Full text of The Money Question of the 52nd Congress : Report: Free Coinage of Gold and Silver, Debate in the House of Representatives

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52D CONGRESS, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
1st Session. >•

( REPORT
( No. 249.

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD A N D SILVER.

FEBRUARY

10,

1892.—Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. BLAND, from the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures,
submitted the following

REPORT:
[To accompany II. R. 4426.]

The Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, to whom was referred House bill No. 4420, entitled " A bill for the free coinage of gold
and silver, for the issue of coin notes, and for other purposes," report
the same back and recommend its passage with an amendment in section 1, line 19. Strike out "five hundred" and insert "one thousand."
This was deemed advisable so as to accommodate dealing in large
transactions and bank exchanges. The bill provides for the free and
unlimited coinage of silver on same terms as gold is now coined. Expense now exacted of depositors of gold for coinage at our mints is simply the alloy that is necessary to make it of standard fineness.
The bill, in conformity to this, requires the deposit of gold and silver
of standard fineness. Coin notes may be issued on the gold and silver
deposited if demanded, instead of waiting for the coin. These notes to
be of denominations of not less than one dollar nor more than one thousand dollars. They are made a legal tender and of like monetary functions as the standard coins. They are redeemable at the Treasury of
the United States in coin on demand. The bill converts all our gold
and silver notes into coin notes, redeemable in coin, thus doing away
entirely with all legal distinctions between the metals both at the mints
and paper issues. 11 is believed this will greatly tend to promote equality
in all respects. There will no longer be issued gold notes or silver notes,
but bimetallic notes p ^ a b l e in either coin at the pleasure of the Government.
It is contended that the reason we exported silver bullion while our
mints were still open to its free coinage, was that our ratio was such
that our coin a M bullion (silver) was worth more as compared to gold
at European mints than here; that should France and other States
open their mints to the free coinage of silver at their ratio of 15 £ of
silver to 1 of gold, our ratio remaining while at 16 to 1, our silver
coins and bullion would again go to European mints; that this fact
would likely prevent these nations, especially France, from entering
upon their former bimetallic system. To remedy this, the bill proposes
the adoption of the French ratio of lo£, so soon as France reopens her
mints to the free and unrestricted coinage of silver at this ratio.
Should France accept the offer, it would render wholly unnecessary any
further efforts by way of negotiations or otherwise to establish a common
ratio for
# this and other countries




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FREE

COINAGE OF GOLD' AND SILVER. 2

In criticism it is said that France might reopen her mints to free
coinage of silver, but as soon as the Government was thus induced to
adopt the ratio of France, that country might close her mints for the
purpose of sending her silver here. It is not to be presumed that anything of that kind could happen to our detriment. For we,can change
our attitude if it becomes necessary to do so. Indeed we can hardly
auppose that great nations will act the part of tricksters in matters of
such vital concern to all.
THE DTOIP OF SILVER.

The familiar warning that free coinage would cause shiploads of silver from other countries to be brought here and dumped at our mints
in exchange for our gold is still urged. How can this be, under the
bill or proposed law ? The shipload of silver brought to our mints by the
foreigner would be coined into standard dollars, and these dollars returned to him; but he could not go to our Treasury and demand gold
for them; nor can he compel one of our citizens to swap him a gold dollar for a silver dollar. If the American citizen gives him a gold dollar
for a silver dollar, that is a voluntary trade that no law ought to interfere with.
Should the foreigner take coin notes for his bullion instead of coin
the same thing happens. He can take his coin notes to the Treasury
and demand redemption, but the note is redeemable in coin, and the
Secretary of the Treasury could hand him back the coin struck from
his shipload of bullion. The foreigner would then ascertain that he
had committed the blunder of bringing silvor to our mints where it is
worth 3 cents on the dollar "less than it was at home—that he looses
this 3 cents and cost of transportation besides. What then will
he do with his money? He must either invest it in property here or go
home with it. He could not buy gold with it or gold exchange,
unless gold and silver were at par; in this case there could be no reason
for preferring the one metal to the other. If gold went to a premium
he would have to pay the premium on his exchange, thus entailing
upon him additional IQSS in his enterprise of sending shiploads of silver. If he invests his shipload of silver money in our property and
business enterprises it would at once stimulate industries, awaken
enterprises, and give us a healthy business and sound currency.
What more could be desired. Every shipload of silver thus brought
here and invested in productive wealth would have a twofold effect.
It would bring unexampled prosperity to this country. The next
would be panics in the Old World. Business there would be paralyzed
for want of money; their prosperity destroyed. Prosperity here and
stagnation in the old countries would force shiploads of their people to
come to this country in search of their lost shiploads of money. The
nations of the Old World are aware of this. They would see to it that
no such thing occurred. They know the advantage the free coinage of
silver would guarantee to us, hence their uniform predictions that
calamity would be the result instead of prosperity. They are not in
the habit of giving us trustworthy advice as to the course we should
pursue in this matter.
The following from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
Windom, for the year 1889, is submitted as pertinent to this discussioii,
pp. 82 and 83:
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




FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND SILVER.

3

Dy recoinage into her own new subsidiary coins, and partly by use in coining for
Egypt. Only recently it became necessary to purchase silver for the Egyptian coinage executed at tlie mint at Berlin.
It is plain, then, that there is no danger that the silver product of past years will
be poured into our mints, unless new steps be taken for demonetization, and for this
improbable contingency ample safeguards can bo provided.
Nor need there ho any serious apprehension that any considerable part of the stock
.of silver coin of Europe would be shipped to the United States for deposit for Treasury notes.
There is much less reason for shipping coin to this country than bullion, for while
the leading nations of Europe have discontinued the coinago of full legal tender
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 circulation
about $100,000,000 in old silver thalers, but ten years have passed since the sales of
bullion arising under the antisilver legislation of 1873 were discontinued. It is
safe to say there is no stock of silver coin in Europe which is not needed for business
purposes.
The States of the Latin Union, and Spain; which lias a similar monetary system,
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 serious financial distress, to withdraw from circulation silver coins which are at
par with their gold coins, to deposit them at our mints for payment of the bullion
value in notes. .

The truth is, that the conspiracy formed in the Old World, planned
and so successfully carried through there and here, was aimed to confine the debt-paying medium of the nations concerned to the single
metal, gold. For this purpose the par of centuries was broken. Gold
decreed to rapidly rise in value, thus adding 50 per cent to the value
of credits, enriching creditors, public and private, at the expense of
debtors and taxpayers, enormously depressing the value of labor and
the products of labor as compared to notes, bonds, and mortgages.
The words " free coinage of silver77 sends a thrill of terror to the promoters of this conspiracy and the beneficiaries. They know full well that
when this great Government thus throws its weight in the silver balance the world will again be restored to implicit faith and confidence
in the future safety of silver as the money of the world. The old par
will return, the two metals being tied together by the strong ligature
of forty-four States and five Territories—with a population of 05,000,000
and to reach near 100,000,000 in the next decade, with an area of
3,000,000 square miles, the greatest people and the greatest metallic
power in the world—can never again be dislocated; the conspiracy
would be exposed and defeated. It is this phase of the issue they fear,
not the swapping of shiploads of dollars of silver and dollars of gold.
It is the restoration of the bimetallic par. It is the Skeleton of defeated
fraud and avarice that lurks in the closet of the gold palace that we
are called upon to meet in battle on the free-coinage question. The
ousliwhacking warfare waged against restoration of silver is the most
potent exhibition of the weakening of the enemy. It is argued first,
that all our gold will go to a premium and be hoarded. The next breath
^ays that the silver miner will be enriched by coining his bullion wortli
15 cents into a dollar worth 100 cents, not stopping to think that this
could not be so unless the free coinage of silver puts it at par with
gold, in which case there could be no premium on gold and no hoarding
for'such reasons.
The next slogan is that the billions of silver coins of other countries
would immediately be brought here to exchange for our gold; thus,
without stopping to reflect that to-day we have only about $278,840,750
of gold in the Federal Treasury, and even this can not by any law of




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FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND SILVER. 4

free coinage proposed be drawn out in payment for silver dollars or coin
notes. No citizen of tlie United States is convened by law to swap liis
gold dollar for a silver dollar, nor is there any law in existence or pro*
posed that compels an exchange of silver for gold without paying any
premium that may at any time exist on gold. Again, it is said, we give
the silver miner at our mints a dollar for bullion that costs only 41
cents, without hesitating a moment to reflect that the gold miner, as is
often done, extracts 5 ounces a day in gold, that we coin into $100,
when his day's wages is worth only S3 or $4, thus coining his product
that cost but 84 into money of $100.
There are no mining statistics that can even approximate the vast
outlay of labor and capital, not to say privation and deprivation,
wasted absolutely in the search of the precious metals gold and silver.
It is an old adage that it takes " a gold mine to work a silver mine," as
illustrating the costs of such mining. Where one miner gets rich at
this sort of mining, many thousands waste their labor and capital in
fruitless search for the hidden treasure. There is absolutely no reliable
data to estimate the cost that the mining of our precious metals has
one way or another entailed. As a mining question it may be fairly
said that the gold miner now has a monopoly at our mints, that equality
and equal justice would give the silver miner the same privilege as the
gold miner. But the mining question as a matter of fact has no place
in this discussion. It is lugged in to prejudice and blind the mind as
dust thrown in the eyes of the people.
When the utter inconsistencies and fallacies of all the other objections to free coinage are shown we are confronted with the ultimatum*
that all our gold will flee this country at once, contracting our currency
to the amount of S6SG,000,000. The monthly statement of the Secretary of the Treasury for January 1, 1892, shows we have in the Treasury gold coin and bullion, §27S,846,750. Last annual report of the Comptroller of the Currency shows gold in national banks amounting to
387,575,142; private banks and other institutions, $8,S83,552; total in
banks, §90,558,694; making a total in Treasury and in banks of
§375,425,554.
This amount we have trustworthy record as being in this country.
The remainder of the estimate of S6S6,000,000 is largely guesswork. Of
all the objections urged against free coinage this, in the opinion of your
committee, is the only one that deserves serious consideration. That
the change proposed in our currency laws, involving the complete restoration of the bimetallic standard, a return to the coinage of both metals
on equal terms will cause for the moment some apprehension, and probably a disposition to hoard gold, may be expected. Yet any evils that
may result must, in the nature of the situation, be transitory. No important change that affects our fiscal system can be made without in
some respects, in first effects at least, causing some inconvenience or
fr iction somewhere. Yet it will not be contended that our laAvs relating
to the currency or to the tariff* or other modes of taxation are never to
be altered. The ultimate good to be obtained is, and always has been, a
sufficient argument for changes and amendments.
To restore silver now would not mean the radical change that was
effected in our currency laws by the act demonetizing it.
It is as competent for this Congress to restore silver as it was for the
Forty-second Congress to demonetize it. It is admitted, everywhere
that silver demonetization was a great blunder. Why should not its
restoration be a.great blessing.
Indeed, demonetization took place without warning and at a time




FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND

SILVER.

