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 THE 
 QUESTION OF SILVER 
 
 COMPRISING A BRIEF SUMMARY OF LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED 
 
 STATES, TOGETHER WITH A PRACTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE 
 
 PRESENT SITUATION, AND OF THE ARGUMENTS 
 
 OF THE ADVOCATES OF UNLIMITED 
 
 SILVER COINAGE 
 
 BV 
 
 LOUIS R. EHRICH 
 
 OF COLORADO 
 
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 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 WHST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
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 COPYRIGHT, 1892 
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 03 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 g The first of the following Papers, in re- 
 j sponse to a special invitation, was read before 
 "The Monday Evening Club," — a literary 
 ^society composed of gentlemen connected with 
 -The First Congregational Church of this city, 
 E — on December 8th, 1891. Thirty-five gen- 
 tlemen were present. After the reading of 
 the Paper, a motion condemning the " Free 
 and unlimited coinage of Silver" was carried 
 ^ unanimously ; followed by a motion requesting 
 the publication of the Paper. It was accord- 
 ingly published in the Colorado Springs Gazette 
 of December 13th, 1891. 
 
 The second Paper, which is a " Reply to a 
 reply," offers its own explanation of its orig- 
 inating cause. 
 
 That, in this year of grace 1892, a move- 
 ment like " Free and unlimited Silver coinaee," 
 regardless of international co-operation, is 
 believed to command a majority in both 
 Houses of Congress, shows what the inertia of 
 
 386466
 
 4 TO THE READER. 
 
 the thinking conservative fraction of the 
 
 American people can, and may yet, lead to. 
 
 There should be no delay in distributing, as 
 
 widely as possible, whatever literature will 
 
 educate the public as to the character, the 
 
 principles, and the history of Money. 
 
 Louis R. Ehrich. 
 
 Colorado Springs, Colorado, 
 
 Jan 28th, 1892,
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 The history of civilization has a gold and 
 silver lining. From early antiquity, man has 
 recoo^nized that the best instruments for me- 
 diums of exchange and for measures of value 
 are gold and silver. As tersely expressed by 
 an eminent geologist: "Indestructible, un- 
 creatable, readily divisible, easily coined, 
 widely distributed, but nowhere abundant, 
 they have been proved by long experience 
 unique in their adaptation to the wants of so- 
 ciety as representatives of value and as circu- 
 lating media." 
 
 It would be a fascinating study to trace the 
 influence of the precious metals upon civiliza- 
 tion and to show how the rise and fall in the 
 production of gold and silver has variously 
 affected the well-being of man. For this, 
 time is lacking, and we shall be compelled to 
 confine our attention to the movements and 
 influences of gold and silver in the Nine
 
 6 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 teenth century, giving more particular study 
 to the financial history of our own country. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States, 
 framed in 1787, contains the following provis- 
 ions: Congress shall have power "to coin 
 money, regulate the value thereof, and of for- 
 eign coin, and fix the standard of weights 
 and measures." (Sec. 8, Art. I). "No state 
 shall coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make 
 anything but gold and silver coin a tender in 
 payment of debts." (Sec. 10, Art. I.) 
 
 Five years before, Robert Morris and 
 Thomas Jefferson haei agitated the establish- 
 ment of an American mint. It is interesting 
 that Morris, who was " the superintendent of 
 finance, " was a monometallist. He advocated 
 the use of silver alone, because, as he said, 
 Qfold and silver could not be used as a stand- 
 ard on account of the variation in the ratio of 
 the two metals. The subject was discussed 
 for several years until, in 1791, Alexander 
 Hamilton brought in his " report on the es- 
 tablishment of a mint." Differino- from Mor- 
 ris, he emphatically argued, that if a single 
 standard were to be adopted, owing to its 
 greater stability, the metal should be gold ; 
 but that, for fear of abridging the quantity of 
 the circulatincr medium, he favored the double 
 standard. The question was as to the ratio 
 to be established between gold and silver.
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 7 
 
 There was a difference of opinion on this sub- 
 ject, but Hamilton concluded that the com- 
 mercial ratio, based on American values, was 
 I to 15 ; that is, that an ounce of gold was 
 worth fifteen times as much as an ounce of 
 silver. The recommendations of Hamilton 
 were accepted by Congress with slight mod- 
 ifications. The Act of 1792 declared that 
 the gold dollar should consist of 24.75 grains 
 of pure gold, that the silver dollar should con- 
 sist of fifteen times as many grains, namely 
 371.25 grains of pure silver, that there should 
 be free and unlimited coinage of either metal, 
 and that either gold or silver coins, as issued 
 from the United States mint, should be a 
 legal tender. In Washington's sixth annual 
 address, issued 1 794, I find the following al- 
 lusion : 
 
 "The mint of the United States has entered upon 
 the coinage of the precious metals, and considerable 
 sums of defective coins and bullion have been 
 lodged with the director by individuals. There is a 
 pleasing prospect that the institution will, at no re- 
 mote day, realize the expectation which was origi- 
 nally formed of its utility." 
 
 Our most reliable experts agree that in the 
 year i 793 the commercial ratio of gold to sil- 
 ver was just about 1:15. But from that very 
 year silver, relatively to gold, began to
 
 8 THE QUESTIOiV OF SILVER. 
 
 cheapen. In 1795 it was about 15^^:1. In 
 1799, about 15^:1. For the forty years from 
 1793 to 1833 it oscillated up and down, but it 
 never again rose to the ratio of 15.1. The 
 country was sparsely populated, intercommu- 
 nication was slow and irregular, there were 
 neither railroads nor steam-ships — the de- 
 mand for metallic money was very great — 
 and yet before long, there came into opera- 
 tion the effect of the simple law known as 
 Gresham's law, named after Sir Thomas Gres- 
 ham, a very successful London merchant who 
 founded " The Royal Exchange " the year 
 after Shakespeare was born. Gresham's law 
 is that " bad money drives out good money." 
 This law is as simple and as inevitable as the 
 fact that if ninety-nine cents will pay debts 
 just as well as 100 cents, people will, as soon 
 as they have discovered the fact, pay only the 
 ninety-nine cents ; or, if merchants find that 
 fifteen ounces will satisfy their customers for 
 a pound avoirdupois just as well as sixteen 
 ounces, they will naturally, if the law justifies 
 and protects them, deal out only the fifteen 
 ounces. Gresham's law may also be stated 
 thus : If two metals are legal tender, are coined 
 at a fixed ratio and both are entitled to free 
 coinage, if there is any variation in value, 
 only the cheaper metal will circulate. 
 
 Early in the century, Gresham's law began
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. g 
 
 to exert its influence on the American coined 
 metals. On the average gold was worth 3 
 per cent, more, as to silver, than the value 
 stamped on the gold coin. Gold began to 
 disappear certainly as early as 18 10. It has 
 occurred to me whether the fact that no silver 
 dollars were coined after 1805 ^^^ not result 
 from the observation of the gradual disap- 
 pearance of gold and the hope that by mak- 
 ings silver dollars more scarce their value 
 might relatively rise. At all events, the fact 
 stands that about 18 19 the circulation of gold 
 coin was almost completely extinguished in 
 the United States. In 18 14 the gold coinage 
 of the United States mint was $77,000. In 
 18 1 5 it was $3,000. In 18 16 it was n?'/. 
 
 Various suggestions were made in Congress. 
 In 1 83 1 Mr. Campbell P.White made the fol- 
 lowing sound statement : 
 
 " There are inherent and incurable defects in the 
 system which regulates the standard of value in 
 both gold and silver; its instability as a measure of 
 contracts and mutability as the practical currency of 
 a nation, are serious imperfections ; whilst impossi- 
 bility of maintaining both metals in concurrent, si- 
 multaneous or promiscuous circulation, appears to be 
 clearly ascertained." 
 
 In a report made the following year he 
 writes :
 
 lO THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 " The committee cannot ascertain that both metals 
 have ever circulated simultaneously, concurrently 
 and indiscriminately in any country where there are 
 banks or money dealers ; and they entertain the con- 
 viction that the nearest approach to an invariable 
 standard is its establishment in one metal, which 
 metal shall compose exclusively the currency for 
 large payments.'' 
 
 The first experiment of the United States 
 with the free and unlimited coinage of STold 
 and silver closed in 1834. In that year, what 
 is known as the Act of 1834, changing the 
 ratio, was enacted. In a speech, delivered on 
 the floor of the Senate in 1834, Thomas H. 
 Benton said : 
 
 " The false valuation put upon gold has rendered 
 the mint of the United States, so far as the gold 
 coinage is concerned, a most ridiculous and absurd 
 institution. It has coined, and that at a large 
 expense to the United States, 2,262,177 pieces of 
 gold, worth $11,852,890, and where are the pieces 
 now? Not one of them to be seen! all sold, and 
 exported ! and so regular is the operation that the 
 director of the mint, in his latest report to Congress, 
 says that the new-coined gold frequently remains in 
 the mint, uncalled for, though ready for delivery, 
 until the day arrives for a packet to sail to Europe. 
 He calculates that two millions of native gold will 
 be coined annually hereafter ; the whole of which, 
 without a reform of the gold standard, will be con- 
 ducted, like exiles, from the national mint to the 
 seashore, and transported to foreign regions.'
 
 THE QUESTION OE SILVER. I I 
 
 In another part of the same speech, he says 
 that he must bring out certain facts. 
 
 " To enable the friends of GOLD to go to work at 
 the right place to effect the recovery of that pre- 
 cious metal WHICH THEIR FATHERS ONCE POS- 
 SESSED — -which the subjects of European kings now 
 possess — which the citizens of the young republics 
 to the south all possess — which even the free negroes 
 of San Domingo possess — but which the yeomanry 
 of this America have been deprived of for more than 
 twenty years, and will be deprived of for ever, un- 
 less they discover the cause of the evil, and apply 
 the remedy to its root." 
 
 It is rather amusing in the face of the pres- 
 ent cry for " the silver dollar of the daddies," 
 to listen to this cry of the men of 1834 for 
 the gold dollar of their daddies. 
 
 The coinage act of June 1834 fixed the le- 
 gal ratio of gold to silver as 1:16. The com- 
 mercial ratio w^as nearly 1:15.3-5. By the 
 Act of 1792, silver was over-valued. By the 
 Act of 1834, gold was over-valued. The 
 framers of the Act of 1792 thought that they 
 were bimetallists, but they were, in fact, silver 
 monometallists. The framers of the Act of 
 1834 thought that they were bimetallists, but 
 they were, in fact, gold monometallists. 
 
 Some members of Congress saw the danger. 
 A Mr. Gorham, of Massachusetts, said :
 
 12 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 " I warn the house not to bring about, by hasty 
 legislation, the same state of things in relation to sil- 
 ver which has heretofore existed respecting gold. . 
 If the law makes gold too cheap, the coun- 
 try will have no silver circulation. We shall soon 
 have the same cry about the want of silver coin 
 which there was now about gold." 
 
 In the sixteen years after 1834, the commer- 
 cial ratio of silver to gfold oscillated from 
 15 3-4:1 to 15 9-10:1, but it never fell to the 
 ratio of 16:1. Consequently, the silver as 
 coined by the United States was, relatively 
 to gold, worth more than its coin value. 
 Gresham's law again came into play and sil- 
 ver disappeared from circulation. The silver 
 dollar was rarely used as money after 1840. 
 Professor Simon Newcomb wrote in 1879 • 
 
 " It would probably be safe to assert that. . , . 
 one-half of the citizens of our country, born since 
 1840, had never seen a United States silver dollar." 
 
 In the period from 1841 to 1851, ten years, 
 the annual average of the total world's pro- 
 duction of gold was, in round figures, $38,000,- 
 000 ; of silver $34,000,000. As you observe, 
 a production not very unequal. In 1849 ^"<^ 
 1 85 1 came the remarkable gold discoveries of 
 California, Australia and Russia. In the five 
 years from 1851 to 1855, the average total 
 world's production of silver was, in round
 
 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 1 3 
 
 figures, $40,000,000, of gold $140,000,000. 
 This inequality of production gave a still 
 higher value to silver, and whereas the com- 
 mercial ratio of silver to gold was 15^4^:1 in 
 1834, it rose to 15^:1 in 1853. 
 
 In the coinage act of 1792 a serious error 
 had been committed, which was re-enacted in 
 the Act of 1837 supplementary to the coinage 
 act of 1834; namely, the subsidiary coins, the 
 half-dollars, quarter-dollars, dimes and half- 
 dimes, had been minted with their exact pro- 
 portion of the silver contained in the dollar. 
 Consequently, after 1834, and more especially 
 after the vast increase of gold-production, 
 Gresham's law operated not only as regards 
 the silver dollar, but also as regards the 
 smaller coins as well. In 1853, Dr. C. L. 
 Dunham sa:id in Congress : 
 
 " There is, then, a constant stimulant to gather up 
 every silver coin, and send it to market as bullion 
 to be exchanged for gold, and the result is the 
 country is ahnost devoid of small change for the 
 ordinary small business transactions, and what we 
 have is of a depreciated character." 
 
 The coinage act of 1853 remedied the 
 error of 1792. Instead of leaving in the half- 
 dollar the exact half of the standard silver 
 contained in the dollar — namely, 206/^ grains 
 — this act cut down the standard silver of the
 
 14 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 half-dollar to 192 grains, with the smaller 
 coins in proportion. No free coinage of these 
 subsidiary coins was allowed. Their legal 
 tender value was limited to five dollars. Thus 
 the Act of 1853 reduced the silver of the frac- 
 tional coins about 7 per cent. — and as the 
 silver dollar was only worth about 3/^ per 
 cent, more than the gold dollar, all profit in 
 melting the subsidiary coins ceased. 
 
 Now this coinage act of 1853 is remarkable 
 in its omissions. Mind you, the silver dollar 
 had practically gone out of circulation. The 
 total coinage of silver dollars in 1850 had 
 been $47,500; in 1851, $1,300; in 1852, 
 $1,100. In contrast, the total gold coinage 
 of 1852 was over $56, 000,000,'of which $2,000,- 
 000 was in gold dollars. Why was there no 
 shriek then for "the dollar of the daddies"? 
 Simply because there was nobody financially 
 interested in shrieking. For the five years 
 1 85 1 to 1855, the average silver production of 
 the United States was, in round figures, 
 $375,000; the average gold production, $62,- 
 000,000. The truth is, that the committee 
 which drafted the bill, and Congress itself, 
 virtually understood and believed that the 
 coinage of the United States in 1853 was set- 
 tled on a gold standard. Mr. Dunham, one 
 of the finance committee, in replying to an- 
 other plan proposed, said on the floor of the
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. I 5 
 
 House : " We should thereby still continue the 
 double standard of gold and silver, a thing the 
 committee desire to obviate. They desire to 
 have the standard currency consist of gold 
 only." 
 
 From 1853 to 1862 it did consist of gold 
 only. The silver dollar w^as during those 
 years worth an average of 3/^ cents above the 
 dollar stamp, and none were in circulation. 
 
 On the morning of April 13, 1861, the Neiu 
 York Herald contained the following de- 
 spatch, dated Charleston, April 12 : 
 
 "The first shot at Fort Sumter from Stevens' bat- 
 tery was fired by the venerable Edmund Ruffin of 
 Virginia." 
 
 We were soon in the throes of the re- 
 bellion. The government needed money. 
 In the fall of '61 it borrowed $100,000,000 in 
 gold from the banks. In 1862 the issue of 
 unsecured legal tender paper money was agi- 
 tated in Congress. Gold at once sprang to a 
 premium. The legal tender bill passed Con- 
 gress in February, 1862. One hundred and 
 fifty millions of what we afterwards called 
 " greenbacks " were issued at once. Gres- 
 ham's law began to operate immediately. 
 Gold disappeared from circulation. The aver- 
 age gold premium of February was 3>^ per 
 cent.; of March i^ per cent., of April i^
 
 1 6 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 per cent., of May y/^ per cent. When the 
 150,000,000 had been issued in February it 
 had been stated that that sum would probably 
 be the maximum issue. In July, however, 
 another issue of 150,000,000 was made. The 
 average premium of gold in July rose to 14^^ 
 per cent. Gresham's law put on additional 
 steam and our silver half-dollars, quarters, 
 dimes and half-dimes were also driven out of 
 circulation. The odious " shin-plasters " were 
 decreed July 17, 1862. Gold advanced to a 
 premium of 24 per cent, in September, 34 per 
 cent, in December, 60 per cent, in January, 
 1863, and then went up and down until it 
 reached its highest point of 185 per cent, in 
 July, 1864. The resumption of silver sub- 
 sidiary payments in 1877 and of gold pay- 
 ments in 1879 we need not dwell on. 
 
 We return now to the extraordinary pro- 
 duction of gold after 1850. In the twenty 
 years from 1830 to 1850, the total world's 
 production of gold was about $525,000,000. 
 In the twenty years from 1850 to 1870, the 
 total world's production was about $2,725,- 
 000,000, more than five times as much. It 
 has been computed that the gold product from 
 1 85 1 to 1875 exceeded the entire gold product 
 for the 357 years preceding, namely, from 
 the year of the discovery of America to 1850. 
 This vast increase in gold production created
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 1 7 
 
 some alarm. It was feared that it might seri- 
 ously disarrange values. The purchasing 
 power of gold fell and commodities rose con- 
 siderably in value. Some French economists 
 even discussed the possible demonetization of 
 gold. However, the leading economists of 
 the great nations of the world soon realized 
 that this was a favorable opportunity to place 
 the business of the world on a gold basis. 
 Gold was recognized as the best instrument 
 for this purpose. The International Mone- 
 tary Conference held at Paris in 1867, laid 
 down as a leading principle necessary to uni- 
 versal coinage "the universal adoption of a 
 single gold standard." 
 
 The great war indemnity which France was 
 compelled to pay Germany after her defeat in 
 1870-71 was paid in gold. Germany, follow- 
 ing the advice of her best financial heads, 
 hurried to place herself on the single gold 
 standard, which was effected by the Acts of 
 1871 and 1873. 
 
