UC-NRLF 
 
PUBLIC 
 SOUND MONEY LEAFLET. 
 
 THE MONEY QUESTION. 
 
 J. STERLING ]VK)RTON'S TALK ABOUT IT TO HIS 
 FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. 
 
 A Plain Exposition of the Issue Made by a Western 
 
 Pioneer in Close Touch with*the Farmers and 
 
 One Who Understands Their Needs. 
 
 Printed for free distribution by the PUBLIC LEDGER, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 GEO. W. CHILDS DREXEL, 
 
 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. 
 
 9 
 
 Re-issued by the Pennsylvania State Committee of the 
 National Democratic (Jeffersonian) Party. 751 Bullitt Building, 
 Philadelphia, Penna. 
 
A 
 
Introduction. 
 
 At the request of his fellow-citizens of all political parties 
 Hon. J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture, while on a visit 
 to his home at Nebraska City, Nebraska, addressed them on the 
 evening of August 1st, on the Money Question. Few rnn are better 
 qualified than Mr. Morton to discuss the question of the relation of a 
 sound currency to the national prosperity. He has been intimately 
 associated with agricultural conditions for more than forty years in 
 the State of Nebraska, of which he was one of the earliest pioneers. 
 During that long period of time, he has been known as one of the 
 most active citizens of the West in every political campaign, in which 
 questions of great national concern and interest were under discussion. 
 With no political ambitions of his own to subserve, and belonging 
 always to minority party in his State and section, his voice has been 
 effectively heard and his pen has been effectively employed, whenever 
 and as often as the occasion required, in advocating what he believed 
 to be for the best interests of the people and the Government. A 
 practical and successful farmer himself, he has always been specially 
 solicitous for the material advancement of agriculture and the moral 
 betterment of the farmer. He has never descended to the tricks oi 
 the demagogue, and has consistently and persistently adhered to his 
 convictions, based upon extensive reading and close study, on 
 economic questions. The Money Question has been given by 
 Mr. Morton the most patient investigation and the most careful and 
 conscientious study, and his utterances therefore on this question, 
 which is now occupying the popular mind almost to the exclusion of 
 all other public questions, is worthy of greater than the ordinary 
 attention given its discussion. In his Nebraska City speech- 
 Mr. Morton, starting with the origin of money as a medium of 
 exchange and a measure of value, follows the use of the two metals 
 to our own day, and clearly shows that values cannot be fixed by 
 legislation nor two monetary standards of values maintained by law. 
 
 Mr. Morton's speech was published in the PUBLIC LEDGER of 
 August 2 ist, from which it is reproduced in pamphlet form. After 
 explaining .his early identification with Nebraska, and briefly discuss- 
 ing local topics, he launched into the subject of his address and spoke 
 as follows: 
 
The Money Question. 
 
 In a barbaric state man neither issued coin nor credit money. Barter 
 prevailed. But emerging from savagery in all climes and in all countries 
 humanity has begun a civilized career by the means of trade. Generally the 
 money of any people a^the dawn of its civilization has been made out of some 
 staple product common to their latitude. Thus salt, tea, tobacco, peltry of 
 various kinds and shells have been used as a medium of exchange and 
 measures of value. The earliest record of money, however, is found in the 
 Homeric* age, and dates about 800 years before the Christian era. The Iliad 
 and the Odyssy both show that the cow and the ox were the unit of value in 
 those times ; thus the shield of Achilles is said to have cost so many oxen and 
 that of another hero to have cost so many more. But in no instance is there 
 any record of an attempt to create money, even by semi-civilized people, out 
 of something which had no value as a commodity. Nor is there any attempt 
 recorded where the early moneys have been forced upon the people at a mint 
 value greater than the commodity value which it had before it became money. 
 But the Homeric or Grecian cow was by some sort of conspiracy demonetized 
 more than 2500 years ago. 
 
 THE GOIvD BUG OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 The gold bugs of that early epoch devised a coin which was minted at 
 Athens which was called the Grecian talent and bore upon it the image of a 
 cow. How long the parity of the cow and the gold talent was maintained it is 
 now impossible to state. But for many years that gold piece was taken as the 
 equivalent of the ox or the cow, and it is barely possible that the subsidiary 
 currency of these times consisted of calves and yearlings. From this first 
 money we deduce the word " capital." The owner of the greatest number of 
 bovinefc counted the greatest number of heads of cattle, and from the word 
 "caput," meaning a head, is derived the modern word "capital." Thus it is 
 obvious that even in the very dawn of commerce it was essential that money 
 should represent or possess actual value, and that the commodity made into 
 money was not enhanced by transmutation at the mint from merchandise 
 to money. 
 
 EARIvY CURRENCIES. 
 
 Originally the gold pieces of Greece bore the assay stamp of the goldsmith, 
 and later on, for convenience, it was determined that only Government itself 
 should certify to the weight and fineness of each piece. Thus, the certification 
 of weight and fineness of metals used in making exchanges in money by 
 governments was brought into existence. The functions of money are merely 
 to measure value and to mediate exchanges. The Pagan philosopher, Aristotle, 
 who wrote 400 years before Christ, said: "Money is an intermediary com- 
 modity designed to facilitate the exchange of two other commodities. Thus 
 the necessity of commodity value in money was recognized from the very be- 
 ginning. This word ' 'value" is the foundation of the question under discussion. 
 Among the Greeks and Romans, and among modern political economists, like 
 Adam Smiih, Whately, Say, Bonamy Price, Perry and McLeod, value is held 
 to consist in exchangeability. , And McLeod remarks: "What does exchange- 
 ability depend upon ? If I offer something for sale what is necessary in order 
 that it should be sold? Simply that some one else should desire and demand 
 it. * * * The sole origin, source and cause of value is human desire ; when 
 there is a demand for things they have value. When the supply remains 
 stationary and the demand increases, the value increases. When the demand 
 decreases, the value decreases, and when the demand ceases altogether the 
 value is altogether gone." 
 
 PROTESTING AGAINST BEING FUW,Y PAID. 
 
