature, which rises in proportion to the depreciation o f the currency,
such as land, houses, shares, etc., would be preferred. (Page 7.)

Mr. Cobden preferred investments in funds, in bonds, in mortgages,
in annuities, in rent charges, in ground rent, in guarantied stocks, etc.
He bad no rega.d for those who would invest money in property, such
as land, houses, and shares. Suca investments would give employment
to the people, develop the resources of the country, create wealth, and
therefore should not be encouraged.
Chevalier, in his celebrated work,
TREATED THE VALUE OF SILVER AS STATIONARY,

and attributed all fluctuations to gold.

He said:

Unless, then, we possess a very robust faith in the immobility o f human affairs,
w e must regard the fall in the'value of gold as an»event for which we should
prepare without loss of time. And who can be ignorant that the value of gold
m relation to productions generally, and in relation to silver in partic ular, in­
stead o f being fixed, has experienced very numerous variations—that it has
been undergoing modifications, sometimes in one sense, sometimes in another,
from the beginning o f the world, under the influence o f forces far less energetic
than those which are in action in our day ?

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

I f the value o f gold has varied every time that new circumstances have mod­
ified the relation between the supply and demand, and if it has risen or fallen in
proportion to the change which manifested itself in this relation, by what
strange witchcraft are the natural causes o f the fall o f gold to be paralyzed, now
that they are displayihg themselves in such unusual proportions ?
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24
Independently o f all detailed calculation like the preceding, there is a general
way ofconvincing oneself o f the impending fail o f gold, at least if some cause,
at present impossible to foresee, should not suddenly put an end to its extraor­
dinary production. The metal which is now being extracted in such abundance,
in comparison with the past, must, if converted into m oney, affect its value by
its mass. (Pages 117,118.)

After discussing what other use might be made o f gold and arriving
at the conclusion that little can be used for other purposes than as
money, he said:
The currency, then, offers the one sole channel by which the principal part of
this enormous production ot gold can find an outlet. Already several nations
have closed the door against it. H ow, then, can it fail to encumber the chan­
nels o f circulation in those countries which remain faithful to a gold currency?
In other words, how shall we escape a general dearness o f commodities in
France if we maintain for gold in our monetary system the place which in fact
it now occupies? (Page 120.)

For the purpose o f showing that the arguments o f the gold-standard
contractionists are not original, but are the same which were formerly
used by the silver-standard contractionists, I must call attention again
to the argument o f Mr. Chevalier, made familiar in these days by its fre­
quent repetition:
Under the influence o f this greatly increased and cheapened production o f
gold it is reasonable to expect, at least in all those countries where gold circu­
lates in large quantities and where it is or tends to be the sole medium o f ex­
change, a general disturbance o f prices, a deeply felt derangement o f interests,
and a modification more or less radical in the different relations o f society. To
examine the causes and consequences of such a revolution, and the good or the
evil which, if they have not already commenced, must tiereatter spring from it
can hardly be deemed an unprofitable task. With reference to certain coun­
tries, and m ore especially France, it is well to consider how far this influx o f
gold into the monetary system is in conformity with existing laws, with the in­
tentions o f the legislator, the national honor, and the respect due to engage­
ments contracted by the State. I f it were proved that what is taking places is
in violation o f the spirit and letter o f legislation, the best means should be
sought for returning as quickly as possible to the scrupulous observance o f the
law. (Page 20.)

Here Mr. Chevalier suggests that mining for gold and adding to the
circulating medium is in violation o f law and a dishonor to the State.
W HO EVER HEARD OP A GOLD-STANDARD CONTRACTIONIST

seeing honor in anything except the protection of his interests ? The
robbing of his neighbors counts for nothing. That is honorable.
IP THE BOUNTIES OF NATURE EXPAND THE CURRENCY,

the nation is dishonored. I f by legislation the currency is contracted,
the miser enriched, and the people destroyed, it is honorable; it is con­
servative; it is wise; it is good money; it is honest money. Such is
the moral sense o f the usurer everywhere and at all times.
But let us return to our author again. He says:
Simultaneously with these new discoveries o f gold a fact o f grave import de­
velops itself with reference to silver. For a few years past this metal has be­
come, in the European market, the object o f unusual demand for exportation
to the East. This is evidently calculated to make the fall in gold more sensibly
felt, especially in comparison with the other precious metal; for whilst tho
gold increases rapidly, silver becomes more scarce, and thus the divergence
operates from both sides. (Page 21.)

How familiar this argument! Then gold, if the mines continue to
produce, would drive silver out o f the country and dishonor France.
Now,
IP SILVER IS USED IT W IL L DRIVE GOLD OUT OP THE COUNTRY

and dishonor the United States. The reason in both cases was to en­
rich the bondholders and rob the masses. Suppose gold was driven
out of the country, where would it go, and how would it be driven
out? I f we were to use silver our farmers would be relieved from the
necessity o f selling their products at 40 per cent, discount to buy gold
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23

for the benefit of the bondholders. If we were not buying gold and
making a corner on that metal, gold would be cheaper. The five or
seven hundred millions, or whatever we have, o f gold, if sent to Europe,
would make gold cheaper there than it now is and raise the price of
wheat and all other commodities. If Europe will pay more for gold
than we can afford to pay, let them have it. The history of the world
proves that silver is just as good money as gold. All civilized nations
still use silver. Not a hundred millions of people use gold, and not
fifty millions of the people on this globe ever saw a piece of gold.
I commend the works of Maclaren and Chevalier to the particular
attention of all those who admire the skill and wisdom of rejecting one
o f the metals for the purpose of enriching the bondholders at the ex­
pense of the people.
The best illustration of
THE CRUEL AND HEARTLESS OPPRESSION

