IvIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 s2-^A,<nr[ 
 
 Class 
 
BIMETALLISM 
 
 BONDAGE OR BLOOD 
 
 The Money Question Made Plain 
 
 'onclusive proof that a crisis is at riand when we must choose 
 
 either Bimetallism by the Ballot, Base Bondage 
 
 for the Masses, or i* Bioody War 
 
 of Classes. 
 
 Don't Leap in ihe Dark. Let Every Patriot Study the Question. Nf>t hri'f so 
 hard to understand as money sl^arks would liave you believe. 
 
 By Hon. ZACH MONTGOMERY 
 
 K>;. U. S. Assistant Attorney-General, now of the L<:.s 
 .\ng-eles Bar, California. 
 
 Dedicated to the Friend < (A I ihr rty Everywhere 
 
 This pamphlet will be sent to any part of the United States, freight or posta^te 
 Ipaid. I copy, 15 cts.; 4 copies, 50 cts.; lo copies $1.00; 100 copies $9.00; 1,000 cop- 
 ies, $75. Payment must accompany order. Address Z. Montgomery & Son, 
 lAttor ' ' ^ Angeles, Cal., or R. J. Montgomery, Oakland, Cal. 
 
BIMETALLISM 
 
 BONDAGE OR BLOOD 
 
 The Money Question Made Plain 
 
 Conclusive proof that a crisis is at hand when we must choose 
 
 either Bimetallism by the Ballot, Base Bondage . 
 
 for the Masses, or a Bloody War 
 
 of Classes. 
 
 Don't Leap in the Dark. Let Every Patriot Study the Question. Not half so 
 hard to understand as money sharks would have you believe. 
 
 Bv Hon. ZACH MONTGOMERY 
 
 Ex. U. S. Assistant Attorney-General, now of the Los 
 Angeles Bar, California. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN I VfcKSt I V 
 
 OF 
 Dedicated to the FriendsoTLibcrty Everywhere 
 
 This pamphlet will be sent to any part of the United States, freight or postage 
 paid. I copy, 15 cts.; 4 copies, 50 cts.; 10 copies $1.00; 100 copied $9.00; 1,000 cop- 
 ies, $75. Payment must accompany order. Address Z. Montgomery & Son, 
 Attorneys, Los Angeles, Cal., or R. J. Montgomery, Oakland, Cal. 
 
*,^l 
 
 To Publishers. 
 
 Although this little volume is copyrighted, yet in aid of the 
 cause it advocates, any newspaper or magazine publisher, is au- 
 thorized to publish the whole or any part of it on condition that 
 in the same issue he will publish this card, together with all the 
 matter on the outside title page, to enable such readers as desire 
 the entire book, to know what it is and. how to get it. Or in lieu 
 of the title page, the option is given to publish the official statis- 
 tical tables in the appendix These tables should be the familiar 
 and constant companions of all who wish to know the truth and 
 how to defend it. ^ 
 
 ZACH MONTGOMERY. 
 
 Witness: 
 
 )■■ 
 
 F. H. Skeel 
 D. Roses 
 
 "entered according to Act of Congress in tlie year A. D. 1895, by Z. Montgomery 
 in the office of tiie Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 
 
PREKACK 
 
 Before proceeding tu discuss the question of Bimetallism, 
 which the writer prefers to call United Metallism, he desires 
 to say that, while his position on this question is not by any 
 means in accord with that of the present democratic admin- 
 istration, yet it is not hit purpose to criticise the motives 
 of Mr. Cleveland in taking the stand he has relative 
 thereto. The wTiter's four years' personal and official 
 acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland, extending from May, 
 1885, to March, 1889, covering his term of office as United 
 States assistant attorney-general, convinced him that, how- 
 ever wrong in his views Mr. Cleveland might sometimes be, 
 those views were honestly formed and honorably maintained. 
 Grievously wrong as he seems to be on the silver question, 
 unlike some of his present follow:ers, he has at least been 
 consistent in that wrong. 
 
 It would be difficult to find proof more convincing of a 
 man's unwavering purpose to do his duty, as he understands 
 his duty, than Mr. Cleveland once furnished in the writer's 
 own case. He can never forget the violent assaults made on 
 him about the time of his appointment, by most of the lead- 
 ing journals of both political parties of New York and other 
 eastern States, because of what were falsely charged to be his 
 views touching the school question. He was denounced as 
 
 ( iii ) 
 
 178765 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 an enemy of education, and some of these papers urged and 
 demanded that his commission be revoked; and the Presi- 
 dent, in certain quarters, was roundly abused for refusing to 
 comply with the demand. Misunderstood and misrepre- 
 sented as the writer was, the President could not possibly 
 have performed a more popular act than to demand his res- 
 ignation. But instead of doing so, he deliberately investi- 
 gated the matter, and having learned the truth, he stood by 
 the appointment with a degree of firmness born of true 
 moral courage, such as not one man in ten thousand would 
 have manifested under like circumstances. In this, Mr. 
 Cleveland proved himself a man of remarkable independence 
 and courage, and placed the writer under a debt of gratitude 
 that he can never forget; and nothing short of an impera- 
 tive sense of duty could induce him to promulgate this ear- 
 nest protest against what he sincerely regards as Mr, Cleve- 
 land's most disastrous financial policy. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 A Word of Warning 7 
 
 United Metallism 9 
 
 Supply and Demand Regulate Prices 12 
 
 Astounding Financial Occurrence 14 
 
 Rise in Value of Gold in Fifteen Years 17 
 
 Ratio of the World's Gold and Silver 18 
 
 Uncle Sam, Dealing in Sound Money, Loses |8,ooo,ooo 
 
 IN Ten Days 20 
 
 Five Thousand Millions of American Bonds Held in 
 
 England 26 
 
 How Foreign Debts May Ruin America 27 
 
 Compound Interest a Vampire . 29 
 
 The Vanguard of English Landlordism ....... 32 
 
 The Proper Remedy 34 
 
 Would This Be Repudiation? 34 
 
 Can Legislation Lvcrease the Value of Silver? . . 36 
 
 Is the Raising of the Price of Silver an Outrage? 40 
 
 Wisner on the Bankers' Picnic 42 
 
 Waiting for the Consent of Europe 43 
 
 Are They Sincere? 44 
 
 Premium on Counterfeiting 46 
 
 Are the Poor Growing Poorer and the Rich Richer ? 48 
 
 Government Money and the Bankers 50 
 
 How Bankers Avoid Taxes 52 
 
 Two Kinds of Anarchists 54 
 
 Carlisle in 1878 . 57 
 
 Valuable Tables 58-64 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/birnetallismbondaOOmontrich 
 
A WORD OF WARNING! 
 
 United We Stand, Divided We Fall ! ! 
 
 While it would not be just to charge dishonest motives to 
 all advocates of monometallism, yet many are amenable to 
 that charge. Many will resort to any available means to 
 hold their grip on the throats of the people. Knowing well 
 that if all their victims are once united their own cause is 
 lost, they adopt the maxim, '^Divide and conquer y In 
 order to foment dissentions amongst those who, upon every 
 principle of patriotism, should stand as a unit on the one 
 great question of the day, they will appeal to party preju- 
 dices, they will scatter their gifts of gold amongst the leaders 
 of trades unions and other labor organizations, in order, 
 when possible, to induce them, while loudly denouncing 
 ''gold bugs'' to do the work of gold bugs, by sowing 
 amongst their associates the seeds of discord and strife. 
 They will subsidize the press, and employ all other agencies 
 to foment religious prejudices, bickerings, and violence be- 
 tween Catholics and Protestants, knowing full well that if 
 they can only succeed in so far embittering these two great 
 bodies of religionists against each other as to materially 
 divide their votes, they can then rivet their chains upon 
 both. Remember, union and ' 'eternal vigilance are the price 
 of liberty. ' ' Discord and strife mean defeat, dishonor, des- 
 titution and death. 
 
lU N I V E K S I T yJ 
 
 UNITED METALLISM 
 
 VS. 
 
 MONOMETALLISM. 
 
 SHALL GOLD ALONE, OR SHALL SILVER AND GOLD UNITED, 
 CONSTITUTE OUR MONEY STANDARD ? 
 
 This is the great question which to-day is agitating the 
 people of the civihzed world, and more particularly the peo- 
 ple of these United States. In discussing this question, let 
 us deal with it first from a common sense standpoint, with- 
 out reference to our financial history, and afterwards let us 
 invoke our financial experience in order, to test the accuracy 
 of our arguments and the soundness of our conclusions. 
 
 The writer has taken the statistics quoted in these pages, 
 in part, from the United States census reports, but not hav- 
 ing, in all cases, the original tables before him, he has copied 
 in part from Archbishop Walsh's pamphlet on "Bimetal- 
 lism," and partly from Mr. W. H. Harvey's "Coin's Finan- 
 cial School. " As to the last named statistics, not having 
 seen them impeached by any of the numerous critics of those 
 writers, it is taken for granted that they are at least substan- 
 tially correct. Of late, we have all read and heard much 
 about SOUND MONEY, and about its importance to the 
 
 (9) 
 
iO BIMETALLISM. 
 
 welfare of the country and the happiness of the people. 
 Now, there is really no difference of opinion amongst intelH- 
 gent people of any class or condition as to the vital impor- 
 tance of having a sound circulating medium for our money ; 
 and by money is understood primary money, that money 
 which everybody must accept as money in the payment of 
 all money debts. What, then, is sound money? There is 
 nothing so important in the discussion of any question as to 
 have a clear and definite understanding as to the exact 
 meaning of the words employed in stating the question in 
 dispute. Therefore, we ask again, 
 
 WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORDS, SOUND MONEY? 
 
 The word "sound," in its adjective sense, has many defi- 
 nitions. In defining this word, Webster employs, amongst 
 other terms, the following: firm, fast, undisturbed. Now, 
 money being itself the standard of value, the money that is 
 t\\Q firmest, in other words that which is the soimdest, is the 
 money which is the least liable to fluctuations in value. It 
 is almost impossible to exaggerate the perils to either public 
 or private prosperity arising from instability in the value or 
 purchasing power of money. 
 
 To illustrate, let us suppose that to-day money were so 
 low in value that it required $5 to purchase a bushel of 
 wheat, $2.50 to purchase a bushel of potatoes, $5 a day to 
 purchase a common day's labor, and a corresponding price 
 to purchase any of the various productions, either of the 
 farm or the factory. Suppose that, owing to this universal 
 cheapness of money, corresponding prices prevailed through- 
 out the world. And suppose that, relying upon the antici- 
 pated perpetuity of this low value of money, one thousand 
 young farmers in Los Angeles County, known to be honest, 
 industrious and enterprising men, should borrow a thousand 
 dollars each, at 2 per cent a month (for other things being 
 
BIMETALLISM. i I 
 
 equal, the more abundant and the less valuable the money, 
 the higher, as a rule, is the rate of interest). To secure 
 these loans, some of these farmers mortgage their farms 
 and others give personal security, perfectly certain that, in 
 view of the present great abundance and low valuation of 
 money, they will be able in twelve months' time not only to 
 pay back the borrowed money, but to realize a handsome 
 profit besides. With this borrowed capital these young 
 farmers purchase seed wheat at $5 per bushel, potatoes at 
 $2.50, seed corn at $4. per bushel, and other seeds, as well 
 as horses, harness and farming utensils at corresponding 
 prices, and they employ farm hands at $5 a day, all of 
 which is a perfectly safe investment if the money is only 
 sound and continues to remain fixed at its present valuation. 
 Yes, if the money is only stable or somid — there lies the 
 rub. Well, we will suppose that the season is a prosperous 
 one, and all these young farmers, after spending their thou- 
 sand dollars each, raise splendid crops, crops which, at the 
 prices of the preceding year, would enable them to pay their 
 debts and clear three thousand dollars each. But suppose 
 that even before the crop is harvestsd, it turns out that the 
 Rothschilds of England, and a few other money kings, have 
 cornered most of the money of the world, and are holding 
 it so closely in hand, and it has become so scarce out:idc 
 of their immense money vaults, that the $5 which a year 
 ago would purchase only one bushel of wheat will now pur- 
 chase ten, and the $2.50 which last year would purchase 
 but one bushel of potatoes will now purchase ten. And 
 suppose (owing to the same cause) a similar rise in the 
 value of money, and consequently a similar fall in the price 
 of all commodities, prevails throughout the world, while 
 these thousand dollar debts and interest thereon, and taxes, 
 have not only failed to fall but have actually risen in value, 
 along with the rise of the money that is locked in the vaults 
 
12 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 ol rich bankers. In view of this condition of things, would 
 not your thousand farmers be utterly ruined ? Yea, more, 
 the cause being almost universal, might we not reasonably 
 expect the ruin to be equally widespread ? And would not 
 the ruin of the farmers involve, to some extent, also the 
 ruin of the manufacturing, mechanical, the mercantile and 
 the common laboring classes? When the farmers are 
 plunged in debt without money, and their farms mortgaged 
 for all they are worth and a little more, how can they buy 
 the merchant's goods? How can they pay carpenters to 
 build houses, or how can they hire laborers to cultivate their 
 fields? Now, is there any particular mystery about all this? 
 Is It any harder to understand how the cornering of money 
 In the hands of a few people will enable those few people to 
 fix upon it their own valuation, and thus increase Its pur- 
 chasing power, than it is to understand how the cornering 
 of the great bulk of the world' s wheat, or of its oil wells, in 
 in the hands of a few men, will enable those few men to 
 raise the price of wheat or of oil ? The whole difficulty Is 
 solved In the light of the universally accepted maxim laid 
 down by political economists, that 
 
 SUPPLY AND DEMAND ARE THE GREAT REGULATORS OF 
 
 PRICES, 
 
 and money, locked In Iron vaults. Is no part of the supply, 
 any more than money locked In the bowels of the earth. 
 Perhaps It may be said that the case supposed Is an extreme 
 one, that money was never known to Increase In value to 
 the extent of tenfold In a single year. This Is admitted. 
 We have Intentionally magnified both the cause and the 
 resulting evil. In order to render It plainly perceptible to the 
 dullest Intellect. But we propose to demonstrate that 
 while there has not as yet been enough of the world' s money 
 cornered, In one year's time, to Increase Its purchasing 
 
BIMETALLISM. 1 3 
 
 power tefifoldj there has been enough of it cornered since 1873 
 to increase its purchasing power nearly twofold. . And while 
 the direful ruin wrought by this cornering of money has not 
 been so sudden nor so gigantic, it has been just as real and 
 as certain, just as inexorable, and almost as universal as in 
 the case supposed. "Let facts decide whether or not this is 
 true. Here is a table purporting to be compiled and pub- 
 lished by authority of the United States treasury depart- 
 ment, August 6, 1893, giving in tabulated form the quantity 
 of gold and silver produced in the whole world during one 
 hundred years' time, beginning with 1792 and ending in 
 1892. (See table A, appendix.) 
 
