People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1893 — A LETTER AND AN ANSWER. [ARTICLE]

A LETTER AND AN ANSWER.

The Secretary of Agriculture Send* Forth an Oliver and Geta a Roland lu Kx. change Therefor. The following letter, written June 17, at the office of the secretary of agriculture, to Hon. J. F. Lee, of Manhatj tan, Kan., is of interest: My Dear Sir: lam pleased to acknowledge the receipt of your agreeable letter of the 12th last., indorsing the views in a recent epistle addressed to you over my signature. I The continued purchase of 4.5j0,0>0 ounces of silver per month is very debilitating to the gold reserve in the treasury of the United States The recent uzterance of Secretary Carlisle shows conclusively that while in eleven months w? issued i<9, it.O.tW'of treasury notes for si ver bullion, more than (17,0 <o,ooj of tne said notes have been returned to the treasury for redt-mp-tion in gold. Plainly stated in a wild western way, the question Is now, which will hold out the longest, the gold of the United Slates or , the silver of the whole world? i It would be a giod lacies if the government could legally tender 4124 grain silver dollars tn payment for the sliver bullion which it buys each month under the compulsory provisions of the Sherman act. 1 Silver coined in *124 grain dollars is silver put upon the public at (1.29 an ounce. Therefore, when silver bullion is only 81 cents an ounce, if the producers and vendors thereof were compelled to receive their pay in silver dollars of 4124 grains each, i thev would be forced to pay 45 cents an ounce i to boot between the plain unstamped bullion and the coined rilver which bears the legend, ; "In God We Trust," and a cameo of the Goddess of Liberty. The giving of an ounce of silver bullion, which contains *BO grains of silver, for a dollar which contains only *124 grains of silver, would soon teach the advocates of flat money that the stamp of the government is merely a certification of weight and fineness of the coin, and not an enhancement of the metal i it contains The mint value of gold is its buli lion value A twenty-dollar gold niece, with . the stump of the government entirely obliter- ■ ated (the weight being retained und the fineness unimpaired), will sell for |2O. Why, then, should (20 in silver, reduced to bullion, be worth less than they were before the mint stamp was erased, if silver is Just as good for | a money metal as gold is? Did mankind ever successfully make money outof anything which had no value as a commodity before it became money? If the government can, by coinage, create an artificial value of 45 cents to the ounce in silver, why cannot the government create 100 cents' value in any kind of metal that it may coin and stamp "one dollar?" Faithfully yours, J Sterling MortoM. We have been shown a recent letter from Secretary of Agriculture Morton, in which he discusses some phases of the silver question from the administration standpoint. He quotes Secretary Carlisle's statement that within eleven months 149,000,000 of silver bullion treasury notes were issued and $47,000,000 returned to the treasury for gold. Secretary Morton must know that this is a garbled statement. The notes that were returned for gold during the time named were not the identical notes that were issued during that time. They were simply so ifluch of the much larger amount of these silver notes that were abroad in the country, and that had been issued not alone during the eleven months referred to, but during the nearly three years since the Sherman

act was passed in July, 1890. Why were they returned for gold? Not because their holders did not regard them just as good as gold, or as any other issues of the government, but because, owing to the great demand for gold for export to pay our debts resulting from the large balance of trade against us, and to meet the demands from Austria, which was in the markets of the world buying gold, a great amount of gold was needed for export Mr. Morton would leave it to be inferred that during that eleven months no demands were made upon the treasury for gold except by presentation of the silver notes. lie carefully omits to state the fact that many millions of “greenbacks” were also presented and redeemed in gold to meet the export demand. Why does he not mention this as evidence that the people were afraid of “greenbacks'?” For the reason, no doubt, that it would not suit the apparent purpose of the administration, of which he is a member, to discredit silver and drive the country to a single gold basis. No effort has been made by our government to put and maintain in circulation the silver dollar. Many millions would readily be absorbed by the people if they were paid out and substituted in place of the small paper bills; but then that would reduce the formidable mass of silver in the treasury, which its enemies so delight to point to as unavailable stock. But when Mr. Morton touches upon the general principles that underlie the money problem he is most widely astray. He says: “The stamp of the government is merely a certification of the weight and fineness of the coin, and not an enhancement of the metal it contains. The mint value of the gold is its bullion value. A twenty-dollar gold piece with the stamp of the government entirely obliterated (the weight being maintained and the fineness unimpaired) will sell for S2O. Why, then, should S2O in silver, reduced to bullion, be worth less than they were before the mint stamp was erased, if silver is just as good for a money metal as gold is?” It is indeed surprising that Mr. Morton should give utterance to such errors. If he should reverse his statement, and say that the bullion value of gold is its mint value he would be correct The earth’s yield of gold is now about $125,000,000 per annum. The consumption in the arts is about $05,000,000. Suppose gold should be treated as silver has been, and demonetized, and its mint coinage value taken away, what does Mr Morton suppose would be the value of gold? It would then be simply a commodity, the price of which would be fixed by demand and supply for use otherwise than as money; and with a supply about double the requirements for such uses, does not Mr. Morton see that it would inevitably decline in value? Would not the same law prevail as in the case of all other commodities? Does he not see that the reason why his twenty-dol-lar gold piece will have the same value after obliteration of the government stamp is because the holder knows he can have it recoined at the mint valuation which was expressed on its face? Does the mint offer the same privilege to the holder of silver bullion? If it were not now as it was from ths foundation of the government until *B*3, would not Mr, Morton, with his “twenty dollan