 We now come to what is called " the con- 
 spiracy against silver "^ — the demonetization of 
 silver in the United States in 1873. The 
 charge was first made in 1876, and we hear now 
 again and again that the silver dollar was " de- 
 monetized by a trick," that hardly anybody 
 knew anything about at the time — that "silver 
 was struck down in the niofht," etc., etc. What
 
 1 8 THE QUESTION OF SILVER, 
 
 are the undeniable facts? As far back as 
 April 25, 1870, the Hon. Geo. S, Boutwell, then 
 secretary of the treasury, transmitted to the 
 Senate of the United States the draft of a bill 
 now known as the coinage act of Feb. 12, 1873. 
 This bill was a revision of all laws relatintr to 
 the mint coinage. // omitted the silver dollar- 
 piece. The Senate took no immediate action, 
 but sent copies of the bill to some thirty 
 experts on coinage matters in the United 
 States for an expression of their opinion.* In 
 their replies, Mr. Elliott says: " The bill pro- 
 poses the discontinuance of the silver dollar." 
 Mr. Patterson says : " By this amendment, 
 gold becomes the standard of money, of 
 which the gold dollar is the unit. Silver is 
 subsidiary." Mr. Snowden writes : " I see 
 that it is proposed to demonetize the silver 
 dollar." The House of Representatives called 
 for these expert replies, and they were accord- 
 ingly forwarded by the Senate. As early as 
 Jan. 10, 1 87 1, the bill passed in the Senate by 
 a vote of 36 to 14. The bill was then sent to 
 and fro for several years. That its character 
 
 *The above statement was based on Document No. 1453, Treasury 
 Department, entitled " A Brief History of Coinage Legislation in the 
 United States." I am glad to make a correction by stating that it 
 was the Hon. John Jay Knox who sent out the bill for expert opin- 
 ion. The reader is referred to the highly interesting and most 
 instructive "Interview of John Jay Knox before 'The committee 
 on Coinage, Weights and Measures,' Saturday February 21, 1891," — 
 issued from the Government Printing-office.
 
 THE QUE ST/ ON OF SILVER. 1 9 
 
 was perfectly understood and perfectly ex- 
 plained is shown by the following quotations 
 of speeches delivered in the House. Mr. Kel- 
 ley of Pennsylvania said : 
 
 " I again call attention of the House to the fact 
 that the gentlemen who oppose this bill insist upon 
 maintaining a silver dollar worth 3)^ cents more 
 than the gold dollar, and that so long as these pro- 
 visions remain you cannot keep silver coin in the 
 country." 
 
 Mr. Stoughton of Michigan said : 
 
 "Gold is practically the standard of value among 
 all civilized nations and the time has come in this 
 country when the gold dollar shall be distinctly de- 
 clared to be the coin representative of the money 
 unit. 
 
 The bill was prii^ted thirteen times by order 
 of Conofress. It was discussed durincr five dif- 
 ferent sessions. The debates on the bill in 
 the Congressional Globe occupy 148 pages, 
 and yet serious men have the effrontery to tell 
 us that the contents of the bill were not 
 known. On Jan. 14, 1891, Mr. Ingalls, a rabid 
 free coinage man, referring to the coinage bill 
 of 1873, rnade the following statement on the 
 floor of the Senate : 
 
 " That bill was pending in its various stages for 
 four years in both Houses of Congress. It passed
 
 20 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 both Houses by decided majorities. It was read and 
 re-read and reprinted thirteen times, as appears by 
 the records. It was commented on in the newspa- 
 pers ; it was the subject of discussion in financial 
 bodies all over the country, and yet we have the 
 concurrent testimony of every senator and every 
 member of the House of Representatives who was 
 present during the time that the legislation was 
 pending and proceeding that he knew nothing what- 
 ever about the demonetization of silver and the de- 
 struction of the coinage of the silver dollar. The 
 senator from Nevada ( Mr. Stewart ) who knows so 
 many things, felt called upon to make a speech of 
 an hour's duration to show that he knew nothinsf 
 whatever about it. I have heard others declaim and 
 with one consent make excuse that they knew noth- 
 ing about it. It is one of the phenomena and anom- 
 alies of legislation and I have no other explana- 
 tion to make than this : I believe that both Houses 
 of Congress and the President of the United States 
 must have been hypnotized." 
 
 " What is the true explanation ? The fact 
 is that In 1873 silver had demonetized itself. 
 The coin in the silver dollar was still worth a 
 little more than a dollar, and it has been esti- 
 mated that there were not, at that time, a 
 thousand standard silver dollars in existence. 
 All had been melted or exported. For twenty- 
 eight years the ounce price of silver had not 
 fallen below $1.30, whereas its coinage ratio 
 to gold was $1.29 ; and in 1873 it still stood 
 within one-fifth of one cent of $1.30. The sil-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 21 
 
 ver producers were indifferent as to the law of 
 1873 because, unbrokenly for forty years, sil- 
 ver had been worth more than its coinage 
 value. 
 
 Beginning with 1870, the gold product 
 began to decline, the silver product began 
 to increase enormously. In 1S74, the Latin- 
 Union, noticing the downward tendency of 
 silver, withdrew the privilege of free coinage 
 and limited the coinage of the silver five-franc 
 pieces to a moderate amount. Silver in 1874 
 fell to $1.27 an ounce. In '75 to $1.24 an 
 ounce. In '76 to $1.15 an ounce. Then and 
 not till then, began to be heard the cry of 
 "the conspiracy of 1873." 
 
 Silver has been struck down, but not by 
 the bill of 1873, nor by any bill concocted by 
 man. The hand which struck down silver is 
 the hand which will strike us all down in 
 time, the hand which nothing can withstand, 
 the irresistible hand of N'atiire. Silver has 
 been struck down by one of the natural forces, 
 by the great law of demand and supply. The 
 yearly average of gold production in the 
 twenty-five years from 1851-75 was $127,000,- 
 000. The yearly average product of silver 
 for the same period was $51,000,000. The 
 average annual product of gold for the fifteen 
 years from 1876 to 1890 declined lo $108,000,- 
 000; a minus of 15 per cent. The average
 
 22 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 annual product of silver for the same period 
 mcreased to $116,000,000; a plus of 127 per 
 cent. TJie7'e is the wJiole silver question, and 
 in face of these facts, it is as now impossible 
 for the United States, single-handed, with free 
 and unlimited coinage, to bring silver to a 
 parity with gold on any such basis as 16:1, 
 // is more impossible than for a thousand men 
 to pick up our great "Pike's Peak" and 
 transport it bodily to Denver. 
 
 In 1876, as before stated, silver had fallen 
 to $1.15 an ounce. Free silver coinage bills 
 were introduced in the House of Representa- 
 tives by Mr. Kelley and Mr. Bland. In the 
 fall of 1877 a free coinage bill passed the 
 House. In the Senate the free coinage feat- 
 ure was cut out and the bill, as amended by 
 Mr. Allison, passed February, 1878. The 
 House, accepting the Senate amendments, 
 passed the bill. President Hayes vetoed it, 
 but it was passed over his veto. The bill of 
 1878, generally spoken of as the " Bland" bill, 
 directed the secretary of the treasury to pur- 
 chase not less than two million nor more 
 than four million dollars' worth of silver bull- 
 ion per month, to coin it into silver dollars, 
 said silver dollars to be full legal tender at 
 "their nominal value." Also, that the holder 
 o{ ten or more of these silver dollars could 
 exchange them for silver certificates, said
 
 X. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 23 
 
 certificates being " receivable for customs, 
 taxes and all public dues." The bill was 
 pushed and passed by the efforts, principally, 
 of the greenback inflationists and the repre- 
 sentatives of the silver States. If the Bland- 
 Allison bill had not made the coinage of sil- 
 ver obligatory, I could make no objection to 
 it. Since 1878, 405,000,000 silver dollars 
 have been coined. Of these 348,000,000 are 
 still lying in the treasury vaults. No comment 
 is needed. The Bland-Allison act did not 
 hold up silver. In 1879 it was worth $1.12 
 an ounce, in 1880 $1.14, '81 $1.13, '82 $1.13, 
 ' Zt^ $1.1 1, '86 99 cents, until in '89 it reached 
 93>^ cents an ounce. That is, in 1889 the 
 commercial ratio was 22:1 and the coin value 
 of the Bland-Allison silver dollar was 72 
 cents. 
 
 In March, 1890, a bill was reported to the 
 House by the commTttee of "coinage, weights 
 and measures, " based on a plan proposed by 
 Secretary Windom, to the effect : That any 
 owner of silver bullion,, not foreign, could 
 bring it to any mint, and obtain legal tender 
 treasury notes therefor equal to the market 
 value of the silver, redeemable, on demand, 
 either in gold or in silver bullion (at its then 
 value) at the government's option, or in silver 
 dollars at the holder's option. The bill 
 passed the House. The Senate passed it with
 
 24 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 an amendment making provision for free and 
 unlimited coinage. It finally went to a con- 
 ference committee which reported the bill 
 that became a law, July 14, 1890. This bill 
 directs the secretary of the treasury to pur- 
 chase four and one-half million ounces of sil- 
 ver a month at the market price, to give legal 
 tender treasury notes therefor, said notes 
 beine redeemable in oold or silver coin at the 
 option of the government, " it being the estab- 
 lished policy of the United States to maintain 
 the two metals on a parity with each other 
 upon the present legal ratio." It was believed 
 that this bill would raise the price of silver. 
 So all the silver men confidently prophesied. 
 In January '90 — silver was worth 97/^ cents 
 an ounce. In March 96 cents. Anticipating 
 favorable silver legislation, silver speculators 
 drove silver to $1.00,^/^ ; in April, to $1.05 ; in 
 May, to $1.08; in August to $1.15, and 
 finally to $1.21 on September 3d. Specu- 
 lators, however, count for little against nat- 
 ural law. The price began to decline to $1.09 
 in October, to $1.06 in December, and its 
 price, with slight fluctuations, has been stead- 
 ily downward ever since. Remember that the 
 price of an ounce of silver averaged 97/^ 
 cents in January, 1890. This morning's (Dec. 
 8, 1891.) quotation for an ounce of silver was 
 94>^ cents an ounce. To-day the silver in
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 2 5 
 
 our dollar is actually worth ']2) cents. The 
 silver men are disappointed. Their bill of 
 1890 brought a customer into the market who 
 purchased fifty-four million ounces a year, 
 and yet silver is lower than when that bill 
 passed. They cannot realize that it is im- 
 possible to fight against a natural law. 
 
 The cry grows louder and louder for free 
 and unlimited silver coinage. In the din of 
 the battle, two very distinct rallying cries can 
 be distinguished. One is the desire to get 
 $1.29 instead of 95 cents for an ounce of sil- 
 ver. The other is, the desire to assist the 
 debtor class to lighten the burden of indebted- 
 ness. Strangely enough, these cries are gen- 
 erally emitted by the same silver enthusiasts, 
 and still more strangely they are diametrically 
 opposed to each. If free and unlimited silver 
 coinage will make the silver dollar fully equal 
 in value to the gold dollar, then the silver dol- 
 lar will be just as hard to get as the gold dol- 
 lar, and the debtor will be disappointed by 
 standing just where he stands to-day. If, on 
 the other hand, free coinage does not increase 
 the value of silver and the silver dollar as now 
 will intrinsically be worth seventy-three cents, 
 then the debtor will make a large saving in 
 his debt payment and the silver-mine owner 
 will be disappointed just in that proportion. 
 
 Let us now see whether free silver coinage
 
 26 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 will play into the hands of the debtor or of 
 the silver-mine owner. \The first effect of 
 the free and unlimited coinage of silver would 
 be the immediate and total disappearance of 
 gold from circulation. The ink of the Presi- 
 dent's signature to the bill would not be dry 
 before gold would be at a premium. Why? 
 If you had any article which you had reason 
 to believe would jump 25 to 33 per cent, in 
 price within a few days or a few weeks, what 
 would you do with it? You would hold on 
 to it. The day after the enactment of the 
 free coinage bill you could exchange your 
 gold for silver at the market price, have it 
 coined into dollars and make the difference. 
 But you reply : " No American would sell it 
 to you." Certainly not — but Mexico is handy, 
 and there is a stock of $3,800,000,000 of sil- 
 ver in the world to draw from. Silver would, 
 at first, advance without a doubt ; but it would 
 have to advance fully to $1.29 an ounce and 
 to remain at that value not to permanently 
 drive out gold. If it reached even $1.28, 
 gold would still be driven froni circulation. 
 
 "But" — say the silver-men, ''it ivill reach 
 and remain at $1.29 an oniice" This, in face 
 of the fact, that there is no demand for silver 
 in Europe, that the European nations most 
 friendly to silver have suspended its coinage 
 some twelve years — that the supply of silver is
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 2^ 
 
 increasing, and that any rise in value would 
 stimulate its production enormously. Is noth- 
 ing to be learned from history ? When the 
 United States established the ratio of i6:i in 
 1834, — a gold dollar, 23.2 grains of pure gold, 
 was worth a fraction less than 99 cents as com- 
 pared with silver. Gold had free and unlim- 
 ited coinaofe all over the world. All the 
 nations had a laroe and increasing demand 
 for it, and yet it took just forty years to make 
 23.2 grains of pure gold equal to 371 K grains 
 of pure silver, that is, to make a gold dollar 
 equal in value to a silver dollar, in spite of 
 the fact that in those forty years, the United 
 States coined 878,000,000 dollars of gold. 
 Why ? Because the law of supply and de- 
 mand held it down. Remember, please, that 
 the difference was only a fraction over one 
 cent, and yet silver enthusiasts really believe 
 and want sane men to believe that ao-ainst the 
 inexorable law of supply and demand, the 
 magic of free coinage is quickly going to wipe 
 out the present difference of 27 cents between 
 the silver and the gold dollar. It is itnpossi- 
 ble. 
 
 Free coinage must be followed by the im- 
 mediate disappearance of gold. This will, to 
 some extent, mean contraction, but not to the 
 extent that many suppose. Far worse in its 
 baneful effect than the gold disappearance
 
 28 THE QUESTION OE SILVER. 
 
 will be the immediate and far-reaching shock 
 to confidence, the unwillingness to embark in 
 new enterprises, to extend business, to loan 
 money, or to take any business risks. Such a 
 shock means panic and resulting ruin to thou- 
 sands. The whole country will suffer, but the 
 States which will suffer the most are the West- 
 ern States, the very States which are trying to 
 bring about free silver coinage, the States 
 which most especially are dependent for their 
 development on the investment of outside 
 capital. The value of the silver dollar will 
 oscillate up and down with the oscillation of 
 the price of the silver ounce ; and until these 
 oscillations become comparatively small, no 
 prudent man will want to engage in a business 
 venture. This oscillation of silver will be 
 a constant obstacle in business. It will be 
 like doing business with a yardstick or a 
 quart measure which grows smaller or big- 
 ger every day. Silver-men declare against 
 having silver a commodity like wheat, cotton 
 or pork. Well, with free silver coinage, sil- 
 ver would not be a commodity in the United 
 States. That is, the bullion value and the 
 coinage value would be exactly the same 
 thing in purchasing power. But would it not 
 be a commodity just the same in Europe ? 
 Would we not, just the same, get a daily re- 
 port of the ounce or commodity price of sil-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 29 
 
 ver in London? And would not the rise and 
 fall of this ounce price have to be taken into 
 account by every shrewd man of business ? 
 
 Now, where will silver stand when the oscil- 
 lations become small ? I venture to predict 
 that it will stand even below the present silver 
 price. The debtor classes zvill have won the 
 day. 
 
 When a Western man speaks of the debtor 
 classes he generally means the Western 
 farmers. The free silver coinage advocate 
 proposes to put a depreciated silver dollar in 
 the hands of the farmer so that he can con- 
 fiscate twenty-five per cent, of the money his 
 creditor loaned him. Most silver-men would 
 shrink with loathing from a proposition to 
 allow the farmer to make every fourth dollar 
 he paid his creditor a counterfeit, and yet 
 that will he the p7^actical effect of unlimited 
 coinage. If the Kansas and Nebraska farm- 
 ers are to be an object of charity, I would 
 vastly prefer to have the government of the 
 United States pay twenty-five per cent, of 
 their indebtedness rather than have the public 
 views of honesty debauched by enabling a 
 debtor to cheat his creditor. But says some 
 objector : " Money is worth more now than 
 when the farmer borrowed." Let us see. 
 Most silver advocates claim that the more 
 money there is in the country, the better for
 
 30 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 the farmer, the easier for him to pay his debts. 
 Hardly a farm mortgage of the West runs for 
 more than five years, so nearly all the mort- 
 gages due in 1891 were made in 1886; and 
 yet, there are two hundred and fifty millions 
 more money in the country now than there 
 was in '86. 
 
 We hear much as to these debtor classes. 
 Suppose we enquire as to who their creditor 
 is. Many people think that the money bor- 
 rowed by the Western farmer has come from 
 the rich Eastern, "gold bug." What are the 
 facts ? The vast majority of Western farm 
 mortgages are below a thousand dollars in 
 value, and they are held almost exclusively 
 by people of very moderate means in the 
 New England States. Old people who have 
 passed the age of accumulation and who, by a 
 life of economy, have amassed a small com- 
 petency, widows and unmarried women who 
 must live on a fixed income, small tradesmen 
 who, by thrift and earnest work, have put by 
 a few thousand dollars — these are the classes 
 whom it is proposed to despoil in the name 
 of law. Woe to the Western farmer if he at- 
 tempts it ! The day .of retribution will come 
 when his necessities will drive him to ask for 
 another loan. The truth is that the Western 
 farmer has not paid exorbitant interest. I 
 feel confident that the facts will bear out my
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 3 1 
 
 statement, that the Kansas and Nebraska 
 farmer to-day pays a lower rate of interest 
 than the Denver merchant for his business 
 loans. 
 