 According to this table, the whole world, during that one 
 hundred years, yielded as follows: 
 
 Gold, $5,633,908,000; and silver, $5,104,961,000, 
 
 making a total of both combined of $10,738,869,000. Of 
 course, immense quantities of that gold and silver have been 
 lost, some of it worn away by abrasion, some lost by the 
 sinking of vessels, and some by otherwise escaping from the 
 hands of man, so that the present estimated value ot both 
 gold and silver in the world, including the world's product 
 both prior and subsequent to 1792, is estimated as amounting 
 to $7, 7 20, 5 7 1, 347, as is shown by the figures in ''Coin's Fi- 
 nancial School, ' ' pp. TOO and 104. But, to be liberal, let us sup- 
 pose that in 1 873 there was in the world, and subject to its use, 
 as much gold and silver as the treasury department tells us 
 was produced in the one hundred years from 1792 to 1892. 
 This would give us in 1873, in the whole world and for all 
 uses, gold, $5,633,908,000, and silver, $5,104,961,000. If 
 we throw off the odd numbers, and count only the thousands 
 of millions, this gives us in 1873, $5,000,000,000 worth of 
 gold, and $5,000,000,000 of silver. 
 
 OF TJiE 
 
14 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 _ > 
 
 From the earliest dawn of civilization, and even running 
 back into the dim twilight of semi-barbarism, silver had been 
 used as primary money by the people of nearly every nation 
 and tongue and tribe upon the face of the earth. 
 
 It is true that since 1816 England had refused to give sil- 
 ver a legal recognition as primary money, but, nevertheless, 
 the English people have always stood ready to exchange a 
 gold sovereign for five dollars in silver. But in 1873 there 
 transpired In this country one of the most astounding finan- 
 cial occurrences, immediately followed, throughout the vari- 
 ous countries of Europe, by a succession of the fuost 
 remarkable financial coincidences recorded hi history. 
 
 In February, 1873, the American congress destroyed sil- 
 ver as the unit of value for American money, and substituted 
 a gold standard, only permitting silver to be used as a legal 
 tender to the extent of five dollars in any one payment. This is 
 the astounding financial occurrence just referred to. And was 
 it not an astounding financial occurrence ? For nearly one 
 hundred years silver had been the chief and almost only pri- 
 mary money in use amongst the great mass of American people. 
 Ours was supposed to be a government of the people, by 
 the people, and for the people, and yet, without anybody in 
 the whole country ever having complained of silver money, 
 w ithout any discussion of the question, either by the people, 
 the press, or in the halls of legislation, a law is quietly, 
 stealthily, and suddenly passed, destroying the primary 
 money value of every silver coin, and depreciating the mer- 
 cantile value of every dollar' s worth of property in these 
 United States. Not only was the passage of this law a sur- 
 prise to the whole American people, but it seems to have 
 been an equal surprise to almost every member of either 
 house of congress, who participated in its enactment. And 
 what is still more astounding, is the fact that such a law. In 
 view of all its direful consequences, should have remained for 
 
 1 
 
* BIMETALLISM. 1 5 
 
 more than twenty-two years, and still remains, unrepealed.-'^ 
 The act referred to is a very lengthy one, and is headed 
 by this most deceptive title, to wit: 
 
 •'COINAGE, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES." \ 
 
 But, as already said, this most astounding occurrence was 
 speedily followed by a series of equally astounding coifict- 
 deuces. And what were these coincidences ? Why, in a 
 few months (July, 1873) after the passage of this remarka- 
 ble law, destroying bimetallism, and destroying the money 
 value of silver in this country, the German Empire, for some 
 unexplained reason, did the selfsame thing. Then in quick 
 succession (January, 1874) followed the whole Latin Union, 
 including France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece, 
 all striking down silver and making gold the only primary 
 money. 
 
 Now, was not this a most astounding succession of finan- 
 cial coincidences ? How on earth did it happen that, in so 
 short a space of time — in less than twelve months — so many 
 nations, speaking so many different languages, subject to so 
 many different forms of government, whose people inherited 
 from the earliest antiquity a high veneration for silver money 
 — a money that was in the pockets, and interwoven with the 
 every-day business of the common people everywhere — how 
 did it happen that in all these various countries, suddenly, 
 almost at the same instant, silver is stricken down and the 
 gold standard is set up ? 
 
 Do you believe, good reader, that the value of silver was 
 destroyed to please the masses, whose only money was sil- 
 ver, or was it destroyed to please those millionaires of 
 Europe and America, whose only money and only god 
 is their gold ? 
 
 * In 1878 a law was passed making silver a legal tender in unlimited amounts 
 xcept where the contract calls for gold. But since that time the contract nearly 
 Iways calls for gold, so that the law is virtually a dead letter. 
 
l6 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 Perhaps the question may be asked, 
 
 WHAT INTEREST DID THE OWNERS OF GOLD HAVE IN STOP- 
 PING THE COINAGE AND USE OF .SILVER MONEY ? 
 
 Is it difficult to see that, when most of the world's silver 
 coin, constituting, as it did, nearly one-half the world's 
 money, ceased to be money, it would necessarily raise the 
 purchasing power and increase the demand for gold, that 
 being the only money left? Remember that supply and 
 demand regulate values. When nearly half the money in 
 the world ceases to be money, is not the supply of money 
 diminished to that extent ? And does not this raise the 
 purchasing power of the remainder ? This would be the 
 case, even were there no corner in gold. But with our sil- 
 ver money destroyed, and the great bulk of our gold locked 
 in the iron vaults of a gold trust, who can set limits to the 
 purchasing power that may be imparted to that gold? 
 Under these conditions, is it not a silly mockery to talk 
 about gold as a sound money in the sense of its being a 
 stable money? 
 
 Until the demonetization of silver by the United States 
 and most of the nations of Europe in 1873-4, silver, as 
 already stated, held her own, even in England, where the 
 law did not recognize it as primary money. But from that 
 time forth, silver, and along with silver nearly every other 
 commodity, began to fall in value, or, in other words, from 
 that time forth the value or the purchasing power of gold 
 began to rise. The carefully compiled tables of Mr. Sauer- 
 beck show that even in England, from the year 1854 to 
 1872, silver was never lower than 99.2 cents, and never 
 higher than 102 cents per ounce. (See appendix, table B.) 
 
 This was a variation of only two cents in nineteen years 
 immediately preceding the demonetization of silver. But 
 how was it during the next nineteen years following the 
 demonetization of silver ? These tables also show that after 
 
BIMETALLISM. I7 
 
 the general demonetization of silver, it fell in value from 
 97.4 in 1873 to 65.4 in 1892, while the purchasing power 
 of gold, as applied to the staple commodities, increased in 
 almost the same ratio as when applied to silver. (See appen- 
 dix, table C.) 
 
 For example, they show that the average price of some 
 forty-five staple commodities which, at the time of the gen- 
 eral demonetization of silver it required $1.02 to purchase, 
 could, in 1892, under the operation of what they called a 
 ''^ sound moneys system, be purchased for 68 cents. In other 
 words, in nineteen years' time after the demonetization of 
 silver, gold so advanced in value that 68 cents in gold was 
 worth as much and would purchase as much in the market 
 as $1.02 would purchase at the time silver was demonetized. 
 And is this our sound and stable money, that in the short 
 space of nineteen years' 'time rises like a kite at the rate of 
 ^4. cents on the dollar f 
 
 Mr. Balfour, the late chief secretary of Ireland, declares 
 that, under the operation of the single gold standard, the 
 value of gold has gone up "no less than from 30 to 35 per 
 cent in some fifteen or sixteen years," and he adds, "it is still 
 steadily, continuously, and indefinitely increasing in value, 
 so that no man living can prophesy the limits to which the 
 increase may not extend. ' ' (See Archbishop Walsh's pam- 
 phlet, pp. 52-3.) 
 
 It is claimed by the gold standard people, that the reason 
 why the value of silver has of late sunk so far below that of 
 gold, is because of the vast increase of the production of 
 silver over that of gold. But this fallacy is completely re- 
 futed by'Mr. Harvey in his "Coin's Handbook," at page 
 21, where, on the authority of Mr. Mulhall, the great Lon- 
 don statistician, he shows by statistics that, notwithstanding 
 the large production of silver in the United States of recent 
 years, yet, even as late as 1890, the ratio of the world's 
 
 3 
 
l8 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 silver, as compared with its g^old, was only a little more than 
 half what it was in 1848, at the time gold was discovered in 
 CaHfornia. In 1848 there were in the world 31 tons of silver 
 to I ton of gold, whereas, in 1890, there were but 18 tons of 
 silver to i of gold. Another mianswerable refutation of 
 this assumption is found in the fact that in 1873, at the time 
 silver was demonetized, it stood at a premium over gold. 
 
 Then, again, it is claimed that the depreciation in the value 
 of produce is not owing to the demonetization of silver, the 
 scarcity of money, and the consequent rise in gold, but that 
 it is all owing to the over-production, brought about by im- 
 proved machinery. This, too, is a naked assertion, wholly 
 unsupported by facts. It is admitted that, during the last 
 half of the century, there have been great improvements in 
 machinery, but these improvements did not begin with the 
 demonetization of silver in 1873, but long before. Yet the 
 development of the world's mines of gold and silver, keep- 
 ing pace with improvements in machinery, maintained the 
 equilibrium between the value of money and other commod- 
 ities until 1873. But the facts show that since 1873 the 
 values of most of our staple productions have declined, as 
 silver declined, and just about in the same ratio. 
 
 Mr. Harvey has compiled from the United States statis- 
 tical abstract for September, 1893 (pp. 50 and 342), a table 
 showing the average prices of silver, cotton, and wheat, from 
 1872 down to and including 1893 (see appendix, table D), 
 which shows a steady decline, as follows : 
 
 Silver, in 1872 $ i 32 
 
 Silver, ini 893 o 75 
 
 Cotton, in 1872 19 03 
 
 Cotton, in 1893 7 00 
 
 Wheat, in 1872 i 47 
 
 Wheat, in 1893 068 
 
 These are simply finger-boards pointing to the general 
 
 decline of prices of American products from year to year, 
 
 ever since the demonetization of silver in 1873. 
 
BIMETALLISM. I9 
 
 WHY CAPITALISTS GENERALLY OPPOSE BIMETALLISM. 
 
 Taking human nature as we find it, there is nothing sur- 
 prising in the abstract fact that those whose property is chiefly 
 gold should struggle to maintain and enhance its value by 
 opposing bimetallism. But that the owners of other kinds 
 of property, who are being daily impoverished and ruined 
 by this constantly enhancing value of gold money, should 
 oppose bimetallism, certainly indicates either a lack of infor- 
 mation or a lack of intelligence, and in most cases it is 
 doubtless the former. In truth, this money question is so 
 out of the ordinary run of political issues that only a com- 
 paratively few people have as yet given it a serious thought. 
 Most men seem to assume that it matters but little in what 
 w^ay it is settled. The writer must confess that for a long 
 time he was himself a victim of this same kind of indiffer- 
 ence, and when he awoke to a realizing sense of the great 
 magnitude and vital importance of the question, his feelings 
 were much akin to those of a man suddenly aroused from 
 his slumbers by the crackling flames of his ow^n house on 
 fire. 
 
 We sometimes express surprise that a man of money, 
 while willing to loan it on ample security, will not invest it 
 in other property at any price, however low. But these 
 men, in so acting, are neither criminals nor fools. What sen- 
 sible man, the owner of either money or any other kind of 
 property that is constantly on the rise in value, is willing to 
 exchange it for other property that is constantly depreciat- 
 ing in value ? Then, again, is it not a fact that a general 
 consciousness that money is thus incessantly growing in 
 value, and that nearly everything else is proportionately 
 shrinking in value, naturally and necessarily stimulates a 
 still further increased demand for money, and correspond- 
 ingly decreases the demand for other kinds of property ? 
 
20 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 Thus it is that each successful rise in the value of money 
 simply breeds another rise, and each fall in the value of 
 other property prepares the way for still another fall. 
 
 Under these coaditions, is it any wonder that the owners 
 of money prefer to keep it locked up in their iron safes, 
 rather than invest it either in buying or improving farms, 
 fruit ranches, orcit}'lots? In other words, is it any won- 
 der that the industries languish, and that men lie idle ? It 
 is not, as is sometimes claimed, the agitation of the silver 
 question that raises the value of gold and depreciates other 
 commodities. On the contrary, let the agitation of the sil- 
 ver question be redoubled, until it is brought home to every 
 voter, so that he understands it. And when the men whose 
 money is now locked in iron chests become convinced that 
 silver is to be restored to her proper place, that moment, 
 without waiting for congressional action, the value of gold 
 will begin to descend, while other property will rise in value, 
 in anticipation of a redoubling of our primary money. The 
 money speculators hiow this, and hence their desperate 
 struggle to destroy all hope of bimetallism. 
 
 UNCLE SAM's loss OF $8,000,000 IN TEN DAYS BY THE 
 FLUCTUATION IN THE VALUE OF HIS "SOUND MONEY." 
 
 Most overwhelming evidence of the rapid fluctuations in 
 the purchasing power of gold was furnished only a short 
 time ago, in the course of a transaction In which Mr. Car- 
 lisle, our distinguished secretary of the treasury, was himself 
 one of the chief actors. It appears that our government, 
 being sorely pressed for money, sold to some English bank- 
 ers $50,000,000 worth of American interest-bearing bonds. 
 These bonds were sold at the rate of $1.04 of gold for each 
 dollar named in the bonds. And according to public report, 
 which we have never heard contradicted, within ten days 
 after the purchase of this $50,000,000, the sellers of this 
 
ftlMltTALIJSM. ^1 
 
 gold took the bonds and purchased with them not only as 
 much gold as they had paid for them, but i6 per cent more, 
 making a clear profit of $8,000,000.* Now, if Mr. Carlisle 
 purchased this gold at no more than it was then worth, (and 
 if he was honest he must have beHeved that he did), there 
 was a fall in the value of gold in ten days' time oi just 16 
 per cent. To make this matter perfectly plain, suppose 
 that instead of British gold it had been Los Angeles oranges 
 that Mr. Carlisle was purchasing. And suppose that on the 
 first day of this present month of July he had purchased of 
 Messrs. Jacoby Bros. (Los Angeles fruit dealers), 50,000,000 
 boxes of oranges, paying for them in government bonds at 
 the rate of one dollar a box. And suppose that on July 10 
 Messrs. Jacoby Bros, had taken these same bonds and pur- 
 chased with them 58,000,000 boxes of oranges, equally as 
 good as those they had sold — just 8,000,000 more boxes 
 than they had paid for the bonds — now, would not everybody 
 agree that during these ten days oranges had gone down 16 
 per cent in value ? Possibly it may be said that the reason 
 Messrs. Jacoby Bros, sold their oranges for so big a price, 
 and made so fine a speculation, was that when they sold to 
 Mr. Carlisle they had a corner on oranges. Jiist so; and 
 are you quite sure, good reader, that the Rothschilds did 
 not have a corner on gold ? And is this what you call * 'sound 
 mo7iey,^^ Mr. Carlisle? A money that drops in value at the 
 rate of 16 per cent in ten days' time? And what will our 
 gold standard men say in answer to this ? It will not do to 
 say that Mr. Carlisle did not k7iow the real value of gold, 
 and paid more for it than it was worth. If Mr. Carlisle, 
 who, on account of his transcendant financial abilities, was 
 chosen in preference to every other man in America to take 
 
 * Since the above was in type, a Mr. Brayton Ives, President of the Western 
 National Bank of New York City, in a speech delivered at Saratog:a, July lo, is 
 reported to have said, in defense of this U. S. Bond sale, that the syndicate did not 
 clear more than about 6^ per cent on their investment. Even this would make a 
 profit of some $3,125,000. (Author.) 
 
