People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1894 — BUT ONE ALTERNATIVE. [ARTICLE]

BUT ONE ALTERNATIVE.

The Limited Supply of Gold In ltound to Lead to Bimetallism. During 1 the debate in the house on the bill to coin the silver seigniorage, Hon. Willis Sweet, of Idaho, spoke earnestly in favor of silver, from which the following extract is taken: “If there is sufficient gold at our disposal for all monetary purposes, it is unnecessary either to coin silver or to issue credit money in any form, except that which is issued by the government for fractional currency. If there is not enough gold to furnish the volume of money necessary with which to transact the business of the country, but there is nevertheless sufficient gold upon which to base a volume of credit money which combined with the gold itself is equal to the needs of the people, then there is no need for any other kind of money. If it be conceded that this statement is true, then the question at issue is whether we have sufficient gold with which to transact the business of this country, or to form a basis of credit upon which money may be issued equal to the necessities of the people. I will admit, to begin with, that if the credit of a nation is never questioned no trouble can arise; but I deny that the credit of a nation is any more likely to escape scrutiny than the credit of a great business house or a great banking institution. As there is a limit to the credit of any man, or combination of men, or corporation, so there is a limit to the credit of the United States The limit upon the credit of this country, as it is represented in issues of money, is not so much a limit upon the power and resources of the government to pay whatever it promises to pay in gold, as it is a limit to the ability of the government to obtain the gold with which to redeem its obligation payable in that metal. No matter what our resources or power of production may be; no matter what capacity we possess for supplying the human race with what is required to eat, to drink and to wear; no matter how much faith the world may have in our integrity as a nation and i in our disposition to make good every \ contract we enter into, there is nevertheless a limit to the gold we can obtain for monetary purposes, because there is a limit to the gold obtainable for this purpose. When, therefore, we promise more gold than we can obtain, and the whole commercial world knows that we cannot execute our promise; when all the holders of and dealers in securities are perfectly aware that our promises are so impossible of fulfillment that the ordinary transactions of business at home, or that five years of international commerce may take away from us every dollar we possess in gold or that we cam produce in the meantime, it is idle to say that the world and must and ought to have confidence in every promise we issue to pay in gold. “A nation has no more right to make a promise which it cannot fulfill than a private banking or merchantile institution. Not only is it without such a right, but as a matter of fact it is impotent to do it If my conclusion is correct what are we to do? There is but one alternative that I know of.

and that alternative is to restore silver to its old place with gold and make it not a promise to be redeemed in gold but make it money itself with both gold and silver as a basis of our credit, and as actual money, we shall be none | too strong financially. The question | of international bimetallism is prob- | ably dead. The latest report from J Europe indicated an unsettled condij tion of affairs financially, and there | seems to be more of an inclination on j the part of each nation to look | out for itself than to ask ! some other nation what had better be i done. The land owners and I many lines of manufacturing industries in Great Britain are for bimetallism. I j believe that most of the Irish leaders are for bimetallism. Certainly I have , never heard of any Irish- statesman at- ' | tempting to controvert in any way j I what seems to me to be the unanswer- j | able statements of Archbishop Walsh. ' i Hut England is, and for many years has been, dominated by her commercial I and money-lending interests. Just so long as she can collect her interest in the products of other nations measured ! by an appreciated gold dollar, just so I | long will she maintain gold monomet- ] allism, and she will maintain it by j those splendid powers of commercial ! vigilance and diplomatic art by which she has made her drums beat around j the world. I hope, therefore, that all ! this prattle about an international j agreement, at least so far as the Amer- i ican congress is concerned, is at an end. I I long to hear an American, an eastern I American, a protective tariff statesman, j if you please, as enthusiastic for an ; American policy on the financial qties- 1 tion as he is eager for an American policy upon the tariff question. “I would, therefore, make gold and ’ silver our money and the basis of our j money, and I would make gold and j silver money, or the representative of these full legal tender money for all debts, public and private, except that | I would compel the payment of import duties upon goods manufactured in 1 any country not opening its mints to ( the free coinage of silver, not in bank notes, not in the government currency of any nation on earth, but I would have them pay in gold coin alone. This | may be called retaliation. Call it what you please. If it is retaliation, then I would retaliate. I would not only retaliate, but I would go to any other extreme rather than see the people of the United States become the subjects—or what is far worse than to be the subjects of king, queen or emperor—that is the subjects of a money-lending, interest-collecting money power or aristocracy.