 No ! The creditor of the Western farmers 
 is not the Eastern " grold bugr.". Rich men 
 are not lenders of money. They are borrow- 
 ers the world over. Your bankers will tell 
 you that the great majority of their deposit 
 accounts are small accounts. The safety of 
 banks, their ability to loan money freely, lies 
 in those small accounts. Most of the money 
 loaned by banks is loaned to rich men. They 
 are borrowers because they know what to do 
 with the money. It pays them to borrow. 
 Take the great buildings owned by the rich 
 men of Denver. All carry mortgages. From 
 whom has the money come ? From the sav- 
 ings banks, from the insurance companies — 
 in other words, from the combined savings of 
 the people of moderate means. 
 
 Yet the greatest creditor class and the one 
 which will suffer most from free and unlimited 
 silver coinage is the labor class — the miner, 
 the servant, the mechanic. Every man who 
 works for wages is a creditor in the evening, 
 at the end of the week, or at the end of the 
 month. He will be the last to discover how 
 a depreciated dollar defrauds him and that he 
 is daily meeting a loss by its decreased pur-
 
 32 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 chasing power. The miner will take his $3.50 
 a day long after it must be exchanged for 
 commodities which formerly cost him a dollar 
 less. Andrew Jackson says most truly in his 
 eighth annual message : 
 
 " A depreciation of the currency is always at- 
 tended by a loss to the laboring classes. This por- 
 tion of the community have neither time nor op- 
 portunity to watch the ebbs and flows of the money 
 market. Engaged from day to day in their useful 
 toils, they do not perceive that, although their 
 wages are nominally the same, or even somewhat 
 higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the rapid 
 increase of currency which, as it appears to make 
 money abound, they are at first inclined to consider 
 a blessing." 
 
 Evidently this question of free silver coin- 
 age is more than a question of finance — it is 
 a question of morals — it is a question of 
 philanthropy. 
 
 Prices must naturally rise to compare with 
 the value of silver. In process of time, the 
 wage-worker will understand his position and 
 will demand and obtain higher wages in 
 proportion. During the interval, however, 
 which will be long, he will be literally de- 
 frauded. 
 
 There is another feature of debt-payment 
 which deserves consideration. If it will be 
 cheaper and easier to pay debts in silver
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 33 
 
 which, by the terms of contract, can be paid 
 in silver, it will be correspondingly more diffi- 
 cult and more expensive to pay debts which 
 are made payable in gold. Leaving aside 
 the vast railroad bond indebtedness, all of 
 which is payable in gold, and all of which 
 eventually must be paid by the whole people, 
 let us look nearer home. All the bonds of 
 private corporations — like water works, street 
 railroads, etc. , — all the county and munici- 
 pal bonds are payable in gold, principal and 
 interest. There is not a city or county 
 in Colorado which will not suffer financial 
 hardship, there is not a Colorado property- 
 owner who will not be forced to pay increased 
 taxes in order to enable the Kansas and 
 Nebraska farmer to "fleece" his Eastern cred- 
 itor. 
 
 But we hear a silver man who says : 
 " These are all theories. You cannot prove 
 by practical national experience that these 
 theories are correct." Let us look about. 
 Here is Mexico right under our nose ! When 
 the United States and all the European na- 
 tions demonetized silver in the seventies — • 
 Mexico kept right on. It gave free and un- 
 limited coinage to both gfold and silver. 
 What was then the inevitable consequence? 
 Twenty years ago, gold and silver circulated 
 in Mexico. To-day, not a gold coin circu-
 
 34 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 lates there. The Mexican silver dollar circu- 
 lates alone and is worth just the silver that is 
 in it. Prices have adjusted themselves to it. 
 The Mexican dollar, containing six more 
 grains of pure silver than the American dol- 
 lar, is worth about seventy-five cents, and 
 when a Mexican exchanges his dollar for 
 American money he gets even less than the 
 bullion value of' the silver in his dollar. 
 Mexico is a very near at hand illustration of 
 the operation of Gresham's law. 
 
 " But, " argues some persistent free silver 
 man — " let us grant all the results you claim : 
 The disappearance of gold, the first shock to 
 business, the injustice to the creditor — the 
 wrong to the wageworker, the increased diffi- 
 culty of gold payments, etc., etc. Yet after 
 the worst has been suffered, after everything 
 has found its equilibrium in silver — prices, 
 wages, etc., — shall we not then be in good 
 financial and business shape?" The reply 
 is clear. We certainly would be, if we only 
 exchanged commodities among ourselves, if 
 we could profitably consume in the United 
 States all that we produce. But we cannot. 
 Our production is far beyond our power of 
 consumption — and our only salvation is to 
 go out into the markets of the world and sell 
 our surplus. There is where a silver basis 
 will do us constant and incalculable injury,
 
 THE Q UES TION OF SIL VER. 3 5 
 
 and the man who will be most seriously and 
 most constantly injured will be the American 
 farmer. 
 
 The American farmer has had many draw- 
 backs, but one blessing he has hitherto en- 
 joyed. There might be speculation in his 
 product, but there could be no speculation in 
 the money with which his product was paid. 
 He sold on a gold basis. With a silver basis, 
 the exporter who bought his wheat or his 
 corn, for a foreign order, would have to cal- 
 culate or speculate on a possible decline in 
 silver between the date of his foreign ex- 
 change draft and the date of its payment. 
 The exporter would, necessarily, be com- 
 pelled to calculate on the risk and to deduct 
 a percentage from the purchasing price he 
 would otherwise pay. Who would lose this 
 percentage ? The American farmer. Within 
 a period of six years the farmer would lose 
 far more through this channel than any mis- 
 taken profit by a 25 percent, debt repudiation. 
 
 The same loss would come in the export of 
 every American product. In the great inter-, 
 national race for business, we should be like 
 the runner who would enter a foot race wear- 
 ing heavy high-topped boots. We should be 
 handicapped. International trade-preference 
 is a question of very small percentages. As 
 Daniel Webster said in 1815 :
 
 36 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 " The circulating medium of a commercial com- 
 munity must be that which is also the circulating 
 medium of other commercial communities, or must 
 be capable of being converted into that medium 
 without loss. It must be able, not only to pass in 
 payments and receipts among individuals of the 
 same society and nation, but to adjust and discharge 
 the balance of exchanges between different na- 
 tions." 
 
 One final question , the silver man might 
 ask : " Would you favor free silver coinage 
 under any possible condition?" Ansurer : 
 Yes. Don't make it a legal tender — that 
 means, don't force any one to take it w^ho 
 doesn't w^ant it, and there is no financial ob- 
 jection to the free and unlimited coinage of 
 silver. 
 
 HoMT about free coinage of the American 
 silver product only ? I can see some basis of 
 reason in this proposition. I can clearly see 
 that that, at least, is going to benefit some- 
 body. The free coinage of the world's silver 
 product would, in my opinion, on the five 
 year basis — not benefit a single class. The 
 greatest eventual sufferer would be the silver- 
 mine owner. But, with the free coinage re- 
 stricted to the American product, the silver- 
 mine owner would undoubtedly, until gold 
 went to a premium, make the difference be- 
 tween the market value and the coin value of
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 37 
 
 silver — to-day about thirty-four cents an 
 ounce. In others words, the people of the 
 United States would pay the owners of 
 American silver-mines an annual bounty of 
 about eio^hteen millions of dollars. Silver 
 would be protected to that amount. Waiving 
 the question of protection, certainly there is 
 as good an argument for protecting the silver 
 of the West as for protecting the iron and 
 steel of the East. Assuredly, it would be 
 much cheaper for the people of the United 
 States to make a gift to the silver-mine owners 
 of eighteen millions a year than to suffer the 
 hundred-fold greater loss incident to free and 
 unlimited silver coinage. Couple a law allow- 
 ing free coinage of the American product with 
 a proviso providing for cessation of silver 
 coinage, whenever gold appreciated to a pre- 
 mium and until the equilibrium had been 
 restored for a certain period, and I should be 
 perfectly satisfied. Colorado would then be 
 getting about nine millions a year more for its 
 silver product than at present — and it would 
 be an object-lesson in protection which might 
 be worth the expense. 
 
 One consideration which puzzled me for a 
 long time was, as to how so many intelligent 
 and undoubtedly sincere men could defend 
 unlimited silver coinage. The explanation 
 finally dawned upon me. The resolution 
 
 386466
 
 38 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 passed by " The Trans-mississippi Congress, 
 May 22, 1891, reads: "Resolved, That we 
 are in favor of bimetalhsm." The Mining- 
 Congress of Denver, Nov. 21, adopted the 
 resolution : " Resolved, That the first Na- 
 tional Mining Congress is unalterably in favor 
 of the principles of bimetallism." The fact is 
 that the free coinage silver men, instead of 
 understanding that they are silver monomet- 
 allists, really believe that they are bimetallists, 
 and they are deceived by the many strong and 
 sound arguments of bimetallism into believing 
 that these arguments uphold free and unlim- 
 ited coinage. 
 
 I have no time, at present, to present at 
 length the very interesting monometallic and 
 bimetallic arguments. Briefly told, the mon- 
 onometallist believes that the world's demon- 
 etization of silver is a good thing, that the 
 improvements in the methods of facilitating 
 exchanges makes a very large stock of coin 
 unnecessary, that prices have fallen since 1875 
 not because the value of gold has appreciated, 
 but because the facilities of transportation and 
 improved machinery have made production 
 exceed the world's demand. The bimetallist 
 believes that the demonetization of silver did 
 unnecessarily add to the purchasing power of 
 gold, that, it added to the burden of long 
 deferred gold-debt payments, that the busi-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 39 
 
 ness of the world would be safer if founded on 
 the broader base of both metals, and that con- 
 sequently silv^er ought to be reinstated 
 throughout Europe and the United States as 
 a money metal. 
 
 I am a bimetallist. I understand that as 
 against the vast sum of world exchanges, the 
 addition of silver to the coin of Europe and 
 America would be only a drop in the bucket. 
 But when business strain comes, when the 
 lack of confidence demands actual coin pay- 
 ment, then I want the benefit of even that sin- 
 gle drop. 
 
 I am in favor of coining all American silver 
 until the limit of a gold premium is reached. 
 When gold goes to a premium, I want silver 
 coinage to stop. The secretary of the treas- 
 ury should be clothed with power to stop it. 
 None of the free-coinage men can object to 
 this. The Trans-mississippi Congress said : 
 
 / 
 
 " Resolved, That we are in favor of all such legis- 
 lation as will restore the parity of value between 
 gold and silver." 
 
 The National Mining Congress said : 
 
 " Resolved, That gold and silver, not one to the 
 exclusion of the other, are the money metals of the 
 Constitution." 
 
 The fact is that such a proviso would
 
 40 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 help powerfully to prevent a premium in 
 gold. 
 
 ' What position should thinking, conservative 
 men take in this matter ? Some men say to 
 me : " Let these extremists shout themselves 
 hoarse. They will accomplish nothing." 
 Others say : "We have faith in the good sense 
 of the American people. They will not jump 
 into so dangerous an experiment." 
 
 In the first place, I claim, that duty demands 
 outspokenness in this matter. 
 
 The people of Colorado are led to believe 
 that we are a unit on this question. They 
 think that not only their political leaders but 
 that their bankers and strong financial and 
 business men are all unanimous for unlimited 
 silver coinage. They should be undeceived. 
 They should as far as possible, have the ques- 
 tion explained to them. But aside from this, 
 I maintain that the whole country is suffering 
 from this unceasintr silver agitation. With 
 the late European experience that the safest 
 investments are American securities — with 
 our most bountiful harvest at a period when 
 demand is producing high prices — the United 
 States ought to be in a period of most unus- 
 ual prosperity. But it is not. Why ? Be- 
 cause of this silver agitation. Even the silver 
 extremists admit this. Senator Vest of Mis- 
 souri said in the Senate last January :
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 4 1 
 
 " Nothing is so timid as capital, and to-day this 
 silver question is throwing its pall over all the indus- 
 tries and interests of the people of the United States 
 because of the uncertainty which attends it." 
 
 The whole country suffers from it, but Col- 
 orado most especially. Development in this 
 State is temporarily paralyzed. No money 
 comes here for investment. Business is dull. 
 Land attracts no purchasers. We are being 
 injured more every month than a ^,2) P^^ cent, 
 bounty on Colorado silver would benefit us in 
 a year. We are dragging the name of Colo- 
 rado in the dust. We are besmirching the rep- 
 utation of the State. Colorado is being 
 branded in the East as the home of inflation- 
 ists and silver-lunatics. 
 
 The undisguised truth is that every free sil- 
 ver coinage man is, in reality, an enemy to 
 the best interests of Colorado. When this 
 is clearly understood, the business men — the 
 banking men, the real estate men, the wage- 
 workers and all not blinded by the supposed 
 interests of silver mining, will arise in their 
 might and strangle this most injurious, most 
 dangerous, most noxious delusion. Then will 
 follow a serious effort to expand our silver 
 coinage within the limits of safety, and to 
 reach a true beneficent bimetallism based on 
 a ratio of international agreement.
 
 THE SILVER QUESTION. 
 
 A REPLY TO A " PAPER, BY THE HON. 
 CHARLES S. THOMAS OF DENVER. 
 
 When I suggested to the Monday Evening 
 Club to invite Hon. Charles S. Thomas to 
 read a paper to it on " The Silver Question," 
 I coupled my suggestion with the remark 
 that, in my opinion, he was the ablest advo- 
 cate of "Free Silver Coinage" in the State of 
 Colorado. I was anxious that we should hear 
 the strongest and the best that could be 
 offered on that side of this momentous ques- 
 tion. To Mr. Thomas' high intellectual 
 qualities, clear expression, forceful style, wide 
 information and brilliant wit, I gladly pay 
 tribute. Nor am I iornorant of the fact that 
 neither in grace of diction nor in any measure 
 of ability can I make compare. And yet in no 
 wise do I fear the conflict because I cherish 
 the trust that the Truth, coming even from a 
 mediocre mind, carries its own pervasive, per-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 43 
 
 suasive force. You can barricade your mind 
 against the truth just as you can barricade 
 your room against the Hght. But if you are 
 willing to receive the truth — if you will throw 
 open the casement, fling back the curtains, 
 the light will enter and by its own inherent, 
 magical force, will expel the darkness. 
 
 Before attacking the question at issue, I 
 want to call attention to one significant fact in 
 the " paper " of Mr. Thomas. He assaults my 
 arguments, conclusions, etc., but he does not, 
 because he cannot, dispute the correctness of 
 a single fact or figure I have quoted. I men- 
 tion this merely to impress upon your mind 
 that it is a man of truth who is writing this. 
 My reasoning may be lacking in logic, my 
 conclusions may be all astray. That is for 
 you to judge. But the facts and figures I 
 have given and now give have been verified 
 with the most painstaking and most scrupu- 
 lous care. 
 
 One of my critics imputes to me "a sublime 
 innocence of economic understanding." It 
 may be so. I shall not dispute it. Yet de- 
 spite my sublime folly, I have the conviction 
 that a very brief trial of free and unlimited sil- 
 ver coinage would prompt every man in Col- 
 orado to say, in Shakespeare's phrase : " I 
 had rather have a fool to make me merry 
 than experience to make me sad."
 
 44 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 Not SO very many men in the State would 
 be more benefited by silver rising to $1.29 an 
 ounce than would the writer of this paper. 
 Yet I realize that my desires and my interests 
 can neither warp the logic of cold, hard facts 
 nor twist the effects of irresistible natural 
 laws. Often, when standing on high towers 
 or lofty buildings, I have felt how delightful it 
 would be to jump off and, birdlike, fly slowly 
 down to terra Jirnia. I know, however, that 
 the only way to get down is to take the ele- 
 vator or the stair-case. If I saw that a 
 friend, at my side, misjudging the height, or 
 for any reason, was preparing to leap over, I 
 should feel compelled to take him by the arm 
 and to tell him that it might be pleasant to get 
 down quickly by a plunge in the air, but that 
 the inevitable consequences would be that he 
 would break his neck. If a quick leap into 
 free and unlimited silver coinage would land 
 us safely and permanently on a $1.29 silver 
 terra Jirnia, I should want to be one of the 
 first to make the leap. But knowing how 
 Nature works, how inexorable her laws, how 
 pitiless when pitted against foolhardy ven- 
 tures, I cannot help telling my neighbors in 
 the State that free coinage would be a leap 
 to our own inevitable destruction.
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 45 
 
 THE TWO DOCTORS. 
 
 Whenever I listen to or read the utterances 
 of a clever free silver advocate, I find that, 
 for a considerable distance, I can travel with 
 him in perfect accord. When he contends 
 that, owing to legislation, the purchasing 
 power of gold, has, in a measure, appreciated, 
 I agree with him. When he maintains that 
 one great cause is the world's demonetization 
 of silver, I agree with him. When he main- 
 tains that the remedy lies in the world's re- 
 monetizing silver, I agree with him. But 
 when he goes a step further and contends 
 that the way to bring it about is for the 
 United States, alone and regardless of the 
 OTHER nations, to Open its mint to the free 
 coinage of the world's silver — then our paths 
 immediately and absolutely diverge. 
 
 We are like two physicians, met in consul- 
 tation over a patient. The diagnosis has 
 been made. 
 
 Doctor A. — " It is my judgment that our 
 friend has typhoid fever." 
 
 Doctor B. — " That is my judgment also." 
 
 Doctor A. — " It is my opinion that the 
 cause is the neglected cesspool." 
 
 Doctor B. — " That is my opinion also." 
 
 Dotor A.-i-" I should advise giving the pa- 
 tient some quinine."
 
 46 THE QUESTION OE SILVER. 
 
 Doctor B. — " I endorse your judgment ab- 
 solutely." 
 
 Doctor A. — " I propose writing a prescrip- 
 tion for an immediate dose of 200 grains of 
 quinine." 
 
 Doctor B. (In consternation) — "Two hun- 
 dred GRAINS?" 
 
 Doctor A. — "Yes, sir. I believe in FREE 
 AND UNLIMITED QUININE." 
 
 Now, there's the rub. I am willing to 
 grant that the nations are suffering from gold 
 fever. I grant that the cause is a lack of sil- 
 ver in the financial blood. I grant that the 
 remedy needed is to inject more silver into 
 their circulation. But when, instead of dis- 
 tributing the dose to a number of nations, it 
 is proposed to. force it down the throat of a 
 single patient, then I maintain that it will 
 produce capitalistic nausea, industrial vom- 
 iting, financial paralysis. 
 
