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jhg ""X-EiniiDitt if a. VOLUME XX. LENOIR, N. C, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 8, 1895. NUMBER 37. WALLACE BROS , 280 Broadway, New York. Niw Yoyk, May 10th, '95. To the Editor of the Topic : Dub Sir : Please withdraw onr idwtisement f rani jourj pptf for ths present Oar. buyer - are her on the Market closing up contracts for oar mammoth Fall Stock for our SUteiville house, to which wo will call the attention of the trade in a short time. We look for a gen ual remal of business and are ma inf extraordinary preparations for it. Yours truly :- WALLAOE BEOS. FOB SOUND BQXEY. Ur. Carlisle t Covingtoi - Tha Folly of 16 to 1 Free Silrer. (Continued from last week ) Thus we remained until 1878 We had tried to keep the legal-tender coins of the two metals in circula tion at the same time, under a sys tem of free coinage, but had utterly failed. In 1878 a new policy was adopted, and it was determined to restore the standard silver dollar to the coinage and to circulation with full legal tender qualities, not by opening the mints to its 'free aad unlimited coinage, on individual account, as is now proposed, but by providing for the purchase and coin age of not more than four million dollars' worth of rilver bullion each month by the government itself. Under this act, and the so called Sherman act, and the act. providing for the re-cuinage of the trade dol lars, there have been coined at the mints of the United States and put into circulation $397 652,873 in full legal tender standard silver, as against $8,030,000 coined during the whole previous existence of the government a period of eighty-nine years In other words, there have been coined and put into circula tion among the people, in coin itself or in certificates issued upon it, nearly fifty times as many full legal tender silver dollars as were pro duced at the mints of the United States from 1792 to 1878, and yet some gentlemen are writing books and making speeches to cop vi nee their fellow citizens that silvef is demonetized in this country. There was never in otlr whole history one third as much legal tender silver in use in the United States at onetime as there is now, and it is used with out depriving us of all our gold, which has never been done before. Silver is hot demonetized in this country, but its coinage has been so limited and regulated by law and the financial 6 Hairs of the govern ment have been so conducted that up to the present time its purchas ing power has been preserved and its circulation to a large amount has been maintained concurrently with other forms of money, not withstanding it has been coined at a ratio which dees not conform to the real value of the metal contained in it. I repeat that silver is not de monetized, and the question pre sented to us by the agitation now goirjg on is not whether it shall be demonetizad in the future, but whether tbe mints of the United States 8 hall be thrown open to all the silver in the world that any in dividol or corporation may desire to haye coined, free of charge, into legal tender dollars that is, legal tender in the United States only at a ratio of 16 to 1. In order to discuss this subject intelligently we must understand distinctly what is proposed by our opponents, and for tunately thereJs do difficulty upon this point. Free and unlimited coinage of full legal tender silver dollars at the ratio of 16 to 1 means that our law shall be so changed that any owner of silver bullion may send it to the mints and have it coined, at the public expense, into dollars, each containing 41 2 grains of standard silver, the dollars when coined to be delivered to the owner of the bul lion, and all tbe people of the Unit ed States to be compelled by law to receive them as dollars in payment of debts, although not intrinsically worth more than fifty cents each. The 25 8 10 grains of standard gold contained in-a gold dollar is woith 1 00 cents, of tho equivalent of 100 cents, all over the world, in silver standard countries as well as in gold standard countries, and it is worth just as much before it is coined as afterwards ; but the 412 grains of standard silver contained in a silver dollar re not worth anywhere in tbe world more than about fity cents. Or, to put the statement in a different form, 16 pounds of silver cannot be exchangad for 1 pound of gold anywhere in the world, but it requires about 32 pounds of silver to procure 1 pound of gold every where. But some one may say this is not a fair statement, because it measures the value of silver by gold. The answer to this objection is that the statement does not attempt to measure tbe value of either of the metals, but simply tooompare them, one with the other, nd tbat for the purpose of making the comparison the value of gold is determined by its purchasing power in the markets of the world, and the value of silver is determined in the same way. Six teen pounds of silver bullion will purchase only about one-half tne quantity of commodities anywhere that 1 pound of gold will purchase, and this purchasing power is the true testf their actual relative val ues In the United States 16 pounds of 8 ilver, coined into dollars, will now purchase as much , as 1 pound of gold coins, but this would not be the case under a system of free and unlimited coinage on mdi Tidual account1 The coinage of silver dollars here has been limited by law for the purpose of P; inVan excessive issue, and they have bew coined by the fernmeni on it. own acoount and paid oat tor public purposes as dollars of full