5

when we were looking to a resumption of com payments and sorely
needed all the specie possible. We have approached free coinage
gradually. We resumed the coinage of the standard silver dollar in
1S78 with the distinct purpose of putting this country on the gold and
silver basis. A t no time since then has there been a cessation on the
part of a vast majority of our people for its complete rehabilitation.
We have coined over 400 million silver dollars, we have besides over
50 millions silver bullion, and are now purchasing 4,500,000 ounces
every month, or 54 million ounces annually. Our approach to free
coinage has been steady and persistent. W e believe silver should have
been restored at once in 1S7S. Then, the longer it is delayed the greater
the injustice done to our people.
A few timid people and a few misers might for a moment hoard gold,
but the gold in this country for the most part is held by a class of our
citizen $ who are too shrewd and alive to their own interests to drop
their gold in the sea or bury it in the ground from whence it came and
whence it will, continue to be extracted. The holders of gold could not
and would not bear the loss of so much dead capit al. At least, they would
do no more with gold than they are now doing—loan it out on contracts
for the return of principal and interest in gold. We are now suffering
all the evils alleged against free coinage by its opponents, without the
realization of many of the benefits claimed by its friends. The restoration of silver as a money metal by this country would at once allay all
fears of its ultimate remonetization by the nations of the world. It
would give confidence in silver as a safe medium of exchange, leavingno pretext whatever for the apprehensions now indulged in. There
could be no hoarding of gold.
The stocks of coined silver that would add to the world's money would,
in the nature of things, cheapen gold and render it less burdensome to
meet gold contracts than now. To take 600,000,000 of gold out of our
circulation immediately, and before the vacuum could be supplied by
free coinage, would necessarily lower prices to such extent that gold
would buy more of commodities than now; consequently, gold investments here would be more remunerative than now. This fact alone
would at once cause gold to be imported instead of exported; it would
cause gold to be invested instead of hoarded. Gold can not. be hoarded
or exported at a profit till some other forms of money take its place iu
our circulation.
BONUSED EXPORTS.

The fact that nearly the whole of our exports of agriculture go to
European or gold-using countries, to be sold in competition there with
countries on the single silver basis, is cited by economic writers of this
country and of the Old World to show the disadvantage of the American
farmers in such competition. It is claimed, and the history of prices
show, that as silver falls as^ compared to gold, so in about the same
ratio the prices of our farm products fall. To say that silver is low,
is tantamount to saying that the price of cotton, wheat, and other
farm exports are depressed. The reason is plain: countries having
the silver standard avoid as far as possible liquidating foreign debts
in money, for the reason that silver is, as compared to gold, depreciated.
To settle foreign balances therefore in silver entails a loss of the difference in exchange between the value of silver as compared to gold,
this difference being the divergence between the commercial value
and the coining value of silver. Hence silver-standard countries, nota^
bly India, instead of sending her money (silver) to pay foreign balauces~



FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND SILVER. 6

sends wheat au<l cotton and other exports, which in her currency have
not lost their value at home or abroad. This system works as an indirect bonus for all such exports from silver-standard countries. Not so
with the American farmer. Here silver is coined only on government
account. W e are thus tied to. the single gold standard; consequently
when gold goes up as compared to silver his wheat, cotton, and other
exports fall in price. In other words, as silver falls below gold, so also
our articles of export trade, especially farm products, fall in price.
These facts were clearly brought ottf) in the investigation of the British
Royal Commission.
An explanation further is that the farmer, in all silver-standard
countries, who sells his products for gold, in gold-using countries, gets
gold. If, therefore, wh£at is worth a dollar a bushel in gold in London,
a bushel of wheat sold there will get a gold dollar; this gold dollar will
"buy silver enough now, in the London market, to coin a dollar and
twenty-live cents at our ratio, and more at the ratio of India, so that the
farmer in silver-standard countries gets for his wheat a dollar that will
buy a sufficiency of silver to coin at his home mint into a dollar and a
quarter: or, in other words, he has in reality got a dollar and a quarter
a bushel for his wheat. Not so with the American farmer. He gets
his dollar in gold, but he can not with that gold dollar buy silver for
coinage at home for the reason free coinage is denied him, silver coinage
here being limited to Government account.
The American farmer gets a dollar for a given amount of his wheat,
meats, and cotton products, whereas the farmer in silver-using countries gets a dollar and a quarter for the same amount of his product.
Free coinage would put silver and gold on a practical parity, thus putting the American farmer on equality with the Hindoo and other silverusing peoples. It is beyond a doubt that the free coinage of silver, by
decreasing the value of gold and increasing the value of silver, and thus
bringing them about to par, would add at least from 12 to 15 per cent
to the value of all farm products, so that it is clearly seen that the gain
of the silver miner as compared to the gain of the American farmer by
the free coinage of silver is practically insignificant. This week's Wall
Street Eeview has the following bearing upon this point:
TWO LOW-PRICED

COMMODITIES.

Silver and cotton are the two important commodities selling at the lowest prices
in history. Silver is all important because it is such a factor in our currency. Bullion dealers insist that foreigners have been selling silver short in this market for
weeks and run no risk because the Government gives BO much time to the delivery
of bullion on its triweekly purchases. They could send foreign silver here to deliver
to the Government on sales made to it, if the market should take a sudden upturn or
it was hard to buy silver here to deliver. An amendment to the law making deliveries
obligatory in three or four days is desired. Cotton figures largely in our exports and
means everything to the South. It is not generally known that our exports of cotton
are the largest of any staple; in fact, in 1891, despite the low prices, the value of
our cotton exports was $276,058,029, against $231,492,890 of all breadatuffs and less
than $160,000,000 for all animal products. In 1889 cotton exports were $266,649,345,
against $129,665,377 of all breads tufts. Any improvement in the price of silver or
cotton would be reflected in the market for securities.

The Washington Post, of January 31, has also the following telegram
from ISew York:
T U M B L E I N C O T T O N — E X C I T E M E N T O V E R T H E L O W E S T PRICES E V E R CHRONICLED I N
N E W YORK.

NEW YORK, February

1.

There was great excitement on the cotton exchange to-day. For a year the price
of this staple ha3 been steadily declining, with only slight and unimportant reactions. To-day the March option sold at 7 cents per pound, tumbling nearly seventeen




FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND SILVER.

7

points. The other option sold off in the same ratio, and the nominal price for February was 6.90 cents.
The prices are the lowest ever chronicled. They are due to last year's unprecedented crop and to the fact that there is still a large part of it unused and fears
that this year's crop may he nearly as large. The low price of silver is also a factor
in the decline, as England settles with India in silver and the lower silver goes the
cheaper England can buy in India.
The very large receipts at the Southern ports was also used as a bear factor. The
outlook for the bulls is gloomy.
Breadstuff's are doing somewhat better now than cotton, owing to the
failure of such crops nearly everywhere except in the United States.
Yet, notwithstanding this universal failure, food • products are now
selling too low for any profit. These are also falling, and will suffer the
same as cotton, under like conditions.
BUIILION PURCHASE AND FREE COINAGE.

Bullion purchases will not restore the parity of the two metals. Bimetallism does not tolerate the idea that one metal, gold for instance,
shall be set up as the standard by which the other metal, silver, shall b e
purchased or measured. This is gold monometallism} it fixes gold as
the measuring metal, or the sole valuator. Bimetallism means that each
metal shall be a standard unto itself. Free coinage of silver means
that all silver bullion of 412J grains standard or 371J grains pure silver
shall be worth a dollar in lawful payments. The stamp of the Government is affixed to it solely for the purpose of guarantying its weight
and fineness. It is the bullion that, in fact, is legally monetized. This
being so, the bullion, 371J grains, or 412J grains standard silver is
always worth a dollar because the law so declares. A l l that is necessary to enforce this law is to get Government stamp as to the fact of
the weight and fineness. Therefore, silver bullion under free coinage
can not fall below the value at which it is declared b y law to have in
all payments. It can not fall below that value which the Government
gives it at the mint, because the mint is an open market for all of it at
a fixed price. The sfune may be said of gold. Mr. Weston, in his excellent book on the silver question, says:
T H E L A W OF T H E D O U B L E

STANDARD.

When the double standard exists, the debtor pays gold or silver at his option, and
of course pays always in the cheapest medium. When the difference becomes appreciable, the actual currency tends to be wholly of this cheapest medium, and the
dearer goes to other markets as money, or is absorbed in other uses. The employment as money of the medium which is for the time being tha cheapest makes a demand for it, and, prevents its becoming still cheaper, or, in other words, prevents its
greater depreciation, which it restrains always within reasonable limits.
We had a memorable example of that between 1850 and 1860, when the new and
great supplies of gold from Australia and California came suddenly and simultaneously upon the world. The expectation of a depreciation of gold was general, and
this apprehension was so great in Germany and Belgium that those countries actually
demonetized gold. The depreciation did not come, and the preventing cause was the
steadying effect of the double standard, and notably in France. The actual currency
of that country was, in 1850, almost exclusively silver, but it changed very largely
to gold when the new supplies cheapened that metal. As Professor Hanson, of the
Berlin University, said in 1868:
u Europe, or rather the whole civilized world, is indebted to French law for its
escape from the perturbations in the relative prices of gold and silver menaced by
the enormous arrivals of gold from Australia and California. A large part of these
arrivals was used in France, where gold replaced silver."
W. Stanley Jevons, an English writer of merit, estimates this absorption of gold
in the corrency of France, down to 1859, at one hundred miHion sterling, or nearly
$500,000,000. The statements of the gold coinage at the French mints tend to show




FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND SILVER. 8

that the estimates of Mr. Jevon are too low. During tho seventeen years of the reign
of Louis'Fliilippe, ending at the commencement of the California discovery, this
coinage was £8,600,000, or at an average animal rate of £500,000. From 1850 to
1858, both inclusive, this coinage was £129,587,735, or at an anuual average rate of
£14,343,082. The increase beyond tho rate of the preceding seventeen years is
£121,000,000. The degree in which gold had replaced silver in the French currency
is reflected in the state of the cash resources of the Bank of France, which, in
March, 1876, consisted of 1,325,000,000 francs in gold and 495,000,000 francs in silver.