 THE GREAT "CONSPIRACY" OF 1873. 
 
 Free silver men, judging by the impor- 
 tance they give to it, evidently think that the 
 gist of the silver problem rests in the question 
 as to whether silver was demonetized in 1873 
 by a conspiracy or not. It really has little 
 relevancy. It is harped upon only to inflame 
 passion. I cannot stop to re-discuss the his-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. ^y 
 
 tory of that measure. But if there is a man 
 in the United States who seriously has any 
 doubts as to the pubhcity and cleanness of 
 that legislation, I earnestly beg him to enclose 
 ten cents to Mr. J. H. Hickox, Washington, 
 D. C. , dealer in congressional documents, for 
 a copy of the speech delivered by the Hon. 
 A. S. Hewitt in the House of Representatives 
 Aug. 5, 1876. That speech was delivered 
 only three years after the demonetization act. 
 I need say nothing as to the unimpeachable 
 character of Mr. Hewitt. Read that speech 
 attentively, and if you do not rise from its 
 perusal with the conviction that this talk of 
 "conspiracy" is an unfounded, shameless in- 
 vention, then no further argument of mine on 
 the subject would avail. 
 
 Two things, however, I want to call atten- 
 tion to in connection with the Act of 1873. 
 First, it is generally believed that little or no 
 silver was coined after 1873 and until 1878 
 when the Bland-Allison bill became a law. 
 The report of "The Director of the Mint" 
 shows that more silver was coined between 
 1873 and up to the date of the Bland-Allison 
 law, than had been coined for eighteen 
 YEARS PREVIOUS. It shows that if we add 
 to this sum the silver trade dollars, which 
 were minted in the same interval, we actually 
 coined more silver in those five years than
 
 48 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 
 
 FOR THIRTY YEARS PREVIOUS. There was no 
 shortage of silver after 1873. The shortage 
 was the difference between $1.15 an ounce 
 which silver was worth in 1876 and $1.29 which 
 the silver men wanted for that ounce. It 
 was that shortage which in 1876 suddenly 
 led to the discovery of the conspiracy of 
 
 1873. 
 
 The second point I wish to touch on in con- 
 nection with the Act of 1873, I introduce by 
 quoting the following lines from Mr. Thomas' 
 "Paper:" "It was about this time that 
 Ernest Seyd, the English banker, made his 
 famous visit to America. Its object has 
 recently been the theme of much discussion, 
 and is therefore familiar to you." 
 
 What is the object attributed to Mr. Seyd's 
 visit in 1873? I heard the charge for the 
 first time in " The Denver Mining Congress." 
 It was lately re-told at length in a Denver 
 journal, and is now making the rounds of the 
 Western press. The story is to the effect 
 that in 1873 some English and Continental 
 bankers raised a fund of $500,000 which was 
 given to Mr. Seyd with which to bribe mem- 
 bers of Congress in behalf of the object so 
 successfully accomplished in the interest of 
 "the eold rine," to-wit, the crafty demonetiza- 
 tion of silver. The only testimony which is 
 given is the following :
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 49 
 
 " When Congressman Hooper introduced that bill 
 he said : ' Mr. Ernest Seyd of London, a distin- 
 guished writer who has given great attention to the 
 subjects of mints and coinage, after reading the 
 first draught of the bill, furnished many valuable 
 suggestions, which have been incorporated in this 
 bill. The committee take no credit for themselves 
 for the preparation of this bill.' " 
 
 The story is founded on this testimony. 
 
 Now suppose, my reader, that you were 
 walking in a graveyard. You approach the 
 grave of a man whom you had never known, 
 but of whose life and character you had heard 
 report from various reliable sources. A wide 
 sweep of testimony, that had come to you, 
 had brought the conviction that the man at 
 whose grave you were standing, had been 
 the embodiment of honor and rectitude. Of 
 your own knowledge, you knew of his unsel- 
 fish, self-sacrificing devotion to the support of 
 one particular family which had sadly needed 
 support. While standing in thought, you are 
 suddenly startled to notice that a headboard 
 has been fastened to the grave, inscribed with 
 the foul inscription : 
 
 " The man who rests here was a briber, a falsifier 
 and a hypocrite." 
 
 And underneath, with still greater horror, 
 you observe that this foul charge is signed
 
 50 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 with the names of some of the very famil)^ for 
 whom he had done so much. What would 
 you do? 
 
 You would tear the headboard from its 
 place with an execration on the defamers. 
 That is what I propose to do for the memory 
 of Ernest Seyd. 
 
 Note, in the first place, in what a peculiar 
 position this Seyd slander leaves the free silver 
 men. All the free coinage men, who were 
 members of the Congress of 1873, including 
 those who, like Senator Stewart, voted for 
 the demonetization act, have loudly declaimed 
 that they did not know that the act would de- 
 monetize silver. And yet now we are told 
 that there was an European envoy there with 
 half a million of "boodle" in his pockets to 
 accomplish this very act. It is hard to under- 
 stand. As quoted before, ex-Senator Ingalls, 
 a free silver man, could not understand the 
 universal nescience of 1873, except upon the 
 theory that they were all hypnotized. Now 
 if we accepted the " Seyd " theory, one would 
 be led to a suspicion as to what it was that 
 threw them all into the hypnotic state. 
 
 But how about the above-quoted remarks 
 of Congressman Hooper? Are not these 
 remarks the very strongest evidence against 
 the slander? If Mr. Seyd had been there 
 with "boodle," wouldn't Mr. Hooper most
 
 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 5 1 
 
 naturally have suppressed the mention of 
 his name? How came Mr. Seyd there? I 
 do not know. Most likely, the congres- 
 sional committee invited his attendance. 
 Three years thereafter, the most prominent 
 free silver men, Senators Jones and Bogy, 
 Congressman Bland, with others, were mem- 
 bers of " The Silver Commission." On the 
 second page of their report, I find the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 "Several gentlemen in Europe, eminent as finan- 
 cial authorities, have addressed communications to 
 the commission, which are among the submitted 
 papers. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Cernuschi, ap- 
 peared personally before the commission, and fur- 
 nished important and reliable information. The 
 thanks of the country are due to him and to the other 
 distinguished citizens of foreign nations who have 
 made these disinterested efforts in the elucidation of 
 a question important to the welfare of mankind." 
 
 Why not now, on the same evidence, con- 
 coct the slander that the bankers of France 
 sent Mr. Cernuschi here to bribe our Congress 
 in favor of free silver coinaofe ? The Silver 
 Commission of 1876, composed of senators 
 and congressmen who had all been members 
 of Congress in 1873, niade a most impassioned 
 plea for free silver — its report in all, covers a 
 thousand pages — and yet strangely enough, 
 not one word as to the half a million which
 
 52 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 Mr. Seyd is now said to have distributed only 
 three years before. Still more strangely, this 
 very Silver Commission instructs our then 
 United States minister to England, Mr. 
 Pierrepont, to obtain Mr. Seyd's answers to 
 certain interrogations, and Mr. Seyd's letter, 
 covering twenty-nine pages, is printed in that 
 Silver Commission report. Why ? Who was 
 Mr. Seyd? Mr. Seyd was an English banker, 
 a man of means and widely known as an au- 
 thor on finance. He was a bimetallist, and 
 the most zealous champion for and best 
 FRIEND OF SILVER that England has produced 
 in this century. Long before 1873 and un- 
 til his death in 1 881, he earnestly preached to 
 the European nations the necessity and the 
 advantage of opening their mints to the free 
 coinaoe of silver. 
 
 At the Paris International Conference of 
 1 88 1 the United States was represented by 
 Mr. Evarts, Mr. Thurman, Mr. Howe and 
 Mr. Dana Horton. Mr. Horton was, in my 
 opinion, by far the ablest bimetallist that has 
 made a study of the subject in the United 
 States. At the fifth session of that conference 
 Mr. Horton, after commenting on the death 
 of the eminent Swiss financier, Mr. Feer-Her- 
 zog, said : 
 
 " I cannot, however, now pass to our discussion
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 53 
 
 without having mentioned another occurrence of a 
 similar nature. I speak of the death of Mr. Ernest 
 Seyd, the monetary writer, whose works are known 
 to you, and which took 'place at Paris since the 
 convening of our conference. It was the profound 
 interest which he took in the conference which 
 brought him here and which, I believe, hast- 
 ened HIS DEATH. How intense that interest was 
 may be well understood when we remember that but 
 a very few years have passed since the day when 
 there was no serious opposition to the general 
 adoption of the gold standard, EXCEPT ON THE 
 PART OF Professor Wolowski at Paris, and of 
 Ernest Seyd, at London." 
 
 And this is the man who, in fact, sacrificed 
 his life in the cause of silver, whom the 
 friends of silver to-day are vilifying as a hired 
 briber. Gentlemen, it must be a very weak 
 cause which resorts to such methods. You 
 should apologize for this slander. 
 
 " The nimble lie 
 Is like the second-hand upon a clock ; 
 We see it fly ; while the hour-hand of Truth 
 Seems to stand still, and yet it moves unseen, 
 And wins, at last, for the clock will not strike, 
 Till it has reached the goal." 
 
 SUPPLY and demand. 
 
 I have defended the memory of this man, 
 a total stranger to me, as I hope some 
 unknown soul may possibly defend my mem-
 
 54 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 ory when the grave has made me defenseless. 
 Let us take another look at the question of the 
 production of the money metals. It has been 
 said, in reply to my former " Paper, " that if 
 the increased supply of silver depreciated its 
 price, how is it that the enormously increased 
 supply of gold between 1851 and 1870 — only 
 depreciated gold but 3 per cent. If my rec- 
 ollection serves me, I said in my " Paper" 
 that the value of the money metals, as of every- 
 thing else which is given free play, was regu- 
 lated not by the law of supply — but by the 
 law of supply and demand. I call attention 
 to the following facts ; all, remember, anterior 
 to the demonetization of silver. In the years 
 from 1 84 1 to 1850 the average annual world 
 production of gold and silver was nearly 
 equal in value, viz. 52 per cent, gold, 47 per 
 cent, silver. Unless disturbed by any unequal 
 demand, one would conclude that the ounce 
 price of silver must have been very stable in 
 those ten years. 
 
 Such was the fact. In the eight years, 
 1 842-1 849, the average annual ounce price of 
 silver never varied one-third of one cent from 
 J1.30. In the next five years, 1851-1855, 
 gold value production was ']'] per cent. — silver 
 22 per cent. Accordingly, as might have 
 been expected, for the average of those five 
 years the silver ounce price rose to $1.34.
 
 THE QUESTION OE SILVER. 
 
 55 
 
 The next five years, 1 856-1 860, the propor- 
 tion of gold and silver production remained 
 the same as for the previous five years, "j^ 
 per cent, and 22 per cent. One would, there- 
 fore, naturally expect the silver ounce price to 
 remain the same. But it does not. Its aver- 
 age for these five years is $1.35. The trained 
 observer would then at once conclude that 
 there must have been some increased demand 
 in those second five years. And so it proves. 
 In the five years, 1851-1855, India absorbed 
 fifty-nine millions of silver. In the years 
 1 856-1 860, it absorbed two hundred and fifty- 
 one millions. And this silver demand, in spite 
 of relative equal production, would have 
 driven the silver price much higher, if in those 
 same five years, India had not also increased 
 its demand for gold to eighty millions from 
 twenty-seven millions of the previous five- 
 year period. 
 
 1861-1856.. 
 1865-1970.. 
 
 Average relative 
 percentage of 
 world's gold 
 production in 
 value. 
 
 72 per cent. 
 69 per cent. 
 
 Average relative 
 percentage of 
 world's silver 
 production in 
 value. 
 
 27 per cent. 
 30 per cent. 
 
 Average price 
 of an ounce 
 
 of silver. 
 
 1.32-9 
 
 Notice, how, with the rise in the percent- 
 age of silver production, the ounce price of 
 silver falls, and this, please remember, was 
 all previous to any demonetization of silver
 
 56 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 by any of the nations. The fact is that after 
 the enormous increase in the gold produc- 
 tion, silver reached its high water mark, 
 $1.36, in 1859. From that year, with slight 
 oscillation, it had fallen to $1.32 in 1870. 
 The laws of supply and demand were steadily 
 forcing it down. That tendency was one of 
 the reasons for demonetization. Now ob- 
 serve, that with an average relative world in- 
 crease of production from 27 to 30 per cent., 
 the silver ounce price fell i i-io cents. In 
 1873, the year of our demonetization, the rel- 
 ative percentages stood : Gold 54 per cent., 
 silver 46 per cent. Silver had fallen to $1.29 
 an ounce. Last year, the relative percent- 
 ages were reversed — silver 54 per cent, gold 
 46 percent. So that, under all circumstances, 
 if there had been no demonetization, it is 
 safe to conclude that silver would to-day be 
 considerably below $1.29 an ounce. It cer- 
 tainly would not without demonetization have 
 stood nearly as low as it stands at present, 
 because demonetization means a decrease of 
 DEMAND. And this decrease of demand is 
 unfortunately contemporaneous with an in- 
 crease of supply. So I repeat that, with 
 these stolid facts staring one in the face, 
 it would seem to me much easier for the in- 
 habitants of Salt Lake City to bail out their 
 great inland sea with a sieve than that free
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 57 
 
 silver coinage by the United States alone 
 could raise silver to a parity with gold at a 
 ratio of i6:i. 
 
 The difference as to gold was that its in- 
 creased supply came contemporaneously with 
 an enlarged demand both for orold and for 
 the silver that it displaced. All the nations 
 of Europe widely opened their doors to the 
 increasing stock production of gold just as 
 they now have closed them to the increasing 
 production of silver. None the less, gold 
 would relatively have fallen considerably in 
 price if the displaced silver had not during 
 those years found a purchaser. India, by an 
 accidental concurrence of circumstances — 
 large demands for breadstuffs caused by 
 the Crimean war, the temporary exaggeration 
 of the demand for, and the increased price of 
 Indian cotton caused by our rebellion, the 
 Bengal famine, the construction of vast rail- 
 road and canal systems, etc., etc., — caused a 
 demand for silver and gold which was un- 
 precedented. The extent of this money 
 demand will be appreciated when I state that 
 from 1850 to 1875 inclusive, India absorbed 
 of silver and gold the vast sum of over $ i ,300,- 
 000,000, — nearly as much as the entire world's 
 production of silver and gold had been for the 
 thirty years previous — equal in value to the 
 entire stock of gold and silver now held by
 
 58 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 England and Germany. This extraordinary 
 Indian demand it was that made the value of 
 gold so comparatively unfluctuating in spite 
 of excessive supply. 
 
 THE FARMER AND HIS OXEN. 
 
 I am told as a reason for free coinage that 
 silver is more stable than gold as a measure 
 of value. It has been stated that the same 
 amount of gold would now buy two or even 
 three bushels of wheat where it would have 
 bought only one bushel before silver demon- 
 etization. It is my opinion also, that gold 
 has appreciated, but by no means in the pro- 
 portion estimated. Every one knows that 
 the improvement in agricultural machinery 
 of the last twenty years and more especially 
 the improved facilities in the transportation 
 of agricultural products would undoubtedly 
 have contributed to reduce the price of 
 cereals independent of all other conditions. 
 And yet we find the following facts : Taking 
 the average of the years 1869, 1870, 1871 — 
 before silver was demonetized — it cost $1.33 
 gold to buy a bushel of wheat. Taking the 
 average of 1889, 1890, 1891, that same $1.33 
 would buy not quite one and one-half bushels. 
 
 Other influences, much more potent than 
 the appreciation of gold, regulate the price 
 of wheat. In i860, a bushel of wheat cost
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 59 
 
 within 5 cents of what it cost in 1891, — in 
 1859 within 2 cents. 
 
 The amount of gold that will exchange for 
 an amount of wheat is regulated by the sup- 
 ply of and demand for that gold as compared 
 with the supply of that wheat and the de- 
 mand for it. If the supply of gold is decreas- 
 ing with an increased demand, which I take 
 to be the case at present, gold is getting 
 somewhat more than its former equivalent in 
 exchange. If, as I believe, the supply of sil- 
 ver is increasing with a diminished demand, 
 it is sure to get less than its former equiv- 
 alent in exchange, — provided, always, of 
 course, that the laws of supply and demand 
 have not affected the exchanore value of the 
 former equivalent. So that, as a measure of 
 value, silver would be just as unstable on the 
 down grade as gold on the up grade. 
 
 A farmer had two oxen. Owinq- to color 
 and peculiarity of breeding, he called one his 
 " Sfold ox," the other his " silver ox." He 
 had worked them separately, but had con- 
 cluded that the "gold ox" walked too quickly 
 and the "silver ox" too slowly. So, like a 
 sensible man, he reasoned that if he yoked 
 them together, the speed of the one would be 
 counteracted by the slow step of the other 
 and thus the average gait would be about 
 right. Now, these oxen had a great antip-
 
 6o THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 athy each for the other. The farmer caught 
 the "goldoji" and put the yoke over his 
 neck. By that time the "silver ox" had 
 wandered off. He found him and brought 
 him back, but as he came nearer and nearer, 
 the " gold ox " kept moving off further and 
 further. After unsuccessfully trying to bring 
 them together he unyoked the " gold ox," 
 again caught the " silver ox " and yoked him. 
 Meanwhile the "gold ox " had scampered off. 
 He chased and caught him, led him back, but 
 again the nearer and nearer he brought him 
 to the " silver ox," the further the "silver ox" 
 would move away. So finally, after much 
 loss of time and wear of shoe leather, he was 
 forced to give it up. Then he remembered 
 that most of his farmer neighbors owned the 
 same breed of oxen and he decided to find 
 out how they managed. When he got to his 
 first neighbor, he was told that the same 
 trouble had been experienced. The neigh- 
 bor had also tried to yoke them together and 
 failed. The same story was repeated by the 
 next neighbor, and the next, and the next. 
 Finally, our original farmer suggested that 
 they all meet early the next morning, and 
 unitedly try to yoke the oxen for each farmer. 
 This was done. They met, yoked the "gold 
 ox," several of the neighbors held him while 
 the others brought in the " silver ox," then
 
 THE Q UES TION OF SIL VER. 6 1 
 
 they yoked him also, and soon each farmer 
 was getting- a good day's even work from 
 both. This illustrates pretty well. Gold 
 alone measures too high. Silver alone meas- 
 ures too low. We must yoke them together, 
 but the United States alone could not do it. 
 We must get the other nations to join and 
 all help yoke together. That is interna- 
 tional BIMETALLISM. 
 