brought about by legislative manipulation o f the money o f the world
is found in the case of Egypt. The case of Egypt is the case of every
farmer in the West. That case is so well stated by Sir Moreton Frewen
that I will give it in his own language:
To those who profess a convenient belief that although the fall o f prices in­
creases the burden o f national debts, yet that a lessened cost of production avails
to right the balance, I would recommend a short study o f Egyptian finances to­
day. There is a nation o f peasant cultivators, 6,000,000 o f people farming 5,000,000 of acres, whose agricultural implements are neither better nor worse than
at the time when Joseph was sold by his brethren ; nor is the tide o f the Bame
Nile which to day brings to market the produce o f the same fields in similar
barges either faster or less fast than five thousand years ago. Twenty-five years
since Egypt was free o f foreign debt, but in an evil hour the ex-Khedive Tsmail
borrowed about a hundred millions sterling at enormous rates of interest in Lon­
don and Paris. This m oney was not spent on internal improvements, but was
squandered on the construction o f twelve royal palaces in Cairo and in the pur­
chase o f pictures and furniture for these palaces.
The Levantine contractors who built the palaces made immense fortunes, and
for the most part reinvested these fortunes in loans to the fellaheen at rates
varying from 2 to 6 per cent', pet m onth! Truly a vicious circle! The Khedive
pledged the homesteads o f his subjects to borrow money in L ondon; th^is money
passed on to foreign middlemen, who in turn lent it at usurious rates to the
'peasantry, who were themselves the security for the original loans. The cul­
tivators were in the pleasant position o f having to pay first 7 per cent, to tho
foreign financier and a further 30 per cent, per annum on the same money to the
foreign contractor. T o pay the interest on this national debt each acre o f cul­
tivated land in Egypt has to convert enough o f its produce into gold to send
almost a sovereign yearly to the foreign creditor. In addition to this, each acre
has to contribute &further share to the expenses of the home government. The
taxes o f Upper Egypt are collected not in money, but directly in produce.
The lower prices fall, the greater the amount o f produce which is appropriated
from each acre to pay the sovereign required of it. Since the time the debt was
contracted the prices of the staple products o f Egypt, cotton, sugar, wheat, and
beans, have fallen more than 50 per cent. The revenue for the current year
shows a small surplus over the budget estimate, simply because cotton has.
risen nearly a penny per pound and sugar about 3 shillings a hundred-weight.
But if prices are to fall still further, the gold payments which Egypt owes to
England can only be exacted from a starving nation by the most merciless exactions and" by the free use of the kourbash. Here is an instance, an extreme
instance I admit, o f that “ appreciation o f gold ” about which philosophers with
fixed incomes write 30 complacently, and which is said to be for the advantage
Of England the creditor nation .— The Economic Crisis, by Moreton Frewen.
1888, pages 77 to 79.

The case of Egypt is an extreme case, but it illustrates the avarice
and cruelty of the money-lender. Sir Moreton Frewen tells us that a
liberal use of the “ kourbash” is necessary to collect the revenue in
Egypt, that is,
LIBERAL FLOGGING, CORPORAL PUNISHMENT,

is necessary to make the fellaheen work and starve sufficiently to pro­
duce crops which can be converted into money to pay a fraudulent
debt.
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26
I read in an English publication a short time ago an account o f a
movement on the part of some humane people in that country— for
humanity has not entirely departed from the people— abolish cor­
-to
poral punishment of the laborers of Egypt, but the reply to this move­
ment was that flogging was the only means by which the people could
be forced to perform sufficient labor to pay the interest on the public
debt and protect the English creditors in their rights. Whether this
explanation will continue to be satisfactory to the good people of Eng­
land remains to be seen.
It will be a long time before the farmers of the United States will
submit to corporal punishment, but the time may come.
MORE CONTRACTION, MORE POVERTY, MORE STARVATION

may reduce them to slavery, but before that time arrives there will be
a contest that may make even bondholders tremble.
The slavery of the Egyptians by the military power of Great Britain
surpasses in cruelty any system of slavery that ever existed. The
hypocrisy of the rulers of that country in pretending to favor, the aboli­
tion of slavery anywhere is fully illustrated by their treatment of the
Egyptians. A debt contracted by the profligate ruler in collusion with
unscrupulous speculators is made the pretext for reducing an honest
and helpless people to
THE MOST ABJECT SYSTEM OF STARVATION AND SLAVERY.

At the same time we constantly read o f the efforts of the English
Government to suppress the siave trade in Africa, which consists in
capturing wild negroes to be used as slaves in Asiatic countries. No
slavery that can be devised, where the master owns the slave and is
compelled to feed him, can be compared to Egyptian slavery, to enforce
the payment of a fraudulent .debt. The farmers o f the United States
have the same cause of complaint, in kind, but not in degree, as the
Egyptian farmers. Their obligations, too, have been doubled by leg­
islation; they, too, are compelled to sell their wheat, their cotton, and
other farm products at a discount to buy gold with which to pay
debts contracted in another and .cheaper currency. But the farmers of
the United States have a vote and a voice in the Government, and that
voice they expressed at the last Presidential election. The time is
come when we are to see whether that voice ought to be obeyed. Let
those who doubt it resist the coming storm and take the consequences.
Many who have not reflected upon the subject are misled by the
question so frequently asked bv the gold-standard con traction ists, how
can we settle our international balances unless we adhere to the stand­
ard money of the commercial world? Although the answer to this is
very simple, it is not generally understood; in fact, it is generally sup­
posed that we settle our foreign balances in money. We do nothing of
the kind. Our foreign balances are always settled in commodities. I f
gold and silver are shipped out of the country to pay for goods they are
shipped as bullion, and not as coin. When we buy gold in Europe, we
buy it as bullion.
GOLD IS BOUGHT AND SOLD BY W EIGHT.

The stamp of the Government has nothing to do with either gold or
silver as an international commodity. It is the business o f bankers to
ascertain the value of the money of one country in the money o f an­
other country. How did we carry on trade with Europe during the
war, or rather during the suspension of specie payments ? Wheat was
bought in this country with greenbacks, and sold in foreign countries
for the money o f those countries. For example, specie payment was
suspended in Italy and the United States at the same time. Each had
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'J
7
a paper currency of its own. Did trade between them stop ? Not at
all. The American merchant sending a cargo of wheat to Italy would
sell it for Italian money. With that money he would buy a cargo of
marble or anything else that was wanted in this country; or if he did
not desire to purchase commodities in Italy he would go to a bank in
Rome or Naples with the Italian money tha^ he received for his cargo of
wheat and obtain a bill of exchange payable in the United States in
greenbacks, or gold, whichever he desired.
Buying and selling of exchange is a legitimate and extensive business
conducted by bankers. One of the greatest defects in metallic money
is that it may be shipped from a country as a commodity on account
of its money value in other countries. The great dread of an adverse
balance of trade is not the debt that is incurred which could be paid at
a future time in commodities, but it is the fear that the money of the
country will be shipped as a commodity, thus producing contraction
at home, involving bankruptcy and ruin. But the idea of the Secre­
tary of the Treasury in anchoring the price of commodities of this coun­
try to the gold price of Europe suggests a njost fearful oppression. It
amounts to this: The United States
FIRST DESTROYS ALL OTHER KINDS OF MONEY BUT GOLD

and makes it impossible for the debtor to discharge his obligation in
the money of the contract. The Secretary approves of this. He de­
clares that there shall be no relief; that the money of the contract
shall not be restored, but the people shall continue to buy gold, what­
ever the sacrifice may be.
If the issue now before the country can be preserved until the people
fully understand how they are defrauded, there can be no doubt as to
the final result. A compromise now in the interest of money kings
would be fatal. No advantage would be gained for the people. The
power of aggregated capital in money and bonds, with the metropolitan
press at its command, would denounce the advocates of honest money
and point to the law passed for the relief of the people as evidence of
the folly of agitation and of all efforts to regulate the currency by leg­
islation.
The issue is now plain and distinct. In 1873 the volume of the cir­
culating medium was contracted by the demonetization of silver. The
question now is, shall silver be restored ? That issue is plain.
ANYTHING SHORT OF FREE COINAGE,

or its equivalent, will not meet the demand of the hour.
In 1880 the Democratic party in its national platform declared for
free coinage in the following impressive language:
We pledge ourselves anew * * * to honest money, consisting of gold and
silver, and paper, convertible into coin on demand.