^1i BIMETALLISM. 
 
 charge of and manage the finances of this great country; If 
 Mr. CarHsle, with all the telegraphs and telephones of the 
 world at his command, at government expense, aided and 
 assisted as he is by the brightest and shrewdest and most ex- 
 perienced accountants, bankers and financiers as his subor- 
 dinates, if, with all these aids at his command, he cannot 
 keep pace with the rapid rise and fall of this sound money of 
 his, how in the name of high heaven can he expect that the 
 great masses of our common people can do so ? 
 
 Was it not in order to enable these gold syndicates to 
 make just such speculations as this that in 1873-4 they 
 throttled the legislative bodies, both of Europe and America, 
 and, either by falsehood and fraud, or by the corrupting 
 power of gold, demonetized, and, as far as possible, turned 
 to ashes in the pockets of the people all the money in the 
 world except that in which they themselves were speculat- 
 ing. Did they not simply act on a gigantic scale the part 
 of a villain in the hotel business, who, in the darkness of the 
 night, would burn down a rival hotel in order to force cus- 
 tom into his own ? This done, the next thing was to corner 
 the gold and control the money market of the world. During 
 the last twenty-two years they have reaped many agolden har- 
 vest as the fruit ol this crime, but never before did they make 
 so big a haul as when they bought tnese bonds from Mr. Car- 
 lisle. Seeing our government in great need of a large sum 
 of money that could not be found outside of their vaults, 
 they simply raised the price of their gold to suit themselves, 
 and made the government pay in bonds, as we have seen, 
 some $8,000,000 too much. Thus it was that almost in the 
 twinkling of an eye, in the hands of a trust, gold went up 
 16 per cent in its purchasing power; and after the govern- 
 ment was thus fleeced to the tune of $8,000,000, it dropped 
 back again to about its previous value. And this, Mr. Car- 
 lisle says, is * 'soimd money ' ' HI 
 
niMKTAI.LISM. 23 
 
 Perhaps it will be said that if the government had peddled 
 its bonds around among the various banks it might have 
 got gold in small dribs at a lower price. And possibly it 
 might for the once have done so, provided the big gold bugs 
 did not give the wink to the little ones. But with the tele- 
 graphs at their command, how easy it would have been to 
 draw into the combine almost every bank that could buy a 
 bond, and then divide the spoils. The truth is perfectly 
 transparent that with gold as the world' s only money, and 
 with the great bulk of this gold in the hands of a few men, 
 these few men can regulate its purchasing power, sliding it 
 up or down as best suits their own selfish purposes. ' If they 
 cannot do this, will somebody tell us why not ? That they 
 have done it, is proof positive that, under like conditions, 
 they can do it again. But what seems most amazing is 
 that Mr. Carlisle, a bright man, a great man, and an honor- 
 able man, after having seen our government, in one day's 
 time, by one single transaction, fleeced to the tune of 
 $8,000,000 by these money sharps, by means of what he 
 calls a sound 7no7iey system, cannot see that, however sound 
 may be the metal that makes the money, his boasted system 
 is full of rottenness, fraught with financial ruin to the coun- 
 try, and poverty, hunger, rags, misery and death to our 
 people. 
 
 And why the necessity of this enormous purchase of gold 
 on a credit, with interest-bearing bonds ? Is it not perfectly 
 apparent that it was a necessity born of that infamous law 
 of 1873, that assassinated our silver money and closed our 
 mints against the further coinage of silver ? 
 
 Blessed by Almighty God with some of the richest silver 
 mines in the world, with the mountains of Arizona, Nevada, 
 Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and other 
 states and territories, literally glistening with silver; with 
 millions of private capital invested in opening up and devel- 
 
24 IMMKTAIJJSM. 
 
 oping these mines; with thousands of hard-working- miners 
 digging out and sending annually to the mints tons and tons 
 of this precious metal, ivhy did not the gover?i?iient go on 
 and make all the money it wanted^ from its otvn silver, 
 thanking none bid God and honest American industry and 
 eriterprise for the blessed boo7i ? 
 
 Why close the mints to silver at the very time when a sil- 
 ver dollar was worth more than a gold one, and compel 
 many mine owners to shut down their mines, sacrificing 
 millions of honestly invested capital, and turning out of 
 employment hundreds and thousands of hard-working, hon- 
 est laborers, leaving their wives and children to cry for 
 bread, and forcing themselves to either starve or turn 
 tramps or thieves ? Is it not a sad and humiliating spec- 
 tacle to behold our American congressmen, the honored and 
 trusted servants of the people, in base betrayal of their high 
 trust, crouching and cringing at the feet of British bankers, 
 enacting laws at /'/2<f/r dictation, to fill their coffers with gold, 
 to the utter degradation and ruin of our own country ? Had 
 congress encouraged and fostered our silver mining industry 
 instead of either crippling or destroying it by the demoneti- 
 zation of silver, and had our mints continued to coin this 
 precious metal into money, there would have been no occa- 
 sion for either our national, state, or municipal governments, 
 nor for our railroad or gas or water companies, or other corpo- 
 rations or individuals, to borrow money from England to 
 meet their obligations. At least the greater part, if not all the 
 money they needed could have been found at home, and the 
 interest upon the bonds given in exchange for this money 
 would have remained here as a part of our own circulating 
 medium, instead of going abroad to enrich English gold 
 speculators and impoverish America. Mr. W. H. Harvey 
 states (and his statement seems not to have been denied by 
 any of his critics) that England holds American interest-bear- 
 
BtMF.TATJJSM. 55 
 
 inggold bonds of various kinds, aggregating at least $5,000, - 
 000,000, the interest on which amounts to some $200,000,- 
 000 a year, all payable in gold coin. Just think of this ! ! 
 The producing classes of America (for primarily it must all 
 come out of them) sending to England $200,000,000 a 
 year in gold to pay interest. Why, the tea tax that the 
 British parliament attempted to impose on our revolutionary 
 sires, and which they resisted at the cannon's mouth, was a 
 mere bagatelle compared with this enormous and Iniquitous 
 burden fastened upon our people by an American congress. 
 But one of the worst features of this almost unbearable bur- 
 den is that it is daily and hourly growing heavier and 
 heavier, and no man can tell when or where it will reach 
 the limit of its growth. If it is true, as Mr. Balfour says, 
 that in fifteen years, under the operation of anti-silver laws, 
 the value of gold rose from 30 to 35 per cent, and if we are 
 going to perpetuate these laws, how can we expect to escape 
 their disastrous consequences ? A rise in the value of gold at 
 the rate of 30 per cent in fifteen years would mean a rise of 60 
 per cent in thirty years — the very time when our $50,000,000 
 must be paid to the Rothschilds. Now, don' t forget that all 
 the time that gold is rising in value, the produce that must 
 be sold to pay our interest depreciates in value in a corres- 
 ponding degree. That is to say, while our burden of debt, 
 by reason of the constant rise in the value of gold, becomes 
 daily heavier and heavier, our ability to carry that burden 
 becomes day by day less and less, by reason of the con- 
 stantly depreciating values of those commodities we must 
 sell to meet this debt. 
 
 After taxing our producing classes to the tune ot about 
 $1,000,000,000 a year to run the general government, to 
 say nothing of the several state and county and municipal gov- 
 ernments, we then load them down with an English interest 
 debt of $200,000,000 more, and that, too, growing heavier 
 and heavier year by year. 
 
26 BIMETAIJ.TFIM. 
 
 These are some of the fruits we have ah'eady gathered 
 from the demonetization of silver. But if this sound money 
 law of 1873 is to be perpetuated, a far darker abyss yawns 
 before us in the future. 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL OF OUR BONDS MAY HAVE TO BE PAID. 
 
 So far, we have chiefly been considering the enormous and 
 constantly growing burden of our interest debt. But one of 
 these days the principal will fall due, and then, if our British 
 bondmasters find it to their interest to do so, they will 
 demand payment, and payment in gold, as specified in the 
 bonds. By the time our recently executed government 
 bonds for $50,000,000 falls due, namely thirty years hence, 
 even adopting Mr. Balfour's moderate estimate, these bonds 
 will be worth at least $80,000,000. That is to say, they 
 will require the sale of $80,000,000 worth of property 
 to redeem them. This fact may help to explain why it was 
 that the second purchaser of these bonds was willing to pay 
 $8,000,000 more for them than Mr. Carlisle had sold them 
 for. 
 
 With less than $^^000,000,000 of geld in the wholt world, 
 American debtors to English bankers must redeem $^,000,- 
 000,000. 
 
 When the principal of those $5,000,000,000 of American 
 gold bonds, given to British bankers by American municipal 
 and other corporations, shall mature, where will the gold 
 come from to redeem these bonds if payment be demanded 
 of all, or any considerable portion of them, at or about the 
 same time ? 
 
 Mr. Harvey, at page 28 of "Coin's Handbook," quot- 
 ing from the official report of Mr. Leech, director of the 
 United States mint (see appendix, table F), shows that, 
 according to the very highest estimate made, all the gold in 
 the whole woi'ld, both c^i" ^ind bullion, circulating as money, 
 
BIMETALLISM. 2 7 
 
 does not exceea three thousand seven hundred and twenty- 
 seven milHons, eighteen thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine 
 dollars ($3,727,018,869). How, then, would it be possible, 
 should payment be demanded, to raise anything near 
 enough gold to pay off the principal of these gold bonds 
 now standing as a lien on American property? While it 
 would not be possible to raise gold enough to pay off these 
 debts, it 7vould be possible, by means of an effort made for 
 that purpose, to create such a demand for gold that its value 
 would be immediately greatly enhanced, while other values 
 would necessarily fall. 
 
 HOWTHE$26, 000,000,000 AND MORE OF FOREIGN NATIONAL 
 DEBTS MAY PROVE OUR RUIN UNDER THE SO- 
 CALLED "sound money" system. 
 
 Even if there were gold enough in the world to pay all 
 the debts due, or to become due, from Americans to British 
 bankers, still there is no possibility of our getting it quite 
 all for that purpose. Besides the thousands of millions of 
 dollars of gold in demand for the payment of our home pri- 
 vate debts, as well as foreign private debts, we learn from 
 the United States census reports for 1890 that there are for- 
 eign national debts aggregating twenty-six thousand six 
 hundred and thirty-three millions, sixteen thousand eight 
 hundred and eleven dollars ($26,633,016, 811). (See Com- 
 pendium United Census Reports for 1890, vol. 2, p. 313.) 
 
 It will be observed that these foreign national debts foot 
 up more than seven times as much as all the gold currency 
 in the civilized world; so that if these foreign national 
 debtors were suddenly called upon to settle their dues, and 
 if they were to strip the whole earth of its gold currency , 
 they could not pay so much as fifteen cents on the dollar. 
 In fact, all the gold and silver money in the world combined, 
 aggregating as it does $7,547,590,215, would not pay one- 
 
2cS IJIMETATJJSM. 
 
 third of these foreign national debts alone, leaving out of 
 the calculation all American public debts and the private 
 debts of all mankind. 
 
 And yet in the teeth and eyes of this startling condition 
 of things, we have it daily dinned into our ears that there 
 is so much gold money in the world that it will not do to 
 remonetize silver; that we have no use for silver money; 
 that it would inflate the prices of everything and ruin the 
 poor people. 
 
 To instance a parallel case, instead of dollars of gold we 
 will take bushels of wheat. We will suppose that a number 
 of American companies have sold to British merchants, for 
 cash in advance, five thousand millions of bushels of wheat. 
 Certain foreign governments have also sold and agreed to 
 deliver to these merchants, by a given day, twenty-six 
 thousand millions of bushels of wheat. But, on investiga- 
 tion, it is ascertained that all the wheat in the whole world 
 will not amount to so much as four thousand millions of 
 bushels, — an amount less than one-seventh part of the 
 wheat so purchased and paid for. Finding it impossible 
 to comply with their contracts, these American com- 
 panies, and also those foreign governments who have 
 undertaken the impossible task of delivering much more 
 wheat than was in existence, deliver a part, and get a post- 
 ponement of the time fixed for the delivery of the balance 
 by paying the merchants, periodically, a bonus in wheat 
 corresponding with the interest paid on borrowed money. 
 But the efforts to procure even this much wheat, coupled 
 with the ordinary requirements for consumption, greatly 
 enhances the value of wheat, so as to place it far beyond 
 the reach of the poor, many of whom, as a consequence, 
 are compelled to go without bread. In the meantime, 
 there is Indian corn in the country amply sufficient to sup- 
 ply everybody with bread, at a moderate price, but we 
 
BIMETALLISM. 29 
 
 are met with a law closing all the mills against Indian corn, 
 forbidding it to be ground into meal. Thereupon it is pro- 
 posed to repeal that law and set the mills to work, preparing 
 bread for our starving millions. But "No! !" thunder forth 
 the heartless speculators in wheat. * ' Don' t repeal that law. 
 If you do you will glut the market with cheap corn meal, 
 a7id ruin the poor P ' 
 
 If this is not an exact parallel of the position taken to-day 
 by those speculators in gold who oppose the opening of our 
 mints to the coinage of silver, it would be interesting to 
 have some one of them show wherein this parallel is 
 defective. 
 