 This shows clearly that the currency of a people must be readily exchange- 
 able for those things which the people desire and demand. The currency 
 itself must be desirable, and must be demanded by those who have things to 
 sell. The farmer who sells cattle, swine and cereals for money finds that his 
 customer demands the highest possible quality -in each of these things. The 
 buyer of the farmer's products is a seller of money. The seller of those same 
 
products is a buyer of money. The purchaser demands the highest known 
 qualities in the things he buys of the farmer, and an enlightened self-interest 
 must compel the farmer to demand the highest and most unfluctuating and 
 general purchasing power in the money, which he buys. Never before in the 
 history of civilization have any number of people protested against being paid 
 more than a certain sum for commodities which they have to sell. But to-day 
 there are many farmers and laborers who declare themselves in favor of a 
 system of coinage which shall pay them only 16 ounces of silver in lieu of I 
 ounce.of gold. Vehemently these people are declaring everywhere that they 
 will be absolutely ruined if they be paid in more than 16 ounces of silver in- 
 stead of i ounce of gold. The commercial ratio of these two metals to-day is 
 about 32 to i; that is, thirty -two ounces of silver will buy one ounce of gold 
 bullion. The reason for declaring in favor of a mint value for silver which is 
 twice its bullion value is inexplicable upon the part of those who have no silver 
 bullion to coin. The advocates of this system of coining silver at double its 
 commercial value, and gold on an equality with its commercial value, declare 
 themselves to be bimetallists, and assert that they are in favor of two units of 
 value. And while two units of value are to my mind unthinkable, they in 
 their statements show that they themselves have only one unit of value and 
 that that is the gold unit. Whoever says, "I am in favor of the free and un- 
 limited coinage of silver at 16 to i," declares himself a gold monometallism 
 The sixteen ounces of silver he proposes to measure by one ounce of gold. 
 
 THE AU,EGED CRIME OF 1873. 
 
 But we are told that there was a great crime committed in 1873 in the 
 secret demonetization of silver. There was no secret demonetization of silver. 
 The bill which left the silver dollar out of the coinage provided for in the act 
 of 1873 was before the -American people for more than two years. The debate 
 upon its passage in the House and in the Senate occupies several columns of 
 the Congressional proceedings. Up to the time of this alleged demonetization 
 of silver the Government had during its entire existence coined less than nine 
 millions of silver dollars. Under the Bland-Allison act of 1873, the Govern- 
 ment "authorized the coinage of the standard silver dollar and restored its 
 legal tender character." This act was to resuscitate the declining value of 
 silver. It was to place it side by side with gold as part of the redemption 
 money of the United States. Let it be remembered that silver had been 
 demonetized by the act of 1853, and that the legislation of 1878 was based upon 
 the fallacy that silver dollars of gold value could be substituted for depreciated 
 paper. The silver coined before this enactment, amounting to between eight 
 and nine millions of dollars, had long before disappeared from circulation. 
 
 CAUSE OF THE DECLINE IN SILVER. 
 
 The decline in the value of silver was consequent upon its increased pro- 
 duction, which began to exceed the demand for its use. European nations 
 omitted it from their coinage laws. They dropped it because they already had 
 as much silver money as their people demanded. They dropped it because 
 they knew that no amount of coining of this metal could arrest its further 
 decline if increased production continued. They dropped it because they were 
 certain that depreciation of the metal would debase and overthrow their cur- 
 rency systems if they continued to coin it. This Bland- Allison act compelled 
 the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase monthly noteless than two nor more 
 than four million dollars worth of silver bullion, to be immediately coined into 
 silver dollars of 412^ grains of standard silver; that is 371^ grains of fine 
 metal, and these dollars when so coined were made a legal tender for all debts, 
 public and private. This and subsequent acts enabled the holder of silver dol- 
 lars to deposit them with the Treasurer of the United States, and to get in re- 
 turn certificates made receivable for customs, taxes and all public dues. But 
 the Bland-AlKson act, instead of restoring silver to its old value, as predicted, 
 witnessed a decline of 50 per cent, in the bullion of the silver dollar. Prior to 
 the congestion of monetary channels by this depreciated silver, the United 
 States had received from foreigners during thirteen years previous over 
 $260,000,000 of gold. As early as 1888 fears were expressed in Europe that 
 the United States would go to a silver standard. Holders of securities there 
 became afraid that they would be redeemed in depreciated silver, and began to 
 throw back these securities upon the American market. For this reason be- 
 tween 1888 and 1895 all the foreign gold payments to us of the preceding 
 thirteen years were re-exported from the United States. 
 
OPERATION OF THE GRESHAM LAW, 
 
 By 1890 we had more than 378,000,000 of Bland-Allison dollars. Now it 
 becomes apparent that the depreciated purchasing power in a metallic cur- 
 rency is as much to be lamented and as vicious as depreciated paper. Secre- 
 taries of the United States Treasury wisely restricted the coinage under the act 
 of 1878 to 2,000,000 per month, and this sum was sufficient to displace the gold 
 circulation, under the operation of the Gresham law, which is simply that two 
 metals of exchange being placed in the field, one superior to the other, the 
 inferior holds the field, and the better money is hoarded by the miser or carried 
 away b^ the foreigner. Bad money always expels good money from the chan- 
 nels of trade. This law was verified during the American Revolution by the 
 depreciation of the Continental currency. It was verified here in Nebraska 
 when the issues of the Neman a Valley, Fontanelle, Omaha, Platte Vplley, 
 Tekamah and other wild-cat banks drove out all the sound money which had 
 been in circulation in the Territory prior to 1857. The Bland-Allison silver 
 dollars alluded to drove out that many gold dollars from the commerce of the 
 United States. Then the act of July 14, 1890, generally called the Sherman 
 act, was passed by the silver advocates for a double purpose. The first was to 
 give a market for the entire silver product of American mines. The second 
 was to increase to four and a half millions per month the volume of depreciated 
 and depreciating money. This act compelled the monthly purchase of 4, 500,000 
 ounces of silver bullion. For this Treasury notes were issued and forced into 
 circulation. The Treasury notes thus created were made a, legal tender for 
 all debts, public and private. Government officials were required to reissue 
 them when paid into the treasury. Under this act 168,000,000 ounces of silver 
 were purchased. For that bullion 156,000,000 of new Treasury notes were 
 issued. Thus the Bland-Allison and the Sherman act prior to the repeal of the 
 later in November, 1893, forced into circulation in the United States $575, 000,000 
 of silver and silver certificates. 
 