value, ard consequently the govern ment is bound by every consider tion of grod faith, to eay nothing of the positive declarations contain ed in the statutes, to keep them as good as gold, or, in other words, to maintain the parity of the two met als; and this it has done and will continue to do aa long as the pres ent system exists. But, if tbe pres ent system is to be abolished and a new one established, so that private individuals and corporations can have their own bullion coined at the public expense and have the coins delivered to them for their private use, the government would be un der no obligation whatever, legal or equitable, to keep them as good as gold, and, in fact, it would be im possible for it to do so, because the coinage would be unlimited and the volume of silver in circulation would became so great in propor tion to the gold the government could piocure that the attempt would necessarily fail. The moat extreme advocates of free coinage have not yet ventured to suggest that the government would be un der any obligation to guarantee or maintain the valueof silver dollars coined witbont charge for private parties, and without such guarantee it is clear the dollar would be worth no more than the commercial value of the bullion contained in it, just as the Mexican dollar is now. I ad mit tbat if the United States could coin without charge to the owners all tile silver in the world available for coining purposes, 412 grains of standard silver, in bullioo, would be worth as much in this country as a silver dollar ; but the real question is, What would the silver dollar it self be worth ? That it will not be fqaal to our present unit and stand ard of value is not only admitted but openly urged as one of the chief arguments in favor of its free coin age Everywhere the people are being told that under free coinage it will require twice as many dollars to procure any given quantity of commodities as are required now, and this means, of course, that the money will be only one half aa val uable aa it is now. When tbe pub lic judgment is finally passed upon this subject I think it will be found that the people of the United States are determined not to have a de preciated dollar, whether it be gold, silver or paper. They are undoubt edly entitled to have for use in their business just as good money as any other people in tbe world have, and no political party that attempts to deprive them of it will ever enjoy their confidence or receive their Suf frage. Those of us who oppose the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 are proposing no change in the measure or standard of value now existing, nor are we proposing to discontinue the use of silver as mon ey. I have never been and am not now, unfriondly to silver in tbe sense of desiring to sea it excluded from the monetary system of the United States, or of any other coun try, but I know that, it cannot b9 kept in circulation along with gold by means of any ratio the law of any country may attempt to estab lish between the two metals, and that the only way to secure the use of both at the same time is to make one of them the standard of value and so limit the coinage of the other that the government which issues them and receives them for public dues may be able at all times to maintain their exchangeability, eith er directly or indirectly through the operation of its fiscal system. I am, therefore, in favor of the preserva tion of tbe existing standard of value with such use of full legal tender silver coins, and paper, convertible Into coin on demand, as can be main tamed without impairing or endan gering the credit of the government or diminishing the purchasing or debt paying power in the hands of the people, That is what I mean by the terms "sound money," and, in my opinion, it is what is meant by an overwhelming majority of the opponents of free coinage at a ratio of 16 to 1. This is , neither gold monometallism or silver monomet allism, but it means that one stand ard or measure of value shall be maintained, and that all forms of standard coins in uae shall be kept equal to that standard in the pur chase of commodities and in tho payment of debts. Any policy which would discontinue the uae of silver as money, by direct legal en actment or by under valuing it rel atively to gold in the coinage laws, would certainly result in practical gold monometallism, and, on the other hand, it is equally clear that any policy which would discontinue the use of gold as money, by legal enactment or by undsr-valuing that metal relatively to silver in the coinage laws, would result in prac tical silver monometallism. Free and unlimited coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1 would at once establish silver monometallism, pure and simple, for, as already shown, the coins of the over valued metal will ultimately drive the coins of the other oufr of circulation and out of the country, even when the legal ratio varies but a small fraction from the commercial ratio, but the ex pulsion of the under-valued coin from circulation would ba instan taneous when its value is really double the value ofthe other. How long do you suppose the $625,000, 000 of gold in this country would remain here and ba used as money under ruch a policy ? The banking and other great financial 'institu tions, which own and hold in their reserves much the greatest part :of this gold, would at once sell it at a large premium for sliver about two dollars for one dollar or they would exchange it or silver bullion in the market at a ratio of about 32 pounds of silver for each 