Again in 1884 this declaration for free coinage was repeated as fol­
lows:
We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution,
and a circulating medium convertible into such money without loss.

The amendment proposed by the Senator from Colorado is in accord­
ance with this declaration of the Democratic party.
IT PROVIDES FOR GOLD AND SILVER COIN

and for a currency convertible into such coin without loss. It is sub­
stantially the same bill which I introduced in the Fiftieth,Congress
and again on the 12th day of December last. The following is a copy
of that bill:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That any person may deposit at any mint or as­
say office of the United States either gold or silver bullion, or both, in quanti­
ses




28
ties of not less than 5 ounces of gold or 80 ounces of silver, and demand and
receive coin or coin certificates therefor at the rate of $1 in coin or certificates
for 25.8 grains troy weight of standard gold, and at the rate of $1 in certificates
for 412b grains troy weight of standard silver.
Sec. 2. The coin certificates issued under the provisions of this act shall be of
such denominations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribeProvided,
That they shall not be of less denomination than $1 or more that $1,000, and
that at least one-half of the amount issued shall be in denominations less than
$50, and such certificates shall be redeemable in coin of standard value. And
the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause to be coined from time to time such
portions of the bullion deposited under the provisions of this act as may be nec­
essary to enable him ko furnish coin in exchange for bullion and for the re­
demption of such certificates.
Sec. 3. The coin certificates issued under the provisions of this act shall be a
legal tender at their nominal value for all dues, public and private, except where
otherwise expressly stipulated in contracts heretofore made, and when such
certificates shall be received for public dues they shall be reissued. A suffi­
cient sum to carry out the foregoing provisions of this act is hereby appropri­
ated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. The pro­
vision in section 1 of the act of February 28,1878, entitled “ An act to authorize
the coinage of the standard dollar and to restore its legal-tender character,”
which requires the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase at the market price
thereof not less than $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion per month, nor more than
$4,000,000 worth per month of such bullion, is hereby repealed.

It will be observed that there is no essential difference between this
bill and the amendment of the Senator from Colorado. I am glad to
be able to say that he and I have always been in accord on this ques­
tion. They both comply in every particular with the platform of the
Democratic party in 1884, as well as with that of the Republican party
in 1888. The amendment is a great improvement on the bill reported
by the Finance Committee, which provides for the purchase of four and
a half million do lars’ worth of silver bullion per month at the market
price and the issuance of Treasury notes therefor. Under the present
law the Treasury coined 33,793,860 silver dollars during the last year.
The Finance Committee’s bill would put in circulation just fifty-four
millions each year, which would be $20,206,140 in excess of the amount
of silver dollars coined last year. The contraction caused by the re­
tirement of national-bank circulation was $36,861,931, which would
not only absorb the excess of circulation which would be gained by the
Finance Committee’s bill, but would reduce the amount of actual in­
crease of the circulating medium to eighteen millions. Eighteen mill­
ions added to the circulating medium of the country during the next
year
WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE STRINGENCY OF THE MONEY MARKET.

I fear that the bill, if it should become a law, would be a great dis­
appointment. Besides, the Treasury notes to be issued are not a legal
tender and will not pass as money without the consent of the creditor.
There is still another objection to it. The silver is to be purchased
at the market value. This would leave it as it now is—subj ect to specu­
lation, treating it as a commodity and not as money. It can not be said
that this bill is in conformity with the platiorm of the party. My col­
league who reported it is, and has always been, in favor of free coin­
age. It was the only bill that the Finance Committee would agree
upon, and the report was a great gain. It was a step to favorable leg­
islation. My colleague deserves the thanks of the friends of honest
money for reporting this bill and giving the Senate an opportunity,
with his assistance, to perfect the measure.
It is a significant fact that the people in 1884
APPROVED THE FREE-COINAGE PLATFORM

of the Democratic party by the election of President Cleveland, and in
1888 approved the free-coinage platform of the Republican party by
electing President Harrison.
STB




29
President Cleveland, in violation of the Democratic platform, and be­
fore he had taken the oath of office, demanded the repeal of the Bland
act. In August, after his inauguration, he notified the monetary con­
ference, which was held in Paris, through Mr. Walker, our consul-general there, that the United States was about prepared to discontinue
the coinage of silver.. In his messages to Congress in December, 1885
and 1886, he strenuously urged the repeal of the Bland act and the utter
demonetization of silver.
During the Fiftieth Congress the Senate amended the bond-purchasing
bill, as it was called, which came to it from the House, by adding thereto
a provision requiring the purchase and coinage of sufficient silver, in
addition to the amount required by the Bland act, to take the place of
national-bank notes retired. If this bill had become a law it would
have stopped contraction by the retirement during the last year of
$36,861,931 of national-bank notes. This very wholesome provision
of law passed the Senate by a vote of 38 to 13, but was buried, by order
of the executive department, in the Democratic Committee on Ways
and Means, and was never brought before the House for action.
The Democratic party in its national platform in 1888
W AS SILENT ON THE SILVER QUESTION.