But we contend that this country can coin the two metals freely and
at par and cite the history of France as illustrating this point.
It is not denied that by free coinage of both metals France was able
to maintain the parity of the two metals at her ratio of 15.J to 1 for
over seventy years, nor oan it be seriously doubted that had she continued free coinage the parity would have remained till now. ' France's
territory is not so large as some of our States. Our population is
nearly double that of France, and is distributed over an area of 3,000,000 of square miles. Our population is increasing at the rate of 2,000,000 annually. W e are warranted in saying that, taking into the
account our vast territory, our great wealth, and demands for money
for illimitable development, we are stronger, not only than France, but
Germany and Great Britain included. Geographically we are fortunately situated for bimetalism.
On this continent to the south of us, and to the west in Asia, there
are 800,000,000 of people who use only silver as money. They are the
best customers for manufactures and the chief source of foreign trade.
We ought to have this trade. Proper legislation on the silver question
will greatly aid us in securing it.
The product of our gold mines will answer the demands for our commerce with western Europe, and our silver mines with South America,
Mexico, and the Asiatics.
Nature has been bountiful in supplying us with great riches in mines
of silver and gold. By the free coinage of both, New York, and not
London or Paris, would be the money center for the exchanges of the
world.
Upon the point of restoring the parity by bullion purchases, we
quote from the minority report against what is* known as the Windom
or the Conger bill :*
So, as before pointed out, our 355,000,000 of silver dollars had taken the place of so
much gold, and to that extent relieved gold of its work and cheapened it the world
over. But for the silver we have coined, silver bullion and all other commodities
would have been lower as compared to gold than they are now; so that the moment
we suspend the coinage of this competing dollar and make gold the sole valuator
for all redemptions, as the bill proposes, then gold must of necessity continue
more rapidly to rise than heretofore. The divergence in value of the two metals as
compared to each other will increase instead of diminish. It is possible that the
warehousing of silver may increase its value as compared to other commodities, but
gold of necessity would go up at a greater ratio than silver. So that the promoters
of the bill will find themselves cheated in tho main objects sought—that is, the
increase of the value of silver as compared to gold.

It is here, we think, clearly shown why the bullion purchase bill has
failed to bring silver at par with gold.
FREE COINAGE REQUIRED BY THE CONSTITUTION.

Gold and silver have been used as precious metals and for the purpose of commercial exchange from time immemorial, and have, from
the beginning of civilization, been recognized as money at certain ratios
of value. One of the fundamental principles of metallic money is that
#

See views of the minority, page 8, Report No. 1086firstsession Fifty-first Congress.




FREE COINAGE OF GOLD' AND

SILVER.

9

nature supplies the volume; the stock ou hand of gold and silver
throughout the world, together with that which from time to time is
being extracted from the mines, constituting the monetary supplyConsequently the volume is not subject to the control of the legislator.
Without going into the history just at this time of metallic money
in the various countries of the world, suffice it to state that gold being
used in one country exclusively, silver in another, and still others both
gold and silver, as standard of money, constitutes the world bimetallic.
Recognizing this fact, and the further fact that by common law both
gold and silver were money in the colonies, our fathers constituted this
country bimetallic when they provided that the States should make
nothing but gold and silver legal tender for the payment of debts, and
by the lirst mint act (1792) authorized the coinage of both gold and
silver as the full legal-tender money. Also, recognizing the principle
that nature, in the manner stated, should supply the volume of money,
the only duty that devolves upon the legislator is to establsh, by law,
the ratio of value for the coinage of the two metals, and to provide for
the unlimited or free coinage of both at the ratio established. They
open the mints of the Government to all comers of gold or silver bullion
to be stamped or struck into legal-tender coins.
Having done this, the law of supply and demand regulated the volume. This was our monetary system from 1792 until 1873, when, under
the pretext of amending the mint act, the provision that authorized the
coinage of a legal-tender silver dollar was omitted, and thus, in effect,
demonetizing silver.
Without discussing the circumstances under which this demonetization was done or the purposes for which the same was accomplished,
it may be said that the act was passed at a time when the country was
on a paper basis, neither metal being in circulation. Therefore, it was
done at a time when legislation, with reference to the coin in circulation of the country, was not likely to attract the attention of the people.
This act was clearly an infraction of the true theory of bimetallism,
and in conflict with the Constitution. It assumes that Congress should
exercise the power of controlling the volume of money by prohibiting
the coinage of one of the monetary metals recognized in the Constitution. If, under the Constitution, Congress has the power to prohibit
or limit the coinage of silver, so it has that of gold.
To admit that it can demonetize one of the metals is to admit that it
can demonetize both; therefore, the gold monometallists, who are so
swift in their denunciations of the Supreme Court for holding that
Congress has the power to issue paper legal tenders, should consider
the result of their own theory of monetary science. For, if Congiess
has the power to demonetize the metals, it must necessarily result in
exercising the authority* claimed by the decision of the Supreme Court—
that is, in printing legal tenders and forcing them into circulation.
A s a constitutional question, it is here claimed that Congress has no
lawful right to demonetize either gold or silver, but it is the plain duty
to provide for the coinage of both at some regulated value or ratio.
The Constitution says " the Congress 'shall have power * * * 'to
coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin." Again,
" No State shall # * * make anything but gold and silver coin a
tender in payment of debts."




10

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND

SILVER.

FREE COINAGE PUTS MORE MONEY IN CIRCULATION.

I t is n o w strenuously argued that free coinage would b r i n g no more
silver t o our mints than w e are n o w obtaining b y purchase under the
existing law, and w o u l d therefore n o t enlarge the currency. T h a t is
certainly an erroneous idea, because, under free coinage, the same
amount o f bullion w o u l d p r o d u c e more dollars than are IIOAV being issued
in the f o r m o f notes, w h i c h notes, as is well k n o w n , are issued at the
purchase value a n d not at its coining rate. A t the present price of silv e r 54 million o u n c e s o f bullion will m a k e about 48 million dollars at its
coining rate, v i z : $1.29; this w o u l d m a k e a b o u t 70 millions, an increase
o f some 22 millions annually. Further, there is n o w at all times a surplus, n o t large, perhaps, b u t still a surplus b e a r i n g t h e markets. F r e e
coinage w o u l d a b s o r b the w h o l e o f that surplus, w h a t e v e r it m a y be,
into our currency.
I n t h e Fifty-first Congress, when this same matter w a s under consideration, t h e adverse report o f t h e majority o f t h e Coinage Committee adv a n c e d this same idea, L P., t h a t t h e existing l a w furnishes as m u c h curr e n c y as free c o i n a g e would g i v e us. I t must b e remembered, t h o u g h ,
t h a t the mere n u m b e r o f dollars is not the only thing t o b e considered.
T h e status o f silver the world o v e r is also a matter o f prime importance.
R e p l y i n g t o this argument o f our opponents the minority o f the committee in t h e last C o n g r e s s in their v i e w s clearly point o u t t h e difference
in principle b e t w e e n the existing law and one for free coinage in t h e
following language:

T H E MAJORITY REPORT.

This brings ns to a brief consideration of the adverse report filed by the majority
of tlie committee.
That report proceeds upon the assumption that the present law absorbs into our
currency substantially the same amount of full legal-tender money that we should
be likely to obtain under free coinage. That is probably a mistake, for free coinage
would certainly relieve the market of the "surplus" which is continually " bearing"
the price. It would give us all there is, whatever it may be. But there is more
in this question than the mere number of the dollars to be added to the currency.
Upon this point we are entitled to take our adversaries at their own words.
If, in every sale and transfer of goods and property, actual money was used, then one
dollar of par value and full legal-tender function would be as available and effective
for business purposes as another. But it is undeniably true that in perhaps 90 per cent
of mercantile transactions there is an intervention of some form of credit. While
this credit is a most important factor in sustaining prices, the credit must itself be
sustained by actual cash. If gold is the standard—the ultimate thing to which recourse must be had in the final settlement of balances, and this is what every champion of gold has claimed—then it follows necessarily that every other form of money
is itself merely a species of credit. One form of credit can scarcely be very effective
in sustaining some other form of credit.
We believe that almost, without exception the opponents of free coinage who have
appeared before the committee have taken the position that the parity of the silver
dollar, the silver certificate, and the Treasury notes issued under tho present law is
only preserved by the confidence of the peoples that upon demand they will each and
all be redeemed in gold.

Whatever otir opinion may be as to the soundness of this argument, it can scarcely
be questioned thnt in the present anomalous condition of our currency gold is the
main support of the credit upon the basis of which the great bulk of our business is
transacted. If that be true, then we do not get the full benefit of the 4,500,000
ounces of silver which from month to month is injected into our currency. That is
to say, its effect is mainly confined to those transactions where money actually




11

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

passes from hand to hand, and these are supposed to constitute not more than onetenth of our aggregate business.
When so eminent an economist as Mr. Edward Atkinson, speaking for the financial
intelligence of Boston, asserts broadly that the $250,000,000 in silver in the Bank of
of France has but little effect upon the strength of the bank, except at its gold value
for internal trade, the friends of the double standard may be excused for beiug distrustful of any policy which keeps silver in the position of mere "token money."
That the existing law does this is beyond dispute. The late Secretary of the Treasury, in his report for 1889, takes the position frankly that the standard is gold, and
that the silver dollar is an anomaly and not an exception, giving as a reason that the
silver bullion is bought at its market price as a mere commodity.
The act of July 14, 1890. does not differ in that respect from the one he was speaking of, excejit as to the amount purchased. A "double standard" with one of the
standards doing all the measuring is a gross misnomer; and believing implicitly in
the superiority of the double over the single standard, we can not regard with favor
any law which leaves the status of either metal in doubt.