 BIMETALLIC FRANCE. 
 
 Mr, Thomas says : 
 
 " It is asserted that the debtor will be disap- 
 pointed because with the free and unlimited coin- 
 age of silver there will be an immediate and total 
 disappearance of gold. This is the stale repetition 
 of one of the stalest of platitudes against the free 
 and unlimited coinage of silver. It is refuted by 
 all the facts of history. Bimetallic France is a liv- 
 ing illustration of its falsity ^ * * There never 
 was and never will be a nation using a standard 
 based upon both the metals, priced at a proper 
 equilibrium, which will suffer in the manner indi- 
 cated by this objection." 
 
 It must have been observed that a free sil- 
 ver man is never so completely happy as 
 when, with uplifted arm, he says, " Look at 
 bimetallic France ! " Let us, accordingly, take 
 a look at her financial history, briefly told. 
 It will teach many lessons. Among others it
 
 62 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 will teach something more about Gresham's 
 law. We are told that the cause of the dis- 
 appearance of silver in the United States 
 after 1834 was not due to Gresham's law, be- 
 cause "the operation of that law applies to 
 a debased coinage, as compared with a stand- 
 ard one." I am willing to leave judgment on 
 that point to any reader who has ever re- 
 ceived even kindergarten instruction in polit- 
 ical economy. Free silver men don't like 
 Gresham's law and I don't blame them. I 
 have never fallen down-stairs without feeling 
 that the law of gravitation was a nuisance. 
 
 Now for France. In 1726, the ratio of gold 
 to silver was placed at 1:14^. An ounce of 
 gold was worth more than ^Ys ounces of sil- 
 ver, and consequently, gold soon disappeared 
 from circulation. Adam Smith, having vis- 
 ited France in 1764, said : " It is there diffi- 
 cult to get more gold than what is necessary 
 to carry in your pocket." M. Calonne, who 
 became the French minister of state in 1783, 
 wrote : " Everybody knows that hardly any 
 more gold was to be seen in France and that 
 it had become infinitely scarce in Paris." In 
 1785, Louis the Sixteenth, in an edict, calls 
 attention to the fact that the leQ^al ratio of 
 gold to silver differing from the commercial 
 ratio, had as to the oold coins " originated 
 the speculation of selling them to the for-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 63 
 
 eigner, and offers the temptation of a great 
 profit to those who may allow themselves to 
 melt them down." He then ordains that 
 "every gold mark of 24 carats fine shall be 
 worth 15^ marks of silver 12 deniers fine." 
 This established the French ratio of 15/^:1 
 still existing. 
 
 In 1790 the revolutionists had control of 
 France. They had confiscated the lands of 
 the clergy the year before. They wanted 
 money. So they conceived the ingenious 
 idea of using paper money, which they called 
 ASSiGNATS, basing their value on these con- 
 fiscated lands. In April they issued 400 mill- 
 ions of francs in assignats. In September 
 800 millions more. This they declared 
 would be the last issue. The assignats worked 
 beautifully. Everybody received and ex- 
 changed them at full value. Then some one 
 said, just as the greenback inflationists said in 
 the seventies and just as silver men say now: 
 " If this franc is as good as any other franc, 
 how can we have too many of them ? The 
 law makes the value of money," So the 
 presses were set to work, and within a few 
 years they had issued over forty-five billions 
 of those paper francs. The Government 
 seemed surprised that any one should make 
 a difference between a coin franc and a paper 
 franc— and a law was passed that any one
 
 64 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 
 
 making such a difference in trade should be 
 imprisoned for six years. They could jail in- 
 dividuals but they couldn't jail natural laws. 
 No one would exchange one coin franc for 
 less than nearly 300 paper francs. Then in 
 I 796 these political economists tried another 
 experiment. They cut up the confiscated 
 lands into exact parcels, exchanged the 
 ASSiGNATS at about 3 per cent, of their face 
 value for what they called mandats, and pro- 
 claimed that the holder of mandats could 
 select any parcel of this land and pay in 
 mandats. Within a few months the mandats 
 were worth one-seventieth of their face value, 
 and they were soon, with great and universal 
 financial suffering, wiped out altogether. 
 
 In 1803 the ratio of 15/^:1 was reenacted. 
 M. Chevalier, the eminent French economic 
 authority, writes : 
 
 " In the year 1803, when the ratio of i : 15^ be- 
 tween the metals was established, this ratio actually 
 existed in the commercial world ; but little by 
 little it changed, and soon gold came to be worth 
 ordinarily a little more than 15^ times as much as 
 silver. This discrepancy sufficed to retire gold from 
 circulation. A few years after the passage of the 
 law of 1803, gold became so scarce that people had 
 to buy it of the money-changers when they wanted 
 to carry that kind of cash on their journeys. In 
 fact the circulation of the two metals side by side 
 had ceased to exist shortly after the year 1803, and
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 65 
 
 twenty-five years after that date the circulation con- 
 sisted of silver only." 
 
 Sir G. B. Airy, the Royal Astronomer of 
 England, wrote : 
 
 " In the year 1826, I spent some time in France. 
 The gold coin was a little too rich, and no gold coin 
 could be got. The better class of farmers went to 
 market followed by their servants, who carried 
 huge bags of five franc pieces. In 1829, I again 
 passed through France ; I wished for gold, and 
 obtained it by paying a heavy premium." 
 
 In 1848 came the increased production of 
 gold in Russia, in 1849 i" California, in 1851 
 in Australia. Silver soon rose to a value 
 higher than 1^/4:1 and, consequently, silver 
 rushed out of France at such a rate that 
 a commission even reported the advisability 
 of placing an export duty on silver. Some 
 idea can be formed of the vast influx of gold, 
 when I state that from 1795 to 1850 France 
 coined four times more silver than gold ; 
 whereas, from 1850 to 1872, she coined eight 
 times more gold than silver. Early in the 
 ' 60s, Gresham's law had pushed out from 
 France even the fractional silver coins to such 
 an extent that it became a great public incon- 
 venience. Investis^ation showed that Belg^ium 
 and Switzerland were similarly troubled ; cor- 
 respondence followed, and the result was the
 
 66 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 organization in 1865, of Tlie Latin Monetary 
 Union, comprising France, Belgium, Switzer- 
 land and Italy. Later, Greece also became a 
 member. All these countries use the franc 
 system of money. They agreed on a basis 
 of silver coinao^e, reducino; the metallic value 
 of the subsidiary coins. 
 
 After 1859, silver had again taken the 
 downward course which has characterized its 
 value through the centuries. In 1867, at the 
 International Monetary Conference held at 
 Paris under the presidency of Prince Na- 
 poleon, it was decided, without a dissenting 
 vote, that gold should be the sole money 
 standard. The spirit of silver demonetiza- 
 tion was abroad. Silver had been out of cir- 
 culation so long in the United States that 
 Mr. Ruggles, the American delegate, in reply 
 to a question of Prince Napoleon, said: 
 " Though the double standard still exists 
 legislatively in the United States, it is virt- 
 ually abolished in practice, and hence the 
 United States has the gold standard alone." 
 In 1 87 1, after the Franco-German war, Ger- 
 many decided to place itself on the gold 
 standard, and to demonetize silver. Between 
 1873 ^^d 1879 Germany sold $140,000,000 of 
 her silver. The neiofhborinof countries which 
 up to that time, had always maintained the 
 free and unlimited coinagfe of jjold and silver,
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 67 
 
 became alarmed at the threatened influx of 
 silver and expulsion of gold. So in 1874 the 
 Latin Union met, and from that year on there 
 has been no free and unlimited coinaoe of 
 silver in France, Belgium, Switzerland and 
 Italy. They limited the coinage of silver. 
 And in 1878 they stopped the coinage of 
 LEGAL tender SILVER m toto, SO that for 
 thirteen years our much applauded bimetallic 
 France has not coined a sinole legfal tender 
 silver coin. If the example of bimetallic 
 France is a good one to follow, then our 
 whole silver legislation since 1878 has been a 
 grand mistake. Since 1878 France has only 
 coined a limited amount of fractional silver 
 coin. Last year the silver coinage of Eng- 
 land was over $8,000,000. How much, O ye 
 silver men ! was the whole year's silver coin- 
 age of bimetallic France ? Three hundred 
 THOUSAND dollars. Less than the United 
 States is putting into silver money every 
 TWO DAYS. There is not much consolation in 
 the example of France for a free silver advo- 
 cate. Let us close this branch of the subject 
 by the following quotations. I preface them 
 by saying that M. Cernuschi of Paris was a 
 recognized master in the domain of political 
 economy and the most passionate bimetallist 
 and most eager advocate for reintroduction of 
 silver as a money metal that this century
 
 68 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 has produced. He fought for silver as a 
 
 KNIGHT FIGHTS FOR HIS LADY. 
 
 Place, Washington : Time, 1876: Scene: Com- 
 mittee-room of "The Silver Commission." Ques- 
 tions are put by the chairman : 
 
 " Question. If we stand in the presence of great 
 nations like Germany and China, which do not have 
 the double standard, and when we see another great 
 country like England, whose ancient prejudices or 
 reasons, whatever they may be, will not allow her 
 to consent in our time or in the near future to 
 the adoption of bimetallism, must we forego the 
 advantages which bimetallism offers until these 
 nations can grow up to that position in which they 
 can adopt it, or until their prejudices can be over- 
 come ? 
 
 ^' M. Cernusclii. It requires great audacity. 
 
 " Question. Then I ask you whether it requires 
 more audacity than was required on the part of 
 France when, singly and alone, she boldly took the 
 step, and without a union with any other country, 
 succeeded in maintaining the variation intact and to 
 her own great advantage for sixty-five or seventy 
 years ; I ask whether at this time, when we have 
 the assistance of France, when we have the Latin 
 Union formed and have a knowledge concerning 
 money much in advance of that which obtained 
 when France formed the relation, we cannot adopt 
 it with much more assurance of success than had 
 France at the time of her adoption of it ? 
 
 "il/. Cerniischi. But France was not then in the 
 presence of a country demonetizing silver. She had 
 not to restore silver and to invent the bimetallism.
 
 the question of sil ver. - 69 
 
 Silver was the principal money in Europe. 
 France acted with her forces and SHE HAD NOT TO 
 FIGHT AGAINST THE FORCES OF THE OTHERS. 
 
 " Question. Now I ask could not France herself, 
 assisted by the States of the Latin Union, take the 
 silver which Germany has to offer as well as any 
 surplus from the mines over and above the demands 
 of the rest of the world and thus maintain the parity 
 between silver and gold, as she did formerly, in the 
 presence of a large supply of gold ? 
 
 "J/. Cernuschi. The position of France is not at 
 present what it was before 1871. Then France had 
 on one side England, (monometallic gold), on the 
 other side Germany, (monometallic silver). Being 
 bimetallic herself it was easy and usual for her to 
 be changing the coinage of the two metals. To-day 
 all is different. If France coins silver, ALL the 
 SILVER OF THE WORLD, beginning with the Ger- 
 man silver, WOULD FLOW INTO FRANCE." 
 
 A disgusted spirit-voice is heard from the 
 Far West : " Confound this bimetaUic France." 
 
 MORE MONEY, 
 
 One cry is that we need more money. 
 What is money? Money is a medium of ex- 
 change, a measure of value, and a standard of 
 deferred payment. What makes money ? 
 The imprint or the stamp (virtually the sig- 
 nature) of the Government makes the money, 
 but that does not make the value of the 
 money. Every bit of coin or paper money
 
 70 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 issued Is a check for its face value made pay- 
 able to bearer and signed by the Government. 
 If I fill out a number of checks for say ten 
 dollars each, make them payable to bearer, 
 and sign them, those checks will pass where 
 I am known and where it is thought that my 
 bank account will redeem those checks. But 
 if any doubt arises, if the bank refuses pay- 
 ment on any of my checks, then they will be 
 no longer circulate at face value, but may be 
 taken at some lower value proportional to 
 the chances of my paying them up in the fu- 
 ture. Government checks or money are sub- 
 ject to the same law. During our war, the 
 Government stamped its signature on some 
 green paper and called it a dollar. Yet there 
 was a doubt whether the Government would 
 ever give a full gold dollar for those "green- 
 backs," and therefore in 1865 they were worth 
 about sixty-seven cents. The Confederate 
 government- also stamped bills " one dollar," 
 but there were times when it took a hundred 
 Confederate dollars to buy a five-cent Seid- 
 litz powder. Why ? The signature was all 
 right but the credit behind that signature 
 was all wrong. With paper money or with 
 all money that has not a full intrinsic metallic 
 value, it is the credit of the Government that 
 makes the value. My last sentence indicates 
 a difference. If you happen to drop a five
 
 THE Q UES TION OF SIL VER. 7 1 
 
 dollar gold piece into the fire it melts, but if 
 you take out the molten mass it is still worth 
 five dollars. In other words, the material out 
 of which the check is made is worth the five 
 dollars with or without the siornature. If 
 anyone handling one of my checks made pay- 
 able to bearer, should bring it near a lighted 
 candle, set it on fire and burn off my signa- 
 ture, the check has no value except the infin- 
 itesimal value of the bit of paper still left un- 
 consumed. If by accident I drop a silver 
 dollar in the fire and pick out the molten 
 mass, it will be worth no longer a dollar, but 
 only seventy-three cents. Why ? Because 
 the signature has been destroyed. Now be- 
 cause the Government, by affixing its signa- 
 ture to that seventy-three cents worth of 
 metal makes it worth 100 cents, is no reason 
 why the miners of that metal should be en- 
 titled to that difference of twenty-seven cents. 
 A nickel is a government check for five cents. 
 Melt it, erase the signature, and it is worth 
 one-half cent. Would it not now be just as 
 reasonable for the miners of nickel to ask free 
 and unlimited coinage for that metal so that 
 they could make a difference of 4/^ cents on 
 every five cent piece? 
 
 " But why," I am repeatedly asked, " does 
 the seventy-three cent dollar circulate as well 
 and buy as much as a lOO-cent dollar?" You
 
 72 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 and I and every other citizen take the silver 
 dollar as readily as the gold dollar because 
 we can exchange it readily for a gold dollar. 
 The bank you deposit with, if you indicate a 
 preference, will exchange the silver dollar for 
 a gold dollar. That bank can send the silver 
 dollars to its correspondent-bank in the East 
 and again exchange for gold dollars. That 
 Eastern bank can send the silver to the treas- 
 ury of the United States and obtain gold 
 dollars in even exchange. It is always the 
 credit of the Government behind it and the 
 Government's implied guarantee that it will 
 exchange one for the other. How is it that 
 the Government can make the exchange ? Be- 
 cause the coinage of silver is limited. If it 
 were unlimited, then after the gold had gone 
 out of the treasury, the treasury could no 
 longer exchange for the Eastern bank, the 
 Eastern bank no longer exchange for the 
 home bank, the home bank no longer ex- 
 change for its customer, and the customer in 
 his dealings would make a difference between 
 the gold dollar and the silver dollar — and 
 gold would at once be at a premium. 
 
 What is money good for? It has little 
 value in itself. It is good to be exchanged 
 for money's worth. So that a man's wealth 
 does not depend upon the money he owns. 
 A man wrecked on a desert island might
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. yi, 
 
 have a billion dollars of gold and silver and 
 yet be a very poor devil. England has more 
 wealth per capita than we have — although we 
 have considerably more money per capita 
 than England has. 
 
 One of the great delusions about money is 
 the " per capita " delusion. Silver men are 
 always quoting the fact that France has 
 $44.55 per capita circulation while we have 
 only $24.38. They always forget to add that 
 England has only $18.60 per capita circula- 
 tion and Germany only $18.02. Is there any 
 advantage in having a large per capita circu- 
 lation ? Certainly not. If $24.38 is enough 
 to do our business exchange properly, it 
 would be folly to have a penny more. A 
 disproportionately large " per capita " stock 
 of money in circulation in any nation is prima 
 facie evidence that the people of that nation 
 are backward in civilization so far as the art 
 of using money and credit is concerned. 
 That is true of France. Every one knows 
 of the hoarding propensity of the French 
 peasant. Banks are very scarce in France. 
 Frenchmen know comparatively little of the 
 convenience of banks. I lived in France the 
 greater part of five years. We kept house, 
 and my expenses were large. Yet in those 
 five years I never issued and never received 
 a check. Naturally, in a country in which
 
 74 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 such financial methods prevail, the money- 
 circulation per capita must be extremely large. 
 It is safe to predict that, as France more 
 and more partakes of the benefits of ex- 
 tended banking facilities, its per capita circu- 
 lation of money will, just in that proportion, 
 decrease. 
 
 "Yes, but England in her late financial 
 troubles drew on bimetallic France for fifteen 
 millions of gold." I know she did, and I also 
 know that England lately, in her troubles, 
 drew on bimetallic United States for over 
 sixty millions of gold. If France hadn't pro- 
 hibited free silver coinage in 1874 she 
 wouldn't have had the gold to send. It 
 is worth noting also that French rentes bear- 
 ing 3 per cent, interest are quoted at 90 while 
 English 2^ per cent, consols are quoted 
 above par. 
 
 Yet still the silver voice replies " more 
 MONEY." Let me quote a sentence from a 
 speech of the Hon. Judge Belford delivered 
 before the Transmississippi Congress in Den- 
 ver last May : 
 
 " The currency of this country has been dimin- 
 ished hundreds of thousands of dollars since the 
 conclusion of the hostilities that existed between 
 the respective sections of the country, and the dis- 
 content to which I have alluded is the direct result 
 of the constant curtailment of the currency of the
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 75 
 
 people, and the diminution of the means by which 
 their domestic and foreign commerce is carried on." 
 