It was compelled to be silent on account of their candidate, who dom­
inated their party and whose voice is still potent in their counsels. It
is unfortunate that he is the only man named as yet as the Democratic
candidate for 1892.
The Republican party met in convention at Chicago a few days after
the adjournment of the Democratic convention. It recognized the de­
mands of the people and declared that it was in favor of the use of both
gold and silver as money. It is now pledged as irrevocably as was the
.Democratic party by its platforms of 1880 and 1884 to remonetize sil­
ver.
The question now presented to Republican Senators is, shall that
pledge be redeemed, or shall it be understood that both parties are so
ttnder the influence of the money-lenders that no pledge they make for
currency reformation can or will be redeemed? I f this be the fact, the
sooner it is known the better.
IF BOTH PASTIES ARE SO INVOLVED W IT H THE USURERS

that the people can get no relief through either organization, let that
fact be known.
If in 1878, when the people demanded the restoration of silver, their
demand had been granted, prosperity would have been restored to the
country, and more than ten thousand millions would have been added
to the wealth of the nation. Those who are in favor of legislation for
the rich against the poor,
FOR THE COUPON-CUTTERS AGAINST THE PRODUCERS,

call themselves conservative. Was it conservative to destroy one-half
of the supply of the precious metals ? To reduce the value of every farm
in the country .from 35 to 40 per cent. ? To enhance the value of every
bond, mortgage, and other obligation for the payment of money 40
per cent. ? Was this conservative ? Was this in accordance with the
usages of mankind ? Was this in accordance with the Constitution,
which recognizes both gold and silver as money? Let it be remem­
bered* that this age was especially favored by nature; that after the
long years of money famine, hard times, stagnation, and poverty, re­
lief came in a most providential manner.
The Spanish-American wars had reduced the supply of the precious
metals more than one-half, contracted the currency, and brought disSTE




30

tress and ruin everywhere. The discoveries in California and Austra­
lia inaugurated a new era, since which time there has been a sufficient
supply of the precious metals to keep pace with population and busi­
ness,
SECURE AN HONEST ADJUSTMENT OP CONTRACTS,

encourage enterprise, give the people employment, advance civiliza­
tion and progress, and bless mankind.
It is interesting to examine the figures. The product of the precious
metals was more than quadrupled by the new gold-fields of California
and Australia. I will insert a table in my remarks showing the an­
nual production of gold and silver from 1851 to 1888, both inclusive;
also the aggregate product of the two metals during the same period;
also the average production per year for periods of five years during the
same time.
The table is as follows:

Statement of the annual production of gold and silver in the world from
1851 to 1888, inclusive.
Gold.

Year.

185 1
185 2
185 3
185 4
185 5
185 6
185 7
185 8
185 9
186 0
1861.....................
1862.....................
1863
186 4
186 5 ..........
3866.....................
186 7
186 8
186 9
187 0
187 1
Ib72.....................
187 3
187 4
187 5
187 6
187 7
187 8
187 9
18S0....................
1881....................
1882....................
188 3
188 4
188 5
.
188 6
.
188 7
188 8
Total............

$67,600,000
132.750.000
155.450.000
127.450.000
135.075.000
147.600.000
133.275.000
124.650.000
124.850.000
119.250.000
113.800.000
107.750.000
106.950.000
113.000.000

.
,
104.025.000
120 200.000
121 100,000

109.725.000
108.225.000
106.850.000
107.000.000
99.600.000
96,200,0U0
90.750.000
97.500.000
103.700.000
114.000.000
119.000.000
109.000.000
106.500.000
103.000.000

.

102 000.000
95.400.000
101,700,600
108.400.000
106,000,000

.

107 000.000
106.000.000

4,250,325,000

Silver.

Aggregate.

$40,000,000 $107,600,000
40.600.000 173.350.000
40.600.000 196,050, or.o
40.600.000 16^,050,000
40.600.000 175.675.000
40.650.000 188.250.000
40.650.000 173.925.000
40.650.000 165,3"0,000
40.750.000 155.600.000
40.800.000 160.050.000
44.700.000 158.500.000
45.200.000 152,9*0,000
49.200.000 156.150.000
51.700.000 164.700.000
51.950.000 172.150.000
50.750.000 171.850.000
54.225.000 158.250.000
50.225.000 159.950.000
47.500.000 153.725.000
51.575.000 158.425.000
61.050.000 168.050.000
62.250.000 161.850.000
81.800.000 178.000, OCO
71.500.000 162.250.000
80.500.000 178.000.000
87.600.000 191.300.000
81,000,000 195.000.000
95.000.000 214.000.000
96.000.000 205.000.000
96.700.000 203.200.000
102,000,000
205.000.000
111, 800,000 213.800.000
115.300.000 210.700.000
105.500.000 207,200,600
118.500.000 226.900.000
120.600.000 226.600.000
125.500.000 232.500.000
142.400.000 246.400.000
2,657,92o, 000 | 6,908,250,600

Average per
year for five
years.

$164,145,000
170.625.000
160.890.000
160.440.000
169.630.000
201.700.000
212,720,120
*235,833,333*

* Average per year for three years.

This table shows that the average annual yield of both gold and sil­
ver between 1851 and 1873 was $164,713,043. The yield of gold beSTE




31
tween those dates was far in excess of the yield of silver. The product
of silver in the year 1873 rose to $81,800,000. From that time forward
the aggregate yield of the two metals has bsen about equal, but the
yield of gold has latterly gradually declined while the yield of silver
has gradually increased, until the yield of silver is now somewhat in
excess ot the yield of gold. The two together, however, do not in­
crease as rapidly as the increase of population, so that when both are
used as money
THEBE CAN BE NO POSSIBILITY OP INFLATION.

A metallic basis with the present supply of both metals will give the
creditor sufficient advantage over the debtor. A careful examination
of the table I present will show that the annual supply of gold and
silver for the last forty years has been subject to very slight fluctua­
tions, and that if the standards had not been tampered with there
would have been no inflation or contraction, but a regular and con­
tinued supply of money would have secured all the blessings for this
generation which a sound and stable currency could furnish. Those
who tampered with the currency now tell us that if we return to the
money of the Constitution and of the people dire calamities must fol­
low; that the United States would be flooded with silver and our
finances deranged. It has been difficult for the gold-standard contractionists to furnish exact information whence this flood of silver is to
come. The royal commission of England on the depression of trade,
which investigated this question, came to the conclusion that there was
NO ACCUMULATION OF SILVER BULLION

anywhere in the world, and their conclusion was summed up in the
London Economist, as follows:
According to statements Submitted to the royal (English) commission on
trade depression, “ the quantity of pure silver used for coinage purposes dur­
ing the fourteen years ending 1884, was about 18 per cent, greater than the total
production during that period; and there are other estimates which place the
consumption at a still higher figure. It is to be remembered that the coinage
demand is fed from other sources than the annual output of the mines. It is
supplied to some extent by the melting down of old coinage. Allowing for this,
however, the evidence of statistics goes to show that the coinage demand for
the'metal is, and has been, sufficient to absorb the whole of the annual supply
that is left free after the consumption in the arts and manufactures has been
supplied; and this conclusion is supported by the fact that nowhere through­
out the .world has there been any accumulation of uncoined stocks of the metal.”