A t the second session of the Fifty-first Congress an adverse report on
the Senate bill for free coinage of silver was made to the House; also
the views of the minority presented by Mr. Bartine in favor of the free
coin age bill. W e submit the following extracts from the views of minority
in that report as further argument in favor of the free coinage of silver:
While there can be no doubt that there is in certain quarters a strong opposition
to the free coinage of silver, it is by no means an easy matter for us to determine the
exact grounds of the opposition. In one breath it is declared that under free coinage
the Government will be obliged to pay the silver miner a full dollar for 80 cents'
worth of silver; in the next it is asserted that the effect will be to degrade our currency to the basis of 80-cent silver dollars. These two propositions stand directly
opposed to each other. The only way by which the silver miner can get a dollar for
80 cents' worth of silver is by raising his bullion to par, that -is to say, $1.29 per ounce.
When the bullion is at par, the dollar must also be at par, and the 80-cent dollar
which haunts the dreams of our opponents will be a thing of the past.
Again it is declared that free coinage will make the United States a dumping ground
for all the cheap silver in the world, and then with singular inconsistency it is argued
that gold will rise to a premium, retire from circulation, and we shall find ourselves
upon a silver basis, with a currency limited in amount and depreciated in value.
These contentions involve some very absurd contradictions. First, they assume an
inflation of the currency and a contraction of the currency at the same time; secondly, they assume a depreciated dollar with a shrinking volume of currency, a thing
which never occurred in the financial history of the world, and which stands directly
opposed to recognized economic principles.
It is just as impossible to diminish the volume of money and thus depreciate the
dollar as it is to reduce the corn crop and thereby cheapen the corn. If there are
vast hoards of silver ready to be thrown into America the moment our mints are open,
free coinage certainly will not produce contraction. If there are no such hoards then
there is nothing to send the gold into retirement, and again the contraction theory
fails.
T H E FLOOD OF C H E A P

SILVER.

This argument never had a shadow of foundation upon which to rest. No man can
locate or attempts to locate the whereabouts of any great accumu lation of silver
that would be attracted to America by free coinage. It would not come from India,
for that country has not half as much as she needs and is all the time grasping for
more. It is nonsense to talk about the Hindoos melting down their gods and goddesses. They have worshiped their idols *from the remotest antiquity and they regard them with just as much superstitious reverence to-day as they did a thousand
years ago. Why did they not melt them down and sell them prior to 1873, when silver was worth $1.33 an ounce all over the coutinent of Europe?
It is equally ridiculous to assume that they will part with their coin, for notwithstanding the fact that thoy have to pay England a tribute of $60,000,000 annuaUy
they continue to absorb silver at the rate of from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 a year.
India has only about $000,000,000 silver coin—scarcely $4 per capita of the population—
and no other money. Every student of East India finance recognizes and admits
the fact that the abandonment of the silver standard by Hindostan is scarcely within
the limits of possibility. The Hindoos have never done a thing that even gave color
to such a thought. The idea that these people, eminently conservative, are suddenly
going to reverse the traditions of untold centuries of time, and make a wiid rush
with their rupees and their deities to the mints of the United States is entirely beneath the dignity of American statesmanship.




12

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD

AND

SILVER.

The economic impossibility of India unloading upon us is clearly shown by tho
following extract from "Hyndinan/s Bankruptcy of India:"
"Unlike former conquerers of India, we do not live in the country, and as a consequence we take out ol it each year more than the people can afford. The total net
revenues of India is under £40,000,000 a year. Not less than £20,000,000 ^yorth of
agricultural produce—more than the entire net income of the Government derived
from the land revenue—is sent out of India every year without any direct commercial equivalent. Just think what this (and it is an underestimate by over 50 per
cent) really means.
" I t means that year after year, in dearth and in plenty, in drought and in flood,
£20,000,000 is taken from perhaps thepoorest on the earth to bring to us here in England (or to invest in unremunerative public works); it means that so many millions
more are condemned to starvation at the nest scarcity; it means that during the twenty
years, 1858-1878, £400,000,000 have been so applied. Call this payment for good administration, gloss it over in any way you please, need we look further for the cause
of the growing impoverishment of India?
" Not a single Englishman would say so if last year, not to speak of years before,
£67,000,000, the agricultural rent of the country, had been sent hence to the Continent for nothing. Yet £67,000,000 to England is literally a flea bito compared with
what £20,000,000 is to India."
Imagine such a country, fitly described as "bleeding to death/7 flooding us with
silver.
EUROPEAN

COIN.

According to the figures of the Director of the Mint, the entire amount of silver
coin in the world outside of the United States is only $3,338,500,000, and of this considerable more than one-half is in India, China, Japan, and tho Straits, where it is
as completely buried as if it was thrown into the sea. The aggregate amount in
Europe is $1,482,400,000—roughly speaking, $4 per capita for that Continent, and of
this nearly one-half is held by France. The following table shows the exact figures,
and also the coinage ratios of the different countries.
Table showing the estimated stock of silver held by foreign countries, the statement of each,
and the ratio of gold to silver in coinage.

Countries.

United Kingdom
France
Germany
Belgium
Italy
Switzerland
Greece
Spain
Portugal
Austria-Hungary
Netherlands
Scandinavian Union
Russia.,
Turkey
Australia

Egypt
Mexico

Central American States,
South America
Jjipan
India
China
The Straits
Canada
Cuba, Haiti, etc
Total.

Full legal
tender.

Limited
tender.

Total.

Standard.

Patio of
limited
tender
Silver to
gold.

$100,000,000: $100,000,000 Gold
$650,000,000 00,000,000; 700, 000, 000 Bime
102,000,000 43,000,0001 145, 000, 000 Gold
48,400,000 6,600,000; 55, 000,000; Bimetallic ..
35,800,000 34,200,000! 60, 000, 000: ...do . . . . . . .
11,400, 000. 3,600,0001 15, 000, oooj do
i, 800, ooo; 2,200,0001 4, 000, 000— d o
90,000,000' 35,000,000! 125, 000, ooo1—do
10,000,000 10, 000.000; Gold
00,000,000:
90, 000,000; Silver.
61,800,000;' 3,200,000 65, 000,000; Bimet;
000 10,000,000; Gold
! 10,000,
22,000,000 38,000,000 60, 000, 00GiSilve]
45,000, 000 45,ooo, 000; Gold
7,000,000 7, 000, 000; ....do
15,000,000 15, 000. 000i... .do
50,000,000;.
50,000,000:s Silver
500,000 ..
500,000 ....do
25, 000,000:..
000.000! ....do
50, 000,000 .
50,000.000! Bimetallic ..
900, 000, 000:.,
900,ooo, 000!....do
700, 000,000;.
700,000,000;....do
100,000,000..
100, 000, OOO
....do
i
5,000,000
5, 000, 000 Gold
1,200,0001
800,000
000,000 Bimetallic..
2,929,900,000] 408,600,000 3,338,500,000
* Haiti.

These are the figures upon which.the late Secretary based his last speech. With
all respect for the dead, of whom we would speak with the utmost tenderness, we
feel constrained to say that they entirely fail to bear out his conclusions. It signifies nothing to say that there is so much coin in Europe. The question is how much of




13 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
it will come lierc. A glance at the tahle will show that no European state can dispense with any considerable amount of silver coin. Germany long ago sold all that
she could spare. France has none; Italy has none; Spain has none; Austria has none,
and Russia has none.
A further glance at this table will show that in Europe the coinage rates ran^e from
a little less than 14 to 1 to 15£ to one, so that, to convert European silver com into
ours at 16 to 1 would involve a loss of from 3 to 12 per cent. Stated in terms of American money, this means a dead loss of $33,000,000 upon the full legal-tender coin alone.
This is upon the assumption that under free coinage the American dollar remains at
par. Should it fail to do so the loss by exchange would be still greater.
M O V E M E N T S OF T H E PRECIOUS

METALS.

It must be remembered that the trend of commercial currents is far more potent in
controlling the movements of the precious metals than mere coining ratios. Why
does not all th^ilver in the world go to Mexico for coinage? Simply because there
is nothing in that country to attract it. Why does it not go to India, where the
coinage ratio is nearly 7 per cent higher than ours and where its purchasing power
has been fully preserved ? Because India can get no more of it than is necessary to pay
her the balance due after her obligations to England are liquidated.
Prior to 1873 we coined both gold and silver free at the ratio of 16 to 1. At the
American mint an ounce of gold was equivalent to 16 ounces of silver, while in Europe it was only equal to 15£. If, then, free coinage is going to flood the country
with cheap silver, why were we not formerly flooded with cheap gold? The answer
comes as naturally as water flowing over a dam. The balance of trade was adverse,
and as a result, so far from being flooded with gold from any other country, we could
not even keep the product of our own mines.
On the other hand, France coined gold at a valuation 3 per cent lower than we
gave it, and yet from 1860 to 1871, inclusive, her coinage of that metal exceeded ours
by $130,000,000. It amounted to about $510,000,000, and, what is more important, she
not only coined it, but she kept it, or at any rate the most of it, for, while our exports
of gold amounted to $417,000,000 more than our imports, France imported about
$365,000,000 more gold than she exported, which tends strongly to prove that the
precious metals, like anything else, will go where the demand for them is greatest,
and this almost without regard to coining ratio.
It is no doubt true that, other conditions being equal, either metal will go where
its coining value is the greatest; but other conditions are not, never have been, and
probably never will be equal, and the rule must therefore be accepted witl^much of
reservation.
THE GRESHAM

LAW,

which is so frequently invoked, touches this question but very remotely, if at all.
Sir Thomas Gresham was not dealing with bimetalism or anything at all like it when
he laid down his famous maxim. He was considering merely the vitiated coinage of
England.
'
,
It had been observed that a large proportion of the coins of that country were
clipped, abraded, and below the legal weight. Investigation disclosed the cause,
which was a very simple one. When coins were to be shipped abroad new ones
were selected, because, being heavier, their bullion value was greater and in foreign
countries they were not current coin. So when a smith found it necessary to melt
down coins in his business he chose the heavy ones, because he thereby obtained a
greater amount of gold or silver.
From these facts Greshain laid down the rule that bad money drives the good out
of circulation; and in a loose way this law is appealed to every time free coinage is
mentioned. It is insisted that the "cheap silver will drive out the precious gold."
But this is assuming the very point in dispute, and the difference between the two
cases can be seen at a glance. A clipped and abraded coin under legal weight is also
under legal value even in the country of its issue, although from custom it will circulate and pass current almost indefinitely.
But where "simple bullion" is needed obviously the exchange of a light coin for
a heavy one or the use of a heavy one instead of a light one is a positive advantage
equal to the difference in weight. There is at all times an inducement to make the
exchange. The motive is apparent upon the face of every transaction.
But no person who has appeared before the committee has been able to show how,
under free coinage, the Gresham law could deprive us of our gold. Men never do
anything without a motive. It is admitted by every person familiar with the subject that silver bullion is of substantially the same value in all the commercial centers of the world. Therefore, if silver should rise to 1.29 in New York, the same
price would obtain in Londoa. Hence there would be no profit iu sending gold to




14

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

London to buy silver, for it would cost as mucli there as it would bo worth here.
If, on the other hand, the bullion remain at a discount; the depreciation of the dollar must be the same, because the bullion being ^lonvertible into coin, they mast be
of the same value. This depreciation would manifest itself in a diminished purchasing power, and nothing would be gained by purchasing depreciated bullion
which could only, be converted into equally depreciated coin.
It may be said that this depreciated coin (supposing it to exist) would be available for the payments of debts; but it is hardly to be supposed that the debtors of
the country would or could enter into a general scheme of gathering up gold, exchanging that for silver, and thus meeting their obligations. Such a course, if resorted to, would create a demand for silver that would inevitably send it to par at
an early day. But the fact is that, primarily, whatever silver might reach us from
abroad, must come in the course of trade, and, as we have shown, there could be no
motive in making the exchange.
Even should a portion of our gold be displaced we think that the evil to result has
been greatly exaggerated. We can not be deprived of our gold without getting a fnll
equivalent ior it. A thousand gold dollars' worth of silver is jusWas valuable as a
thousand gold dollars' worth of gold. Should such an exchange be made we would
be no poorer, and the country would have the same basis for a paper currency as
before.
PAPER M O N E Y .