 The hostilities between the respective sec- 
 tions of the country concluded in 1865. The 
 report of the secretary of the treasury shows 
 that in 1865 we had a money stock of 745,- 
 000,000 with 714,000,000 in circulation. In 
 1 89 1 we had money stock of twenty-one 
 
 HUNDRED MILLIONS with OVer FIFTEEN HUN- 
 DRED MILLIONS in circulation. The year i860 
 was a very prosperous year. Compare its 
 monetary condition with 1891, July i, of each 
 year. 
 
 i860. 
 1891. 
 
 Population. 
 
 31,500,000 
 64,000,000 
 
 General money 
 stock. 
 
 Money in cir- 
 culation. 
 
 442,000,000 435,000,000 
 
 2,100,000,000 I 1,500,000,000 
 
 Per capita 
 circulation. 
 
 $15.85 
 2345 
 
 This shows that, with all the improvements 
 we have made in facilitating exchanges, by 
 means of banks, clearing-houses, telegraph, 
 etc., etc., we have, while doubling our popu- 
 lation, increased our money stock five-fold. 
 In the name of the silver moon, when are we 
 going to have money enough to satisfy this 
 class of economists ? Attention should be 
 called to the fact that from i860 to 1878 
 inclusive, the difference between our total 
 money stock and the money in circulation 
 seldom exceeded 10 per cent. The difference
 
 'j6 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 has been widening since 1878, until to-day it 
 is over 40 per cent. That would indicate to 
 me that we already had much more money 
 than the business of the country required. 
 
 Any one who knows anything about our 
 business methods understands that all our 
 business is done with — making the propor- 
 tions very conservative — 10 per cent, of 
 money and 90 per cent, of confidence. So 
 plenty of confidence is worth nine times as 
 much as plenty of money. Last November, 
 a year ago, money, with the best securities, 
 was worth 180 per cent, per annum in New 
 York. Two months, thereafter, it was worth 
 2j^ per cent, per annum. What made the 
 difference? Confidence. Take our present 
 time. Our country never had so much 
 money. Yet money is close. The banks are 
 not inclined to make long loans. Why? 
 Lack of confidence. What causes that ? The 
 silver agitation. Prominent silver men have 
 admitted it in Congress. But they say that it 
 is only the suspense before realization, that 
 after free coinage is established all will be well. 
 
 A jailer enters the cell of a man condemned 
 to death and finds him exceedingly depressed. 
 He says, " Cheer up, man ! It is only the 
 suspense that's unpleasant. After you have 
 dangled a few minutes, it will all be over." 
 The reply would probably be : " Thank you !
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. yj 
 
 This suspense is hard to bear, but if you can 
 get the governor to prolong the suspense a 
 few years, I shall appreciate it." 
 
 To repeat, we need not more money, but 
 more confidence. In fact, if the free silver 
 agitators were to reduce our money volume 
 by ?)'i per cent, and by holding their peace, 
 would give us a feeling of confidence, of se- 
 curity and of financial safety, every business 
 man in the country would have reason to feel 
 extremely obliged. 
 
 THE NEGLECTED " BIG BONANZA." 
 
 We are told that England, for her selfish 
 profit, keeps the gold standard for herself 
 and the silver standard for her dependencies. 
 Evidently these declaimers are ignorant of 
 the fact that England has repeatedly desired 
 to put India on a gold standard, but has had 
 to give way to the prejudices of her Indian 
 subjects in favor of silver. 
 
 We are told : " England buys her silver 
 of us at 95 cents an ounce, coins it into rupees 
 at a profit of 36 cents per ounce, exchanges it 
 at par for Indian wheat, and then sells this 
 wheat at Liverpool at prices which govern 
 the value of our surplus product, which in 
 turn fixes the price for it all." Please read 
 that again. It is one of the most marvelous 
 statements made in behalf of the free silver
 
 78 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 cause. Senator Stewart, Senator Tabor and 
 the other financial and literary headlights of 
 that party have repeated it. The American 
 farmer has been hoodwinked and inflamed 
 by it. 
 
 I always thought that we were a nation of 
 shrewd business men, but the above state- 
 ment forces me to believe that we are a pack 
 of dough-heads. Understand, please, that 
 England does not coin the rupees, that the 
 mints at Calcutta and Bombay are open to 
 the free coinage of silver, that these mints will 
 coin your silver and my silver into rupees as 
 readily as the silver of any Englishman, and 
 yet for all these years we have been selling 
 our silver at 95 cents, letting those foxy Eng- 
 lishmen carry it to India, coin it into rupees 
 at a basis of $1.36, buy Indian commodities 
 worth $1.36 in the markets of the world and 
 on every ounce of silver, pocket the difference 
 between 95 cents and $1.36. 
 
 Ye Denver smelting men, I thought you 
 were men of business ! Yesterday's paper in- 
 forms me that the product of your smelters 
 for 1 89 1 was over 18,000,000 ounces of silver. 
 You sold that on an average of 98^^ cents an 
 ounce. It would not have cost much over 
 lY^ per cent, to send it to India, and then in- 
 stead of selling it here for ninety-five cents, 
 you might, by buying Indian commodities
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 79 
 
 worth $1.36 and reselling them, have made an 
 additional profit of nearly seven millions of 
 dollars. Let me advise you to get six of 
 these free silver men amply to guarantee the 
 above quoted statement, take them into part- 
 nership for your Indian exchange business, 
 give them a salary of half a million a-piece 
 and you will still make nearly four millions 
 additional profit. 
 
 The fact is that the merchants of Bombay 
 who deal in exportable commodities are as 
 lynx-eyed as any in the world. They watch 
 and calculate on the slightest fluctuation of 
 silver. When Congress was debating the sil- 
 ver question in 1890 (I have this statement 
 from the ex-United States minister to Tur- 
 key), those Indian merchants were listening 
 to every click of the telegraph to guide them 
 in their commercial ventures. 
 
 Poor, deluded, bamboozled American far- 
 mer ! The story is a myth. Free silver or 
 no free silver, India or no India, the price of 
 your wheat is regulated wholly by its supply 
 as compared to the world's demand. 
 
 MEXICO AND BIMETALLISM. 
 
 Mr. Thomas says : " We are referred to 
 Mexico. She is a silver standard nation. 
 Like all other countries using that standard 
 alone, gold has no place in its financial econ-
 
 8o THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 omy." Now that Is pretty smooth, but it is a 
 most damaoinof admission. The mints of 
 Mexico are open to the free coinage of gold 
 and silver, but the gold doesn't come. How- 
 ever, she " is a silver standard nation." That 
 is what I have been trying to beat into the 
 heads of the free silver men. With free silver 
 coinage, we shall be just what Mexico is to-day, 
 a silver standard nation. Why ? Because 
 with us just as it has been in Mexico, the gold 
 would be driven out. 
 
 But it is said : " If driven out, where 
 would it go to ? Certainly to the gold stand- 
 ard countries. The influx of such a vast 
 quantity of gold into Europe, would make 
 money far more plentiful abroad, prices would 
 rise with the fall of money values, and the 
 operation of the law would of itself not only 
 check, but completely stop its departure." 
 
 Mr. Jevons, the eminent political econo- 
 mist, put this theory thus : " Imagine two 
 reservoirs of water, each subject to indepen- 
 dent variations of supply and demand. In the 
 absence of any connecting pipe the level of 
 the water in each reservoir will be subject to 
 its own fluctuations only. But if we open a 
 connection, the water in both will assume a 
 certain mean level, and the effect of any 
 excessive supply or demand will be distrib- 
 uted over the whole area of both reservoirs."
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 8l 
 
 This is the theory on which bimetalHsm 
 rests and can rest its faith. But one most im- 
 portant modification must be made. It holds 
 perfectly good if the capacity of the two res- 
 ervoirs are equal or approximately equal. But 
 suppose that one of the connected reservoirs 
 has a capacity of five million gallons — the 
 other fifty million gallons. Then comes a 
 storm which floods water in great volume into 
 the fifty million reservoir. It pours a great 
 mass of water into the five million reservoir. 
 Can the compensatory action, the reflow take 
 place until equilibrium is restored ? No, the 
 dam of the smaller reservoir breaks and de- 
 struction follows. As to bimetallism, it is as 
 with the reservoirs — a question of area. If a 
 sufficient number of nations agree to adopt 
 i't, it will be safe. If not, it will be most dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 GOING IT ALONE. 
 
 The principle of bimetallism is all right, 
 but the danger consists in "going it alone." 
 This is the vital point. Let me quote on 
 this subject the opinions of the most promi- 
 nent bimetallists of our century. First, Mr. 
 Francis A. Walker, author of the ablest 
 American work on " Money," professor of 
 Yale college, lecturer of John Hopkins uni-
 
 82 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 versity commissioned as a delegate to the 
 International Monetary Conference of 1878, 
 because of his ability and of his devotion to 
 bimetallism. Before the House committee on 
 January 29, 1891, he said : 
 
 " For fourteen years I have been an earnest and 
 consistent advocate of the restoration of silver to 
 its rank as a money metal of full legal tender pow- 
 ers, and there is scarce a political result which is 
 conceivable, likely to take place within any reason- 
 able term of time, which would bring me greater 
 joy than the union of the United States with the 
 principal commercial nations of Europe, in estab- 
 lishing the free coinage of silver upon a common 
 ratio. But the present measure, it seems to me, is 
 a menace to the very object and it is especially as 
 a bimetallist, a consistent and earnest bimetallist, 
 that I have felt called upon to say a word in ques*- 
 tion of the present measure. 
 
 " I confess that I cannot conceive how any man 
 who has largely studied the question can believe, 
 can even hope, that the United States can go it 
 alone in this matter of silver coinage ; can under- 
 take to do so without coming to speedy grief and 
 humiliation. I am very well aware that many 
 gentlemen do honestly so hope and so believe, but 
 the overwhelming preponderance of the educated 
 financial opinion of the world inclines to the belief 
 that the proposed measure would simply result in 
 stripping us of our gold, in upsetting our ex- 
 changes with the great trading and producing na- 
 tions of the world, in bringing us down to the level
 
 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 83 
 
 of second-rate financial powers only, such as China, 
 India, and South America, and involving our trade 
 and production in all the evils, the inexpressible 
 evils of a depreciated and fluctuating currency." 
 
 I next invoke the testimony of the eminent 
 Henri Cernuschi mentioned before. Testi- 
 mony before the Silver Commission of 1876: 
 
 " Question. Why not adopt bimetallism in 
 France, and let Germany do as she pleases ? 
 
 *■' M. CermiscJii. Because in that case, all the 
 silver would come to France. 
 
 " Question. In case the United States should 
 resolve to adopt the bimetallic standard at any pro- 
 portion, say 15^ : i, and other countries should 
 maintain their present position with reference to 
 the issue of gold and silver respectively, what, in 
 your opinion, would be the effect upon the busi- 
 ness of the country? 
 
 " M. Cernuschi. My desire is that a general 
 agreement shall be adopted by the different nations. 
 In my opinion NO COUNTRY CAN COIN SILVER 
 ALONE ; any country that coins only silver will 
 remain alone and will not have the money for pay- 
 ing abroad. 
 
 " Question. Would it be necessary for the main- 
 tenance of such relative value between the two 
 metals that all the countries establishing that rela- 
 tion should join in a convention ? 
 
 '' M. Cernuschi. I do not say that it is necessary 
 to have all the countries, but it would be sufficient to 
 obtain the concurrence of some leading countries."
 
 84 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 
 
 Next let us listen to words spoken at 
 the International Monetary Conference of 
 1881. 
 
 I preface by stating that an " international 
 monetary conference " is not a " Denver min- 
 ing congress." Each country sends as dele- 
 gates two or three of its most distinguished 
 men, its ablest financial representatives. 
 There is no buncombe there. Every man is 
 a deep student of political economy. No 
 deleg-ate dare state an erroneous fact as to 
 the finances of any nation, because right oppo- 
 site him sits an accredited delegate of that 
 nation who can put him right in the twink- 
 ling of an eye. Hence the words spoken at 
 the "international monetary conferences" (of 
 which there have been three — 1867, 1878, and 
 1 881) carry the very greatest weight with 
 intelligent thinking men. 
 
 At the 1 88 1 conference M. Magnin, the 
 delegate from France, then minister of 
 France, said : 
 
 "In order that the metal silver may recover its 
 former value it is indispensable that it should be, as 
 in the past, freely coined side by side with gold, 
 and as no State either wishes to stand, or could 
 stand, alone in resuming such coinage, it is abso- 
 lutely certain that we shall not find our way out of 
 the present difficulties until an international bime- 
 tallic treaty shall have been concluded."
 
 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 8$ 
 
 Mr. Pierson, delegate of the Netherlands, 
 said : 
 
 " Gresham's law is doubtless opposed to the es- 
 tablishment of the bimetallic system in a small 
 group of States, but not to its establishment on a 
 territory embracing the most civilized countries of 
 the world." 
 
 Mr. Forssell, the delegate of Sweden, said : 
 
 " It is the opinion, even of the boldest bimetallist, 
 that the obligations corresponding to the salutary 
 liberties of the free mintage of both metals would 
 henceforth be unbearable without the co-operation 
 of all, or of most of the first-class States ; that the 
 heedless State, which would undertake alone the 
 necessary efforts for rehabilitating and sustaining 
 the value of silver, would be crushed under the 
 weight of the bimetallic system, which would at once 
 fall to pieces ; that it would be suffocated by the 
 silver flowing in from the whole world." 
 
 This needs no further argument. I simply 
 submit to the judgment of my reader v^hether, 
 in a momentous question of this kind, it is 
 safe to follow the opinion of our Colorado 
 free silver leaders, or the authority of the dis- 
 tinguished men I have quoted. 
 
 WILL SILVER ADVANCE TO $1.29? 
 
 Under free coinage, we are told, silver is 
 going to advance and to be worth perma-
 
 86 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 nently $1.29 an ounce. Some maintain that 
 it will be worth even more. The Hon. Mr. 
 Symes of Denver told the " Transmississippi 
 Congress " in May : ^ 
 
 "When the United States returns to true bi- 
 metalHsm by free coinage there will be no anxiety 
 as to whether there is a little more or a little less 
 than one hundred millions of gold in the treasury. 
 The bullion value of the silver dollar will be greater 
 than the ratio of the bullion value of the gold 
 dollar." 
 
 Let us reason as to this a bit. There is 
 on our planet, in round figures, three billions 
 nine hundred million dollars worth of silver 
 held as money, or as a fund for money re- 
 demption. That is to-day all worth about 95 
 cents an ounce. Now these free silver men 
 tell us that the magical alchemy of free coin- 
 age by the United States all alone, is going 
 to raise these thirty-nine hundred millions 
 from 95 cents to $1.29. That is, it is going 
 to add a value of over a billion dollars to 
 the world's silver stock. Astounding propo- 
 sition ! 
 
 Let us appeal to history: In 1793, as we 
 know, our fathers after a very careful exami- 
 nation of what gold and silver were worth 
 in the world, decided that an ounce of gold 
 was worth fifteen times as much as an ounce
 
 THE QUESTION OF SIL VER. 8/ 
 
 of silver, and accordingly fixed the ratio of 
 15:1. That was on a basis of silver being 
 worth $1.38 an ounce. The United States 
 had free and unlimited coinage. All the 
 other nations had free and unlimited coinage. 
 
 o 
 
 Yet beginning the very next year, silver was 
 worth a little less than $1.38 an ounce. From 
 1793 to 1 87 1 (when Germany started silver 
 demonetization) — nearly eighty years — all the 
 nations of the world, except England, held 
 their mints open to the free and unlimited 
 coinage of silver. Yet during that whole 
 period, silver never again rose to our mintage 
 value, $1.38 an ounce. In 1859 i^ ^'^'=> worth 
 $1.36 an ounce. In 1814 even $1.37}^ an 
 ounce. But never again $1.38. Let us take 
 the year 1819. Silver was worth $1.35 an 
 ounce, within three cents of par. The world's 
 stock of money silver was about fifteen hun- 
 dred millions of dollars. Silver had to rise 
 less than 2^^ per cent, to be par at a ratio of 
 15:1. The sum necessary to be added to the 
 value of silver to make it reach par was only 
 thirty millions, and yet with free and un- 
 limited coinage all over the world, it could 
 NOT ADD THAT VALUE. And now wheu the 
 difference between silver and par is not three 
 cents but thirty-five cents, when silver has 
 to rise not 2]/^, per cent, but 35 per cent., 
 when the value to be added to the world's
 
 88 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 silver is not thirty millions but more than a 
 THOUSAND AND THIRTY millions, somc men 
 want us to believe that free silver coinage by 
 the United States alone is going to accom- 
 plish it. Can we, in the light of financial his- 
 tory, imagine a more unreasonable statement ? 
 
 How trustworthy have the statements of the 
 free silver men been in the past as to the rise 
 of silver value? The Silver Commission of 
 1876 comprised the ablest advocates of a free 
 silver policy. In their report, this commis- 
 sion says : " The tendency of the two metals 
 to return to their old relation, or of silver to 
 recover from its fall, if the latter mode of ex- 
 pression is to any persons more acceptable, 
 was manifested very soon after the silver 
 panic of last July, and has made a degree of 
 progress which tends to confirm the belief 
 that, in any event, the full recovery of the old 
 relation may be relied upon." 
 
 Silver then was worth $1.15 an ounce. 
 After this prophecy of 1876 — silver has fallen 
 more within the last fifteen years than in two 
 and a half centuries before." 
 
 Then came the bill of 1878. That was 
 going to send silver right up. In 1878, ounce 
 price of silver $1.15. In 1879, $1.12. Then 
 came the bill of 1890. President Harrison in 
 a letter to " The Western States Commercial 
 Congress," April 14, 1891, says of this bill:
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 89 
 
 " The legislation adopted by the first session 
 of the Fifty-first Congress I was assured by 
 leading advocates of free coinage, represen- 
 tatives of the silver States, would promptly 
 
 AND PERMANENTLY BRING SILVER TO $1.29 PER 
 OUNCE AND KEEP IT THERE." 
 