 It has just been stated that the aggregate foreign national 
 indebtedness amounted in 1890 to $26,633,016,811. If to 
 this we add $891,960,104, the then national debt of the 
 United States, we shall have an aggregate of national debts 
 in the world amounting to $27,524,976,915, being more 
 than all the gold currency in the world by an excess of 
 $23,797,958,046. 
 
 Perhaps the question may be asked: How was it possible 
 for the bankers of the world not only to loan out to the 
 nations of the earth upwards of twenty-three thousand 
 millions of dollars more gold than there was on earth, and 
 yet have plenty of gold with which to purchase thousands 
 of millions of dollars of American securities? Ah ! This 
 is a most important question. This question brings us face 
 ^ face with that great world-embracing monster that holds 
 in its unrelenting grasp, and poisons with its deadly fangs, 
 the fortunes, the hopes and the destinies of nations. I 
 mean the monster of compound interest. 
 
 Compound Interest is a Vampire that Never Sleeps. 
 
 Day and night, winter and summer, in sunshine and in 
 rain, in sickness and in health, heedless alike of wars, fam- 
 
30 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 ines and pestilences, it coils its cruel talons around the 
 vitals, thrusting them deeper and deeper into the heart, 
 silently sucking away the life's blood of its doomed and 
 ever dying victim. 
 
 If the reader would realize the fearful speed with which a 
 very little money at compound interest will heap up an 
 enormous debt, let him begin with a debt of one dollar, 
 bearing interest at the moderate rate of 4 per cent per annum, 
 and compounding annually for two hundred and forty years. 
 At the end of that time he will find that this little debt of one 
 dollar has grown to the enormous proportions of a debt of 
 more than ten thousand dollars. Let it run another two 
 hundred and forty years, at the same rate of 4 per cent, com- 
 pounding annually as before, and this one dollar debt will 
 have grown td considerably over one hundred millions of 
 dollars. This being the case, is it then surprising that 
 while there are less than four thousand millions of gold coin 
 in the world, the nations of the earth owe to money lenders 
 upwards of twenty-seven thousand millions of dollars in gold? 
 It is simply a case of a vast accumulation of interest and 
 compound interest, with the payment still postponed and the 
 compound interest still growing at a most alarming rate. 
 And who can tell the effect that these unpaid and unpayable 
 foreign debts — to say nothing of our own — may even in the 
 near future exert over the value of gold throughout the 
 world ? Suppose, for example, that the Rothschilds, bank- 
 ers, finding that half a dozen or so of their national debtors 
 had permitted their compound interest to pile up a debt of 
 several thousand millions of dollars each ; and, as a business 
 proposition, — considering it unsafe to extend further credit 
 to either of these debt-laden nations, — suppose that these 
 bankers should suddenly demand an average of a thousand 
 millions of dollars each from half a dozen of these unfor- 
 tunate debtors, just by way of so reducing their debts as to 
 
BIMETALLISM. 3I 
 
 make their credit good for the remainder a litde while 
 longer. Now here would be half a dozen demands, aggre- 
 gating six thousand millions of dollars in gold, when, in fact, 
 there are less than four thousand millions in existence. Of 
 course, it would be impossible for all these debtor nations to 
 comply wath the demand, but some of them, and perhaps all, 
 would make a most desperate effort to pay. And would 
 not this effort result in so extraox^dinary a demand for gold 
 as to enhance its purchasing power beyond all precedent ? 
 And who will undertake to say that the case supposed is 
 either an impossible or an improbable one ? 
 
 As time rolls on and compound interest piles up these 
 enormous debts, until they surpass, as they soon will, forty- 
 fold all the gold in the world, placing payment still more 
 and more beyond the limits of possibility, who could won- 
 der if these money kings, after first collecting and locking 
 in their vaults every a\'ailable gold dollar in the world, 
 should then turn round and demand that the nations either 
 pay this compound interest debt or else surrender to them 
 the earth, with all its appurtenences ? And with the world's 
 coin at their command, and the rest of the world without 
 money, who can say that these bankers could not hire one- 
 half of the nations to enforce their claim at the cannon's 
 mouth against the other half? 
 
 Perhaps it will be said that the amount of gold in the 
 world, although insignificant in amount when compared 
 with the amount of the national indebtedness referred to, 
 might still be sufficient to liquidate all these debts, for the 
 reason that the same money passing from hand to hand 
 often pays many debts, each of which is equal in amount to 
 the money paid. Thus, for example, A owes B $ioo; 
 B owes C $100; C owes D $ioo ; D owes E $ioo, and so 
 on to the end of the alphabet. In that case, just as soon 
 as A can raise $ioo he pays it to B, whereupon B takes 
 
32 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 the same hundred dollars and pays it to C and C pays it 
 to D, who in turn pays it to E, etc. So that this $ioo 
 serves the purpose of paying off several hundred dollars of 
 indebtedness. 
 
 This is a very common occurrence amongst individuals, 
 but the case is quite diiferent with the debts contracted by 
 nations. It is rarely the case that one nation loans money 
 to another; but, as a general rule, nations get their money 
 from wealthy bankers, just as Mr. Carlisle did in the case of 
 the fifty millions. And when these bankers collect either 
 their interest or principal, they don't pay debts with it, 
 because, as a rule, they have none to pay; but they loan it 
 out again for more interest and compound interest. 
 
 Suppose that our American railroad companies, gas com- 
 panies, water companies, electric companies, etc., whose 
 indebtedness to English bankers aggregates, as we have 
 seen, some five thousand millions of dollars, should manage 
 to pay off a good part of this indebtedness; is it at all prob- 
 able that any part of it would come back to pay American 
 creditors? No, not a cent of it would find its way back 
 here, unless it should be in the way of trade or as another 
 loan. 
 
 But the great danger ahead of us is, that one of these 
 days, in view of the growing impossibility of our American 
 debtors ever being able to pay their foreign creditors the 
 amount of gold they have contracted to pay, they will 
 either voluntarily or involuntarily surrender their immense 
 properties into the hands of those creditors, thereby estab- 
 lishing a widespread foreign ownership in American soil 
 utterly incompatible with American liberty. 
 
 THE VANGUARD OF ENGLISH LANDLORDISM ALREADY 
 
 HERE. 
 
 Is it not a fact that English landlordism, which for so 
 
BIMETALLISM. 33 
 
 many centuries has impoverished and ruined Ireland, has 
 already begun to fasten its detestable fangs upon the heart 
 of America ? According to Mr. Harvey' s carefully gathered 
 statistics, not only have foreign English syndicates and 
 Englishmen of wealth becom_e the owners of controlling 
 interests in many metropolitan newspapers in this country, 
 but they * ' own our breweries ' ' and a large share of ^ ' our 
 insurance and investment companies." And, worse yet, 
 immense bodies of our best lands are rapidly passing into 
 the hands of foreign English landlords. Mr. Harvey gives 
 many names of foreign English subjects, each of whom 
 owns a vast landed estate in America, aggregating some 
 20,000,000 of acres in tracts, ranging in size from thirty- 
 five thousand up to three millions of acres each. He also 
 quotes from the United States census reports, figures 
 showing that in the New England states the number of 
 families owning their own land had, in ten years — from 
 1880 to 1890 — fallen off to the tune of 24,117, while the 
 increase in the number of tenants was correspondingly 
 large, the percentage of tenants being in 1890 double what 
 it was in 1880. 
 
 Now if this gold trust law of 1873 is to be perpetuated, 
 if gold is to continue our only primary money, and if we 
 can only get that money by bonding our property and the 
 hard earnings of our people to British syndicates upon just 
 such terms as they choose to dictate, how long will it be 
 until America finds herself just as completely in the power 
 and at the mercy of England as Ireland has been for the 
 last seven hundred years ? May God grant that the his- 
 torian may never have to record the fact that English gold 
 had conquered the degenerate sons of those noble sires 
 whom the combined armijes of Great Britain could not 
 subdue. 
 
34 BIMETALLISM, . 
 
 BUT WHAT IS TO BE DONE TO REMEDY OUR PRESENT 
 
 FINANCIAL EVILS AND TO PROTECT OURSELVES 
 
 AGAINST IMPENDING DISASTER? 
 
 Our people must arouse themselves to a realizing sense 
 of this great evil before it is too late and demand a repeal 
 of the iniquitous law that has done the damage. Place 
 silver, the traditional money of the people, back again where 
 it belongs. Make the silver dollar again the unit of value. 
 And without attempting to disturb existing contracts, make 
 all future contracts payable either in gold or silver at the 
 option of the debtor. In this way we would again put our 
 mints in motion, re-open our silver mines, vastly increase 
 our circulating medium, start anew our now silent fac- 
 tories, revivify commerce, inspire with new life and hope 
 and energy our now disheartened and despondent farmers, 
 fruit-growers, mechanics, merchants, shop-keepers, art- 
 isans and professional men ; stop our strikes, and give pro- 
 fitable employment to our tramps and industrial armies, and 
 thus bring peace and plenty and happiness to hundreds of 
 thousands, yea, millions, of our poor countrymen who to- 
 day are living by beggary, or starving through shame. 
 
 WOULD THIS BE REPUDIATION? 
 
 But we are told by our so-called sound money men that 
 this would be repudiation, and bring dishonor on the coun- 
 try. This is not true. Those who hold gold notes and 
 gold bonds would thus be paid, according to their contracts, 
 in gold of the same weight as called for, if they say so. 
 
 While this is the writer's opinion as to the easiest and 
 most satisfactory way of settling the question as to past con- 
 tracts, yet he is not prepared to condemn as dishonest the 
 views of those who believe it right to make all contracts, 
 old and new, payable in either gold or silver at the option 
 of the debtor. In fact, Professor Laughlin, an out-and-out 
 
BIMETALLISM. 35 
 
 gold standard man (who recendy discussed the bimetallic 
 question with Mr. Harvey, of Chicago), in his late work on 
 political economy, at page 76, proclaims a principle sub- 
 stantially in accord with the last-named position. He says : — 
 
 **A long contracL,like a government or railway bond, ought not 
 to be settled bv/paying back the amount of gold or silver bor- 
 rowed, but bv^ivingthe lender a sum which would, at the time of 
 payment, jcKirchase the amount of commodities for which the 
 mone^j-iidaned could have been exchanged at the time it passed 
 frf^nfthe lender to the borrower." 
 
 If this be a correct principle, where would be the injustice 
 in a law authorizing the payment of an old debt in depreci- 
 ated coin, provided that such depreciation did not so reduce 
 the value of the coin as to make its purchasing power less 
 than it was when the contract was made? 
 
 At all events, if it was right in 1873, in the interest of 
 gold speculators, to take from silver its money value, it can- 
 not be wrong now, in the interest of all the balance of man- 
 kind, to restore what was then taken away. 
 
 The writer's chief reason for proposing to settle old debts 
 according to their express terms, is because he believes that 
 this plan w^ould hasten legislation on this most important 
 question, and because of his thorough conviction that, when 
 silver is remonetized, gold will so rapidly depreciate and sil- 
 ver so rapidly rise in value, that in a short time it will make 
 very litde difference to either debtor or creditor in which kind 
 of coin the debt is paid. Still another reason for preferring the 
 writer' s proposed plan, is to avoid all danger of having the 
 courts declare unconstitutional, as impairing the obligation 
 of contracts, a law allowing the debtor to pay in silver a 
 debt stipulated to be paid in gold, however just such a law 
 might be. 
 
 Judging from the signs of the times, there can be but 
 litde doubt but that the remonetization of silver by the 
 
36 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 United States will be speedily followed by a demand coming 
 from the great mass of the people of Europe calling for similar 
 action, which their respective governments will not dare to 
 disregard. Therefore we should hasten our work at home. 
 
 The moment we stop these gold note and gold bond con- 
 tracts, and for all future contracts make a payment in silver 
 equal to a payment in gold, that moment we will thereby 
 almost double our supply of primary money; and the value 
 of gold and silver, being by law linked in one common 
 standard, just in proportion as the silver dollar rises In value, 
 in the same proportion must the gold dollar come down 
 until it reaches that common standard. With gold and sil- 
 ver money once more on an equal footing, and our money 
 supply thus nearly doubled, it will not cost near so much 
 labor nor near so much produce as it now does to purchase 
 the gold with which to pay our outstanding gold debts. 
 And while the debtors' facilities for paying these old debts 
 in gold will be vastly increased, the creditors' desire to have 
 the gold will be greatly diminished, for why should they be 
 so very anxious about having the gold, when the silver, dol- 
 lar for dollar, is of equal value? 
 
 Somebody may say, ''This may do very well for the pay- 
 ment of our home debts, but we cannot pay our foreign gold 
 debts with silver. ' ' 
 
 But even the foreign banker, holding an American gold 
 bond, when he finds that his patron, the English merchant, 
 purchasing American produce, can use American silver dollars 
 with the same purchasing power as if they were gold, will 
 not be near so imperious in his demand as he is at present 
 for gold. The only way we can ever get the balance of the 
 world to respect our silver money is to respect it ourselves. 
 
 CAN LEGISLATION INCREASE THE VALUE OF SILVER? 
 