But it is said "depreciated paper money always drives out gold."
This is not a parallel case. Paper is not primary money at all. It is merely a
substitute., and it is not to be supposed that the principal and the substitute will
both be in circulation at the same time.
Wherever we find a depreciated paper currency we will always find that the
paper money was created by the Government because it had no gold or silver, or, if
any, a wholly inadequate supply. It is a fair thing to say that the greenbacks drove
gold and silver out of circulation in this country.
Everybody ought to know that at the outbreak of our civil war there was virtually no gold or silver in the country. Specie payments were universally suspended,
and the Treasury was as empty as if it had been swept by a tornado.
It was to supply the deficiency that the greenbacks were issued. So that instead
of the paper forcing gold out of circulation, it was the scarcity of ^old that forced
the paper into circulation; and then this same scarcity had the further effect of
causing the paper to depreciate.
In no conceivable aspect of this question do we recognize the propriety of coinparing paper with silver any more than with gold. We frequently hear it said that
we might just as well have free coinage of paper as of silver, the dinerenee'being only
one of degree. Those who use this argument seem to be oblivious of tho fact that
questions of degree are of the very essence of the whole science of money. We are
now carrying $500,000,000 in paper and every dollar is at par. But if we were to
attempt to float $500,000,000,000, the result would be depreciation, repudiation and
an utter collapse of national credit. And yet it is only a question of degree.
The annual product of silver is about 125,000,000 ounces. If it were 125,000,000
tons, silver would no longer be a precious metal, and its free coinage would never be
thought of. Still, the illustration only presents another question of degree.
Many more examples might be given, but these will suffice.
The value of paper money rests solely upon the idea of redemption.
The supply is practically unlimited, for it is as easy to make a bill for $10,000 as
one for a single dollar, the only difference being in the words and figures which it
bears.
The old Continental money depreciated because the issues outran the capacity of
its creator for redemption; and when the government which created it passed out of
existence, it became a mere cabinet curiosity. Our greenbacks depreciated because'
we were engaged in a great civil war and it was uncertain whether the Government
would live through the storm, and no one could tell to what length it might be driven
by the exigencies of war, in the issuance of paper. Tho French assignats were issued
upon the basis of confiscated church lairds; but they fell as flat and worthless as our
Continental money.
It may not be out of place for us to remark in this connection, by way of contrast,
that the country which was not able to maintain the assignats at any value never
had the slightest trouble in holding silver absolutely at par; and in dismissing this
branch of the subject we will simply invite attention to the fact that while the pages
of history are laden with instances of ruin wrought by paper inflation, we fail to find
one in which any country or state has ever been injured by a superabundance of
gilver.




15 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
HOARDING.

Now a word as to hoarding. Gold will certainly not be hoarded to any considerable extent, unless there is something to be gained by it.' A miser will, of course,
cling to every dollar and hide it away through fear of losing it, but we can not frame
OUT legislation with reference to the idiosyncrasies of that unhappy class of people.
As we have already suggested, the hoarding of gold would diminish the volume of
money in actual circulation. This would increase the demand for currency and necessarily enhance its value. The natural result would be to bring back the gold into
circulation, for there are few persons who will hoard any kind of money in the face
of a promising investment.
We believe that this talk of "hoarding" is merely " a cunning device of the enemy."
We always hear it when silver legislation is proposed. But suppose it be true, does
that prove free coinage to be a bad thing t Certainly not. It only indicates that
there are persons who think it is a bad thing. Of course all people can not think alike.
Many believe that thB McKinley bill was a "bad thing;" others looked upon the elections bill as a "bad thing;" still others regarded the shipping bill as a "bad thing;"
and it is impossible to recall a single measure of any importance ever before the American Congress that was not denounced by some party or some faction as bad or dangerous legislation. But we can not stop legislating on that account.
These people who are so mortally afraid of free coinage may be right, but it is worthy
of note that for 15 years they have been filling the air with their lamentations 'over
the coinage of silver, and that every danger which they have professed to see has
proved as shadowy and unsubstantial as the " Specter of Brocken." So many failures ought to make them a little doubtful as to their inspiration, and at least a little
more oracular in their utterances. They ought to couch their predictions in ambiguous phrase so that whatever the outcome they can claim fulfillment.
B A N K S W I L L CONTRACT FOR GOLD.

In direct contradiction of the idea of hoarding, it is argued that under the free
coinage of silver the banks would make their contracts payable in gold. Such a
course would keep gold in circulation and prevent us from ever reaching a silver
basis. Some of the opponents of silver claim that such contracts will he made, while
others declare that the banks must do business in the currency of the country. But
in either event we do not look upon it as a matter of very much concern. Under
any system of finance the banks will probably do as they always have done, that is,
look out for their own interests to the best of 1heir ability. If they contract for
gold, that will keep gold in circulation; if they use the currency of the country,
that will help sustain the currency. As wo have no menus of knowing what they
will do, and our opponents are divided upon the point, we shall have to let them
fight it out among themselves.
AFFECTING V A L U E S B Y

LEGISLATION.

It is constantly insisted that the value of gold and silver is wholly independent of
legislation; that the'Government stamp can add nothing to the value of a metal;
that value can not be increased by " fiat," etc. These are all different forms of the
same argument, and it is vicious m this: That it entirely misrepresents our position.
No man who possesses even an elementary knowledge of economics will claim that
the value of silver or anything else can be* affected by mere "fiat."
If a law were to be passed declaring that 412£ grains of standard silver should be
worth as much as a gold dollar, and stop there, that would be "fiat," and it would
have no more effect than the wind that blows. In 1811, when specie payments were
suspended in England, the House of Commons adopted a resolution declaring that
Bank of England notes " have hitherto been and are at this time held in public estimation to be equivalent to the legal coin of the realm, and generally accepted as
such in all pecuniary transactions to which such coin is lawfully applicable." - At
that very moment those notes were at a discount of from 15 to 20 per cent.
The effect of the resolution can be readily imagined. It might just as well have
declared them to be at a premium of 1,000 per cent. It was mere " fiat." But if the
law which prohibited the redemption of the notes had been repealed, or they had
been made legal tender, which they were not, or anything else had been done which
tended to strengthen their credit or enlarge their use, such action would have been a
very different thing/ So with silver. Its remonetization involves much more than a
high-sounding pronunciamento of value.
The Government declares that 412| grains of standard silver shall constitute a dollar; that this dollar shall be a legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that
whoever has the bullion ma^ have it converted into coin free of charge. In short,




16

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

the bullion is given a use that was formerly denied it, and this additional use gives
it an enhanced value. Consider for a moment how the principle operates. The dollar is at par, but the bullion is at a discount. Why? Because the bullion is not a
solvent of debt, while the dollar is. If all the bullion went direct to the mint, obviously there would be no such thing as a bullion market. There could be no silver
quotations, and a discount would be impossible.
But it does not go direct to the mint, and a portion of it can not go there at all.
Primarily the entire mass is thrown upon the market, sold as a mere commodity, and
the surplus, which it is known can not be converted into coin, fixes the quotations
at which the value of the whole is estimated. But this is a misleading estimate.
Every ounce of American silver coin and bullion in the Treasury is worth 1.29.
Every piece of European or Asiatic coin is either at an absolute parity with gold or
BOfixedin its situs and use that it has no bearing upon the market price.
The silver which is in the form of jewelry and plate is worth vastly more because
of the artistic labor that is commingled with it. Even the crude surplus bullion
upon which the market quotations are based could not all be purchased at once at
the market price. A purchase of 15,000,000 ounces at New York in a lump would
probably raise the price to nearly 1.29. 6ut th© fact that some of it can not be sold at
all, makes it possible to buy every ounce a little at a time at what we call the market
price.
The fact that there is a surplus continually pressing upon the market and quoted
at figures considerably below the coining rate, is the circumstance that beclouds and
confuseB this entire question.
THE GOVERNMENT

STAMP.

So with the Government stamp. The mechanical work of dividing the metal into
pieces and stamping a certain design upon them is not even an element in the real
question. That is merely intended for its convenient use. The " trade dollar " bears
the Government stamp, is of the samefinenessand is
grains heavier than the standard dollar, but it is worth 18 to 20 cents less. Why is that? Because it is only a
piece of bullion, while the standard dollar is money.
The stamp npon the latter is the Government certificate that the piece is of the
requisite weight and fineness, and that it has been endowed by the law with the
quality of being a tender for debt.
GOLD BULLION W O R T H JUST A S M U C H A S GOLD COIN.