It. has been suggested that a flood of coined silver might come from
Europe, but a slight examination of the amount of silver coin in all
Europe, shows that a large supply from that quarter is impossible. The
silver coins of all denominations in Europe amount to a little over
thirteen hundred millions. About four hundred millions of this
amount is debased token-money which has no market value o itside of
the countries in which it is coineckand used. There is less than
ONE THOUSAND MILLIONS OF LEGAL-TENDER SILVER MONEY

in circulation in all Europe. This legal-tender silver is now doing duty
on a par with gold at a ratio of 15J to 1. Our ratio being 16 to 1 the
speculator who would purchase with an ounce of gold 15} ounces of
l$gal-tender silver in Europe must sell it in this country at a discount of
nearly 3J per cent., because our ratio is 16 to 1. In other words, he
would have to add to his 15J ounces of silver purchased in Europe
half an ounce more of silver before he could secure the return of his
ounce of gold with which he made his European purchase. Besides,
the legal-tender silver in Europe is doing duty as money among the
people, and is in fact the money of the people.
No European Government will now attempt to rob the people of this
necessary circulating medium to which they are accustomed, and to
STE




32
which they are so much attached. It was the protest of the German
people that stopped the sale of silver by Germany, and the public sen­
timent among the masses for the use of silver as money is growing
stronger every day. If it had been possible to wholly demonetize sil­
ver in Europe the bondholders would have banished the white metal,
and utterly demonetized silver long ago. The necessity for more silver
for subsidiary coin is(increasing daily. Great Britain instead of using
less silver is now increasing her silver coinage, and the same will be true
throughout the Continent of Europe whenever the price of silver ad­
vances.
It can not be anticipated, therefore, that the United States will be
able to obtain any considerable amount of silver from Europe. This
subject had been so fully examined that it was supposed every source
from which a flood of silver could possibly come had been pointed out,
but the Senator from Ohio [Mr. S h e r m a n ] in his recent remarks
made a new discoveiy. He said:
I do not want Congress to pledge itself to buy all of the silver that is offered
that may be melted from the pots of India or China or all over the world.

This was a startling declaration in view of the fact that
NO RECORD EXISTS OF THE RETURN OF ONE OUNCE OF SILVER

from any part of Asia, although the flow of the white metal from Eu­
rope and America to the Orient has been constant since the discovery
of the great Potosi mine in South America about three hundred years
ago. The eight hundred millions of people occupying the continent
of Asia have always required a vast amount of silver. They have never
been oversupplied. Their demand is on the increase, as was shown by
the testimony taken before the Royal Commission. Mr. David A.
Wells, the life-long monometallist, has at last discovered that there is
no danger of a flood of silver. In the May^ 1888, number of the Popalar Science Monthly he says:
Something of inference respecting the economic changes of the future may
be warranted from a study of the past. It may, for example, be safely predicted
that whatever of economic disturbance has been due, to a change in the relative
value of silver to gold will ultimately, and probably at no very distant period,
be terminated by a restoration of the bullion price of the former metal to the
rates (60 to 61 pence per ounce) that prevailed for many years prior to the year
1873. The reasons which warrant such an opinion are briefly as follows:
Silver is the only suitable coin medium for countries of comparatively low
prices, low wages, and limited exchanges, like India, China, Central and South
America, which represent about three-fiftns of the population of the world, or
about a thousand millions of people. Civilization in most of these countries,
through the advent of bet ter means of production and exchange, is rapidly ad­
vancing, necessitating a continually increasing demand for silver as money, as
well as of iron for tools and machinery.
“ Generations also will pass before the people of such countries will begin to
economize money by the use to any extent of its representatives, paper and
credit: under such circumstances a scarcity, rather lhafi a superabundant sup­
ply, of silver in the world’s market is the outlook for the future; inasmuch as
a comparatively small per capita increase in the use of silver by such vast num­
bers would not only rapidly absorb any existing surplus, but possibly augment
demand in excess of any current supply. The true economic policy of a coun­
try like the United States, which is a large producer and seller of silver, would
therefore seem to be to seek to facilitate such a result by removing all obsta­
cles in the way of commerce between itself and silver-using countries, in order
that through increased traffic and consequent prosperity the demand for silver
on the part of the latter might be promoted.”

There is a wide difference of opinion between the Secretary of the
Treasury and the Senator from Ohio. The Secretary in his last report
said:
NO SILVER SURPLUS.

There is in fact no known accumulation of silver bullion anywhere in the
world. Germany long since disposed of her stock of melted silver coins, partly
by sale, partly by recoinage into her own new subsidiary coins, and partly by
STE




33

use in coining for Egypt. Only recently it became necessary to purchase silver
for the Egyptian coinage executed at the mint at Berlin.
It is plain, then, that there is no danger that the silver product of past years
will for this improbable contingency ample safeguards can be provided.
and be poured into our minis, unless new steps be taken for demonetization,
Nor need there be any serious apprehension that any considerable part of the
stock of silvernotes. of Europe would be shipped to the United States for deposit
for Treasury coin
There is much less reason for shipping coin to this country than bullion, for
while the leading nations of Europe have discontinued the coinage of full legaltender silver pieces, they have provided by law for maintaining their existing
stock of silver coins at par.
In England Portugal, and the states of the Scandinavian Union there is no
stock of silver coin except subsidiary coins, required for change purposes, the
nominal value of which is far in excess of the bullion value. Germany has in cir­
culation about $100,000,000 in old sil vT thalers, but ten years have passed since the
er
sales of bullion arising under the anti-silver legislation of 1873 were discontin­
ued. Itfor businesssay there is no stock of silver coin in Europe which is not
is safe to purposes.
needed
The states of the Latin Union, and Spain which has a similar monetary sys­
tem, are the only countries in Europe which have any large stock of silver coins,
and the commercial necessities of these countries are such that they could not
afford, without s e r io u s financial distress, to withdraw from circulation silver
coins which are at par with their gold coins, to deposit them at our mints for
pay ment of the bullion value in notes. (Pages 68,69.)
The Senator from Ohio, contrary to existing facts, holds up the
silver
MELTED PROM THE POTS OP INDIA OB CHINA,

or all over the world, to frighten the people of this country- from the
use of silver as money. He is willing, however, that silver shall be
bought to raise its value. He said:

I would buy every ounce of silver produced in this country and keep it in our
Treasury vaults, and issue our certificates upon it, based upon its market value,
to any extent that may be desired, and I would make those certificates a legal
tender so that they would travel all over the world and be as good as gold and
upon a parity with gold.