 CAUSE OF DISTRUST AND COMMERCIAL INEBRIETY. 
 
 Thus " the plain people," "the common people," have seen driven out 
 at the command of silver mine owners and bullion speculators an equal amount 
 of gold dollars, better dollars than those which these two acts have created. 
 Thus we find a direct cause of the distrust, lack of confidence and commercial 
 inebriety that brought upon the country the panic of 1893. And yet the second 
 section of the Sherman act of 1890 requires the Secretary of the Treasury to 
 redeem the notes issued for silver bullion in gold or silver, expressly declaring 
 it to be "the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals 
 on a parity with each other upon the present ratio, or upon such ratio as may 
 be provided by law." And before the issue of these 156,000,000 of treasury 
 notes we had already 346,000,000 of greenbacks which the Government was 
 pledged to redeem in coin, on presentation, and to make this redemption cer- 
 tain the Secretary was authorized to issue and sell Government bonds; and by 
 other legislation, in 1882, he is required to keep in the Treasury a reserve fund 
 of $100,000,000 in gold with which to redeem them. This of itself is an 
 admission that it was the purpose and intent of the Government of the United 
 States to maintain a gold standard, and to pay all of its obligations in that 
 metal or its equivalent. With the greenbacks and $575,000,000 of silver cur- 
 rency we had, in 1893, circulating in the United States more than 921,000,000 of 
 promises to pay dollars of paper money of credit money. And the Govern- 
 ment, by its laws and its honor was pledged to keep all this vast volume on a 
 parity with gold. And yet the gold reserve required was only $100,000,000, 
 and that insufficient amount has been constantly maintained, although pur- 
 chases have been made again and again for the purpose. 
 
 COMMERCIAL ILLS FLOW FROM FALLACIES IN LEGISLATION. 
 All of our ills in finance, it seems to me, come from the fallacies of the 
 foregoing legislation. There was gold in the Treasury, 1889, of $194,000,000; 
 in January, 1890, $177,000,000; in 1891, $141,000,000; in 1892, $119,000,000; in 
 1893, $108,000,000; in January, 1894, only $65,000,000; in July, 1894, $55,000,000, 
 although $52,000,000 had been borrowed and added to the fund. The extent of 
 distrust of the nation's credit is illustrated by these facts, and yet the excess of 
 our exports over imports in 1890 was 168 millions, in 1891 it \vas nearly 40 
 millions, in 1892, 203 millions, in 1894, 227 millions, and the only adverse bal- 
 ance we had any year was one of 18 millions in 1893. It is seen that while we 
 exported an excess of 520 millions of products, for which, under normal con- 
 dition of trade, that amount should have been returned to us, -we also exported 
 over 200 millions of gold. 
 
 6 
 
WHO WERE THE CONSPIRATORS IX 1873? 
 
 But it is impossible to cover the whole ground in a single desultory speech. 
 .Let us then go back to the alleged crime of 1873. Was there a conspiracy ? If so, 
 who were the conspirators. They were the genius of trade, the enterprise of the 
 American people, and the intelligence of an advanced civilization. The flatboat 
 in which I crossed the Missouri river in the autumn of 1854 was by a conspiracy 
 between capital and human ingenuity de-ferryized and the steamboat took its 
 place. [Applause. ] This change occurred because immigration and the develop- 
 ment of the territory became too big for flatboats. Later on a conspiracy again 
 transpired wherein capital and civilization combined to deferryize the steamboat, 
 and the result is the magnificent steel bridge upon which your trains cross every 
 day. A second time the prosperity and development of the country had outgrown 
 primitive means of transportation. If it was a crime to drop silver, a cumber- 
 some and rapidly depreciating metal from redemption money because the 
 commerce of this continent had outgrown it, is there not a crime being com- 
 mitted against the farmer by this conspiracy which depreciates the horse 
 because of the devaluation of that animal ? - Is there not a conspiracy between 
 the trolley car builder, the tramway railway magnate and the bicycle manu- 
 facturer to depreciate the horse ? [Laughter.] 
 
 A FE\V PRACTICAL AND PERTINENT QUESTIONS. 
 
 Is it not time to declare in some political pronunciamento that a horse 
 shall be valued in Nebraska at$i5o without regard to any other State or nation 
 on earth ? [Great applause.] And if this Commonwealth puts horse values at 
 $150 would not all the owners of horses in other States come here to exchange 
 them for whatever salable product Nebraska may have on hand ? And if that 
 would follow this one State in attempting as against all other States to main- 
 tain a price upon horses or upon corn, will not a similar result come to the 
 United States if it attempts to fix the price of sixteen ounces of silver at one 
 ounce of gold ? Will not all other nations who hold silver to be worth less 
 than that dump their silver into the United States ? Will not the free coinage 
 of silver at 16 to i bring us directly to silver monometallism ? [Voice That's 
 what] The better money is always driven out by the poorer. Therefore the 
 $650, 000,000 of gold coin will be hoarded or carried away by the foreigner, and 
 all the Mints of the United States running night and day cannot coi n $650,000, - 
 oco in less than fourteen years. Thus instead of increasing the circulating 
 medium, which by the way does not need any increase, this vast sum of 650 
 millions has been taken from the circulation. 
 
 ERROR OF FREE COINAGE ADVOCATES. 
 
 But we are told that the West and the South demand more money. That 
 the West and the South need more money in their business. An error of 
 those who advocate the free coinage of silver at 16 to I seems to be in the mis- 
 use of terms. All men desire more money, and the advocates of this system 
 of coinage, which will compel a gold miner to delve until he gets 100 cents' 
 worth, bullion value, of this yellow metal before he may demand the coinage 
 of a dollar, and at the same time permits .the miner of silver in -Colorado to 
 stop work and demand the coinage of a dollar of equal purchasing power when 
 he has only taken out 52 cents' worth of bullion confound desire with de- 
 mand. To illustrate : You and I may go into some vast and beautiful gallery 
 of painting and see some of the masterpieces of the best artists in the world, 
 and we may desire one or more of them to embellish our own homes, but the 
 condition of our exchequer is such that we make no demand for any picture. 
 So there cannot be any legitimate demand for money except you offer some- 
 thing valuable in exchange for it. 
 