 Senator Teller's speech in the senate yes- 
 terday, Jan. 6, — brought out the noteworthy 
 fact that both Senator Jones and Senator 
 Stewart — the Pope and First Cardinal of The 
 Silver Church — had predicted most positively 
 that the legislation of 1890 would lift silver 
 to $1.29 an ounce. 
 
 When the bill passed, the price of the silver 
 ounce was $1.08. To-day it is 95 cents. 
 
 It seems to be a reasonable statement that, 
 other things being equal, the force necessary 
 to replace an object must be equal to the 
 force which displaced it. If ten men by ex- 
 erting all their strength, move a stone weigh- 
 ing two tons a certain distance, is it reason- 
 able to suppose that one man of those ten, 
 using the same tools, can push it back to its 
 starting-point? Since 1871 silver has been 
 demonetized by ten nations. That demone- 
 tization, we are told, has driven silver down 
 to its present price. Is it likely that its re- 
 monetization by a single one of the ten na- 
 tions is o^oingr to lift it to its former value?
 
 90 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 EFFECT ON BIMETALLISM. 
 
 The free and unlimited coinage of silver by 
 the United States, independent of interna- 
 tional co-operation, will be the expiring gasp 
 of bimetallism. The last opportunity of in- 
 ducing other nations to join in a free bi- 
 metallic movement will be forever lost. No 
 one who has carefully studied the expressions 
 of the most eminent students of finance in 
 Europe, but must have concluded that, in the 
 event of our adopting free silver coinage, 
 Belgium, Switzerland and Austria would at 
 once place themselves absolutely on the 
 single gold standard. My impression is that 
 France would also. 
 
 At the " Monetary Conference " of 1878, 
 Mr. Feer-Herzog, the delegate from Switzer- 
 land, said: "In Switzerland and Beleium it 
 is hoped that silver, after a period of transi- 
 tion, during which it will only have legal 
 tender for a small sum, may be finally re- 
 duced to the simple role of fractional money. 
 M. De Parieu, delegate of France to the con- 
 ference of 1867 and its vice-president, wrote 
 to the Silver Commission of 1886 : 
 
 " The progressive and intelligent political 
 economists of Europe who are occupied with 
 monetary questions, will therefore be divided 
 between the desire to see America, in the in-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 9 1 
 
 terest of general legislation, keep in the path 
 of its legislation from 1872 to 1876, and that 
 of receiving from her the means of disburden- 
 ing their national circulation, at the least cost, 
 of the ballast of silver which exceeds what is 
 necessary for a suitable amount of change/' 
 
 Strange as it may seem, even India might 
 jump to the gold standard. In the 1881 con- 
 ference Sir Louis Mallet, the delegate from 
 British India, said: "It is certain that if the 
 depreciation of silver continues, and if by 
 reason of the discovery of fresh deposits of 
 gold, or from some other cause, the oppor- 
 tunity SHOULD OFFER ITSELF, we should Only 
 be too ready to seize it, and to return to the 
 proposals of the commission which sat at 
 Calcutta in 1868 and to enter, though much 
 against our wish, into the struggle which is 
 about to commence between the nations of 
 the earth for the sole metal which will be left 
 to us as the solid basis of an international 
 currency." 
 
 THE TEN MINERS. 
 
 There has been and is great monetary pres- 
 sure in Europe. There has been a fierce in- 
 ternational struggle for gold. There has 
 been and is a serious financial strain. Every 
 dollar of silver that we have coined since 
 1878, every dollar that the Government has
 
 92 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 purchased and stored in Its treasury vaults, 
 has just, in that proportion, tended to reHeve 
 that strain, and just so far operated against 
 the adoption of international bimetallism. If 
 all the silver in excess of our needs had been 
 sold abroad just as we sold our wheat, our 
 pork and other surplus commodities, silver 
 might have been worth somewhat less per 
 ounce, but we would have more gold, the 
 European nations just so much less gold, and 
 they would have been influenced ere this, to 
 join in an international bimetallic treaty. 
 Certainly, we do not want to rush into free 
 silver coinage now, unload their silver, — give 
 them our gold, and by relieving them of their 
 monetary pressure, make it easy for them to 
 adopt the single gold standard. 
 
 There are ten mines on a hillside. All can 
 work and take out ore, but all are greatly 
 troubled by water. It interferes with making 
 their output as large as it ought to be. One 
 of these mines is at a lower level than the 
 others. Every gallon that the owner of that 
 mine pumps out tends, just in that propor- 
 tion, to drain the other nine mines. He 
 cannot afford to pump out the water for all. 
 He wants the other mine owners to join in 
 that expense. What is his policy? Is it to 
 say : 
 
 " I shall keep right on pumping until you
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 93 
 
 others join with me"? Will that force the 
 others to join ? Is it not rather his policy to 
 say firmly : " Not another drop will I pump 
 out until you co-operate with me both in the 
 labor and the expense"? 
 
 That is what America, instead of doing all 
 the pumping alone since 1878, should have 
 said to the nations of Europe. The follow- 
 ing figures speak volumes to a thinking man : 
 
 Total product of silver in the United States 
 for fourteen years from 1865 to 1877, 320,- 
 000,000; from 1878 to 1891, 735,000,000. 
 Net excess of exports of silver from the 
 United States for fourteen years from 1865 
 to 1877, 223,000,000; from 1878 to 1891, 137,- 
 000,000. This shows that, owing to our 
 peculiar legislation, with an increase of 130 
 per cent, in the production of silver for the 
 last fourteen years, there has been a decrease 
 in our exports of silver of 39 per cent. 
 
 It is very significant that in the year 1891, 
 the second time only in forty-four years, our 
 imports of silver exceeded our exports. 
 
 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 
 
 If free coinage will not put silver up, it will 
 necessarily put the American silver dollar 
 down — and will the farmer then be happy ? 
 If he is a debtor, he will have obtained a pro- 
 portionate reduction of that debt. But every
 
 94 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 farmer, as is every man, is to a certain extent 
 a creditor also. His greatest debtor is his 
 land. The farmer lends to his land in the 
 spring- and collects the debt at harvest-time. 
 It is important that no discounts be made on 
 that debt. But the speculation which the 
 purchaser of the farm product would have to 
 make as to the rise and fall of silver 'would 
 operate as a large discount. Our exports of 
 agricultural products for last year were six 
 hundred and forty-two millions. A small dis- 
 count on that sum every year would be a ter- 
 rible LOSS TO THE FARMER. 
 
 See how the shifting price of silver affects 
 India. Sir Louis Mallet says : 
 
 " It is no doubt true that when trade has been able 
 to adapt itself to an alteration in the relative value 
 of the standards of the two countries, if this altera- 
 tion was of a permanent character and took place 
 once for all, the evil would cease. But, gentlemen, 
 this is not the case. The future is as uncertain as 
 the present in the existing state of things ; and it 
 is this uncertainty which impedes and prevents 
 trade. 
 
 " For each commercial operation two calculations 
 are necessary. The price of goods must first be 
 calculated in gold, and the price of gold in silver; 
 and for the latter there is no basis on which to go. 
 It is just as if one had to buy cotton with gold in 
 order to be in a position to buy wheat with cotton. 
 In fact, it is nothing but a kind of primitive barter.
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 95 
 
 worthy only of an early civilization. In my opinion, 
 then trade sustains an evil, and a very serious one." 
 
 The farmer's price for his products is regu- 
 lated by the price he gets for his exportable 
 surplus. The fall of the value of the dollar, 
 caused by free coinage, would make nearly 
 every price rise in proportion to that fall ex- 
 cept the prices of the farmer's products. So 
 that the farmer would have to meet the world- 
 competition in price for what he sold, and yet 
 pay an advanced price for everything he pur- 
 chased. Surely " the last state of that man is 
 worse than the first." 
 
 WHY HAVE WE MORE GOLD NOW ? 
 
 The silver men say : " It was said that the 
 law of 1878 would drive gold out. Why is it 
 that ever since 1878 our gold stock has so 
 rapidly increased?" The coinage of silver 
 has had no effect upon the question, except in 
 so far as our refusal to sell it abroad, just as 
 we sold our wheat, our cotton, etc., has re- 
 duced the gold stock which would otherwise 
 have come to us. The reason of the increase 
 of gold is very simple as shown by the follow- 
 ing most extraordinary statement of our for- 
 eign trade. For the fourteen years, from 1864 
 to 1877 inclusive, our imports exceeded our 
 exports by over eight hundred millions of
 
 96 THE Q UESTION OF SIL VER. 
 
 DOLLARS. For the fourteen years, from 1878 
 to 1 89 1 inclusive, our exports exceeded our 
 imports by over fourteen hundred mill- 
 ions. That balance was paid in gold and 
 hence our increased gold stock since 1878. 
 
 GOLD disappearance AND SILVER INUNDATION. 
 
 With the free coinage of silver, gold would 
 at once jump to a premium and disappear 
 from circulation. M. Cernuschi, asked in 
 1876, where the injury would come if we 
 started free coinage, replied : *' The injury 
 would be that at the first moment all your 
 gold would disappear." The silver dollar, 
 as compared with gold, would be looked upon 
 as a metallic greenback. Gold disappear- 
 ance would mean temporary contraction of 
 the money volume and a deadly blow to all 
 enterprise and business. 
 
 It would be flashed to all corners of the 
 earth that the people of the United States 
 were willing to pay $1.29 for every ounce of 
 silver. Every ship would come into our har- 
 bors laden down with silver. The price of 
 silver would rise, but men of affairs would 
 know that the advance, just like the advance 
 after the bill of 1890, could hold but for a 
 short time. 
 
 Where would the silver come from ? Out-
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 97 
 
 side of the United States, there are about 
 thirty-three hundred milHon dollars worth of 
 silver. In Europe alone eleven hundred mill- 
 ions. The Bank of France has $250,000,000 
 in its vaults. Does it need them ? In the 
 Monetary Conference of 1881, M. Pirmez, 
 the Belgian delegate, said : " The Bank of 
 France itself has tried to get acceptance for 
 the five-franc pieces it is constantly putting 
 into circulation, but it has failed, and this 
 cumbersome coin is constantly brought back 
 to it." In 1878, Mr. Feer-Herzog, the Swiss 
 delegate, said : 
 
 " It is none the less true that this stock of coined 
 silver far exceeds the requirements of the internal cir- 
 culation of the Latin Union ; the people do not like 
 it, and reject it : foreign commerce does not accept 
 these coins at the artificial value attributed to them 
 by law, so that they flow into the public treasuries 
 and great financial establishments, and choke the 
 cellars of the Bank of France. 
 
 The following letter was written, ( Paris, 
 Dec. 10, 1890) by Mr. William Seligman, 
 brother of Mr, Jesse Seligman, the New York 
 banker now endeavoring to promote bimetall- 
 ism in Europe : 
 
 "■ Free coinage would be hailed with joy in 
 Europe. France, with 2)/, to 3 milliards (francs) 
 5^ to 6 hundred million dollars in the bank and
 
 98 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 among the public, would feel grateful to you were 
 the unlimited free coinage bill to become a law. 
 You would get from France alone $300,000,000, and 
 that quickly. I know that when silver was quoted 
 at 54^ a short time ago, in London, high-placed of^- 
 cials in the bank favored sending a part of the bank's 
 silver to you. Germany has an immense stock of sil- 
 ver bars which you would get ; so have Italy and 
 several other countries in Europe. India would 
 send you immense amounts of silver instead of send- 
 ing the same to China. England would be greatly 
 benefited by unlimited free coinage with you. 
 London, with a gold standard, would become more 
 than ever the centre of the world's banking business. 
 I cannot, and no sane man in Europe can, believe 
 that the Congress of the United States will vote 
 such a bill, with its unavoidable disastrous conse- 
 quences." 
 
 But it is argued, — and this is the stock ar- 
 gument of Mr. St. John of New York, — 
 France wouldn't send over her silver because, 
 forsooth, she coins at a valuation of $1.33 an 
 ounce, whereas we coin at a valuation of 
 $1.29. They reason that she would lose 4 
 per cent, plus the cost of transportation and 
 insurance by the operation. Unquestionably, 
 no individual citizen of France would send 
 over French silver coin to exchange below its 
 home value. But how about the bank of 
 France ? Let us exert our imao^ination : 
 
 t> 
 
 Time: Early in 1892. Tlace : Paris. Scene
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 99 
 
 Directors' room of the Bank of France. A meeting 
 of the directors in session. 
 
 (I transpose all sums mentioned in dollars.) 
 
 Director — How much silver have we in our 
 vaults? 
 
 Chairman — About $250,000,000. 
 
 Director — What did that cost us? 
 
 Chairman- — About $1.33 an ounce. 
 
 Director — What is silver worth now? 
 
 Chairman — About ninety-five cents an ounce. 
 
 Director — What loss does that represent? 
 
 Chairman — About $95,000,000. 
 
 All the Directors drum on the table nervously 
 and inspect the flies on the ceiling. Suddenly a 
 messenger enters and, in breathless haste, informs 
 the board that an island has been discovered in the 
 Pacific, the inhabitants of which are wiliin"- to ex- 
 change five million ounces of gold for silver at the 
 rate of $1.29 an ounce. The information is secret 
 and unquestionably reliable. The excitement is 
 great. One of the Directors whips out a pencil and 
 makes the following calculation : Five million 
 ounces of gold is worth about 103 millions of dol- 
 lars. With silver at $1.29 an ounce, the islanders 
 will exchange that for eighty million ounces of sil- 
 ver. The five million ounces of gold will then 
 at present price buy no million ounces of silver. 
 Profit to the Bank of France, thirty million ounces 
 of silver. Would they do it? Let Mr. St. John 
 reply. 
 
 In this connection I wish briefly to point 
 out two fallacies. One point often made is : 
 " If silver rises in value here, it will rise in
 
 I OO THE Q UES TION OF SIL VER. 
 
 Europe also. Why then should they send it 
 here ? " The fact that holders of European 
 silver might ask even $1.29 for the silver 
 ounce would not prove that they could find 
 buyers in Europe who would pay $1.29. Cer- 
 tainly, no one would buy it at that price unless 
 necessity compelled him to buy. But here 
 in the United States, under free coinage, the 
 
 law WOULD COMPEL US TO BUY SILVER AT $1.29 
 
 AN OUNCE. If I owe you a debt, the law will 
 compel you to buy my silver at $1.29 an ounce 
 in payment of that debt. If I go into your 
 store and purchase anything, the law will com- 
 pel you to buy my silver at $1.29 an ounce with 
 your goods. Free silver coinage will make us 
 forced buyers of silver at an exaggerated 
 value. 
 
 The other fallacy is : " How will gold go 
 out ? It only goes in the balance of ex- 
 change." Under normal conditions, that is 
 true. But the moment gold goes to a pre- 
 mium, eold becomes a merchandise, and un- 
 less silver rises to and remains permanently 
 at $1.29, gold would be the most profitable 
 merchandise to export. 
 
 DISTURBANCE TO BUSINESS. 
 
 The shock to business would be frightful. 
 Take one item : The savincrs banks of the
 
 THE Q U EST JON OF SIL VER. I O I 
 
 United States have estimated deposits of 
 over $1,600,000,000. Most of these banks 
 hmit deposit accounts to $1,000. This 
 money represents the savings of mechanics, 
 of poor women, and of the laboring class 
 generally. Their loans, principally real es- 
 tate mortgages, amount to $980,000,000. If 
 we hear of the failure of a savings bank with 
 a loss of a million, we justly think it a calam- 
 ity. 
 
 Free silver coinage, even if the value of 
 the silver dollar advanced permanently from 
 73 to 80 cents (which I most vehemently dis- 
 pute), would represent a loss to these stock- 
 holders of 20 per cent.^ — equivalent to the 
 failure and total collapse of nearly 200 of 
 these banks for a million dollars each. Try 
 to conceive such an upheaval ! 
 
 The principal merchants of St Louis, some 
 150, representing a relation to the business of 
 the country of over $200,000,000, sent a me- 
 morial to Congress in February last, in which 
 they said : 
 
 " We believe that the passage of the Senate bill, 
 whilst the present unstable market values of silver 
 obtain, would disturb the standard of values upon 
 which all transactions, domestic and foreign, are 
 based, would discourage for an indefinite period 
 commercial intercourse, and depress the industries 
 of the country in their varied directions. To agri-
 
 I02 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 culture, commerce and manufactures alike, we 
 believe it would be prolific of the most serious 
 results. 
 
 " We disclaim any antagonism to the use of sil- 
 ver in the currency of the country under conditions 
 where its value in law will be honestly representa- 
 tive of its intrinsic or bullion value ; but the expe- 
 rience of the past has demonstrated the futility of 
 attempting to give a value to silver by special legis- 
 lation which it does not intrinsically possess in the 
 markets of the world." 
 
 Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, a citizen of whom 
 New York is proud, one of the ablest men of 
 our day — largely interested in silver mines 
 and in the smelting of silver, wrote to the 
 House committee in February : 
 
 " The greatest evil that can befall a nation is a 
 change in the standard of value. Plagues, pesti- 
 lence and famine are after all but local and tempo- 
 rary calamities ; floods, earthquakes and cyclones are 
 limited in their di-sastrous results, but a change in 
 the standard of value affects all existing contracts, 
 upsets all the calculations of business, reaches 
 every family in the land and converts legitimate 
 trade into speculation and gambling." 
 
 WHO SHALL LEAD US ? 
 