The claim that the value of gold can not be affected by legislation seems to rest
upon the fact that the bullion is worth just as much as the coin.
This is a most illogical conclusion, because when the bullion can be converted into
coin free of charge no man will part with it for anything below its coin value
unless he be gone daft.
But if a charge were imposed upon the coinage, would the bullion be worth as
much as the coin? Plainly not.
It is amazing that so many intelligent people can not or will not see that the
whole scheme of coinage is a simple matter of law. In England the value of gold
is said to be £3 17*.
an ounce. Why? Because by act of Parliament the owner
of gold bullion can take it to the mint and have it coined at that rate. It is the
coinage law that fixes the nominal value of gold. But prior to 1844 the market
price of bullion was, upon an average, about £3 17s. 6d. an ounce, 4£ pence less than
the coin. Why was that?
Because the depositor had to wait about two monthB for his coin, which operated as
a discount upon the bullion. In speaking of this matter Prof. Sumner uses the following language:
" T h e figures above given show the par of the coins, grain for grain, but coins are
worth more than bullion, being manufactured—that is, an ounce of gold in coin
must buy more goods than an ounce of gold in bullion. The difference is the cost of
manufacture. Gallatin says that it took two months to coin bullion left at the mint,
which involved a loss of 1 per cent interest. There was no seigniorage or charge
for coining. In England there was no seigniorage, and the loss of interest was represented by the difference between the mint price of bullion—£3 17s. 10d. per ounce,
and the market price, which was then generally £3 17*. 6d. —that is, it cost 4 t o
get an ounce coined.
NOTE.—Since 1844 the bank is obliged by law to give its notes at £ 3 17*. 9d. for all
bullion offered, redncing the difference between coin and bullion.
Prof. Sumner is an outspoken champion of the single standard, for which reason we
quote hhn. The foregoing extract is from his " History of American C u r r e n c y I t
very clearly shows the difference between gpld bullion, which was not money, and
Coin which was, and it suggests the qnery;




17 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
" K a delay of two months made a difference of 4£ pence against the bullion and in
favor of the coin, how much would the difference have been if the bullion could not
have been coined at all
In truth, both gold and silver have been artificially supported ever since their use
as money began. A large proportion of their value has been owing to the fact that
vast amounts have been withdrawn from other avenues of employment and dedicated
to monetary use. But this support has been partially withdrawn from silver by the
limitations to which it has been subjected, while gjold has been given and is now
receiving a stronger support than ever. Gold and silver occupying a common field,
any restriction placed upon the ues of one must, in the nature of things, operate as
an additional prop to the other.
ECONOMIC L A W S .

The absurdity, we might almost say the insincerity, of the constant invocation of
"economic laws," and the deprecation of legislative interference with silver, is conclusively shown by the fact that many who use it are determined advocates of "protection" the avowed purpose of which is-to so regulate values in this country as to
guard the American workingmen against European competition.
Both the protectionist and the free-trader must necessarily believe that legislation
will affect values. The one favors the policy because it tends to keep the range of
prices higher in this country than they are abroad, and the other opposes it for the
same reason. If we can affect the value of iron or steel by legislation we can certainly affect the value of gold and silver.
But the fatal error of this appeal to "economic laws" is that it confounds the
distinction between things that are natural and those that are artificial. A natural law, as, for example, that which governs the transmission of light or the movements of oceanic currents, operates independently of man. But economic laws apply
only to the relations existing among men and must act through human agencies.
Separate and apart from the actions of men, an economic law is a mere abstraction.
It is impossible to conceive of such a thing as a law of supply and demand, except
through the wants and wishes of mankind. Value, of which we hear so much, is
nothing but a measure of the strength of human desire. It is undoubtedly true, as
a basic principle, that the price or value of a thing depends upon the supply relative to the demand. Men can not change the abstract principle, but they can
change the elements through which it operates. They can increase or diminish the
supply and increase or diminish the demand. An article—as a fine painting—may
be of priceless value to a civilized man and of no value at all to the untutored savage. All values are mainly artificial, changing with the social condition of man.
The use of gold and silver as money is a purely artificial use, and yet it is tho chief
element in the value of both.
Therefore the enlargement of the use of silver, or its utilization in a more favorable
mode, must necessarily affect its value, and it is a waste of time and labor to argue
bo plain a proposition with any man who denies it.
W H Y N O T P U T A D O L L A R ' S W O R T H OF S I L V E R INTO T H E D O L L A R ?

This question is asked over and over again. It is declared if we are to have the
free coinage of silver at all it ought to be at a ratio approximating the market price.
The answer is simple and conclusive to any person who is disposed to be fair. There
is a dollar's worth of silver in the dollar now. As we have already shown, considered
merely as bullion, it will buy as much of commodities generally as it would when it
was nominally above par—and no man has a right to ask anything more than that'
in our standard coin.
The silver dollar is all right. The trouble is with the gold dollar. The partial
demonetization of silver created an increased demand for gold which has boosted
the latter up to about 1.40 in its purchasing power. That is what we complain
of. And now it is coolly proposed to us that we put enough silver into the dollar
to make that also 1.40. Such a concession on our part would be a complete
surrender of the vital principle at the bottom of this entire question. Nothing
could be more unfair than to first change the ratio by invidious legislation
and then change the weight of the silver coin to restore the equivalence
Instead of giving the relief which we seek, such a course would tend to keep silver
permanently at its present price and perpetuate the evil of which we complain.
The whole theory of bimetallism is that it links the two metals together and
practically holds them there. Hence, if we were to reinonetize silver at, say, 20 to
1, it could never rise much above that figure unless other bimetallic nations should
resume coinage at a higher valuation.
Silver never failed to sustain itself at 15£ or 16 to 1 when it stood upon an equal
plane before the law, and we believe that it will do so again if given a chance.

H. Kep. 249




2 *

18

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
F R E E COINAGE W H E N S I L V E R IS AT PAR.

Latterly we have been met with the suggestion that there will be no objection to
free coinage when silver is at par, but this shows the same confusion of thought.
Let us borrow a simple illustration:
Suppose there were two kinds of wheat, red and white. A law is passed prohibiting the making of bread out of the white grain. Would it sell for as much in the
market as its more favored rival ? And when the unfortunate farmer, whose lands
perchance will produce that grain only, complains of the unjust discrimination, what
would be thought of the broad-gaaged statesman who would say to him: "Why, my
dear sir, your wheat is not worth as much as the other, and consequently you have
no right to make bread of it; but restore it to a value equal to that of the other gr&in
and we will then extend to it the same privilege."
How would the farmer proceed to restore the value of a grain which had been
"outlawed," so to speak, and maintain its parity with one that could be freely used?
How can any two commodities be kept at a parity except by linking them together
in some way? This can only be done by free coinage. At all events, that is the
way and the only way in which it has been done. We ask for it as a remedy, and
we are gravely told that when we have accomplished the result in some other way,
the remedy will be no longer withheld.
Every scheme recently brought forward by the opponents of free coinage has had
for its avowed purpose the closing of the gap between the two metals, thus paving
the way for free coinage. But why, we may ask, have free coinage at any time,
unless the principle is a sound one? If some other method is preferable to bring
the metals together, why is it not also preferable to hold them together.
" It takes exactly the same economic force to hold an article at a given price as
it does to raise it to that price. If silver bullion were worth 129, how would free
coinage operate to keep it there? Just in this way: The holder of bullion would
take no less because he could at once convert it into coin at that rate. If the bullion
were quoted at 100, the operation would be precisely the same. The moment the law
went into effect, the 100 quotation must cease; the bullion must rise to its coin value,
i. e., 129, and then all that free coinage would have to do would be to hold it there.
So, when it is conceded that free coinage will preserve the bimetallic par, it carries
with it the concession that free coinage is capable of establishing that par.




MINORITY REPORT.

Mr. WILLIAMS, of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Coinage,
Weights, and Measures, submitted the following as the views of the
minority, to accompany H. R. 4426:
CHARACTER AND TURPOSE OF THE BILL.

The bill reported by the majority of the committee begins with a
provision that the unit of value in the United States shall be two
nnits; one the standard silver dollar, worth 70 cents, and the other the
gold dollar, worth 100 cents.
The bill further provides that standard gold and silver coin shall be
received in the United States in payment of all debts.
The first eight lines of the bill develop its true purpose. They provide two different dollars and a compulsion upon the citizen to receive
either in payment of debts due liim. It does not require any knowledge
of monetary or financial laws to demonstrate that the compulsion of the
legal-tender power must force upon the creditor a cheaper and debased
dollar. Tew debtors will pay 100 cents to discharge their obligations
when 70 cents will suffice in law.
Section 2 of the bill provides for the retirement of gold and silver
certificates and the substitution therefor of a so-called coin note, which
presumably means a note payable in gold or silver coin, at the option
of the Government. This bill, therefore, converts all existing Government paper into paper which may be paid in silver, and leaves no paper
which must be paid in gold. It is evidently intended to clear away all
obstructions in the form of pledges to pay gold, and, without a distinct
declaration of repudiation, to provide an easy track on which we may
descend to the silver monometallic standard.
The bill reported by the majority of the committee is not alone for
the free coinage of the two metals, but provides that the Government
itself shall receive all bullion offered, and shall issue its notes for such
bullion not at the market rate therefor but at the coinage value fixed
in the bill. This provision is doubtless.inserted in recognition of the
fact that silver coin is not only debased in value in the market, but is
condemned as money by our own people, who refuse to nse more than
a small fraction of our total coinage. Because it is not acceptable
money this bill compels the Government to buy silver as bnllion, and
pay for it nearly 00 per cent more than its present market value with a
coin note which will be redeemable in gold so long as we maintain both
metals in circulation at the fixed ratio.




19

20

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
THE CONDITION OF SILVER IN THE MARKET.

The true meaning and effect of this bill should not be clouded by any
misunderstanding of the present value and convertibility of silver. The
standard silver dollar of the United States contains silver which is
bought by the Government for about 70 cents and stamped a dollar.
Any citizen can to-day purchase a like amount of silver for 70 cents.
He can purchase 533J grains of silver bullion with 371J grains of silver,
which has been stamped as a dollar by the Government. It should be
understood that it is not the virtue of silver which makes 70 cents pass
for a dollar, but it is the Government stamp, behind which is the credit
of the people, the pledge of the wealth and honor of the Republic.
The value of silver is at the present time about 90 cents per ounce.
This is not the value in New York or Washington alone or for coinage
purposes alone. It is the world's price and no merchants and no country in the world will pay more for it. The question of free coinage
should not be complicated by the erroneous statement, so often repeated,
that silver is worth anywhere in the world more than the quoted market
price. It is not true that silver sells to-day in Europe at a ratio of 15£
of silver to 1 of gold, or that India and China are paying $1.33 per ounce.
The price of silver all over the world is not far from 90 cents per ounce.
Its ratio to gold * the world over is about 23 to 1; if silver passes anywhere current at a higher price than this, it is silver coin, which passes
not for the value of silver but by virtue of the promise of redemption
which is behind the stamp of some Government.
It is a fact that in this country the silver and paper dollars are exchangeable for gold dollars because the Government can and will
exchange upon demand these tokens or promises for the best dollar in
the world. A 70-cent dollar is accepted in our market because everyone has faith that this people will never swindle its creditors or defraud
its own citizens by paying its obligations in anything but the best
money.
There can be no doubt of the purpose of a majority of the committee
to force a depreciated dollar upon the country. A motion to make the
silver "unit,77 named in the bill, correspond substantially with the gold
"unit" in market value was rejected by the majority.
COVERT REPUDIATION IS THE DANGER OF THE BILL.