 INEXORABLE LAW OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY. 
 
 I now read a letter addressed to the citizens of Colorado, May I, 1895 : 
 From your letter of April 22, 1895, it appears that you and I perfectly 
 agree in the fundamental point, namely, that demand and supply inexorably 
 regulate all valuables whatsoever at all times and in all places. At what 
 points do we begin to separate from each other and then go on to conclusions 
 so utterly diverse? These points are only two the first historical and the 
 second logical. 
 
 First. You assume certain propositions to be true of silver, which are not 
 historically true at all, but quite the reverse of true. You say, for instance, 
 " Until 1873 the chief use of silver was for coinage. It had other uses, but the 
 
demand for coinage purposes was steady and constant." On this point you 
 have been monstrously misinformed. The first Federal coins of silver were 
 minted in 1794, and of gold in 1795. Their ratio, as recommended by Secre- 
 tary Alexander Hamilton, and fixed by act of Congress, was 15 to I. It was 
 hoped thus to keep the two metals in equilibrio in the coinage. But they 
 would not even come into equilibrio at that ratio, still less would they stay 
 there. That was not the true ratio of their relative value at the time in the 
 markets of the world under your "inexorable law of supply and demand, " 
 and consequently the law of Alexander Hamilton and the National Congress 
 making both metals full and equal legal tender in that ratio to all amounts of 
 debts had practically 110 effect whatever as towards the end in view. 
 
 TWO UNITS OF VALUE IMPOSSIBLE. 
 
 This law legally undervalued gold relatively to silver. In other words, an 
 ounce of gold was worth more in the markets than fifteen ounces of silver, and 
 accordingly was worth more out of the coinage than in it, and consequently 
 was exported in preference to silver,in payment of foreign balances, especially 
 after France changed in her mint the relative legal value to 15^ to i. Of 
 course gold coins refused to circulate here under those circumstances, illus- 
 trating another " inexorable law " of coinage, namely, that the cheaper money 
 would push the dearer out of circulation. Well, then the silver dollars ought 
 to have been plenty enough in the United States in the opening years of this 
 century. But they were not. Why not ? Because clipped and worn Spanish- 
 Mexican silver pieces had slipped into the circulation in large amounts and 
 driven out the good and new and full-weighted American silver dollars from the 
 hands of the people and the tills of the trader. 
 
 Only 321 silver dollar pieces were (joined at the American Mint in the en- 
 tire year of 1805, because the silver was worth more out of the coinage than in 
 it, and worth more for export than for domestic money. What was the 
 matter with those silver dollars ! Nothing, only they were too valuable ! 
 May i, 1806, there came an order from President Jefferson to the Director of 
 the Mint at Philadelphia. " That all the.silver to be coined at the Mint shall 
 be of small denominations, so that the value of the largest pieces shall not 
 exceed half a dollar." The reason given by the President for this order was 
 " that considerable purchases have been made of dollars coined at the Mint for 
 the purpose of exporting them, and that it is probable that further purchases 
 and exportations will be made." The coinage of silver dollars, thus author- 
 itatively suspended at the American Mint, was not resumed there for thirty 
 years. In these few facts, which are official and unquestionable, behold the 
 beauties and advantages of the double standard ! Of the unlimited coinage of 
 both metals, in an enacted and constant ratio with each other ! Of two yard- 
 sticks of different length to measure cloth by in the same market ! 
 
 WHY THE DOUBLE STANDARD WAS ABANDONED. 
 
 Not until 1834 was the attention of Congress drawn strongly enough to the 
 wrong ratio of Hamilton and its ridiculous effects to secure a law ostensibly to 
 remedy them. By this law the ratio was substantially put at 16 to i. But 
 this was going to far in the opposite direction. Gold was not worth 16 in 
 silver in the markets of Europe. Consequently the international current of 
 the metals was now for a time reversed, silver passing in preference abroad to 
 liquidate the balances of trade, and gold coming in small quantities to the 
 United States, where it w r as more than 3 per cent, dearer in silver than in 
 Europe. By 1853 the immense disadvantages of a "double standard" had 
 become plain to all thinking people that Congress wisely determined to 
 abandon the utterly futile attempt to secure the "parity " of the two metals, 
 and to make gold the legal tender for debts except for $5 and under. In the 
 second place, as an instance of an historical assumption contrary to facts and 
 natural inference, allow me respectfully to call your attention to the use, in 
 common with many of the bimetallists, so called, of the date 1873, as the time 
 of the "demonetization of silver." Unless I am mistaken the silver dollar is 
 not mentioned at all one way or the other in the act of 1873. 
 
 DEAD WEIGHT ON THE RESOURCES OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 All the demonetization of silver, as I understand it, that ever came about 
 in this country happened in the law of 1853, after open and full discussion and 
 practically with unanimity, when Congress introduced the subsidiary silver 
 coinage, of which a nominal dollar's worth weighed 6.91 per cent, less than the 
 silver dollar, and also took away the legal tender quality of all silver in the 
 
Eayment of debts of over $5 in amount. What harm these two features of the 
 iw of 1853 ever did I have never been able to see. For the reasons already 
 given silver dollars circulated but little in the United States even before 1853, 
 and between that date and 1878 not at all, when, on February 28, a law was 
 passed requiring them to be coined in immense numbers at the old rate and 
 ratio to gold and with full legal tender functions ; but even then their circula- 
 tion was sluggish up to 1883. You know as well as I do what an enormous 
 pile of these dollars, born out of due time, are now lying idle in the United 
 States Treasury, nobody willing to take them a dead weight on the resources 
 of the people. 
 
 TWO COMMON I,OGICAI, FALLACIES. 
 
