People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1893 — STICK BY THE OLD RATIO. [ARTICLE]

STICK BY THE OLD RATIO.

No CooecMion* Should Bo Mode to the Gold-Bugs-Let There Be a Forward Movement AU Along the Line. The proposition of changing the ratio of silver in the standard dollar has found great favor in some quarters friendly to the white metal This is really the most impracticable solution of the problem yet presented. The ratio, based on so-called intrinsic value, which prevails to-day may not be that which will prevail three months from now. If the gold-bugs are permitted to win a decisive victory now, what is to prevent their keeping up their onslaughts? They ought to be met and routed, horse, foot and dragoons. Why concede any point? The addition of a fourth or more to the bulk of the silver dollar would relieve that coin of its present symmetry and make it bulky and inconvenient to handle. Besides, it would be necessary to call in and recoin the dollars already issued, which would be a decided loss to the government Why should not the present quantity of silver in the standard dollar be ample in the future as it has been in the past? Senator Vest proposes to add fifty-two grains of silver to the dollar of the fathers. This is intended to propitiate the gold-bugs—as a sop to Cerebus. It is useless to try to conciliate the elements that are working for the establishment of the single gold standard all over the world—for the practical confiscation of everything that is not ownned by men of fixed incomes, payable In gold. We are told that two hundred millions of people have entered the monometallic league, and that it is hopeless for the United States, with her sixty-five or seventy millions, to enter into a struggle against such potential masses. This proposition will bear a little inquiry. Who are these two hundred millions of people? For the life of us we can only see, at the outside, one hundred and twenty millions. Russia financially may be said to be in a chaotic state. She hoards gold for ulterior military purposes, but her currency is in a most deplorable state. All the silver she has she is obliged to hold on to. In this summary of nations that demand the single gold standard the gold-bugs have had the unexampled impudence to Include France and Italy, both of which nations maintain the double standard and would co-operate most cordially with the United States in any movement for the appreciation of silver. Thus, in a correct grouping of the position of the great nations of the commercial world, we find that the bimetallic quite equal the monometallic nations in numbers, while to the former are to be added Mexico, Central and South America, the islands of the seas, India, China and all Asia. These last are all either in favor of the double standard or maintain the single silver standard. We hear a great deal about the great quantities of silver which the United States would be obliged to buy if we shall fully remonetize silver. Well, where are these sums? England is an enforced purchaser of silver, needing immense amounts of the white metal in her dealings with India. It is a noticeable circumstance that she is obliged to come to the United States and Mexico to get her supplies. The telegraph advises us that already the scarcity of silver is so great in central and southern Europe that Italy has forbidden its exportation. In some portions of Italy the people are using postage stamps and other tokens as a circulating medium. The fact is that nothing in human history is more demonstrable than that the time is highly propitious for the remonetization of silver. Already the East India council is regretting the closing of the East India m ints to the coinage of silver, and a powerful movement is on foot to re-open them. The asserted unanimity of the English people in favor of the single gold standard is all bosh. The largest agricultural and manufacturing bodies in the United Kingdom have sent up strong memorials in favor of the double standard. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, the leader of the liberals in the house of commons, is an uncompromising bimetallist Many of the most enlightened statesmen of Great Britain are in the same box, and to these may be added several gentlemen who have filled the position of governor of the Bank of England. There never was a more clearly defined conspiracy than that which demonetized silver in the United States. To help the movement along a great outcry was raised against the tremendous output of the Comstock lode. The world was to be deluged with silver. Yet at the very time this hollow and artificial .clamor was being raised within a trifling fraction of half of the output of those mines was gold. If all the friends of silver will join heartily together, with a strong pull, a long pull and a pull altogether, we can maintain the traditional ratio between silver and gold in our coinage, give the miner at least a promise of free coinage and vitalize business in this country to an extent that has not been witnessed since the discovery of gold in California in 1849 first made the United States a wealthy nation. Stick by the old and rightful standard.—Los Angeles Herald.