In other words, he would put silver in the Treasury at its market
value in gold and keep it on a parity with gold where silver bullion
now is; but he would not use it as money to enlarge or increase the
standard money of the world.
Both the Senator from Ohio and the Secretary of the Treasury ex­
press a willingness to deal in silver for the purpose of enhancing its
market value. What right has the United States to buy silver for the
purpose of putting up its price any more than it has to buy wheat, cot­
ton, or any other commodity for such purpose? If the purchase or
coinage of silver is not for the purpose of using that metal as standard
money equally with gold, no scheme to deal in silver bullion can be
justified.
tVell may the very able Senator from Ohio
ADHERE TO THE SINGLE GOLD STANDARD.

The world is more indebted to him than to any other man who ever
lived for the demonetization of silver. While the representatives of
bondholders and money kings in Europe were still advocating the de­
monetization of gold, and when every nation on the continent was prac­
tically on the silver standard, a monetary conference was held in Paris in
tbe year 1867. Samuel B. Ruggles, of New York, was a delegate from
the United States to that conference. Through his influence, aided by
the Senator from Ohio, then chairman of the Committee on Finance,
the conference was induced to adopt a plan for international coinage,
the first declaration of which was that there should be “ a single mone­
tary standard exclusively of gold nine-tenths fine.” (House Executive
Document 266, Forty-first Congress, second session, page 5.)
STE—

3




34

To aid in reaching this conclusion the Senator from Ohio addressed a
very able letter to Mr. Kuggles, dated Paris, May 18,1867, in which,
among other things, he said:
As the gold five-franc piece is now in use by over sixty millions of people of
several different nationalities, and is of convenient form and size, it may well
be adopted by other nations as the common standard of value, leaving to each
nation to regulate the divisions of this unit in silver coin or tokens.
If this is done, France will surely abandon the impossible effort of making
two standards of value. Gold coins will answer all the purposes of European
commerce. A common gold standard will regulate silver coinage, of which the
United States will furnish the greater part, especially for the Chinese trade.

Mr. Haggles presented this letter to the emperor and to the confer­
ence, and it was ordered printed in both the French and English lan­
guages. The letter can be found in Senate Executive Document No.
14, Fortieth Congress, second session, pages 107,108.
Mr. Kuggles, in his report to Mr. Seward,
GIVES THI? SENATOR FROM OHIO GREAT CREDIT

for his valuable assistance in securing the adoption by the conference
of the single gold standard.
The Senator from Ohio, as chairman of the Committee on Finance
of the Senate, on the 9th day of June, 1868, made a very able and elab­
orate report in favor of the adoption by the United States of the plan
agreed upon by the conference at Paris. The Senator from Ohio and
Mr. Kuggles were both Americans, and for that reason, and that rea­
son only, he justly claimed the credit for America of having succeeded
in securing a decision of the conference
IN FAVOR OF AN EXCLUSIVE GOLD STANDARD.

He said in that report:
The single standard of gold is an American idea, yielded reluctantly by
France and other countries, where silver is the chief standard of value.—8. Rep.
Com. No. 117, Fortieth Congress, second session, page 4.

In pursuance of his fixed purpose to demonetize silver, as chair­
man of the Finance Committee he reported and had charge of the act
of February, 1873, which demonetized silver. The history of that leg­
islation is familiar «to all.
In his report as Secretary of the Treasury for 1877-,78, made a few
months previous to the passage of the Allison-Bland act, he declared
that—
The importance of gold as the standard of value is conceded by all.

22.)

(Page

He furnished a most elaborate argument against the use of silver as
money, and contended that if the United States did coin silver it should
use such coins only as credit money. He said:
If the essential quality of redeemrability given to United States notes, bank
bills, tokens, fractional coins, and currency maintains them at par, how much
easier it would be to maintain the silver dollar of intrinsic market value, nearly
equal to gold, at par with gold coin by giving to it the like quality of redeemability. (Page 25.)

If Congress had followed his advice and made the silver dollar re­
deemable in gold, there would have been over three hundred millions'
less standard money in the United States to-day. But the arguments
of the Secretary of the Treasury lid not satisfy Congress. In February,
1878, the Allison-Bland act was passed, which provided for the pur­
chase and coinage of not less than two nor more four million dol ars’
worth of silver bullion per month. This act was vetoed by President
Hayes, presumably by the advice of the Secretary of the Treasury,
because the veto is but
STE




.35
A SUBSTANTIAL REITERATION OP THE ARGUMENTS

found in the report of the secretary.
In his report for 1878-’79, he deprecated the passage of the act and
said:
The Secretary, therefore, earnestly invokes the attention of Congress to this
subject, with a view that either during the present or the next session the amount
of silver dollars to be issued be limited, or their ratio to gold for coining pur­
poses be changed. (Pages 15-16.)

Again he said:
And the Secretary respectfully recommends that he be authorized to discon­
tinue the coinage of the silver dollar when the amount outstanding shall exceed
50,000,000. (Page 17.)

Following in the same line in his report for 1879-,80 he quoted his
former recommendations, and proceeded as follows:
He again respectfully calls the attention of Congress to the importance of
further limiting the coinage of the silver dollar. * * * The Secretary can not
too strongly urge the importance of adjusting the coinage ratio of the two metals
by treaties with commercial nations, and, until this can be done, of limiting
the coinage of the silver dollar to such a sum as, in the opinion of Congress,
would enable the Department to readily maintain the standard dollars of gold
and silver at par with each other. (Page 14.)

In his report for 1880-’81 he renewed his arguments against the use
of silver, and said:
It may be better for Congress at the present time to confine its action to the
suspension of the coinage of the silver dollar, and to await negotiations with
foreign powers for the adoption of an international ratio. (Page 21.)

In the last Congress the question of coining more silver was before
the Senate, on an amendment to the bond-purchasing bill known as
the Beck amendment, which provided that the Secretary of the Treas­
ury should purchase, in addition to the amount required to be purchased
by the Allison-Bland act, sufficient silver to take the place of the na-i
tional-bank notes retired. This amendment passed the Senate by a
vote of 38 to 13, the Senator from Ohio voting in the negative. There
can be no doubt as to the views of the Senator from Ohio.
HE BELIEVES IN THE SINGLE GOLD STANDARD,

and has adhered to that view of the question with great tenacity, vigor,
and perseverance. It will be remembered that at the time he was ad­
vocating the single gold standard the nations on the Continent of Eu­
rope were either in favor of the double standard or of a single standard
oi silver. The evils which the Senator from Ohio so graphically pointed
out in his numerous reports and arguments would necessarily flow from
the Allison-Bland act have not been realized, and the general opinion
of the country is that that act has proved a great boon and is all that
now stands between this country and bankruptcy.
It would be unreasonable lor the friends of silver to look to the Sen­
ator from Ohio for any real aid or comfort in their efforts to return to
the money of the Constitution.
But we are told that there has been a large increase in the volume
o f the circulating medium. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his last
report, states that the amount of money in circulation on March 1,
1878, was $805,7^3,807, and on the 1st of October. 1889, the amount
o f money in circulation was $1,405,018,000. The increase is made up
by estimates. One item of the estimate is $375,947,715 in gold. How
does the Secretary or anybody know that that amount of gold is in cir­
culation?
NOBODY SEES GOLD EXCEPT UPON THE PACIFIC COAST.