 ( 2 ) You employ over and over again in your letter the two most common 
 logical fallacies that enter into the speech of argumentative men everywhere, 
 namely, putting cause into the place of effect, and assuming that, because one 
 thing happened after another in point of time, therefore it was the result of 
 that other. Let us look candidly together at the two or three instances of this, 
 taken almost at random. You ask, "What creates demand?" and answer 
 "Use." I ask, in my turn, "What creates use?" and answer, "Demand." 
 Why is it that there is so little "use " of silver dollars in this country to-day, 
 while there are millions upon millions of them lying idle ? I answer, con- 
 fidently, because there is no adequate "demand" for them. Have you not 
 innocently, but badly, mixed up "cause" and "effect" in this case? De- 
 mand in the commercial sense is nothing but desire for something on the part 
 of one man coupled with his willingness to pay something for it satisfactory to 
 another who owns it. Use of that thing, no matter what it is, only follows 
 demand for it. You have helplessly put the cart before the horse. What is it 
 that hinders the unlimited circulation among the people of silver dollars here 
 and now ? There are such dollars enough already minted to put four or five of 
 them into the pocket of every man, woman and child in the United States. 
 What is the matter with them that they do not get there ? What is the sense 
 of clamoring still for "unlimited coinage," when the Treasury cannot get rid 
 by hook or by crook of a tithe of those already coined and lying in useless 
 heaps ? They are well minted, of just weight, nine-tenths fine, are legal tender 
 for all debts, and bear the legend "In God We Trust." What ails them? I 
 answer, and so must you, on reflection, there is no "demand" for them, 
 and therefore no "use " for them. What more can the law do for them ? 
 
 CAUSE FOR CLOSING THE INDIA MINTS. 
 
 For the sake of the "help " you ask for, and for truth's sake, bear with 
 me while I take another instance of the same confusion in your letter. You 
 say : "In 1893 India closed her mints to the free coinage of silver. In an 
 instant silver dropped from 84 cents (or thereabouts) to 71 cents per ounce." 
 Yes, certainly. But what made silver drop to 84 cents? It could not have 
 been the closing of the mints (a logical matter) that caused the discount of 16 
 per cent, before the mints closed or thought of closing. How do you know 
 but that the same causes (intensified, no doubt, by a public and legal recogni- 
 tion of them) which brought about the 16 per cent, discount brought about 
 afterwards the 29 per cent, discount ? The closing of the mints was caused by 
 the discount on silver, and not the discount on silver by the closing of the 
 mints. If keeping the mints open to "unlimited coinage " could have brought 
 back silver to par, or had any tendency in that direction, would the mints have 
 closed at all ? India had the good sense to see that the more minting the more 
 discount. I believe that our own good people, you included, will show the same 
 good sense in the same way. Effects are not causes, nor must the two be con- 
 founded in reasoning. 
 
 OPERATION AND EFFECT OF THE SHERMAN LAW. 
 
 With one more instance, Mr. Cherry, and with a moment's reference to an 
 important fact not mentioned in your letter, and our friendly conference is over 
 for the present. You say: "When the Sherman law was repealed, it (silver) 
 fell to 60 cents an ounce." Yes, again: but was it the repeal of the Sherman 
 law, or the operation of the Sherman law, that caused the startling decline in 
 silver as compared with gold, and uprooted always and everywhere futile 
 attempts to maintain a "parity" between the two metals, induced President 
 Cleveland to call a special session of Congress in order to repeal the law and so 
 to prevent the certain further decline under the law, and also induced Senator 
 Sherman himself (an uncommonly intelligent financier) to insist on its repeal? 
 
Causes always precede effects, and effects always follow causes in point of time; 
 but I beg you beware of supposing hereinafter that because some specified thing 
 comes after another specified thing that therefore the one is caused by the other. 
 
 FUNCTION OF BILLS OF CREDIT 
 
 It may be my dear sir, that in your study of finance you have overlooked, 
 in whole or in part, the momentous fact that all but a mere fraction of the 
 world's commerce is mediated by instruments of credit and not by metallic 
 money at all, whether gold or silver, and that by far the most essential sendee 
 of money, in this age of the world is to furnish a steady measure (as steady as 
 possible) of other valuables, and so help to exchange them, to the profit of both 
 parties, without any actual use of a mediating money. By the sale of interna- 
 tional bills of exchange at all great ports of entry, payments in foreign trade 
 are practically accomplished without the use of any money at all. In the 
 wholesale business of this country, by means of checks drawn on well-known 
 banks and settled through the clearing houses, not far from 97 per cent, of all 
 payments are effected without any actual use of coin. Mr. Bckels, the present 
 comptroller of the Currency, has made it probable, by careful inquiries instituted 
 through his department, that about 50 percent, of the retail business also of this 
 country is achieved by means of checks drawn on local banks, and cleared by 
 the banks with very little use of coin. The relative employment of these in- 
 struments of credit is constantly increasing through the multiplication of banks 
 and otherwise; and of course also the quantity of coin money required to do the 
 business of the world, or of any advanced country iu the world, is steadily de- 
 creasing relatively to the business done." 
 
 AN ANSWER TO THE "CLASS" ARGUMENT. 
 
 We are told that the plutocrats, or money lords, of the country are endeav- 
 oring to crush "the plain people," and that we are debtors ground under the 
 heel of the Eastern creditor. But the truth is that the mortgage indebtedness 
 of Nebraska is not one-half as great per capita as the mortgage indebtedness of 
 the State of New York. Is it probable that owners of money are endeavoring 
 to bring about a state of affairs which shall ruin those who already owe them 
 money and prevent their ever recovering their loans? We are told that the 
 money is hoarded viciously in the great money centers of the country. And 
 . yet money is the one thing which man struggles for, which never confers any 
 benefit upon him until it leaves him. If all the owners of money in New York 
 should gather it up and lock it up it would be of no more advantage to them 
 than so much dust and ashes. If this audience were given all the gold and 
 silver money of the whole globe, upon condition that they never should part 
 with any portion of it but hoard it fore*ver, they w r ould be as poor as the inmates 
 of the county house. [Applause.] Is it probable that those who have had tact, 
 industry and frugality enough to accumulate money should now endeavor to 
 bring the country to a condition which will make that money absolutely valueless? 
 
 RESULTS THAT WOULD FOLLOW FREE COINAGE. 
 