The peril is not great of an avowed depreciation by our government of
the value of its own promises, we shall never openly repudiate our debts,
or corrupt the medium of payment; the danger lies in legislation such
as this bill proposes which shall make the Government unable to maintain its promises and tokens on the basis upon which they have been
accepted. That basis is the dollar which is changeable nowhere, exchangeable everywhere; which does not give up 30 cents at our border,
nor yield anything to fire or water—the dollar of gold. Substantially
all obligations now existing in this country are expressly payable in
gold, or have been incurred since this nation resumed specie payments
and has continued on a gold basis. The gold dollar is, therefore, not
only the best, but the only honest dollar in which obligations can now
be discharged. But, under plausible theory or confident prophecy, the
citizens of this country may be misled into repudiation, which they
would not consciously approve. To make this bill understood as a
measure of repudiation is to secure its defeat




21 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
THE BILL MUST PRECIPITATE A SILVER STANDARD.

The effect of the bill clearly must be this: That the mints of this
country shall receive all the silver which may be sent from any quarter
for coinage into dollars, 10 grains in which shall be convertible with 1
grain in the gold dollar. It is perfectly clear that at the very moment
the Treasury of the United States shall refuse to pay gold coin upon
demand no one else will receive 16 grains of silver in lieu of 1 grain of
gold, because the single customer of the world for silver at that price
has refused to purchase. Surely there can be no doubt that the effort
to raise the market price of silver from 90 cents an ounce to $1.20J an
ounce is dependent entirely upon the combined willingness and ability
of the United States Government to stand alone as a buyer of silver at
all times and in any quantity at the price fixed by this law in gold.
It does not follow that the price of silver fixed by the ratio in this
bill can be maintained even if our Government is willing to receive the
payment of its dues in silver coin, and to pay its debts in gold. The
exchange value of silver would be dependent not alone upon the willingness of the Government to keep up the exchange, but upon its ability so to do 5 and the judgment as to that ability is passed not alone in
the Department of the Treasury, but in the markets of the world.
Even speculation upon the ultimate failure of our Treasury to maintain its policy might well suffice to drive gold to a premium, precipitate
a scramble for the gold in the Treasury, and suspend gold payments by
the Government, regardless of the will of the Secretary of the Treasury.
The minority of this committee submit that the only possible result
of the legislation proposed in this bill is the prompt suspension of gold
payments by this Government and the immediate adoption of the cheaper
monetary standard of silver.
HISTORY OF MODERN MONETARY CHANGES.

For a true understanding of the perils of free coinage under existing
monetary conditions and the necessity for international action to restore silver to its former value and dignity as a money metal, it is important to keep in mind the nature of the question and the actual
present position of silver in the world's economy.
They who reason that because free coinage was once possible in this
country it is not dangerous now, may be referred to the history of recent changes in the monetary conditions of the world.
Up to the year 1873 the whole civilized world, except Great Britain,
accepted silver as a precious money metal at a ratio of exchange witli
gold which was fixed at or near the current market price by general
consent and the legislation of leading commercial countries. The supply of silver was easily exhausted and its price easily maintained because the mints of the world were open to it and the leading nations of
the world consented to evcliange it freely for gold at a fixed ratio.
Doubtless the consent of nations to utilize the whole silver product of
the world as money and to receive it freely in exchange for gold has in
the past and can now maintain it in use as a money metal without
limit. But since the year 1873 silver has been practically repudiated
by the continental nations of Europe. The history of this change is a
vital element in the problem of free coinage and should be briefly recited here.
The experience of Europe in the face of Germany's demonetization
furnishes a historical lesson which should be learned by everyone who




22

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

now proposes to open the mints of the United States to the free coinage
of a debased and repudiated metal.
The status of silver was not mueli disturbed until a single nation of
Europe, a new empire^ Germany, assisted by the payment of a large
war indemnity, determined to discard silver and adopt gold as its monetary standard. A t this time the mints of the Latin Union and of the
Netherlands were open to the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 15 J
of silver to 1 of gold. Thus France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy offered to convert without limit silver into coin which
should be receivable in all these countries for the liquidation of debts
and in the transaction of business.
In 1873 Germany had about $300,000,000 worth of silver coin which in
that year it began to throw upon the markets of the world in order to
replace it with the more precious metal, gold.
Germany proceeded to sell its silver coin as bullion in open market.
With unerring course the silver currents began to flood the open mints
of Europe, even when Germany's sales had but begun.
In 1871 and 1872 the coinage of silver in the mints of Belgium and
France had been but 38,000,000 francs. The adoption of the imperial
gold standard by Germany occurred July 9, 1873; yet in that year, before $30,000,000 worth of silver had been sold by Germany, the coinage
of silver at the mints of France and Belgium had increased to 2G5,000,000
francs. Only six months after the passage of the demonetizing act by
Germany the states of the Latin Union gathered in alarm, and seeing
plainly that their open mints were but famishing a dumping ground
for a repudiated metal, agreed among themselves to limit the coinage
of silver.
This limitation continued from year to year until by consent in 1877,
the coinage of 5 franc-pieces in the mints of the Latin Union was suspended entirely. The Netherlands also suspended silver coinage in the
year 1875.
Between 1873 and 1875 Germany had replaced 1500 millions of silver
marks with 1500 millions of gold marks. Its continued sales of silver,
though they amounted on the whole to but $142,000,000, were made in
a constantly declining market. Such was the decline that Germany
discontinued her sales of silver, although silver coins yet remained to
the amount of more than $100,000,000, which it was her purpose to
exchange for gold. That silver which remained unsold undoubtedly
awaits the opening of a siugle mint which will permit the conversion
of this silver, too, into gold coin.
The United States had, in 1873, likewise limited the legal-tender
quality of silver. The Scandinavian countries had adopted the gold
standard. Great Britain had for half a century stood upon a gold
standard. Thus the problem of the use of silver as a money metal was
changed by the legislation of a single nation against the use of silver
as standard coin. Silver was no longer purchased or converted into
coin by any of the leading nations of Europe, except in limited quantities for domestic use; it became and now is a repudiated and debased
metal
CONSENT OF NATIONS HAKES AND UNMAKES MONEY.

In a definition of money by Aristotle this patent truth appears:
Of itself money is an empty thing. It has value only by law and not by nature
for a change of agreement among those using it can depreciate it entirely and ren*
der it entirely unfit to satisfy our needs.




23 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

W e find this truth illustrated in the fact that the laws of Europe and
the United States before 1873 gave value to silver money and consent
to its common use, whereas in but six years, by the laws of Europe and
the United States, the great commercial nations withdrew from the
silver market and refused to receive coined silver as a general liquidator in trade. If since that time the price of silver has depreciated,
the explanation of such depreciation must be simply this, that the
principal nations of the world have withdrawn their demand and refused
to assist in the maintenance of the price of silver. It may be added
that the world's suppl/ of silver was annually increasing while the
demand for monetary purposes, save in silver monometallic countries and
in the United States by saving legislation, has been substantially
cut off.
THE BILL CAN NOT RAISE PRICE OF SILVER TO RATIO VALUE.

The only escape from a single silver standard under the bill proposed
by the majority is an immediate and permanent elevation, by virtue of
this law, of the price of silver bullion to the price represented by the
ratio of 16 to 1 between silver and gold. This price is S1.29J per
ounce.
But the answer is made, with apparent sincerity, that the demands
upon our Government for the exchange of silver into gold will be
necessarily so limited that our Government can easily stand the strain,
even if it must offer its credit to borrow gold that the exchangeability
of gold and silver at the fixed ratio may be maintained. It is assumed
in this opinion that only the surplus bullion of the world and the
annual product of the mines can be spared by the rest of the world to
be offered at our mints. It is respectfully suggested at this point that
the advocates of free silver coinage ignore the monetary conditions of
the world and discard as impossible that which is not only possible
but probable, necessary, and even certain. The fact is ignored that in
Europe silver to-day is a discarded metal, which is maintained in circulation because the nations have on hand a large quantity of silver
coin of which they can not get rid. The governments of Europe are
to-day upholding depreciated silver coins by the pledge of their credit
to the true redemption of these coins in gold. It is none the less true
thsrt except for this pledge of credit these coins are not worth more
than the bullion is worth of which they are composed. It is plain that
such pledge of credit to depreciated silver coins is, by so much, a strain
upon the credit of those governments, some of which are also supporting large amounts of government notes by like pledges of credit.
THE WORLD'S STOCK OF SILVER.

The following is the stock of silver in European countries, as estimated by the Director of the Mint, at the beginning of the year:
France
Germany
Belgium
Italy
Switzerland
Greece
Spain..

Dollars.
700,000,000
204,000,000
55,000,000
60,000,000
15,000, 000
4,000,000
125,000,000

Portu gal
Austria* Hungary
The Netherlands
The Scandinavian Union.
Russia
Total

Dollars.

10,000,000
90,000,000
65,000,000
10,000,000
60,000,000
1,398,000,000

Of this stock of silver there is not a dollar which is coined at the
present market price of silver, and most of it at its coi nage price is farther




24

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

above the market value of the bullion than is our own depreciated silver coin.
THIS BILL WILL BRING SILVER FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

With this burdensome stock of silver cumbering the treasuries of Europe, it is claimed by free-coinage advocates that none of it will be unloaded upon our open mints. Yet it is familiar to all European financiers
that most of the nations of Europe are anxious to secure more gold
and to hold less silver.
A t present there is not a mint in Europe which is open to the free
coinage of silver, and the actual coinage is so small as hardly to constitute an element in the consumption of the annual silver product. Xo
further argument is needed as to the temper of Europe toward silver
than the fact that not one of its nations is willing to add to its present
stock of this metal.
In point of fact, as the slightest acquaintance with the monetary
history of Europe since 1867 will show, all the nations of Europe entertain ed at that time a desire to adopt the single gold standard, and the
reports of the French commissioners from 18(37 to 1870 indieated clearly
that it was during that time the settled policy of France to place herself upon the single gold standard. Germany forestalled the action of
France and drove, by her policy, the states of Europe to close their
open mints against the coinage of silver. The closing of these mints
was clearly an indication that these countries would not run the risk of
losing their gold and becoming silver-standard countries.
It is well known that Austria-Hungary has already adopted the policy
of resuming specie payments upon the single gold standard, and is now
in the moriey markets of Germany and England attempting to obtain gold
for this purpose. Indeed no one with any knowledge of the monetary conditions of Europe can doubt that at the present time everyone of the European countries would eagerly exchange a greatpart of their silver coinfor
gold coin, even at a large loss from the coinage value of the silver.
It is well known that Germany did not complete its substitution of
gold for silver owing to the rapid decline in the price of silver, and that
more than $100,000,000 in old thalers are still unredeemed by the Government. It is known that the Bank of France has in its vaults at least
$250,000,000 in silver 5-franc pieces which the people refuse to take
into the circulation of that country. Austria is openly in the market to
borrow $100,000,000 of gold, and we have, therefore, in sight, without the
necessity of legislation on the part of foreign governments, the demand
for $450,000,000 in gold.
The United States is the only source of supply to Europe, and our
gold by virtue of this bill becomes available to take the place of unusable
silver. The free-coinage problem is not, therefore, one that concerns
the mere trifle of superfluous bullion or the annual product of the mines,
but it involves probable action by every nation in continental Europe
to dispose of its silver in exchange for gold when any market shall
offer such exchange.
SILVER COMING FROM ABROAD WOULD DESTROY GOLD STANDARD.