in silver reduced to bullion” be able to have them recoined again, and would not his silver be then “just as good for a money metal as gold is?" Is it not plain that as to both metals it is law alone, in establishing the coinage value, that governs the bullion value, for what man will sell his gold or his silver bullion at less than he can get for it at the mint? Indeed, gold is much more dependent upon the coinage value than is silver, for, owing to its divisibility, silver is suitable for small transactions, and must always bo used as money, whilp gold is not and could much better be spared. Secretary Morton is at the head of the agricultural interests of this great country. The producers of our staples, the wheat raisers of the west, the cotton growers of the south, should be leading objects of his concern. Let us tell him that behind his sophistries there lies the great fact that every agricultural interest requires a broader basis than gold alone can afford, and that especially wheat and cotton, and all other articles of which we always have a surplus to export, and which are also produced and exported from silver t)sing countries, are bound “hand and foot" with silver. The laws of God and nature are not more certain. In illustration of this let us recall to him the words of his predecessor, Secretary Rusk, in one of his annual reports: “The recent legislation, looking to the restoration of the bimetallic standard of our currency, and the consequent enhancement of the value of silver, had unquestionably had much to do with the recent advance in the price of cereals. The same cause has advanced the price of wheat in Russia and India, and in the same degree reduced their power of competition. English gold was formerly exchanged for cheap silver, and wheat purchased with the cheaper metal was sold in Great Britain for gold. Much of this advantage is lost by the appreciation of silver in those countries. It is reasonable, therefore, to expect much higher prices for wheat than have been received in recent years." Let it then be the chief concern of Secretary Morton to devise methods whereby the value of silver may be enhanced and its ancient position as a money metal restored, assured, as he must be, that the values of agricultural products will be equally enhanced by the removal of destructive foreign competition, such as Secretary Rusk referred to, and by that broadening of a sound, metallic basis through the reestablishment of both gold and silver as co-ordinate money metals, upon an established legal ratio, which will give stability to prices generall j’ and prosperity to all classes. —Kansas City Journal.

The article from which the foregoing excerpt is taken is an able and a scholarly elaboration, from a bimetallic standpoint, of the silver question as it existed before the stoppage of free coinage by the Indian empire. But look at the absurd inconsistencies of this able bimetallic argument. After establishing, beyond all controversy, with a simple and concise yet logical and convincing statement that bimetallism gives to both gold and silver, by the flat of law, an arbitrary and artificial value far in excess of their real value as commodities, it is yet insisted that a safe monetary system demands that we retain these fictitious values as a “basis” for our money circulation. This is equivalent to saying that we can deceive ourselves into believing that certain values are, although we are absolutely certain that thev are not Away with such foolishness.

Then, again, the article is valuable and significant as showing just what degree of relief we may expect from those whom certain reform papers are just now pleased to term “our republican und democratic allies.” Great Scott! Shades of Peter Cooper! What consort hath Christ with Belial? What is there in common between a true populist and a democrat or a republican? “Our republican and democratic allies” demand gold and silver, freely coined, and paper money redeemable in specie. A populist who has been born of the spirit of monetary reform concedes gold and silver in pitying deference to the beclouded intellect, but he will enter into no covenant with death, nor league with hell, by advocating or sanctioning the damnable fallacies “specie basis” and “specie redemption.” The old guard can die, but surrender—never. The objective point of the people’s crusade is the destruction of the demon metallism. The hopes of a despoiled and oppressed humanity cluster around the demand for absolute, full legal tender, inconvertible paper money. As the St Louis Republic said the morning it printed the news concerning the stoppage of the free coinage of silver in India: Yesterday’s news of the suspension of silver coinage by India had been foreshadowed b z the report of the special commission which recommended this action to the Indian government The effect upon silver and upon the money systems of the world cannot be estimated but must be awaited India has been the great sliver using country. If it persists In adopting the gold standard, the debate upon the currency question will be sharpened In all civilized countries. The whole world may be forced tomeet a crisis between permanent adoption or-long-continued rejection of bimetallism. In thia and other countries governments may be forced to choose between silver and an irredeemable paper currency. The people caa hardly stand a cold standard.

Choose ye this day between the two. Ye cannot fight for both. The idea of “specie basis” and “money of final redemption” eunnot be reconciled with the demand for inconvertible paper money. Hoist aloft the banner of principleand march triumphantly to victory under its folds. The time is ripe for revolution. Let the battle cries be “American money for America” and “Dowa with Metallism. ” George C. Ward. —United States Senator Voorhees, of Indiana, is reported by the Washington correspondent of the Kansas City Times, the organ of the Cleveland financial policy in the west, as being in favor of the immediate repeal of th® silver purvh-.se law. The dispatch does not sU'ae that hs suggests a salstltute of any description. Missouri WoM