 In the discussion of finance there are no more reasons or paroxysms or 
 hysterics than there is in the recitation of the multiplication or addition tables 
 in arithmetic. As Americans we should demand for our country the highest 
 and best standard of value known to modern civilization. [Applause.] Mr. 
 Irving in his inimitable history of the colony of New Amsterdam, entitled 
 " Knickerbockers of New York," describes the administration of the irascible 
 little Dutch Governor known as "William the Testy," when currency became 
 very scarce. It was clear that there was not enough per capita circulation; that 
 money was tight and that times were exceedingly hard, but that astute statesman 
 observed that the Indians, by whom he was surrounded, did not suffer by lack 
 of circulation, but that they used periwinkle shells for currency. This suggested 
 the issuance of a proclamation declaring periwinkle shells to be a legal tender in 
 the realm of New Amsterdam for all debts, public and private. [Laughter.] 
 This financial panacea was proclaimed officially. It was read in another tolony 
 known as Connecticut, inhabited by a race called Yankees. Immediately these 
 shrewd Yankees went over to New Amsterdam and bought from the "simple 
 Dutch burghers everything portable they had for sale from smearcase to kraut 
 and cabbage and pipes, and left them knee deep in currencv. [Laughter.] Not 
 long thereafter the Dutchmen desired an antiscorbutic food and despatched one 
 Anthony Von Corlear to Weathersfield to purchase a cargo of onions. Arriving 
 among the Yankees and agreeing upon the price of onions that doughty Dutch- 
 man was astonished upon being informed by them that they never used 
 
periwinkle currency except when they purchased things and that the}- always 
 demanded good "gelt " when they sold things. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Our friends who advocate for this country silver monometallism and every 
 man who declares for the free and unlimited coinage of silver is a silver inono- 
 metallist may read in the experience of the Dutch burghers of New Amsterdam 
 that which will come to the United States if it ever gets to a silver basis. Having 
 established silver as our measure of value and medium of exchange, all who buy 
 of us w r ill pay us in silver. All of whom we buy will demand of us gold and we 
 will pay the premium. [Applause.] 
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF MEXICO. 
 
 To-day Mexico is on a silver basis. A draft on New York is worth a 
 premium of 87 per cent. The reason of this premium is that Mexico must pay 
 the difference between her dollars, not floated at a parity with gold, and our 
 dollars which, up to this time, hold at that parity by the pledge of the Govern- 
 ment, by the action of the present Secretary of the Treasury and by the courage 
 of Grover Cleveland, the President of the United ^States. [Applause and 
 cheers.] Illustrative of this money fallacy is the position of the man who 
 \vorks, who sells services or the results of services. Take the section men on 
 the Atchison and Topeka road who live and work respectively in Arizona on the 
 American side and in Sonora, in the Republic of Mexico, upon the foreign 
 extension of that line of road. The American section hands are paid $1.10 per 
 day in our currency, and after you cross into Mexico on the same road the 
 section hands are paid for the same labor each one Mexican dollar per day. 
 The man on this side of the line can step into Mexico and buy with that $1.10 
 two Mexican dollars and have two cents change in the bargain. [Laughter.] 
 Briefly, one day's work on the American side of the line buys more than two 
 days' work on the Mexican side. [Applause.] In Mexico the imports are all 
 enhanced in value because the importer pays a sufficient price to cover the 
 probable fluctuations of silver in the London market, and exports are depreci- 
 ated for the same reason. So a silver country is between the upper and nether 
 millstone. The imports are enhanced and its exports are diminished in value, 
 
 AX AXIOM IX POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 A maxim which is almost an axiom in political economy is found in 
 McLeod and reads thus : "The relation of supply to demand is the sole 
 regulator of value." This rule is inflexible, inexorable and always vigorously 
 operative. It applies to salt, starch, silver, gold, soap, horses and oats. In 
 fact it applies to every salable thing on the face of the civilized globe, and this 
 accounts for the decline in the commodity value of silver. The ore taken out 
 of the Comstock lode in 1876, when Nevada, in a single twelve months, 
 produced more silver than all the world had produced in the twenty previous 
 years, was treated at a cost of $90 per ton and about 70 per cent, of fine silver 
 was saved ; but to-day the same kind of ore is treated for $6 per ton and quite 
 90 per cent, of fine silver secured. Modern methods of treating ores have 
 increased the supply of silver until it is out of proportion with the natural 
 demand for silver and the Bland-Allison act and the Sherman act sho\v that 
 artificial demand cannot be created under any circumstances so as to uphold 
 the ancient price of that metal. Neither national bimetallism, as it is termed 
 by the United States, nor bimetallism agreed to by all the civilized powders of 
 the earth, can fix and maintain the price of silver in gold at one ounce of the 
 latter to sixteen ounces of the former when it is exchanging everywhere as 
 bullion at 32 to i. [Applause.] 
 
 PRICE OF SILVER CAXXOT BE FIXED BY LA\V. 
 
 The United States can ho more fix the gold price of silver by itself than 
 this State can fix the price of corn by itself. If Nebraska should declare corn 
 worth thirty-five cents a bushel, and pass a law making it a penal offence to 
 sell it at a less price, would not all the corn from the other States be flooding 
 our market? Then as to an international agreement. By our traditions and 
 the practices of this Government we are prohibited from any entanging alliance 
 which such an international convocation would create. And if an agreement 
 as to the ratio between gold and silver \vas reached, who would enforce the 
 performance of the implied contract? What tribunal is there or can there be 
 to make international bimetallism obligatory upon any of the nations who 
 enter into the compact? But over and above all this comes the solemn, solid 
 fact that the relation of supply to demand is the sole regulator of value and 
 
 ii 
 
that national or international edicts can neither mitigate nor repeal that fact. 
 If by international agreement the price of silver may be fixed in gold, then why 
 cannot the price of all staple commodities also be made permanent by inter- 
 national agreement ? Why cannot beef, pork, wheat, all cereals be fixed as to 
 permanent prices by a great international conference just as well as can be 
 fixed the price of any metal ? If this power of fixing a permanent value in 
 gold exists in an international congress, the power likewise the price of all 
 commodities must exist in the same body. And the price of commodities, 
 realty and personalty, being made permanent all the "world over by inter- 
 national agreement, have we not avoided for all time to come the possibility of 
 panics ? Panics are brought about by declines and rises in value and if prices 
 can be made stationary there can be no panics. But the farmer who attempts 
 to plow his ground by preamble, to harrow and plant by resolution and to har- 
 vest abundant crops by oratory will be just as successful and prosperous as the 
 nation which attempts to base its commerce on the theory that values can be 
 created by statute. [Applause.] 
 