 But we are told by our gold standard people that silver is 
 
BIMETALLISM. 37 
 
 only worth just so much anyhow, and that we cannot Increase 
 its value by legislation. Now let us see if we cannot. What 
 is the meaning" of the word, value f This word has different 
 significations. Webster, in defining the word value in one 
 of its significations says it is " the property or properties of 
 a thing which render it useful, or the degree of such prop- 
 erties, " and immediately he proceeds to define the same 
 word as meaning worth, titilityj importance. Now we all 
 agree that so far as regards the intrinsic and natural proper- 
 ties of silver, which render it fit for money, we cannot change 
 them by legislation any more than we can change copper 
 into gold by legislation. But how about the other definition, 
 which says that the word value also means 7vorth, utility, 
 importa7icef Can we not change the utility of silver by 
 legislation? Did not the legislation of 1873, by closing our 
 mints to silver, by destroying the silver dollar as the unit of 
 value and substituting the gold standard in its place, virtually 
 destroy the utility, in other words the value, of silver as 
 primary money? It was still a useful, a valuable metal for 
 making plates and spoons, but utterly valueless as primary 
 money. Is it not, then, the merest nonsense to say that we 
 cannot change the money value of silver by legislation ? Is 
 it not a fact that before the demonetization of silver in 1873, 
 silver stood at a premium over gold, so that a dollar in silver 
 was actually worth more than a dollar in gold ? And at that 
 time the value of silver bullion, on account of its utility for 
 making silver money, kept pace with the value of silver 
 dollars, and commanded as big a price In proportion to their 
 legal ratio of values as did gold bullion. In other words, 
 the 371 X grains of uncoined silver required to make a silver 
 dollar, were worth as much, and a little more, than the 23 
 and a fraction grains of uncoined gold that It required to 
 make a gold dollar. Such was the relative value of gold 
 and silver coin and gold and silver bullion, as they stood 
 
38 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 prior to the demonetization of silver in 1873. And this, 
 approximately, had been their relative value ever since the 
 foundation of this government. But what has been their rela- 
 tive value since 1873? Why, as we have seen, silver has 
 been going down, and down, and down, and gold has been 
 going up, and up, and up, until to-day it takes about two dol- 
 lars' worth of silver bullion to purchase one dollar' s worth of 
 gold. Nor will any sane man say that legislation has had noth- 
 ing to do with this changed condition in the relative values 
 of these two metals. Don't forget that Webster says the 
 ' ' importance ' ' and ' ' utility " of a thing constitute the 
 value of that thing. Whilst silver was recognized by law as 
 primary money, and whilst the mints of the world were 
 making it into money, it was estimated that about three- 
 fourths of the world's silver was being used for primary 
 money, and the other fourth for the arts and manufactories. 
 So that when, by legislation, we destroyed the use of silver 
 as primary money, is it not so plain that an oyster ought to 
 see it, that we thereby destroyed the money utility (or the 
 value, if you please) of just so much of our silver? Silver 
 having by means of legislation lost its value as a money 
 metal, was bereft of three-fourths of the demand that had 
 previously existed for its use; and three-fourths of this de- 
 mand having been taken away, it was certainly not surpris- 
 ing that its market value dropped down. Then again, the 
 very law that thus destroyed the money value of silver^ and 
 incidentally depreciated its value for other purposes, vastly 
 increased the demand for gold by making that the only pri- 
 mary money, and thus concentrating upon it a demand which 
 had previously been about equally divided between both gold 
 and silver. Under these conditions, how would it have been 
 possible for silver to maintain its original commercial value, 
 whatever might have been the intrinsic properties of the 
 metal ? If legislation cannot impart value to a thing, why 
 
BIMETALLISM. 39 
 
 Is It that a genuine ten-dollar treasury note — mere token 
 money — is more valuable than a counterfeit one of the same 
 denomination ? What is the difference, except that one has 
 the sanction of the law and the other has not? Neither one 
 has any intrinsic value worth naming-, independent of the 
 law; and yet, by reason of the law, one is worth ten dollars 
 and the other is not worth a cent. This is not intended as 
 an argument in favor of making paper a primary money, 
 which might lead to an unwholesome financial inflation such 
 as gold and silver can never produce, but the object is sim- 
 ply to refute a false notion that legislation cannot affect the 
 value of things. 
 
 Again, let us take two silver dollars, one an American 
 dollar and the other a Mexican dollar, and the actual 
 amount of silver in the Mexican dollar is a little more than 
 that in the American dollar, and yet the American dollar Is 
 worth twice as much as the Mexican. If legislation has 
 nothing to do with this difference in value, will some mono- 
 metallist tell us what is the cause? 
 
 But here is another proof of the fallacy of the above 
 assumption. In every American gold coin there is one 
 tenth part of alloy, consisting of silver and copper. Now, 
 has not the alloy contained in each of these coins precisely 
 the same current money value as the gold with which It Is 
 combined ? Is it possible for these nine-tenths of gold con- 
 tained in a coin to rise in value without a corresponding rise 
 in the value of the alloy, or can the one fall in value without 
 bringing the other down with it ? What is it, except the 
 law, that imparts to these different metals, so unequal in 
 their intrinsic value, exactly the same money value ? Now 
 like unto this is the unity in value that the law should estab- 
 lish between gold and silver money. Not that the writer 
 would in this case make a given number of grains of silver 
 equal in value to the same number of grains of gold, as in 
 
40 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 the case of the alloy placed in a gold coin, but, after estab- 
 lishing a fair ratio of value between gold and silver, these 
 values should, by means of the law, be as indissolubly united 
 in one standard of value as are the gold and the alloy that 
 constitute but one coin. These gold and silver values should, 
 as of old, be so completely united that it would be impos- 
 sible for the one to rise or fall (at least to any extent) with- 
 out the rise or fall of the other. Instead of calling this 
 bimetallism, it seems to me that a more appropriate name 
 would be ujiited metallism. In this way, our primary money 
 being nearly doubled in quantity, and our silver money gen- 
 erally distributed amongst the people, and being in the 
 pockets and purses of nearly every man, woman, and child 
 in the world, the possibility of cornering it would be out of 
 the question. 
 
 AN OUTRAGE TO RAISE THE VALUE OF SILVER. 
 
 But our monometallic friends say, * ' It would be an out- 
 rage to take 371/4^ grains of silver, that is now only worth 
 fifty cents in gold, and after coining it into a dollar, give it 
 back to the owner with a value equal to loo cents. Why," 
 they say, "it would actually make some of the silver miners 
 rich ! ' ' Perhaps it would, but it is very questionable 
 whether, as a rule, it would make good one-half of the 
 losses they have sustained, by reason of the grievous wrong 
 perpetrated upon them, by means of the act of 1873. The 
 effect of that act — as the whole world knows — was virtually to 
 confiscate the property of multitudes of miners, whose bus- 
 iness was thereby broken up, their investments chiefly or 
 totally lost, themselves and families in many instances 
 driven to poverty, and their prospects hopelessly ruined 
 fo" life. Is not this, punishment enough for American 
 citizens, whose only crime consisted in having, in the face 
 of privations and dangers unspeakable, pioneered the way, 
 
BIMETALLISM. 4I 
 
 and carried the banner of civilization into the heart of a 
 wild and savage wilderness, and there, by their labor and 
 capital, opened up, for their own and their country's benefit, 
 untold millions of the precious metals hitherto unknown to 
 the world ? Have not these miners been pursued and per- 
 secuted enough already, without perpetuating the wrong to 
 the end of time ? While it may be true that some of these 
 miners still remain wealthy, in spite of the unjust losses 
 they have suffered, still it is difficult to see why we should 
 not render even to these, a little tardy justice in their old 
 days ; especially when by so doing we benefit the whole world. 
 Our gold standard people absolutely curl their lips and 
 turn up their aristocratic noses with scorn at the idea of 
 lifting silver from her present depreciated, helpless, arid 
 degraded position, and placing her back again side by side 
 with gold, reuniting the two inseparably, as in the Jioly 
 bonds of wedlock. But it certainly comes with a very bad 
 grace from those who have aided and abetted or sanctioned 
 the cruel and unjust degradation of silver, to now turn 
 round and plead that degradation (the diabolical work of 
 their own hands), as a reason why silver should not now be 
 restored to her rightful office. Such would be the logic of 
 the wretch, who, after having beaten his wife until half dead, 
 had turned her out-of-doors and then refused her re-admit- 
 tance to her own home, because of the horrid bruises and 
 disfiguration he himself had given her. What would honest 
 men think of such a fellow ? 
 
 WOULD INFLATE THE MONEY MARKET. 
 
 Another of the arguments used by some of the mono- 
 metallists against the remonetizing of silver is, that there 
 would be so much money in circulation, and the prices of 
 everything would become so inflated that a wild spirit of 
 speculation would seize upon our people, to be followed 
 
42 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 some time or other by a collapse, which they say would be 
 perfectly dreadful. This is the doctrine as expounded by 
 Mr. Edward Wisner in his "Cash vs. Coin." At page 78 
 Mr. Wisner among other things says : — 
 
 '* It is popularly supposed that the people to be most injured by 
 a change of standard would be the bankers and Wall Street spec- 
 ulators." 
 
 And then he adds : — 
 
 "A greater error never gained currency. The Wall Street spec- 
 ulators are debtors, as a rule, and the violent fluctuations which a 
 change of standard would produce, would be the greatest picnic 
 they have had for years," 
 
 If the remonetization of silver would be the occasion of 
 such a jolly picnic to these Wall Street bankers, how is it 
 that they never lend us a helping hand ? Most unquestion- 
 ably they are not fond of picnics. But the substance of Mr. 
 Wisner' s position is, that the restoration of silver money 
 would lead to a flooding of the country with too much 
 money. On the other hand, Mr. Carlisle is alarmed for fear 
 that the restoration of silver money would drive all the 
 gold out of the country, and produce a stringency in our 
 money market, for the reason that gold dollars would be 
 more valuable than silver dollars (see his Memphis speech). 
 It would seem that a repetition of the remedy applied by 
 the government in 1834 for a similar financial disease, 
 would — as suggested by Mr. Harvey — serve as a satisfac- 
 tory cure for this malady. Prior to 1834, the legally estab- 
 lished ratio between gold and silver was 15 to i. But it 
 being found that a gold dollar one-fifteenth as heavy as a 
 silver one was worth more than the latter, and that this 
 difference in value was causing too much gold to leave the 
 country, congress changed the ratio, leaving the silver dol- 
 lar just where it was in point of weight, but reducing the 
 weight of the gold dollar from 24.7 grains to 23.2 grains. 
 
BIMETALLISM. 43 
 
 After a thorough trial of this ratio it was found that our 
 gold dollar was a little too light, and that our silver money 
 was more sought after abroad than our gold ; and then it 
 was, in 1837, that (still leaving silver where she was) we 
 raised the weight of the gold dollar from 23.2 grains 
 to 23.22 grains, which ]:)roved to be a satisfactory ratio. 
 So now, if after reinstating silver on the old basis of 16 to r, 
 we should discover that the gold dollar was a little too light 
 or a little too heavy, where would be the difficulty in 
 readjusting it to suit ourselves and the interests of com- 
 merce. But in doing so, we should consult the interests of 
 our own people, not the interests of British bankers. 
 
 WAITING FOR THE CONSENT OF EUROPEAN POWERS ! 
 
 *' But," say our gold standard people, "it is useless for us 
 to attempt to remonetize silver, unless we can get the great 
 commercial powers of Europe to give their consent. ' ' But 
 did the American congress, in 1873, ask the consent of the 
 great powers of Europe before they struck the deadly blow 
 at our sih'er money ? Not a bit of it. Strange to say, as 
 already stated, it did not even ask the consent of the Amer- 
 ican people, whose servant it was supposed to be. And has 
 it come to this ! In the name of all the gods at once let 
 us ask, has it come to this, that after an American congress, 
 without even consulting the American people, and in utter 
 disregard of their wishes and their most sacred rights, has 
 passed a law fraught with ruin to our country, we must then 
 quietly wait and suffer the wrong until we can get Great 
 Britain and all the other great powers of Europe to give 
 their gracious consent to ha\'e the infamous law repealed ? 
 One of the greviances enumerated in the Declaration of 
 American Independence as a reason for taking up arms 
 against Great Britain was that King George had refused his 
 assent to wholesome laws for this country. But it seems 
 
44 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 that we are really in a worse fix now than we were before 
 the Revolutionary War, because then to give force to our 
 laws they only required the sanction of one king, whereas 
 now they seem to require the sanction of all the kings, 
 emperors, and potentates of Europe. According to the 
 constitution of the United States, it is the American con- 
 gress, and only the American congress, that has power to 
 ' ' coin money and regulate the value thereof. ' ' But accord- 
 ing to this new-fangled doctrine of our monometallists, while 
 congress still retains the power to coin money, it requires 
 the concurrent voice of all Europe ' ' to regulate the value 
 thereof. ' ' If this is the pitiable condition to which our 
 country is reduced, would it not be better to repudiate the 
 Declaration of Independence, abolish our Federal Constitu- 
 tion, and ask Queen Victoria and the British parliament to 
 annex us again as a colony to Great Britain ? 
 
 If it was not necessary to consult the powers of Europe 
 before enacting the anti-silver law of 1873, why should it 
 now be necessary to consult these powers before repealing; 
 that law ? If it was the bad example of the American con- 
 gress, and not the result of a general conspiracy amongst 
 gold speculators, that caused Germany, France, Italy, 
 Switzerland, Belgium and Greece to demonetize silver, let 
 the American congress now set them a good example by 
 repealing the anti-silver law, and, if these foreign govern- 
 ments will consult the welfare of their people instead of the 
 sordid and selfish interests of their speculators in gold, they 
 will follow that example. But if they should not, after 
 having first set our own house in order we shall then be in 
 a far better position to ask other powers to do likewise. 
 
 ARE THEY SINCERE? 
 
 It seems impossible to avoid the suspicion that many of 
 those who are making the most noise about an international 
 
BIMETALLISM. 45 
 
 convention to settle the bimetallic question, are doing so 
 not because they desire bimetallism, but simply because 
 they are opposed thereto. Believing that it will be impossi- 
 ble (or that they can render it impossible) to get all the 
 European powers to consent to the proposed reform, they 
 talk bimetallism for the sole purpose of defeating or 
 indefinitely postponing the very measure they profess to 
 favor. This suspicion is greatly strengthened by the fact 
 that, while professing a great anxiety to get bimetallism 
 through a bimetallic convention, they are constantly argu- 
 ing in favor of monometallism. These noisy advocates of 
 an international convention to settle the money question 
 remind one forcibly of an old toper whose wife was urging 
 him to quit drink. He always professed his earnest desire 
 to reform, but invariably excused himself for the present, by 
 naming about a dozen other drunkards in the town, whom, 
 he said, needed reforming more than himself. He argued 
 that there was no use of just one man reforming alone, but 
 that one of these days all the drunkards in town were going to 
 hold a temperance convention, and by common consent quit 
 drink. He vowed that just as soon as all the other drunk- 
 ards he named would sober up and take the pledge, he too 
 would do likewise. And it is presumable that just about 
 the time all those confirmed drunkards in convention 
 assembled unanimously agree to quit drink, the inter- 
 national bimetallic convention, of which we hear so much 
 can be induced by gold speculators to endorse bimetallism. 
 We may rest assured, there is neither patriotism, nor 
 reason, nor honor, nor self-respect. In our awaiting the con- 
 sent of England or any other country before repealing an 
 obnoxious law, fastened on us either through the inadvert- 
 ance, the stupidity, or the treachery of an American 
 congress. 
 
46 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 A PREMIUM ON COUNTERFEITING. 
 