Where does it circulate? We are informed by statisticians that so
much has been in the country, and they suppose it is all here now.
They make no allowance for the vast sums that leave the country
STB




36

every year in the pockets of travelers to be spent in Europe, which
never returns. It is safe to say that the estimate of the Secretary of
the Treasury in regard to this item is at least two hundred millions
too high. If there is $375.917,715 of gold in circulation outside of the
Treasury, I should like to have somebody tell us where it is and who
uses it.
Another item making up the money in circulation consists of $116,675,349 in gold certificates. These certificates do not go into general
circulation, but simply represent gold deposited with the Treasury for
safe keeping, because it mast be remembered that
GOLD W ild* DltAW INTEREST IP IT CAN RE SAPELY HOARDED,

so long as its price can be enhanced by contraction. It is hardly fair
to count the gold certificates outstanding a a part of the legitimate
s^
circulation among the people.
Another item consists of $325,510,758 in greenbacks. No allowance
is made for the loss ot greenbacks which havie been in circulation since
38B2, twenty-eight years.
To make a safe calculation of the money in circulation there should
be at least a deduction of $200,000,000 trom the $375,947,715 of gold
estimated by the Secretary to be in circulation. There is certainly not
more than one-half of the gold certificates in actual circulation. There
should# be a deduction of one-half from the $116,675,349 of gold certifi­
cates, which is $58,337,674.
The greenbacks or Treasury notes have been in circulation for twentyeight years and were used during the rebellion in the theater of war.
A deduction of $50,000,000 at least ought to be made for loss of green­
backs. These deductions aggregate to $308,337,674. This amount
subtracted from $1,405,018,000, which the Secretary supposes is now
in circulation, would reduce the circulation to $1,096,680,326.
This is a liberal estimate of the actual circulation, and a large amount
of this is held in the banks as reserves. It is impossible to arrive at
any just conclusion from the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury.
HE TAKES NO ACCOUNT OP THE LOSS OP GREENBACKS

and of the vast amount of money which is taken out of the country,
but counts everything that has been in circulation and all that has been
supposed to be in circulation without deduction. It is safe to say that
no man can tell from the statements of the Secretary of the Treasury
the condition of the finances of the country or the amount of circulation
among the people. The leading newspapers have been working at this
problem for years, and they differ as widely as though their figures
were mere guesswork. This being the case, we must take the only
reliable guide that is left us, the general range of price. We know that
the average price of commodities is now from 30 to 40 per cent, lower
than it was fitteen years ago, and that it is declining year by year.
The Secretary himself admits that there is not money enough, but that
fact is well known without his admission.
It was not quite fair, however, for the Secretary in his argument, in
order to show that the volume of the currency has been actually in­
creased, to select the year 1878. It is well known that in that year
THE COUNTRY WAS PRACTICALLY -WITHOUT MONEY.

The paper currency had been destroyed and greatly reduced with a
view.of resuming specie payment. The people at that time had not
sacrificed their property to buy gold. Consequently there was little
gold in the country.
According to a paper prepared by the United States Treasurer for the
American Almanac for 1887, page 340, the amount of mouey in circuSTE




37
lation in 1865 was $983,318,686. If the Secretary had taken the amount
of money in circulation on that date and compared it with the present
circulation, with proper estimates and allowances, he would have per­
ceived that there has been little or no increase in the circulation for the
last twenty years, although there has been a vast increase in popula­
tion and business. The population since 1865 has not only increased’
by natural growth, but also by the suppression of the rebellion and the
resumption of the jurisdiction of the United States over the late Con­
federacy. It is safe to say that
THEBE! IS NOT HALF AS MUCH MONEY PER CAPITA TO-DAY

as there was in January, 1865. It is needless for the Secretary of the
Treasury to attempt to make the people believe that there is plenty of
money, for every business man and every laborer knows that money is
scarce and is still growing scarcer.
The most remarkable declaration of the Secretary is that free coin­
age would1
produce contraction. He says: “ It is difficult to conceive
of a method by which a more swift and disastrous contraction of our
currency could be produced.”
This is a wonderful statement in view of the fact that the principal
argument against free coinage is that it would produce unlimited ex­
pansion, that a flood of silver would come and debase the currency and
derange business.
JUST HOW FREE COINAGE COULD PRODUCE

both contraction and expansion I will leave for the gold standard contractionists to answer.
The suggestion that there is, or is likely to be, too much gold and
silver for the purpose of money is refuted by the fact that over onethird of the world’s money is paper, showing conclusively that there
is not too much gold and silver.
I was furnished not long ago by the Treasury Department with a
statement of the gold, silver, and paper money in circulation in the
world, which is as follows:
Gold.................................................... ...................................................
Silver......................................................................................................
Paper............ ..................................... ...................................................

$3,711,000,000
3,831,500,000
3,946,000,000

Total..............................................4.............................................. 11,488.500,000

The gold standard contractionists propose that both paper and silver
shall be redeemable in gold. That is what the gold standard means.
The money of the world will then consist in round numbers of less
than four thousand millions of gold to redeem nearly eight thousand
millions of silver and paper money. Our financial system
WOULD THEN STAND ON ITS APEX.

with eight thousand millions of credit money resting upon less than four
thousand millions of standard money. This is the scheme proposed by
the gold-standard contractionists. The advocates of honest money, on
the contrary, propose to use the eight thousand millions of gold and
silver as standard money, leaving only four thousand millions of credit
money consisting of paper. The financial pyramid will then stand on
its base, and have a sufficient foundation to sustain whatever paper
money may be, necessary to meet the legitimate demands o f business.
I f this can not be done, and if our financial system must iest upon
nothing but the shrinking supply of gold,
THE EDIFICE MUST TOPPLE AND FALL.

The world will then be forced to resort to paper or some other me­
dium of exchange. Is this safe? Is the function of money sufficiently
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understood? Can Governments be trusted to regulate the amount
without reference to a metallic basis? If so, there is no use for either
gold or silyer. 'fhe only legitimate function that gold and silver per­
form in the financial system is to regulate the volume of the circulat­
ing med ium. The danger of improvident legislation will cause the pru­
dent to hesitate before they will consent to dispense with the use of the
precious metals. Paper money without a metallic basis is called fiat
money, assuming that gold and silver are not also fiat money. That is
a mistaken assumption.
GOLD AND SILVER ARE AS MUCH FIAT MONEY AS PAPER.