 Congress may talk, and talk, and talk, 
 
 And talk the livelong day ; 
 But it cannot make a dollar out of 50 cents, 
 
 For a dollar isn't built that way. 
 
 [Continued applause and cheering.] 
 
 CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN FARMER. 
 
 Will the advocate of the free coinage of silver at 16 to I tell us how the 
 silver standard can benefit both the producer and consumer, farm products, 
 and simultaneously raise the value of silver for the mine owner and lower the 
 value of the dollar for the debtor ? The debtor class is not made up of farmers, 
 mechanics and laborers. Briefly, the condition of the American farmer is 
 shown by the fact that lie owns 4,564,641 farms valued at more than thirteen 
 billions of dollars in the aggregate and at an average of $2909 each. The 
 household of the farmer averages six persons. The rural population of the 
 United States last year fed the urban population, furnishing them cereals, 
 meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, butter, cheese and poultry. This urban 
 population is fifty-eight per cent, of all the people of the United States. Thus 
 it is seen that the forty -two per cent, who live upon farms, after feeding and 
 clothing themselves, fed more than 40,000,000 of the denizens of villages and 
 cities. They did not furnish the food gratuitously, and they will not furnish it 
 at a loss. During the same year the United States exported in products and 
 domestic commodities and merchandise a valuation of 1793,000,000. The 
 value of the agricultural products included in that sum was $553,215,317. It 
 is seen by the above that the American farmer fed himself and clothed his 
 family, then fed all the village and city population of the Union, and after that 
 sold in the world's markets more than $500,000,000 worth of surplus products. 
 How, then, can the 42 per cent, of the people of the United States, which 
 feeds the remaining 58 per cent, and then furnishes more than 69 per cent, of 
 the total exports of the country, be making less profits than those whom they 
 fed when the latter supply only 31 per cent, of American exports. 
 
 WALKING DELEGATES FARM THE FARMERS. 
 
 In 1882 an amendment to the constitution of the State of Nebraska, 
 providing for female suffrage, was submitted to the voters. The campaign 
 opened with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stan ton, Mrs. Gougar and 
 other distinguished orators of the opposite sex. It was my fortune to have 
 a seat in a car with Miss Anthony from Omaha to Tekamah. During the 
 journey she turned to me with great earnestness % and said: "There are 
 many excellent and competent women holding and managing property and 
 paying taxes in Nebraska ; how do they feel as to the oppression and 
 degradation which they suffer?" My answer was that they were just 
 beginning to weep and sob since they heard from her and other ladies how 
 badly they were abused, but that, until the light of their genius and elo- 
 quence was turned on in this State, they had never perceived the suffering 
 which now seems to be so excruciating. [Applause.] So the farmers of the 
 United States, who owe less and own more of real value than any other 
 class, in proportion to their numbers, never realized that farming was so 
 unprofitable ; that life in the country was so laborious, unsatisfactory, and 
 almost unendurable, until they heard from that class of walking _ delegates 
 who farm, the farmers, plough dollars out of the pockets of plain people 
 
 12 
 
and subsist upon the C. O. D. style of oratory, which is made up of sixteen 
 parts wind to one part of common sense. [Great applause, continued 
 cheering.] 
 
 BANKERS THE GREAT DEBTOR CLASS. 
 
 The farfns of the United States carry a mortgage indebtedness on their 
 total valuation of 16 per cent.,^ncl railroads carry a mortgage indebtedness 
 of 46 per cent, upon their valuation. In- the year 1895, as shown by the 
 report of the Comptroller of the Currency, the national banks of this country 
 owed depositors $1,719,597, 91 i-33- At the same time State and private 
 banks, loan and trust companies owed their depositors $3,185,245,810. Thus 
 it is seen that the bankers of 1895, as they are in 1896, were the great 
 debtor class, and that they owe an aggregate to the people of $4,904,843,- 
 721.33. Do you desire them to pay this indebtedness in dollars which, 
 being tested by fire, melted into bullion, will be less than 50 cents each ? Do 
 you whose lives, like my own, have been insured for more than thirty years, 
 desire death to come to you with the country on a silver basis, and then have 
 the matured policies aggregate a less purchasing power than the premiums 
 which you have paid ? [Applause.] 
 
 FREE COINAGE A GRATUITY FOR MINE OWNERS. 
 
 If the free and unlimited coinage of silver begins then the coinage of 412^ 
 grain dollars is not by the Government, and for the Government, but a gratuity 
 for those who own silver bullion. Why, after that period is reached, should 
 the Government attempt to maintain the parity between silver and gold at the 
 ratio of 16 to i, or at any other ratio? What direct interest will the Govern- 
 ment have in maintaining the purchasing power of silver at an equality with 
 that of gold. In this connection the attention of those opposed to high protec- 
 tive tariff, and w r ho sometimes declaim for the free coinage of silver at i6to i 
 [applause] is called to the fact that they are thus advocating protective duties 
 to which those of the Merrill and McKinley tariff are as naught. By United 
 States, statute Section 25, Chapter 349, second session of the Fifty-third Con- 
 gress, it will be seen that the Secretary of the Treasury is required to proclaim 
 the value of all foreign coins in American currency at the beginning of each 
 quarter of each fiscal year. 
 
 IMPORT DUTIES WOULD BE DOUBLED. 
 
 Furthermore, it will be observed that all dutiable imports to the United 
 States must be estimated, as to their monetary value, in American currency, 
 and the duties are imposed upon this latter valuation. To-day the English 
 pound is valued at $4.86, and we are on a gold basis ; that is, if you import 
 roo worth of goods you will pay duty on a value o"f $486 worth. The duty 
 being ad valorem at, say 40 per cent, on the particular articles which you bring 
 in, you can easily figure the amount of customs dues which you must pay. By 
 going to silver monometallism, the English pound will be worth in American 
 silver, $9.72. Therefore, importing 100, when you are on a silver basis, you 
 will double the amount of customs dues which you must pay. For instead of 
 $486 worth on a gold basis you have upon a silver basis imported $972 worth 
 of merchandise. If the duty originally was 40 per cent, you have, by going 
 to a silver basis, made it 80 per cent. Is there any advocate of the protective 
 system who, by any device of legislation, can double tariff dues as quickly as 
 the free and unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to i ? [Applause.] 
 