 Under what leadership are we asked to 
 take this momentous step ? Until the Amer- 
 ican people learn to place faith in scientific
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 1 03 
 
 and trained intelligence, they will stumble on 
 from error to error. This silver question is 
 distinctly a question of finance. The judg- 
 ment of what class ought to be accepted as 
 final in this question? If )'ou wanted to 
 have a question in astronomy answered to 
 whom would you go? Not to the manufac- 
 turers of telescopes, nor to the men who 
 polish the brass of the lenses. You would 
 go to an astronomer, to a man who had made 
 the study of the heavens his life work. If 
 you want information as to a point of law 
 you do not go to the publishers of law books, 
 nor to the men who set the type or run the 
 presses, but to the man who has devoted 
 years to a study of the subject, to an attor- 
 ney-at-law. So with reference to this ques- 
 tion of money. The men whose advice 
 sensible men should follow would be : Firstly, 
 the authors on finance, the professors of po- 
 litical economy in our colleges, the men whose 
 lives have been devoted to the study of ques- 
 tions relating to the monetary science. Sec- 
 ondly, the men who have practically handled 
 money in large masses — men who have been 
 financial officers of the United States — secre- 
 taries of the treasury, comptrollers of the 
 currency, directors of the mint. Thirdly, the 
 bankers of the country. To these classes, 
 and not to silver miners or silver smelters or
 
 1 04 THE Q UES TION OF SIL VER. 
 
 crafty politicians should a question like free 
 silver coinage be submitted. And I defy the 
 silver men to find one single financial author 
 of distinction, one man who has ever been 
 secretary of the treasury, comptroller of the 
 currency, director of the mint, and, of the 
 thousands of bankers, twenty representative 
 men who will say that the free and unlimited 
 coinage of silver is a safe measure. 
 
 But says the silver man, with a sneer, 
 " The bankers are after their own interests." 
 Who are the bankers and what is their inter- 
 est ? When the stockholders of a bank meet, 
 whom do they select as directors ? Their 
 self-interest leads them to select men whose 
 financial standing, known integrity and gen- 
 eral character will command the respect of 
 the business community. Whom do these 
 directors elect as president and cashier ? 
 Again, the men who best represent the same 
 characteristics. What is the interest of a 
 banker? The banker's interest lies in the 
 prosperity of his depositors and that again in 
 the prosperity of the community. If the cus- 
 tomers of a bank make money, the bank 
 makes money. If their business is unsatis- 
 factory, the business of the bank is neces- 
 sarily in sympathy.
 
 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 1 05 
 
 THE AGITATION SHOULD CEASE. 
 
 Whatever settlement is effected by this 
 Congress as to silver, the silver agitation 
 SHOULD CEASE. The business interests of the 
 country demand a rest. A year and a half 
 ago, business was flourishing. Land found 
 a ready sale. Labor was in great demand. 
 In June, 1890, a test vote of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives of 116 to 140, showed the coun- 
 try that by a change of only thirteen votes, 
 both branches of Congress would endorse free 
 silver coinage. Whether that was the cause 
 or not, the fact cannot be disputed that from 
 about that time business confidence has been 
 lacking, capital has been timid, new enter- 
 prises have languished, and Colorado, with 
 the whole country, has suffered. Silver men 
 say the trouble began with the failure of the 
 Barings. It certainly antedated that by sev- 
 eral months. That failure intensified the 
 strain exceedingly. Yet why have we not 
 long ago recovered from its effects ? The 
 Barings' failure was the greatest possible ad- 
 vertisement as to the safety and security of 
 our American stocks and bonds. That fact, 
 with the uncertainty hanging over the politi- 
 cal embroilments of Europe, should have 
 operated to send European money here in a
 
 I06 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 flood. What has kept it away ? The fear of 
 silver values. With a crop bountiful beyond 
 compare, coincident with crop failures in Eu- 
 rope, — we should to-day be in the acme of 
 prosperity. Yet 1891 has been a dull year. 
 Everybody felt the pressure. Business was 
 unsatisfactory. Land was not in demand. 
 The demand for labor had diminished. In 
 1 89 1, out of the forty-seven largest cities in the 
 country, thirty-two cities increased their bank 
 exchanges over 1890. Our young giant, 
 Denver, was one of the fifteen cities which 
 decreased. Denver exchanges: 1890 — 250 
 millions. 1891 — 228 millions, — a decrease of 
 nearly 9 per cent. That tells volumes. Is it 
 not time that our Colorado leaders for free 
 silver, however earnest, however sincere, how- 
 ever loyal to Colorado, should realize that 
 their agitation is holding back the prosperity 
 and development of the State ? Has not the 
 hour come when men who realize the facts 
 should speak out boldly and distinctly on this 
 subject ? 
 
 FOUR ALTERNATIVES. 
 
 I conclude with the following alternatives : 
 I. If you want to be conservative and un- 
 willing to bring disaster to silver, you will 
 want any legislation on the subject to be 
 coupled with the declaration, that silver
 
 THE QUESTION OE SILVER. lO/ 
 
 coinage shall stop when gold goes to a pre- 
 mium. You will want the present law to 
 stand for another presidential term while vig- 
 orous efforts shall be made to bring about in- 
 ternational bimetallism. That, in order to 
 bring about European co-operation, it will be 
 necessary to recoin our silver at a ratio of 
 i5>^ : I seems to me too self-evident to need 
 any argument, 
 
 2. If these efforts fail and if you are labor- 
 ing for the CAUSE of silver, that is if you are 
 willing to make a temporary sacrifice in order 
 to give it a permanently increased market 
 value, then you should want all Government 
 purchases of silver to stop, should want to 
 sell silver abroad and pull in all the gold pos- 
 sible. Such action, to use Bismarck's simile, 
 would make the gold blanket so short that 
 some of the European nations would have 
 their financial nakedness exposed. Then 
 would come a repentant desire to accept an 
 additional monetary silver blanket. 
 
 3. If you want silver to bring you $1.29 
 an ounce and that quickly, the only legisla-v 
 tion is limited free coinage or coinasfe re- 
 stricted to the American product. That will 
 give the silver mine owner $1.29 instead of 
 ninety-five cents for every ounce of silver — 
 so long as gold is not advanced to a premium. 
 It will give a tremendous boost to the
 
 108 THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 silver States. It will be a great Protective 
 annual scoop of nearly twenty millions out of 
 the pockets of the American people. So 
 long as they can stand it, Colorado can. 
 There will, however, come a day of reckon- 
 ing — how soon or how long delayed, no man 
 can tell. 
 
 4. If you want to pay a debt with a liberal 
 discount and expect to die soon thereafter so 
 as to escape the other disagreeable incidents 
 of general business collapse, then you want 
 free and unlimited silver coinage. If you 
 want the value of silver to go up for a few 
 points and then gradually to fall back to a 
 value even below the ounce price of to-day, 
 then by all means, you want the free and un- 
 limited coinage of silver. Under such a pol- 
 icy, the words of " Ecclesiastes " will be 
 speedily verified : " He that loveth silver 
 
 SHALL NOT BE SATISFIED WITH SILVER." 
 
 Louis R. Ehrich.
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 
 
 Since the preceding pages were prepared for 
 the press, I have been afforded an opportunity, 
 through the courtesy of the Commonwealth 
 Club of New York, of presenting in that city 
 the conclusions at which I had arrived on the 
 question of silver. A summary of these con- 
 clusions is given in the following recommenda- 
 tions : 
 
 The silver legislation which our financial condition 
 demands is : 
 
 First. — A declaration that, if gold should rise to a 
 premium, all government silver purchases should im- 
 mediately cease. Such a declaration would operate 
 powerfully against the possibility of a gold panic. 
 
 Secotid. — The present silver purchases should be re- 
 duced in some gradual proportion which would contem- 
 plate the cessation of all purchases within a period of 
 say five years. 
 
 Third. — Such gradual reduction could, in a measure, 
 be counterbalanced by an increase in our silver subsidi- 
 ary currency. This at present is about $r.2o per capita. 
 It could safely be increased to $3.00 per capita, which 
 would mean a demand for about seventy-five million 
 ounces of silver.
 
 no THE QUESTION OF SILVER. 
 
 Fourth. — Free and unlimited trade with silver-using 
 countries. Their taking our silver might even satisfy 
 the plea of " reciprocity." 
 
 Fifth. — A call for an early " International Confer- 
 ence," a conference in which the most earnest efforts 
 would be put forth to bring about a world agreement in 
 behalf of genuine Bimetallism — a Bimetallism which 
 would lift silver from its present discredited position, 
 would link it firmly with gold as a world medium of 
 exchange, and would establish a ratio so fixed and so 
 permanent that all over the globe, for a long period of 
 time, whether as bullion or as money, silver, as related 
 to gold, would have one uniform, unchangeable value. 
 
 L. R. E. 
 
 February 24, 1892.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Act of 1834, p. 10; of 1873, P- " ; of 1890, p. 24. 
 Aii'y, Sir G. B., experience in France, in 1S26, p. 65. 
 Agricultural Products, exports of, in 1891, p. 94. 
 Allison's Amendment, of 1878, p. 22. 
 Assi^s^nats, in France, p. 63. 
 
 Bankers, true interest of, j). 104. 
 liarings, effects of failure of, p. 105. 
 Belford, Judge, statement in May, 1891, p. 74. 
 Benton, Thomas H., speech of, 1834, p. 72. 
 Bimetallism and Monometallism, p. 38. 
 Bland, first bill of, 1878, p. 22. 
 Bounties of the Silver-mine Owners, p. 37. 
 Boutwell, Geo. S., drafts bill of 1873, P- i^- 
 
 Business in the West, in 1891, p. 106; disturbance to, through free 
 coinage, p. 100. 
 
 Cernuschi, testimony of, in Washington, 1876, pp. 51, 68, 69, 83,96. 
 Chevalier, Michel, statement concerning ratio, p. 64. 
 Coinage of Silver, between 1873 and 1S78, p. 47 ; suspended in Eu- 
 rope, p. 26 . 
 Coinage Ratio, p. 20. 
 
 Coinage Regulated by the Constitution, p. 6. 
 Coinage act of 1792, p. 13 ; of 1S53, p,. 13-14. 
 Colorado's interest in Silver Bounties, p. 37. 
 Colorado's interests opposed to Free Silver, p. 41. 
 Colorado's Development, hampered l)y silver agitation, p.4i. 
 " Conspiracy " against silver of 1873, PP> ^7~A^- 
 Creditors, the real, p. 30. 
 
 Debtor Classes, the true, p. 30. 
 
 Debtors, expectations of, p. 25. 
 
 Debts in the West, payable in gold, p. 33. 
 
 Denver, decrease of business in, in 1891, p. 106.
 
 112 INDEX. 
 
 Doctors disagree as to the dose, p. 46. 
 
 Demonetization of Silver, p. 17. 
 
 " Dollar of the Daddies," called for in 1834, p. 11. 
 
 Double Standard, 1853-1862, p. 15. 
 
 Dunham, D. C. L., statement of, 1853, p. 34. 
 
 Ehrich, Louis R., business interest in the rise of silver, p. 44. 
 England, drafts on France and the United States in 1892, p. 74. 
 England, silver coinage of, in 1891, p. 67. 
 Elliott, opinion of, 1873, P- '8. 
 
 Farmer, the, and his oxen, pp. 58--59. 
 
 Farmers, interests of, pp. 29-93. 
 
 Farmer, American, basis on which his sales are made, p. 35 ; a credi- 
 tor as well as a debtor, p. 94. 
 
 Farmer, receipts of, for his products, how regulated, p. 95. 
 
 Farm Mortgages of the West, p. 30. 
 
 Feer-Iierzog, statement in 187S, pp. 90-97; death in 1881, p. 52. 
 
 P>ance, Bank of, directors' meeting, (as imagined) in 1892, p. 99; 
 stock of silver in, p. 97. 
 
 France, recent financial history of, pp. 61, 62, 63. 
 
 France, quoted by Thomas as bimetallic, p. 61. 
 
 Forssell, opinion on the practicability of bimetallism by a single 
 State, p. 85. 
 
 Free Coinage, if authorized, should be limited to the American prod- 
 uct, p. 36; results of, p. 27. 
 
 Germany demonetizes Silver, 1873, P- 66; adopts gold standard, 
 
 1871-1873, p. 17. 
 Gold, production of 1841-1851, p. 12; production after 1850, p. 16. 
 Gold and silver, relative production of, 1841-1850, p. 54. 
 Gold, increased production of 1848, 1849 and 1852, p. 65. 
 Gold as merchandise, p. 100. 
 Gold, discoveries of 1849-1851, p. 12. 
 Gold coinage in 1814, p. 9 ; of the United States, p. 27. 
 Gold disappearance and Silver inundation, p. 96. 
 Gold product in 1890, p. 21. 
 Gorham's speech in 1834, p. 12. 
 Gresham's Law, p. 8. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, report for establishment of mint, p. 6; recom' 
 
 mends ratio of gold to silver as i to 15, p. 7. 
 Hayes, President, vetoes bill of 1878, p. 22. 
 Hewitt, Abrani S., statement to committee in 1891, p. 102 ; speech of 
 
 1876, on the charge of "Conspiracy," p. 47.
 
 INDEX. I I 
 
 J 
 
 Hooper of Massachusetts introduces bill of 1873, p. 49. 
 Horton, Dana, authority as a bimetallist, p. 52; comments on the 
 death of Ernest Seyd p. 53. 
 
 Imports and exports of United States, pp. 95—96. 
 
 Ingalls, speech of 1891, p. 19. 
 
 India, influences on prosperity of, by shifting prices of silver, p. 94. 
 
 financial relations with England, p. 77. 
 India's absorption oi Silver and Gold, 1851--1860, pp. 55-57. 
 Indian Cotton, p. 57. 
 Indian Breadstuffs, p. 57. 
 Interest, the rate of, for mortgages, p. 30. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, currency message of, p. 32. 
 Jevons, the reservoir simile of, pp. 80-81. 
 Jones, Senator, prediction of, p. 89. 
 Jones and Bogy, Senators, report of, 1876, p. 51. 
 
 Kelley, W. L. opinion of, 1873, p. 19. 
 
 Knox, John Jay, before committee on coinage, 1S91, p. 18. 
 
 Latin Monetary Union, organized in 1865, P- ^^i stops free coinage, 
 
 p. 21. 
 Limits coinage of silver in 1874, p. 67 ; stops coinage of silver in 
 
 1878, p. 67. 
 Legal Tender act of 1862, p. 15. 
 
 Magnin, opinion of, p. 84. 
 
 Mallet, Sir Louis, on the possible policy of India, p. 91 ; on the 
 
 shifting price of silver, p. 94. 
 Mandats in France, pp. 63-64. 
 
 Mining Congress at Denver, 1891, bimetallism resolution, pp. 38-39. 
 Mexico, results of free coinage in, p. 33. 
 Mexico and Bimetallism, p. 79. 
 Mexico, silver production of, p. 26. 
 Mint proposed by Jefferson and Morris, p. 6. 
 Mine-owners, expectations of, p. 25. 
 
 Monetary Conference at Paris in 1867, pp. 66-90; of 1881, p. 84. 
 Money, what constitutes, p. 69. 
 
 Money, value of in New York, November, 1891, p. 76. 
 Money, intrinsic value of, p. 72. 
 Money, per capita circulation in France, England, Germany, p. 73, in 
 
 the United States, 1865-1891, p. 75. 
 
 Newcomb, Prof. Simon, statement of, 1879. 
 Nickel-miners, their claim for free coinage, p. 71.
 
 1 1 4 INDEX. 
 
 Paris, International Conference at, iSSi, p. 52. 
 Patterson's Opinion, p. iS. 
 Parien, statement of, in 18S6, p. 90. 
 Pierson, opinion of, on Greshani's law, p. 85. 
 Pirmez, M., statement in 1881, p. 97. 
 Price, fluctuations of 1890-1891, p. 24. 
 
 Resumption of Specie Payme'nts in 1877--1879, p, 10. 
 Ruggles, answer of, to Prince Napoleon, p. 66. 
 
 St. John, opinion of, in 1891, p. 98. 
 
 St. Louis Merchants, memorial of, February 1891, p. loi. 
 
 Savings Banks, deposits in, p. loi. 
 
 Savings Bank depositors, losses to through free coinage, p. lol. 
 
 Selign\an, William, letter of, December 1S90, p. 97. 
 
 Senate, United States, said by Senator Ingalls to have been hypno- 
 tized in 1873, P- 5°- 
 
 Seyd, Ernest, opinion of, p. 49; defense of the memory of, p. 50. 
 
 "Shortage" of Silver in 1876, p. 48. 
 
 Silver agitation should cease, p. 105. 
 
 Silver coinage bills of 1876-1877, p. 22; 
 
 Silver dollar demonetized in 1S73, P- ^7 '■> disappears after 1840, p. 12. 
 
 Silver, fluctuations in the value of 1793--1892, pp. 86, 87, 88, 89. 
 
 Silver, forcing the buying of, p. 100; decrease in demand for, p. 56. 
 
 Silver production, large increase in, p. 27. 
 
 Silver, market value of, 1891-1692, p. 25; recent predictions concern- 
 ing its advance in price, p. 85-86; price of, high water mark in 
 1859, p. 56; the world's stock of, p. 97; total production of, in 
 United States, 1865-1891, p. 93; exports of, 1865--1891, p. 93; 
 relative value of reduced by the hand of nature, p. 21 ; would free 
 coinage cause a rise of its price in Europe ? p. 100. 
 
 Snowden's Opinion, p. 18. 
 
 Stewart, Senator, of Nevada, pp. 20-89. 
 
 Stoughton, opinion of, 1873, P- 'P- 
 
 Sumter, first shot at, p 15. 
 
 Supply and demand regulate value of money metals, pp. 53-54. 
 
 Symes, opinion of, on bimetallism, p. 86. 
 
 Teller, Senator, speech in January, 1892, p. 89. 
 
 Ten miners, the, p. 91. 
 
 Thomas, Charles S., paper on the silver question, p. 42. 
 
 Trans-mississippi Congress of 1891, bimetallism resolution, pp. 38- 
 
 39- 
 Vest, Senator, speech of January, 1892, p. 41.
 
 INDEX. I I 5 
 
 Walker, F. A., statement before Congressional Committee, January, 
 
 1891, p. 82. 
 Webster, Daniel, opinion on circulating medium in 1815, p. 36. 
 Western opinions on Silver, p. 29. 
 White, Campbell P., statement of, 1S31, p. 9. 
 Winclom, Secretary, submits plan for silver coinage, 1890, p. 23. 
 Wolowski; opposition of, to gold standard, p. 53.
 
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