France alone has $700,000,000 of silver coin. This country has a
stock of gold of about the same amount. The wildness and audacity of
the free-coinage scheme becomes apparent when we consider the results.
If the Bank of France alone should determine, as she would without
hesitation, to send her huge supply of silver to this country and ex-




25 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

change it for gold, what would be the result*? The $120,000,000 of gold
in our Government Treasury would speedily be exhausted, and our
greenbacks be left without aijy reserve for redemption; every dollar of
gold in circulation would be hoarded by the people and by bankers to
await the result of this tremendous monetary experiment. Kot a person
or bank would pay out a gold dollar when the best financial authorities
assured them that in a few days or a few weeks the premium upon that
dollar would exceed the accumulated interest of years which would
come from any other investment.
With what gold would our Government then meet the silver bullion
of France which would be sent here to be exchanged for gold at the
ratio of sixteen to one? Even if the law confers upon the Secretary of
the Treasury authority to borrow gold for such a purpose any Secretary
who should exercise this right, to meet the hundreds of millions which
France alone might demand, would be driven from his place by an indignant people. There can be no doubt that the only alternative which
our Government would have, would be the refusal to pay gold, and the
payment of creditors in silver coin. With this act the adoption of the
silver standard is complete and we stand upon the monetary plane of
India and China.
FAILURE OF LEGISLATION TO RAISE PRICE OF SILVER.

Since 1872 silver has suffered a substantial, steady decline. The Latin
Union in 1874 limited for one year the coinage of silver, in full confidence that the effect of Germany's sales would be temporary and that
the mints might be opened again at the end of the year. This confidence
was shown again in each year from 1876 to 1878 when the limitation of
coinage was made but from year to year.
In 1878, when the Bland-Allison bill became a law it was distinctly
understood that that law would raise the price of silver, even if it did not
hold it at the ratio of sixteen of silver to one of gold.
The messages of Presidents and the reports of Secretaries of the
Treasury from 1878 to 1890, have been filled with surprise and lamentation that the large Government purchases of silver under the law of
1878, were attended with a steady decline in the market value of silver.
In 1890 the demand was made for larger purchases by the Government, and a law was passed which made the Government a purchaser of
silver beyond the annual, available product of the American mines. It
was commonly agreed that this huge purchase would raise the price of
silver, and it was confidently announced in Congress by men who assumed to be leaders of the silver movement that these purchases wonld
raise the market price of silver to S1.29J.
Yet, since the passage of the act of 1890, silver, after spasmodic upward* movement, has persistently declined until it has reached, within
a few days, the lowest price which has been known in the history of
civilization. The confident predictions and opinions of experts and legislators that such legislation would check the steady decline of silver
in the market have been uniformly discredited. What shall be said of
like prophecies upon which the legislature of this country is urged to
undertake the most gigantic financial 'experiment which has been known
in the history of the world?
EFFECT OF A SILVER STANDARD.

The adoption of the single silver standard, then, would place the dollar unit at once at the mercy of the silver-bullion market; and obligations now outstanding, incurred upon the gold basis, would be payable




26

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

in a depreciated silver dollar worth only what the world should think it
to be worth at a given point of time.
Thus to depreciate our standard of payments is clearly partial repudiation and unqualifiedly dishonest and fraudulent.
The second section of the bill reported by the majority of the committee is a confession that the purpose of the bill is to place the United
States upon a silver-monometallic standard. To those who are willing
to accept a silver standard in this country, which must involve a degree
of repudiation of existing obligations, there can be no answer made except that it is dishonest and fraudulent; and from such a moral standard
there is no appeal save to the moral sense of the people.
WHO WILL SUFFER FROM A SILVER STANDARD 1

Men speak lightly and thoughtlessly of the " creditor class." For
every creditor there must be a debtor and for every debtor a creditor. If the industrial classes of this country are not bankrupt, but on
the contrary have accumulated something from their work, it is safe to
say that their accumulations have in large part been so invested that
they stand as creditors within the meaning of those who assail the
creditor class. In savings banks alone, in which the deposits are
usually in small accounts, sixteen hundred millions are said to be
deposited—more money than there is in active circulation in this country. Every workingman who is ar depositor is a creditor of the bank.
The volume of deposits in national banks and other banking institutions is likewise enormous and every depositor is a creditor of the bank
and the bank belongs to the debtor class.
Of the deposits in savings banks in this country a thousand millions
of dollars are said to be invested in mortgages. The mortgage creditors
of the country are therefore to this extent the small depositors in savings banks> who have trusted their scanty earnings to be invested by
these institutions of savings.
To depreciate by 30 or 40 per cent the value of these securities would
be to rob millions of our industrious citizens of their hard-earned savings.
Depreciate the standard of the dollar and every pensioner of the
country, every holder of a policy of insurance, every widow and orphan
enjoying the proceeds of trust funds, will by so much suffer from this
fraudulent reduction of the standard of the country.
The revenues of the Government will be depreciated in like mariner,
and every dollar received in duties and other taxes will represent about
two-thirds of the amount now fixed bylaw.
The effect of this repudiation upon future attempts to borrow .money
will be disastrous to the borrower. Money is loaned at rates which accord
with the risk, and repudiation will raise the rates of interest and a fluctuating standard of value will burden the borrower until we have returned
again to a stable and honest standard of payment.
Credit secures money, and credit is fixed by a willingness and ability
to pay. Nor are the poor to gain any benefit from the degradation of
our coin. The debtors of the country are they who have had credit
upon which to secure advances. As a rule the poor are not in debt, and
those who borrow have means of payment. The rich borrow the most,
the poor the least. Eepudiation will benefit the rich and the money
dealers more than any other class. They can protect themselves.




27 FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT NECESSARY.

The minority of this committee favor a bimetallic standard and heartily
concur in the proposition that it is desirable that silver should again
take the position in the world's monetary system which it occupied before the financial policy of the civilized world relegated it to a secondary
place. But they recognize also the fact that the great mass of silver in
the world, exceeding, as it does, the gold mass, and amounting to nearly
$4,000,000,000, can not be moved in value by the fiat of a single nation
which possesses and controls but one-seventh of the whole volume.
/ The minority maintain that such an experiment would result at once
in a complete change of our monetary system, and the degradation of
the standard of value upon which all money obligations have been incurred.
The minority are convinced that there is but one method by which silver can be restored to a first place in the monetary systems of the
world, and that is by the consent of the nations which control those
systems. An international conference should be requested by the
United States and an earnest effort be made to secure this consent:
An international agreement for the reinstatement of silver in the
monetary system of the world involves not alone the assent of a few
nations to coin silver without limit, but also an understanding with the
principal silver-using countries of the world that they will not by a
change in monetary policy make the free-coining countries a dumping
place for their own repudiated coin.
The minority believe that the monetary conditions of the world are
such that the leading nations must soon feel, if they do not now feel,
the necessity for maintaining the dignity of silver in order that it may
continue to supply the increasing demands of the world for money. It
can not be known that an international conference will fail until it has
been attempted; nor would its failure be a sufficient argument why this
Government should undertake single-handed to rescue the world from
the consequences of its own deliberate acts.
THE BILL IS UNWARRANTABLE IN RISK AND WITHOUT ADVANTAGE.

Kot even the advocates of free-silver coinage deny that this law is an
experiment, new in the history of mankind and based upon conditions
which have never existed. For such an experiment as is proposed
nothing can be a justification which has not in it a certainty of a great
reward to the people which undertakes the task. That reward is not in
sight of anyone save of the owners of mines who desire to receive at the
hands of the law 81.29J an ounce for a commodity which is sold in eager
competition for two-thirds of that sum, though diligently produced at an
average cost of 51 cents an ounce.
When we attempt to raise the price of the annual product of our
mines more than 40 per cent we undertake to lift also the value of
thirty-four hundred millions of dollars worth of foreign silver, in the
value of which we have not the slightest interest. The cooperation of
the foreign owners of the silver is net asked, and the risk of this experiment, six-sevenths of which is for the benefit of foreign countries,
is to be thrown upon the shoulders of this Republic. The volume of our
currency will not be increased, but diminished. The bill itself will
drive our gold into the coffers of speculation, invite foreign holders of
our securities to sell at any price to escape loss by repudiation, and




28

FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

o u r w h o l e monetary system will b e thus disrupted. N o possible gain to
o u r p e o p l e can b e demonstrated.
T h e minority o f the committee, therefore, in p u r s u a n c e o f these views,
r e c o m m e n d e d that for the bill reported b y the committee the following
b e substituted:
A BILL to provide for an international monetary conference.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of Ike United States of Am
ica in Congress assembled, That the President is authorized to invite the governments of such countries as he may deem advisable to join the United States in a
conference to be held at a time and place to be agreed upon, such conference to be
called with a view of securing a permanence in the relative value of gold and silver
at a common coinage ratio to be mutually agreed upon, through internatioual
agreements providing for the enlarged monetary use of silver and for giving to that
metal equal mintage rights with ^old.
SEC. 2. That the President shall, by and with the advice of the Senate, appoint
three commissioners, who shall attend such conference on behalf of the United States,
and shall report the doings thereof to the President, who shall transmit the same to
Congress. Said commissioners shall receive the sum of five thousand dollars each
and their reasonable expenses, including the compensation of a secretary and such
other assistance as may be necessary, to be approved by the Secretary of State.




CHARLES TRACEY.
AENER TAYLOR.
CHARLES W . STONE.
GEO. FRED. WILLIAMS.
M. N. JOHNSON.

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