 SOCIALISM, FANATICISM AND DISHONESTY. 
 
 This Republic is not a Judas Iscariot among civilized nations. It refuses 
 to betray honest dealings. It scorns even 30,000,000 times thirty pieces of 
 silver, and is compelled by its judgment and its conscience to reject the impor- 
 tunities of those who would deliver the safety and perpetuity of this nation into 
 the hands of socialism, zealotry, fanaticism and dishonesty. It ignores and 
 scorns all those who would applaud and jeer at the crucifixion of the credit 
 of our Government, which has been (and God grant that it may continue to 
 be) the saviour of civil and religious liberty, the friend and the asylum of the 
 poor and oppressed of all nations. [Great applause and cheering.] 
 
The LEDGER Publishes all the News. 
 
 [From the PUBLIC_ LEDGER of August 19, 1896.] 
 
 In reply "to a complaining friend," who thinks we give too much 
 space to the sayings and doings of Mr. Bryan and the silver party, thg 
 Ledger is obliged to say that in respect to its publication of the political 
 news, it cannot stop to consider whether it is Republican or Populist- 
 Democratic news; all it can do consistently with its understanding of 
 its duty to the public is to ascertain if the news be authentic, and if it 
 be of such public interest as to warrant its publication. The Ledger 
 cannot suppress news merely because it does not agree with its own 
 opinions; these latter will be found distinctly set forth in our editorial 
 columns, not in our news columns. The present political campaign is> 
 one of the most important, momentous, and interesting of any since 
 the close of the War of the Rebellion. Appreciating that fact, the 
 Ledger has made arrangements to secure all news of value growing 
 out of it; not only Republican, but Populist-Democratic, as well as 
 Sound, Honest Money Democratic news. The Ledger proposes to be 
 a faithful, exhaustive daily chronicler of the events of the presidential 
 campaign, and to be absolutely fair in the collection, editing and pre- 
 sentation of the news. The truth will not hurt, but help the cause 
 that is right, which in this instance is the cause of national honor, of 
 sound, stable money. The Ledger is not a political organ; it is a 
 newspaper, and it will irom now until the day of election make its news 
 columns an epitome of the principal events and conduct of the contest. 
 While doing that fairly and fully, it will frankly and explicitly declare, 
 in the proper place, its convictions in favor of an honest, sound 
 national financial policy. 
 
 ' c A Subscriber ' ' has handed us an advertisement of the Exchange 
 Hotel, in Raleigh, N. C. , which was issued during the War of the 
 Rebellion, and which we reproduce on another page. It is curiously 
 and somewhat roughly printed, but the important point is seen at the 
 bottom, where occurs the following: 
 
 RATES OF BOARD. 
 
 Per day, either in Bacon >- . 10 Ibs. 
 
 Per (Jay, either in Lard 10 Ibs. 
 
 Per day, either in Butter 6 Ibs. 
 
 Per day', either in Flour 30 Ibs. 
 
 Per day, either in Currency $40.00 
 
 Single Meal or Lodging $10.00 
 
 The last two items, for board per day in currency, and for single 
 meal or lodging, are entered in lead pencil, the currency fluctuating 
 so that it was impossible to have this printed, which shows what a 
 great advantage a flexible currency must be. Some indication of what 
 may be the result of the 5o-cent dollar may be found in the illus- 
 tration on the following page of the effects of cheap money of the 
 Confederacy : 
 
 14 
 
A CHEAP MONEY OBJECT LESSON. 
 
 [From the PUBLIC LEDGER of September 10, 1896.] 
 
 . ..-.. * 
 
 EXCHANGE HC 
 
 SILX.SBGRO' STBEBT. 
 
 R ALEX 
 
 G UESTS should register their names be- 
 fore being assigned tu rooms. 
 
 FU I As IJOARD will be charged until the 
 room is vacated and settlement fftatle. 
 
 PERSOXS having no baggage must pay 
 in advance. 
 
 U UESTS inviting o/hers to eat with them 
 shouid rrport them at the office. 
 
 Ft 7 LL.BOA ttD charged for children oc- 
 cupying sY'tits *t the first table. 
 
 For all MEAL sent to ROOMS or out of 
 : t jhe. fifty per cent extra will bfc charged. 
 
 REGULAR BOARDERS are required 
 to p ly in advance. 
 
 The Proprietor will not be responsible 
 for Monoy, Valuables or Baggage, unless 
 specially deposited for safekeeping. 
 
 GUESTS will please report at the of. 
 ficc, any neglect or inattentton of servants. 
 
 KATES OF BOARD* 
 
 Per, Day, either in Bacon 
 
 
 4 * Butter, > 
 " Flour. ^ 
 " Cbrrencr, 
 Single Meal or Lodging, - < 
 
 
 
 10 libs 
 10 
 
 6 
 80 
 
 Breakfast -^ DmnrT-/Jbr.... TM 
 
 W.H.CDKlNGGIM t 
 
 PaOFRIBTOR. 
 
 -Clerk. 
 
THE PHILADELPHIA 
 
 PUBLIC LEDGER 
 
 Is the Great Family Newspaper 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Its Recognized Reliability, 
 
 carefully compiled and well-arranged departments, 
 together with its high tone, make it essentially 
 the Paper for^ the Home. 
 
 The Department of State News 
 
 in the PUBLIC LEDGER is superior to that of any 
 paper published in the State. 
 
 
 The Public Ledger 
 
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 $1.00 per year for the Saturday (weekly) edition. 
 
 Send $1.00 for 2 -Months' Subscription 
 
 and get all the news, if it is news, of all the 
 political parties, during the present campaign; 
 faithfully chronicled. 
 
 Address : 
 
 THE PUBLIC LEDGER, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
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