The only difference is that the quantity of fiat money when based
upon the precious metals is limited by the supply of those metals,
whereas the supply of paper is unlimited, and the quantity can only
be determined by law.
To show that gold and silver are but fiat money, depending upon the
stamp of the Government for their value as money, we need only sup­
pose that all the gold and silver in existence were reduced to bullion
and none of it could be coined. What would then be the value of those
metals with fifty years’ supply on hand for all other purposes ? Before
the present supply could be exhausted in the arts gold and silver min­
ing would be abandoned and would probably never be resu med. There
are so many other kinds of metal which could take the place of gold
and silver in the arts and which could be more-easily obtained and in
greater abundance that the use of both gold and silver would be prac­
tically discontinued.
The only value which either gold or silver has above steel or iron is
the money value. Destroy that, and the romance and excitement of
the miner’s life would no longer induce him to brave the hardships
and privations of inhospitable regions in the costly pursuit of the pre­
cious metals. It is the anticipation of money resulting from bullion,
and not the bullion, which inspires mining enterprise. If, then, the
priiicipal value of gold and silver consists in their money value created
by the stamp of the Government, why are they not fiat money as much
as paper money, the principal tralue of*which also is its money value ?
1 repeat that the only advantage that gold and silver have over paper
is their capacity to fix the amount of the circulating medium and
limit it to the supply of those metals. They are useful in that re­
spect and in that respect only. The reason why they are useful is be­
cause their quantity is limited. When the mines fail the limitation
produces contraction and disaster, but when the mines are productive
the world is supplied with money. The mines are now productive
and have been for the last forty years. This generation has been
specially blessed with a reasonable supply of the precious metals, and
there is a reasonable prospect of an indefinite continuance of that
supply. For this reason
THE FRIENDS OF HONEST MONEY WANT SILVER REMONETIZED,

in order that this generation may not be deprived of the blessings
which the discovery and the development of new mines have conferred
upon mankind. *
While the world is using four thousand millions of paper, what rea­
son is there in the declaration of the gold-standard contractionists that
there is too much of the precious metals? The practice of all civilized
countries shows conclusively that there is not enough metallic money,
but that paper must be used in addition thereto.
The honest and brave thing is the right thing. It can not be sup­
posed that the dealers in money and bonds will ever consent to deal
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honestly with the people. When did avarice ever see both sides of a
question ? When did the money-loaner ever fail to exact the pound
of flesh?
The present system of combined usury is the most wicked, most op­
pressive, and most destructive of all things. It is.made respectable by
legislation. The q uestions are now fairly 'presented: Shall the produc­
ing classes be allowed to settle their contracts with an honest measure
of value? Shall they be allowed to .pay in money of the contract, or
shall the creditor class, which holds a mortgage, upon all the property
and services of the people of this country, be allowed to
INCREASE THE OBLIGATIONS OP CONTRACTS

at pleasure ? Shall this class, by legislation to make money dear, be
allowed to continue to receive more than the contract calls for, or shall
the people be permitted to use the money of the Constitution with
which to settle their obligations? These are the questions, and they
are easily understood. The people understand what the free coinage
of silver means; they understand what the restoration of the white
metal means; they understand that, but they do not comprehend, nor
can any member of this Senate comprehend, what any other kind of
legislation will effect. We know that if the product of the mines is
now used as money, as it was lrom the beginning of history, there will
be a reasonable supply of money for the present, and that if the mines
continue to be productive,
A MONEY FAMINE W ILL BE AVERTED

for an indefinite period. The use of silver as money has been con­
tinued so long that the people have come to regard it as a natural right.
The Constitution so treats it. The Constitution, by authorizing the
coinage of gold and silver, recognizes this right, and the people now de­
mand it, and if their representatives are faithful to their trust it will
be secured to them. The voice of the people comes up from every di­
rection; Give us back the money of the Constitution; put no cunning
language in the law; leave no discretion to the executive department;
make the law so plain that he who runs may read; and, above all,
make it mandatory, so that no executive officer will dare misconstrue
or disobey it.
It is estimated by those who have given careful attention to the sub­
ject that the loss to the mass of the people by the demonetization of
silver has already reached an enormous sum,* perhaps not less than ten
thousand millions. Careful estimates make the loss in production since
silver was demonetized much greater.
The dealers in bonds and money have accumulated colossal fortunes,
but they have not received all that has been lost. Enforced idleness
and iailure of production have retarded the prosperity of the country
and reduced its wealth more than the thousands of millions which the
bondholders have gained by tampering with the standards. The peo­
ple are aroused; they are moving. What is the meaning of their move­
ments? What do the Farmers’ Alliance, the labor organizations, and
the general uprising throughout the country mean ? They are indubi­
table evidences of discontent and dissatisfaction. People know that
they are denied their rights,
THAT THEY HAVE BEEN OVERREACHED BY LEGISLATION.

They may not comprehend just how it was done, but they know that
money is scarce, that times are hard. They also know that silver was
demonetized and that the volume of circulation was contracted thereby;
that there is not gold enough for use as money, that labor is thrown
out of employment, that the price of property is falling, that the burBJ
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dens of mortgages and taxes do not lessen, that it takes more labor and
more property each year to discharge their obligations and pay tribute
to the moneyed aristocracy of the country. They know that they need
more money and that it is the duty of the Government to furnish it.
They demand that the Government shall coin both gold and silver with­
out discrimination and upon the same terms.
The signs of the times are portentous. The anticipation of legisla­
tion favorable to silver has advanced the price of that metal, checked
importations from India,
A N D R A I S E D T H E P R IC E O F F A R M P R O D U C T S

in the United States. The people are now anxious and hopeful. It is
no longer safe to delay action or blight the hopes of the struggling
masses. The duty of the hour is plain. Will those in power periorm
that duty and answer the just expectations of the people, or will they
obey the command of the usurers and trample upon the rights of the
people in disregard of justice and party pledges ? No Senator or Rep­
resentative can excuse himself from tire lull share of his individual re­
sponsibility, no matter what may be done by others or elsewhere. There
is no middle ground
IN T H E C O N T E S T B E T W E E N U S U R Y A N D JU S T IC E .

The demonetization of silver was a crime against civilization. Noth­
ing but the full restoration of that metal to the place it occupied before
that crime was committed will redress this wrong and redeem Ihe pledge
of the Republican party.
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