 By demonetizing silver, and virtually closing our mints 
 against it, as before stated, we have reduced its value to about 
 fifty cents on the dollar ; and whilst our government refuses 
 to convert silver bullion into coin, with the American stamp 
 upon it, it is utterly powerless to prevent individuals from 
 doing so, and there cannot be the shadow of a doubt but 
 that thousands and tens of thousands of silver dollars made 
 of genuine silver, in the exact likeness of American coin, 
 are being daily minted by private persons and circulated 
 amongst our people as American money. And who can 
 tell the difference between a silver dollar made by a private 
 individual in the exact image of government money and a 
 silver dollar made at a United States mint, precisely like it ? 
 To the eye they will look the same, to the touch they wall 
 feel the same; measure them, and they will measure the 
 same; weigh them, and they will weigh the same ; assay 
 them, and they will yield exactly the same amount of genuine 
 sih'cr and of alloy. Were they paper mo7iey instead of 
 silver, an expert might detect the counterfeit. But who 
 ever heard of anybody's having been convicted, or pun- 
 ished, or even tried, for passing a coin made of genuine 
 silver by a private coiner ? Yet who can doubt but that 
 there are millions of such coins in daily circulation ? And 
 does not our government stand ready to redeem every one 
 of these privately coined dollars with gold? Is not this in 
 effect paying a pre?niuni by the government for counter- 
 feiting Its own money ? Would it not be far better for the 
 government to do its own coining, rather than to pay a lot 
 of secret coiners fifty cents on the dollar for doing the same 
 work ? Here, then, is another of the beauties of our sozmd 
 money system. 
 
 Mr. Edward Wisner, in his defense of the gold standard. 
 
BIMETALLISM. 47 
 
 at page 114 of "Cash vs. Coin," says the Shiboleth of 
 PopuHsm, the creed of discontent, is that *'the rich are 
 growing richer and the poor poorer. ' ' And whilst denying 
 that this is true, he adds: '' If it were true it would porte7id 
 chaos for social order and a war of classes. ' ' 
 
 Now, does not everybody know in his heart of hearts 
 that this is true, and does not everybody know that the 
 signs of the times point significantly to the very evil he 
 names, to wit, the ' ' chaos of social order afid a war of 
 classes f ' Are not the rich growing richer and the poor 
 poorer? When was it in the history of the world that there 
 were so many vast fortunes accumulated in so short a time ? 
 When so many multi-millionaires as there are to-day ? Fifty 
 years ago we could occasionally hear of a millionaire, but 
 prior to 1850 whoever heard in America of a multi-million- 
 aire — a man many times a millionaire? But now the 
 country swarms with them. They have, in fact, got to be 
 almost the only respectable people, as tested by the present 
 gold standard. Their daughters turn up their pretty noses 
 at the sight of any young American w^hose father cannot 
 count his fortune by the millions. Hence, if they fail to 
 match themselves with a husband worth his millions, they 
 have got into the habit of sending over to Europe and pur- 
 chasing some scion of nobility, leaving it to hhn to furnish 
 the dignity while they furnish the dollars. 
 
 But we were considering Mr. Wisner's denial of the fact 
 that the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer, in con- 
 nection wath his admission that ' * if that were true, it would 
 portend chaos of social order and a war of classes. ' ' Now, 
 is it not true ? The writer does not deny that other causes, 
 besides our anti-silver laws have contributed to that result ; 
 for, unfortunately, ever since money became one of the chief 
 factors in our elections, and ever since the hired emissaries 
 oi vast corporations began to crowd the lobbies and besiege 
 
4^ BIMETALLISM. 
 
 the committee rooms of our legislative bodies, both state 
 and federal, and were found buttonholing and wining and 
 dining both our 'law-makers and the judges of our courts, 
 somehow or other many of our laws and judicial decisions 
 have seemingly leaned very emphatically to the side of the 
 rich, and against the poor. But while upon the money 
 question, let us take one more view of this anti-silver Act 
 of 1873, in order to show still more clearly just how it is 
 making the poor still poorer. That law found millions of 
 our producing classes, farmers, mechanics and others in 
 debt, and millions more in the midst of enterprises, that, on 
 the one hand, could not be abandonded without ruinous 
 loss, whilst on the other they could not be prosecuted without 
 money. This law, as we have seen, both enhanced the value 
 of money and reduced the value of the productions of labor. 
 The necessary result was that those millions of producers, 
 who, but for the demonetization of silver, could have paid 
 their debts by the sale of their produce, soon found their pro- 
 duce so depreciated in value as to be insufficent to pay 
 their liabilities. The consequence was, that while many pro- 
 ducers, after selling what they had and paying out the last 
 dollar to their creditors, found themselves still in debt and 
 compelled to borrow money in order to live and carry on 
 their business. Others again, believing that the hard times 
 were only temporary, rather than sell their produce at what 
 they deemed a sacrifice, preferred to plunge still deeper in 
 debt by borrowing money and mortgaging their property 
 until they could sell for a better price. But, Instead of prices 
 growing better under the influence of a continual advance 
 in the purchasing power cJ money, they have from that time 
 on continually grown worse. It is not denied that there have 
 occasionally, here and there, been ups and downs In the 
 prices of produce, just as there are occasional ups as well as 
 doivns in descending from the summit of the Sierra Nevada 
 
BIMETALLISM. 49 
 
 Mountains to the sea. But the tendency nevertheless has 
 been continually downward ever since the demonitization 
 of silver. 
 
 For example, we have seen that between the date of our 
 anti-silver legislation in 1873 and the year 1893, silver grad- 
 ually descended in value from $1.29 an ounce in 1873 down 
 to 75 cents in .1893. American wheat, one of our greatest 
 staples, keeping company with silver, gradually descended 
 in. price from $1.31 in 1873 down to 68 cents in 1893. So 
 with American cotton. In 1873 cotton was worth $19.30, 
 from which figure it gradually descended, until, in 1893, it was 
 worth but $7. A careful examination of the facts will show 
 a corresponding decline in pretty much every other staple 
 commodity upon which the American producer relies for 
 money to pay his debts, support his family, and carry on 
 his business. Now, wath this constant decline in the value 
 of all he has to sell, and constant increase not only in the 
 amount of interest he must pay, but in the value of the 
 money he owes, can anybody deny that under these condi- 
 tions the debtor, as a rule, is becoming poorer? It is admitted 
 that there is one class of our poor that are not becoming 
 poorer, for the simple reason that they have already become 
 just as poor as poor can be. Of this class is composed that 
 immense army of tramps and beggars, without a home, 
 without employment, without shelter, or food, or raiment, 
 living from hand to mouth upon the cold charity of the 
 world, God only knows how. They^ it is true, are not getting 
 poorer, and cannot, because they have reached the bottom of 
 the ladder. But who does not know that the ranks of this 
 immense army are year by year being recruited from those 
 who have gradually descended from our industrious, intelli- 
 gent and once prosperous classes of citizens ? When, a short 
 time ago, this continent resounded with the tramp of our 
 armies of unemployed, moving toward the federal capitol, 
 
50 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 in order to bring their grievances before the American con- 
 gress, why was it that everywhere they evoked, not only a 
 warm sympathy, but the material aid and earnest words of 
 encouragement from the, as yet, more prosperous classes, to 
 whom they were but srrangers ? Ah ! the reason is plain. 
 The industrial classes of this whole country felt in their in- 
 most hearts that there was a cause of grievance common to 
 themselves and these armies of penniless paupers. Although 
 not reduced to the same degree of want and misery, they 
 only had to look first behind, at the elevated positions of 
 affluence, comfort, and honorable independence whence they 
 themselves had been driven, and then down into the dark 
 abyss of dependence, humiliation, and poverty to which 
 they were rapidly drifting, in order to see that the catise of 
 these armies of poor, penniless people was their cause. It 
 may be that Mr. Wisner, petted and pampered in the lap of 
 luxury, a stranger to honest toil, basking in the gracious 
 smiles of multi-millionaires, and accustomed * ' to bend the 
 pliant hinges of the knee that thrift might follow fawning, ' ' 
 knows nothing of the growing poverty of the laboring masses 
 of his own country; but no patriot, no citizen, who will look 
 around him with an impartial eye, can fail to realize that the 
 poor are daily growing poorer. And has not enough been 
 said to prove the other half of the proposition equally true — 
 that the rich are growing richer? No sane man will deny it. 
 
 GOVERNMENT MONEY AND THE BANK. 
 
 But our gold standard law, in other ways besides these 
 already mentioned, serves as a powerful aid in hastening the 
 work of widening the gulf between the rich and the poor. 
 Look, for example, at our so-called national banking system. 
 
 As already shown, the destruction of our silver primary 
 money by lowering the value gf produce on one hand and 
 raising the value of money on the other, rendered it Impera- 
 
BIMETALLISM. 5 1 
 
 tive for mukitudes of producers to borrow money, some to 
 pay their debts and others to Uve and carry on their busi- 
 ness. Now one would naturally have supposed that after 
 having, by means of its anti-silver legislation, reduced the 
 great mass of our industrial and producing classes to this 
 necessity of borrowing money, our gov^ernment ought, in 
 common honesty, if possible, to have provided some direct 
 and inexpensive way of relieving this necessity. But no, it 
 simply left them to the tender mercies of the so-called 
 national banks to supply them with money. And how sup- 
 ply them ? Let us see. It is so arranged by the law that 
 the government cannot loan its money directly to the poor, 
 not even for a liberal interest, no difference what the security. 
 But while the government cannot loan the people's money 
 to the people who need it, even for interest and on good 
 security, it is so arranged that wealthy banking associations, 
 owning government interest-bearing bonds, need only go 
 and deposit these bonds as security in the United States 
 treasury, where they will be safely kept for the benefit of 
 the depositors, and thereupon the United States treasurer 
 turns over to the depositors, in United States circulating 
 notes, to be used as money, 90 per cent of the value of the 
 bonds. This, be it remembered, is the people's money. 
 Had it been the money of the congressmen that made the 
 law, such a law would never have seen the light of day. 
 Well, what do these bankers do with this money of the peo- 
 ple ? Why, they take it and loan it out ort good security 
 for interest at the rate of 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12 per cent. And 
 who pays that interest ? Why, the very men whose brain, 
 and muscle, and toil earned that money. Yes, every time 
 a mechanic buys a hammer, a keg of nails, a pane of 
 glass, or a pound of putty, he puts money into the United 
 States treasury; every time a farmer buys a plow, a rake, 
 a tin pan, or a harness for his horse, he puts money into 
 
52 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 the United States treasury; every time a housewife buys 
 a dress, a pair of shoes, or a baby's frock, she pays a tariff 
 that goes into the United States treasury. 
 
 Whoever analyzes this question of pubhc revenue will find 
 that the chief burden ojf governmental support rests upon the 
 shoulders of our laboring classes. And yet, when these 
 people need a little money — the fruit of their own labor — the 
 government says to them : ' ' You cannot get it here at any 
 price; you are poor, and have no government bonds; we 
 can't be bothered with you, no difference what security you 
 may offer. But w^e will turn this money over gratuitously 
 to our national banking associations, and if you need money 
 you must go to them for it, and pay in good, sound gold 
 coin, just such interest as they may demand;" and, although 
 this is the people's money, the people who use it must pay a 
 heavy interest, not for the benefit of the people, but for the 
 benefit of the bankers. Perhaps somebody may say : ' 'Why 
 cannot these people who want money go directly to the 
 treasuiy and get it without interest, just as the bankers do, 
 by making the required deposit of government bonds ? ' ' The 
 first answer to this question is, that the law closes the doors 
 of the treasury against all comers except bankiyig associa- 
 tions; and, secondly, nothing less than $30,000 in govern- 
 ment bonds will answer the purpose in any case. And it is 
 not every poor man that is blessed with so valuable a boon. 
 Now, will anybody say that this is not legislation in the in- 
 terests of the rich and against the poor ? 
 
 HOW BANKERS AVOID TAXES. 
 
 But here is another way in which the unholy alliance between 
 our gold standard and our national banking system is operat- 
 ing to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, namely, 
 by throwing the whole burden of government off of the 
 rich onto the poor. The rich national banker, with his hun- 
 
bim?:tallism. ^,3 
 
 dreds of thousands of dollars in interest-bearing bonds, 
 while drawing interest on his bonds and drawing interest on 
 the money gratuitously furnished him by the government, 
 pays not one cent of taxes, either state or municipal, on this 
 valuable property. Section 3701 of revised statutes provides : 
 
 **That all stocks, bonds, treasury notes, and other obligations 
 of the United States, shall be exempt from taxation, by or under 
 state, municipal, or local authority." 
 
 So that the national banker and bond-holder may roll in 
 wealth and luxury, and yet go almost scott free from all the 
 burdens of taxation. To show how admirably this system 
 works in the interest of bankers, when aided by the mal- 
 administration of local laws, Mr. W. H. Harvey, in his 
 ''Financial School up to Date," p. 21, publishes a certificate 
 from the Illinois state auditor of accounts, giving the amount 
 of money and property assessed to all the bankers of Cook 
 County, embracing the great city of Chicago, as it stood for 
 last year (1894). Cook County, it will be remembered, is 
 nearly all covered by the city, so that there is very little room 
 for agriculture, and yet the assessed value of all the agri- 
 cultural implements of the farmers of Cook County was nearly 
 double that of all the money and credits as assessed to all 
 the bankers and brokers of that great city ! Here are the 
 figures, as certified to over his official seal, by Mr. David 
 Gore, the auditor of public accounts, to wit: — 
 
 Agricultural tools, implements, and machinery 184,392 
 
 Money of bankers and brokers 43;925 
 
 Credits of banks, bankers, etc 10,000 
 
 Only think of it ! Is it not amazing that the bankers and 
 brokers are so shielded by the law that with all their com- 
 bined wealth, with all their hoarded millions, the entire 
 assessed value of all the money of all the bankers and 
 brokers, when added to all the debts and credits due them, 
 should both together foot up but $53,925 — not more than 
 
54 ' UIMKTALLISM. 
 
 enough to buy a decent residence in Los Angeles city? Is 
 it not astounding? But these are the auditor's figures. 
 
 Yet somebody must pay the taxes to support the goveo-n- 
 ment of both that immense city and state. And who are they 
 that must bear this burden? Why, they are our producing 
 classes. They are the same people that have to pay the 
 interest on the government bonds owned by these bankers 
 and brokers; the same people who have to pay these same 
 bankers a heavy rate of interest for government money. Yet 
 Chicago is but a fair sample of many other American cities. 
 And is it possible that in a repubHcan government this pro- 
 cess of injustice, unequal taxation, and oppression, this 
 building up of immense fortunes for a few by the impover- 
 ishment and ruin of the many, can continue indefinitely? It 
 is not possible. A day approaches when a remedy can and 
 must be found. It is to be hoped that it may be a peaceful 
 remedy. Some of us have already lived to see our country 
 once drenched in fratricidal blood by one of the most terrible 
 wars recorded in history, and let us pray to God that our 
 eyes may never see its like again. The writer is neither a 
 prophet nor the son of a prophet, but a careful study of our 
 financial and industrial conditions convinces him that we are 
 rapidly approaching a crisis, when the people must correct 
 the monstrous wrong of 1873 by means of the ballot, or 
 else prepare either for bondage or a bloody war, the end 
 and result of which none but God can see. "^ 
 
 TWO KINDS OF ANARCHISTS. 
 
 This government has two great enemies to fear, namely 
 anarchy in disguise and anarchy without disguise. An 
 anarchist without disguise is an open, outspoken enemy of 
 all law, human and divine, who neither recognizes, nor pre- 
 tends to recognize the binding force of either. But the 
 anarchist in disguise, with no more respect for law than the 
 
lUMETALLISM. 55 
 
 Other, often makes loud professions of reverence for the 
 law, more especially when aiming to thwart and defeat 
 justice in the name of the law. Such an anarchist, with 
 hypocritical professions of patriotism and piety on his lips, 
 would not hesitate, by the polluting power of gold, to pur- 
 chase a seat in the American senate, corrupt a congess or a 
 court, and poison at their sources the very fountains of 
 justice. Strip him of all disg"uise and you will find him a 
 friend of law so long, and only so long, as he can pervert it 
 to his own vile purposes. The other wing of the anarchist 
 party is less cunning, less deceitful, less wealthy, less influ- 
 ential, and therefore less dangerous to the public. The 
 American people, as a body, are pre-eminently a law-loving 
 and a law-abiding people, and have nO sympathy with 
 anarchists of either school, neither will they knowingly and 
 wilfully long .submit to be ruled by either class; because 
 (to repeat) they are a law-loving people. But let the great 
 body of our citizens become thoroughly convinced that 
 their government has passed into the hands of those hypo- 
 critical and disguised anarchists, who, in pursuit of their 
 unholy purposes, have converted the law into a sword for* 
 their destruction, instead of a shield for their protection, 
 and how long will it take them to decide in favor of no law 
 and 710 government, in a preference to a government and a 
 system of laws that wrongfully strip them of their hard 
 earnings, for the benefit of those who hold them in bond- 
 age and in utter contempt, leaving them nothing but pov- 
 erty, nakedness, starvation, misery and death ? 
 
 Men are not necessarily bad because they are bankers, 
 nor because they are rich. One of the best men the writer 
 ever knew was a wealthy banker; but he could not have 
 been counted as such, had he been capable of using his 
 money for corrupt purposes; those who do such things are 
 the common enemies of mankind. They are the real 
 
5" KlMb.l AJ.IJS.M, 
 
 aiiarclilsts in disguise, who, by making the law an instru- 
 ment of oppression, and thus bringing- it into disrepute in the 
 eyes of the great mass of the people, are daily forcing into 
 the ranks of the open and undisguised anarchists, thou- 
 sands of honest, industrious, patriotic citizens; not because 
 they prefer anarchy to law, but because, as the lesser of two 
 evils, they prefer open anarchy rather than a hypocritical 
 and disguised anarchy. They prefer the anarchy that 
 knows no law, rather than the anarchy that only knows 
 the law as an instrument for the robbery of the peo- 
 ple and the ruin of their country. And is there any logic, 
 any system of sound reasoning, to refute the argument that 
 brings them to this conclusion ? If there is any sych logic 
 the writer confesses he has never learned it. 
 
 It will not do to say that our government is entirely in 
 the hands of these anarchists in disguise. Indeed, we must 
 thank God that it is not. But who is so blind as not to see 
 that in the last few years it has made rapid strides, and is 
 now moving with fearful velocity in that direction ? How 
 long will it take us to reach there, at our present rate of 
 ;ipeed ? Have we not already arrived at a point where the 
 most of men, in forecasting results, even in our highest 
 courts — the last refuge of the patriot' s hope — rely less on 
 the justice of the cause than on the wealth and influence of 
 the litigants ? Let an absolute public conviction once take 
 tlie place of the now prevailing suspicion, that money is the 
 power that rules this land, and good-bye to the government. 
 
 We yet have time by an honest, manly, independent and 
 patriotic use of the ballot, to a\'ert impending disaster. 
 But if there is not intelligence and patriotism enough left 
 amongst the people to snatch the country, by means of the 
 ballot, from the grasp of corrupt corporations and gold 
 syndicates, then we, as a people, deserve to wear the iron 
 chains of bondage which our gold-worshiping masters are 
 
niMElAl.l.lSAI. 57 
 
 now preparing' to ilvct forever on our limbs. There is no 
 alternative. We must either free ourselves by the ballot or 
 else prepare either for base bondage or a bloody civil war, 
 unequaled in the history of the world in point of malignity, 
 devastation and human slaughter. 
 
 CARLISLE OF 1 878 VS. CARLISLE OF 1895. 
 
 It will be impossible to more appropriately conclude this 
 pamphlet than by quoting the following extract from the 
 very able, eloquent and unanswerable speech delivered in 
 the House of Representatives by the Honorable John G. 
 Carlisle, of Kentucky, February 21, 1878. On that occa- 
 sion Mr. Carlisle is reported to have said: 
 
 * " I know that the world's stock of precious metals is none too 
 large, and I see no reason to apprehend that it will ever be so. 
 Mankind will be fortunate indeed if the annual production of gold 
 and silver coin shall keep pace with the annual increase of popu- 
 lation and industry. According to my views of the subject, the 
 conspiracy which seems to have been formed here and in Europe, 
 to destroy by legislation and otherwise from three-sevenths to one- 
 half of the metallic money of the world, is the most gigantic crime 
 of this or any other age. The consummation of such a scheme 
 would ultimately entail more misery upon the human race than all 
 the wars, pestilences and famines that ever occurred in the iiistory 
 of the world. The absolute and instantaneous destruction of half the 
 entire movable property of the world, including houses, ships, rail- 
 roads and other appliances for carrying o-n commerce, while it 
 would be felt more sensibly for the moment, would not produce 
 anything like the prolonged distress and disorganization of society 
 that must inevitably result from the permanent annihilation of half 
 of the metallic money of the world." 
 
 * A friend at the writer's elbow says, ^'According to newspaper reports, a man 
 claiming the same name as the author of the above eloquent denouncation of 'the 
 most gigantic crime of this or any other age,' has been recently stumping Ken- 
 tucky and other states of the West and South in defense of this same '■gigantic 
 ci-ime.' " And this friend remarks that for the good name and fame both of Ken- 
 tucky and her said gifted son, he earnestly hopes that either the speeches on the 
 moiiey question lately reported as having been delivered by the Honorable John 
 G. Carlisle were falsely reported, or else that the Honorable John G. Carlisle who 
 delivered them is altogether a different man from the author of the above scath- 
 ing arraignment of the Act demonetizing silver in 1873. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Production of Gold and Silver in the World, 1792-1892. 
 
 Calendar Years. 
 
 i792-i8cx) 
 
 i8oi-r8io 
 
 1811-1820 
 
 1821-1830 
 
 1831-1840 
 
 1841-1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850. 
 
 1851 
 
 1852 
 
 1853 
 
 1854 
 
 1855 
 
 1856 
 
 1857 
 
 1858.. 
 
 1859 
 
 i860 
 
 1861 
 
 1862 
 
 1863 
 
 1864 
 
 186"; 
 
 1866 
 
 1867 
 
 1868 
 
 1869 
 
 1870 
 
 1871 
 
 1872 
 
 1873 
 
 1874 
 
 1875 
 
 1876 
 
 1877 
 
 1878 
 
 1879 
 
 1880 
 
 1881 
 
 1882 
 
 1883 
 
 1884 
 
 1885 
 
 1886 
 
 1887 
 
 1888 
 
 1889 
 
 1890 
 
 1891 
 
 1892 
 
 Total 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Silver (Coining 
 N'alue). 
 
 $106,407,000 
 118,152,000 
 76,063,000 
 94,479,000 
 134,841,000 
 291,144,000! 
 27,100,000! 
 44,450.000' 
 67,600,000 
 132,750,000 
 155,450,000 
 127,450,000 
 135.075,000 
 147,600,000 
 133.275.000 
 124,650,000 
 124,850,000 
 119,250,000 
 113,800,000 
 107,750,000 
 100,950,000 
 1 13,000,000 
 120,200.000 
 121,100,000 
 104,025,000 
 109,725,000 
 106,225,000 
 106,850,000 
 107,000,00c 
 99,600,000 
 96,200,000 
 90,750,000 
 97,500,000 
 103,700,000 
 114,000,000 
 119,000,000 
 109,000,000 
 106,500,000 
 103,000,000 
 102,000,000 
 95,400,000 
 101,700,000 
 108,400,000 
 106,000,000 
 105,775,000 
 110,197,000 
 123,489,000 
 113.150,000 
 120,519,000 
 130,817,000 
 
 $328,860,000 
 371,677,000' 
 224,786.000 
 191,444,000! 
 274,930,000! 
 259,520,0001 
 39,000,000 
 39.000,000 
 40,000,000 
 40.600,000 
 40,600,000 
 40,600,000 
 40,600,000 
 40,650,000 
 40,650,000 
 40,650,000 
 40,750,000 
 40,800,000 
 44,700,000 
 45,200,000 
 49,200,000 
 51,700,000 
 51,950,000 
 50,750,000 
 54,225,000 
 50,225,000 
 47,500,000 
 51,575,000 
 61,050,000 
 65,250,000 
 81,800,000 
 71,500,000 
 80,500,000 
 87,600,000 
 81,000,000 
 95,000,000 
 96,000,000 
 96,700,000 
 102,000,000 
 111,800,000 
 115,300,000 
 105,500,000 
 118,500,000 
 120,600,000 
 124,281,000 
 140.706,000 
 162,159,000 
 172,235,000 
 186,733,000 
 196,605,000 
 
 Total. 
 
 $435,267,000 
 489,829,000 
 300,849,000 
 285.923,000 
 400,771,000 
 550,664,000 
 66,100,000 
 83,450,000 
 107,600,000 
 173.350,000 
 196,050,000 
 168,050,000 
 375.675,000 
 188,250,000 
 173,925,000 
 165,300,000 
 165,600,000 
 160,050,000 
 158,500,000 
 152,950,000 
 156,150,000 
 164,700.000 
 172,150,000 
 171,850,000 
 158,250,000 
 159,950,000 
 1 53.725,000 
 158,425,000 
 168,050,000 
 164,850,000 
 178,000,000 
 162,250,000 
 178,000,000 
 191,300,000 
 1 95,000,000 
 214,000,000 
 205,000,000 
 203,200,000 
 205,000,000 
 213,800,000 
 210,700,000 
 207,200,000 
 226,900,000 
 226,600,000 
 230,056,000 
 250,903,000 
 285,648,000 
 285,385,000 
 307,252,000 
 327,422,000 
 
 $5,633-908,000 
 
 $5,104,961,000 
 
 $10,738,869,000 
 
 Treasury Department, Bureau of the Mint, August i6, 1893. 
 
 (58) 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 Mr. Sauerbeck's table, showing the vahie of silver for 20 years 
 before and after 1873. 
 
 Years 
 
 Yearly 
 
 Yearly 
 
 Years 
 
 from 1873 back 
 
 Index-numbers 
 
 Index-numbers 
 
 from 1873 on 
 
 to 1854. 
 
 of Silver. 
 
 of Silver. 
 
 to 1892. 
 
 1873 
 
 974 
 
 974 
 
 1873 • 
 
 1872 
 
 99.2 
 
 95.8 
 
 1874 
 
 1871 
 
 99.7 
 
 93.3 
 
 1875 
 
 1870 
 
 99.6 
 
 86.7 
 
 1876 
 
 1869 
 
 99.6 
 
 90.2 
 
 1877 
 
 1868 
 
 99.6 
 
 86.4 
 
 1878 
 
 1867 
 
 99-7 
 
 84.2 
 
 1879 
 
 1866 
 
 100.5 
 
 85.9 
 
 1880 
 
 1865 
 
 100.3 
 
 85.0 
 
 188 [ 
 
 1864 
 
 100.9 
 
 84.9 
 
 1882 
 
 1863 
 
 lOI.I 
 
 83.1 
 
 1883 
 
 1862 
 
 100.9 
 
 83.3 
 
 1884 
 
 i86r 
 
 99-9 
 
 79.9 
 
 1885 
 
 i860 
 
 101.4 
 
 74.6 
 
 1886 
 
 1859 
 
 102.0 
 
 73-3 
 
 1887 
 
 1858 
 
 lOT.O 
 
 70.4 
 
 1888 
 
 1857 
 
 IOI.5 
 
 70.2 
 
 1889 
 
 1856 
 
 lOI.O 
 
 78.4 
 
 1890 
 
 1855 
 
 100.7 
 
 74.1 
 
 1891 
 
 1854 
 
 lOT.I 
 
 654 
 
 1892 
 
 <59) 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 Mr. Sauerbeck's computation, and the Index-numbers of silver 
 for the years from 1874 to 1892, inclusive. 
 
 
 
 Mr. Sauerbeck's Index-numbers. 
 
 
 Years. 
 
 Index-number of 45 
 
 Index-number of 
 
 
 
 Principal Commodities. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 
 1874 
 
 102 
 
 95.8 
 
 
 1875 
 
 96 
 
 
 
 1876 
 
 95 
 
 86.^ . 
 
 
 1877 
 
 94 
 
 90.2 
 
 
 1878 
 
 87 
 
 86.4 
 
 
 1879 
 
 83 
 
 84.2 
 
 
 1880 
 
 . 88 
 
 85.9 
 
 
 1881 
 
 85 
 
 85.0 
 
 
 1882 
 
 84 
 
 84.9 
 
 
 1883 
 
 82 
 
 83.1 
 
 
 1884, 
 
 76 
 
 83.3 
 
 
 1885 
 
 72 
 
 79-9 
 
 
 1886 
 
 69 
 
 74.6 
 
 
 1887 
 
 68 
 
 73.3 
 
 
 1888 
 
 70 
 
 70.4 
 
 
 1889 
 
 72 
 
 70.2 
 
 
 1890 
 
 72 
 
 78.4 
 
 
 1 891 
 
 72 
 
 74.1 
 
 
 1892 
 
 68 
 
 65.4 
 
 Commenting on this table Archbishop Walsh remarks: "It is 
 sufficient to note that, in one case, the index-numbers show a fall 
 from 102 to 68, and, in the other, a fall from 95 to 65. What more 
 striking evidence could be looked for, that the fall all round is the 
 result, not of causes affecting merely the prices of commodities on 
 the one hand, nor of causes affecting merely the price of silver on 
 the other, but of the one cause that influences both alike; that is to 
 say, a progressive increase of value in the standard, gold, in refer- 
 ence to which the prices, whether of commodities or of silver, are 
 stated?" 
 
 (60) 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 The Average Price of Wheat, Cotton and Silver for the 
 Years Named. 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 1872 . 
 1873. 
 1874. 
 1875. 
 1876 . 
 
 1877. 
 1878 . 
 
 1879. 
 
 1880 . 
 
 1881 . 
 
 1882 . 
 1883. 
 1884 . 
 1885. 
 
 1886 . 
 
 1887 . 
 1888. 
 
 1889 . 
 
 1890 . 
 
 1891 . 
 
 1892 . 
 1893. 
 
 I1.47 
 1.31 
 1.43 
 1. 12 
 1.24 
 1. 17 
 
 1-34 
 1.07 
 1.25 
 I. II 
 1. 19 
 
 1-13 
 
 1.07 
 
 .86 
 
 .87 
 
 Cotton. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 1872 
 1873 
 1874 
 1875 
 1876 
 
 1877 
 1878 
 1879 
 1880 
 1881 
 1882 
 1883 
 1884 
 1885 
 1886 
 1887 
 1888 
 1889 
 1890 
 189 1 
 1892 
 1893 
 
 $19.31872 
 18.81873 
 15.41874 
 i5.o:i875 
 12.9 1876 
 11.81877 
 
 II. I 
 9-9 
 
 11.4 
 
 1878 
 1879 
 1880 
 
 11.4-1882 
 10.8^883 
 
 10.5 
 10.6 
 
 9-9 
 
 9-5 
 
 i««4 
 1885 
 1886 
 1887 
 
 9.8|i888 
 
 9.9' 1889 
 
 10. 1. 1890 
 
 lo.o 
 8.7 
 7.0 
 
 1891 
 1892 
 1893 
 
 $1.3.1 
 1.29 
 27 
 24 
 15 
 20 
 
 15 
 12 
 
 14 
 13 
 13 
 II 
 
 I.OI 
 
 1.06 
 
 .99 
 
 •97 
 .93 
 •93 
 1.04 
 .90 
 .86 
 •75 
 
 September, 1893. 
 
 See pages 50 and 342 U. 
 
 S. Statistical Abstract. 
 
 (61) 
 
APPENDIX E. 
 
 The average price of Silver, per ounce, for twenty years previ- 
 ous to demonetization, and for twenty years after. 
 
 Before. 
 
 i^73 
 1872 
 1871 
 1870 
 1869 
 1868 
 1867 
 1866 
 1865 
 1864 
 1863 
 1862 
 1861 
 i860 
 
 1859 
 1858 
 
 1857 
 1856 
 1855 
 1854 
 1853 
 
 I1.29 
 
 • 1-32 
 
 • 1.32 
 
 • 1.32 
 . 1.32 
 . 1.32 
 
 • 1.32 
 
 • 1-33 
 
 • 1-33 
 
 • 1-34 
 
 • 1-34 
 
 • 1.34 
 
 • 1-33 
 
 • 1-35 
 . 1.36 
 
 • 1-34 
 
 • 1.35 
 
 • 1-35 
 
 • 1-34 
 
 • 1.34 
 . 1-34 
 
 After. 
 
 873 
 874 
 875 
 876 
 
 877 
 878 
 
 879 
 880 
 881 
 882 
 883 
 884 
 885 
 886 
 
 890 
 891 
 892 
 893 
 
 I1.29 
 . 1.27 
 . I 24 
 . I 15 
 
 20 
 
 15 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 06 
 
 •99 
 
 .97 
 
 •93 
 
 •93 
 
 1.04 
 
 .98 
 
 .86 
 
 .75 
 
 See page 50, Statistical Abstract of the U. S. for 1892, issued by 
 U. S. Treasury Department. 
 
 (62) 
 
APPENDIX F. 
 
 Total Gold and Silver Used as Money of the World, in form 
 of Coin and Bullion. 
 
 [From Coin's Handbook, p. 28 (F).j 
 
 Mr. Leech, Director of the United States Mint, has prepared 
 for the Congressional Committee on Coinage a series of tables 
 showing the estimated and officially reported amounts of gold, 
 silver and paper in circulation as money in different parts of the 
 world. The following table comprises the portions of the state- 
 ment in reference to gold and silver: 
 
 Country. 
 
 United States . . . 
 United Kingdom . . 
 
 France 
 
 Germany 
 
 Belgium 
 
 Italy 
 
 Switzerland . . . . 
 
 Greece 
 
 Spain 
 
 Portugal 
 
 Austria-Hungary . . 
 Netherlands . . . . 
 Scandinavian Union 
 
 Russia 
 
 Turkey 
 
 Australia 
 
 Egypt 
 
 Mexico 
 
 Central America . . 
 South America . . 
 
 Japan 
 
 India 
 
 China 
 
 The Straits . . . . 
 
 Canada 
 
 Cuba, Hayti, etc . . 
 
 Gold. 
 
 $702,018,869 
 550,000,000 
 900,000,000 
 500,000,000 
 65,000,000 
 140,000,000 
 15,000,000 
 
 2,000,0C0 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 40,000,000 
 
 40,000,000 
 
 25,000,000 
 
 32,000,000 
 
 190,000,000 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 45,000,000 
 90,000,000 
 
 Totals $3,727,018,869 
 
 l6,000,CKX) 
 
 20,000,000 
 
 Silver. 
 
 1482,071,346 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 700,000,000 
 
 145,000,000 
 
 55,000,000 
 
 60,000,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 125,000,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 90,000,000 
 
 65,000,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 60,000,000 
 
 45,000,000 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 25,000,000 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 900,000,000 
 
 700,000,000 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 53,820.571,346 
 
 (6: 
 
APPENDIX G. 
 
 (Page 50 from U. S. Statistical Abstract, 1892.) 
 
 RATIO OF SILVER TO GOLD. 
 
 COMMERCIAL RATIO OF SILVER TO GOLD FOR EACH 
 
 YEAR SINCE 1687. 
 
 [Note.— P'rom 1687 to 1832 the ratios are taken from the tables of Dr. A. Soet- 
 beer; from 1833 to 1878 from Pixley and Abell's tables; and from 1878 to 1892 from 
 daily cablegrams from London to the Bureau of the Mint.] 
 
 Year Ratio 
 
 Year Ratio 
 
 Year Ratio 
 
 Year Ratio Year Ratio Year Ratio 
 
 1687 
 1688 
 1689 
 1690 
 1691 
 1692 
 
 1693 
 1694 
 
 1695 
 1696 
 1697 
 1698 
 1699 
 1700 
 1701 
 1702 
 
 1703 
 1704 
 
 1705 
 1706 
 1707 
 1708 
 1709 
 1710 
 1711 
 1712 
 
 1713 
 1714 
 
 1 7 15 
 1716 
 1717 
 1718 
 1719 
 1720 
 1721 
 
 14.94 
 1494 
 15.02 
 15.02 
 14.98 
 1492 
 14.83 
 14.87 
 15.02 
 15.00 
 15.20 
 15-07 
 14.94 
 14.81 
 
 1507 
 15.52 
 15-17 
 15.22 
 
 15.11 
 15.27 
 15.44 
 15.41 
 15.31 
 15.22 
 
 15-29 
 15.31 
 15.24 
 
 15.13 
 15-11 
 15.09 
 
 15-13 
 15. 1 1 
 15.09 
 15.04 
 15.05 
 
 1722 
 1723 
 1724 
 
 1725 
 1726 
 1727 
 1728 
 1729 
 1730 
 1731 
 1732 
 
 1733 
 1734 
 1735 
 1736 
 1737 
 1738 
 1739 
 1740 
 1741 
 1742 
 1743 
 1744 
 1745 
 1746 
 
 1747 
 1748 
 1749 
 1750 
 1751 
 1752 
 1753 
 1754 
 1755 
 1756 
 
 15.17 
 15.20 
 15. II 
 15.11 
 15-15 
 15-24 
 i5..ii 
 14.92 
 14.81 
 14.94 
 15.09 
 15.18 
 15-39 
 15.41 
 15.18 
 1502 
 14.91 
 14.91 
 14.94 
 14.92 
 14.85 
 14.85 
 14.87 
 14.98 
 
 15-13 
 15.26 
 15.11 
 14.80 
 14.55 
 14.39 
 14-54 
 14-54 
 14.48 
 14.68 
 14.94 
 
 1757 
 1758 
 1759 
 1760 
 1761 
 1762 
 
 1763 
 1764 
 
 1765 
 1766 
 1767 
 1768 
 1769 
 1770 
 1771 
 1772 
 
 1773 
 1774 
 
 1775 
 1776 
 
 1777 
 1778 
 1779 
 1780 
 1781 
 1782 
 1783 
 1784 
 1785 
 1786 
 1787 
 1788 
 1789 
 1790 
 
 1487 
 
 I79I 
 
 14.85 
 
 1792 
 
 14.15 
 
 1793 
 
 14.14 
 
 1794 
 
 14.54 
 
 1795 
 
 15-27 
 
 1796 
 
 14.99 
 
 1797 
 
 14.70 
 
 1798 
 
 14.83 
 
 1799 
 
 14.80 
 
 1800 
 
 14.85 
 
 1801 
 
 14.80 
 
 1802 
 
 14.72 
 
 1803 
 
 14.62 
 
 1804 
 
 14.66 
 
 1805 
 
 14-52 
 
 1806 
 
 14.62 
 
 1807 
 
 14.62 
 
 1808 
 
 14.72 
 
 1809 
 
 14.55 
 
 I8I0 
 
 14.54 
 
 I8II 
 
 14.68 
 
 I8I2 
 
 14.80 
 
 I8I3 
 
 14.72 
 
 I8I4 
 
 14.78 
 
 I8I5 
 
 14.42 
 
 I8I6 
 
 14.48 
 
 1817 
 
 14.70 
 
 I8I8 
 
 14.92 
 
 I8I9 
 
 14.96 
 
 1820 
 
 14.92 
 
 I82I 
 
 14.65 
 
 1822 
 
 14.75 
 
 1823 
 
 15.04 
 
 1824 
 
 1825 
 
 i5.7:> 
 
 1859 
 
 1826 
 
 15-76 
 
 i860 
 
 1827 
 
 15.74 
 
 j86i 
 
 1828 
 
 15.78 
 
 1862 
 
 1829 
 
 15-78 
 
 1863 
 
 1830 
 
 15.82 
 
 1864 
 
 I83I 
 
 15.72 
 
 1865 
 
 1832 
 
 15-73 
 
 1866 
 
 1833 
 
 15-93 
 
 1867 
 
 1834 
 
 15-73 
 
 1868 
 
 1835 
 
 15.80 
 
 1869 
 
 1836 
 
 15.72 
 
 1870 
 
 1837 
 
 15.83 
 
 1871 
 
 1838 
 
 15.85 
 
 1872 
 
 1839 
 
 15.62 
 
 1873 
 
 1840 
 
 15.62 
 
 1874 
 
 1 841 
 
 15.70 
 
 1875 
 
 1842 
 
 15.87 
 
 1876; 
 
 1843 
 
 15-93 
 
 1877 
 
 1844 
 
 15.85 
 
 1878 
 
 1845 
 
 15.92 
 
 1879 
 
 1846 
 
 15.90 
 
 1880 
 
 1847 
 
 15.80 
 
 1881 
 
 1848 
 
 15-85 
 
 1882 
 
 1849 
 
 15-78 
 
 1883 
 
 1850 
 
 15.70 
 
 18841 
 
 1 85 1 
 
 15.46 
 
 1885 
 
 1852 
 
 15.59 
 
 1886' 
 
 1853 
 
 15.33 
 
 1887 
 
 1854 
 
 15-33 
 
 1888 
 
 1855 
 
 15-38 
 
 i889| 
 
 1856 
 
 15.38 
 
 1890! 
 
 1857 
 
 15.27 
 
 1891I 
 
 1858 
 
 15.38 
 
 1892 
 
 15.19 
 15.29 
 1550 
 
 15-35 
 15.37 
 15-37 
 15.44 
 15-43 
 15-57 
 15.59 
 15.60 
 
 15-57 
 
 15.57 
 
 15.63 
 
 15.92 
 I6.I77 
 16.59!: 
 17.88 
 17.22- 
 17.94^ 
 
 18.05^ 
 18.16N 
 18.19- 
 18.64 h 
 
 18.57 m 
 
 19.41 ; 
 
 20.78 ^ 
 21.130 
 21.99^ 
 22.09 ^ 
 
 19.75(1] 
 20.92 Q 
 23.72 r 
 
 * Since 1892 Silver has gone down utitil it stands 32 to i. (Z. M.) 
 
 (64) 
 
STARTLING COMPARISON. 
 
 The following are a few of the largest items of American bond 
 and mortgage debts, copied from Mr. Stanley Wood's late work, 
 advocating the gold standard, and entitled ^' Aiiswer to Coiu's 
 Financial School.'' His table will be found on page 134 of his 
 book. For brevity we omit all classes of debts that aggregate less 
 than one thousand millions of dollars. Those above that amount, 
 as given by our Gold Standard author, are as follows: — 
 
 State and municipal bonds . . . . 11,135,000,000 
 
 Railroad bonds 5,6ooyOOO,ooo 
 
 Mortgage debt, corporations, etc . 5,000,000,000 
 Farm and home mortgages . . . 2,500,000,000 
 
 |i4, 235,000,000 
 Adding to this from the same table, 
 
 " Loans and discounts" . . $ 4,140.000,000 
 Gives |i8, 375,000,000 
 
 Including only the above five classes 
 of American debts gives 
 
 $18,375,000,000 
 
 About two and one-half times as much 
 as all the Gold and Silver money in the 
 world. 
 
 $7'547, 590.215 
 All the Gold and 
 Silver money in the 
 world. 
 
Amoii 
 
 500 prut JlSlhetttT."^ ='">^--' to " «ne of 
 
 '» »l-»0 per volumlafti the sSh ^"''"S' """asiaj 
 
 demand may be renewed ifLS^,,^'"'-. B"*' not iS 
 
 ^^iration^fj^anperioa" °PP''«"'"'n is made before 
 
 APR 
 
 13 
 
 1931 
 
 DEC 4 
 
 natioi INFERLIBRrthV LOAN 
 
 MAY 7 - 1985 
 
 \vorl( 
 
 fNIV. OF CALIF., 3Em 
 
 icy 
 
 See 
 sus F 
 page . 
 
 B> 
 
 rency 
 
 as oi 
 
 eithe 
 
 and 
 
 forei 
 
 will 
 
 in g< 75m-7,'30 
 
 Unc'er these conuuiuuis, v,oL.^ _, „._ ^ jnely abs 
 
 than to prate about an over inflation of the money market by the ren^ 
 eti;^ation of silver ? 
 
178765 
 
 
 257n-9,'14 
 
CO 
 
 CO 
 GO 
 
 4' 
 
 " -<• A 
 
 4 
 
 yy;\7:/A