1 pouud of gold, have the silver coined into dollars at the expense of the people and with this cheap money pay the de mands of their depositors and other creditors The masses of the peo ple cannot do this, for they have no gold nor have they any silver bul lion to be coined at the expense of the government. Bat it is said tbat although the masses of the people have no bul lion, many of tbem are in debt, and that tbe free coinage of silver would increase prices and give them more money, thus enabling them to die charge their obligations more easily. The merit of this argument will be jadged by each individual according to the view which he may have tak en of the nature of his obligations to the people whe have loaned him money or sold property to him If a man who has borrowed a thousand dollars in gold, or its equivalent, and has promised to pay it, or has purchased a thousand dollars worth of another man's property and prom ised to pay for it in the standard money recQgniz id by law at the date of his contract, believes that it would be just and honest to dis charge his obligation in a new stan dard worth only half as much as the money he borrowed or the prop erty he purchased, he would appre ciate and indorse this argument and it would ba useless to discusa the qaestion with him But ! if, as I have already endeavored to show, the immediate effect of the adoption of a free coinage policy at the ratio of 16 to 1 would be to contract the currency to the extent of about $625,000,000, by the withdrawal of that amount- of gold from ciicula tion and from use as the basis of notes and other forms of credit, prices would not even nominally ad-i-a3e. Oa the contrary, for the time being at least, this contraction would greatly reduce prices, because it would alarm the country, destroy credit, and undoubtedly produce the most serious fiaancial disturbance this1 country ever witnessed. Every depositor in the savings and other banks, fearing that he would ulti mately be paid in depreciated silver, would immediately demand the re turn of his money, and this would compel the bunks to call at once for the payment of all notes and other securities they had discounted, for their customers, and the contrac tion of the currency would cauas aa increased demand for currency at the very time when it could not be obtained, and thus tha difficulty of the situation would be increased by bothcause8 The banks would b3 compelled to either suspend pay ments themselves or drive their cus turners, who are generally business men the men who give employ ment to labor in every community into bankruptcy at once. Who would profit by this condition of tffiirs ? Nobody except the hold ers of gold and tho owners of silver mines, the holders of ether bullion and the brokers and speculators in stocks f silver mining companies. The people who owe debts and are unable to pay them would b3 tha ones to tuffar most while the people who owe no debts and have money on hand wuuld be the ones to profit meet. Erery man in debt would bo called upon to pay it promptly when due ; there would bo no more extensions of old debts, or any now credits given, because no man could foretell what the money would be worth at any time in the future. In this crash the laborer would be thrown out of employment by tbe failure or suspension of his employ er, the farmer would receive less money for his products, property would be sold at low rates and un der judicial pioceediogs all over the country, credit would be destroyed, and all industrial and commercial enterprises would stand still, await-; iDg the results of tho new experi ment with the monetary system. Of course a great country liko this, rich in natural resources, would ul timately recover in some measure from even such a disaster, but how long a time would be required to do so no man can predict. All the mints of the United Scales, if de voted entirely to the coinage of sil ver, could produce only about forty million dollars .per annum, and, therefore, with free coinage it would require moro than fifteen years to put silver dollars, in the place of gold we now have and give back to the country tbe same amount of metallic money now existing. But, in the meantime, we would have a depreciated standard of value with nominally higher prices after the first collapse was over on account of the reduced purchasing power of the dollar, and at tbe same time we would haye for a long time fewer dollars to pay with. Common pru dence would dictate that, when any considerable change is to be made in cur monetary system, some pro vision should be madam advance of tho actual change for a gradual transition from the old- to tha - new order of things ; a transition period ghoul 1 ba provide! for so aa to avoid as far as possible a sadden disturb ance of business and contraction of currency : but the advocates of free coinage have no such purpose. They propose to make a sudden and revo- lutionary change i the standard upon which all existing contracts of the people are based and by which values are measured, and let the const q isncea take ctro of the-n-selv8. m But, supposa the change is. mae, and tha'- the business affairs of the country have been finally adjrg ed to the new standard, what will the f-ffeset on our domestic trade be ? Tho prices of all things will ba nom inally increased that is to say, it wilt require a greater number of dollars to purchase a given amount of commodity than it rrqiired be fore. There appears t be a singu- r lar delusion in tbe minds of some upon this subject. Many good peo pie appear to thiak that in soma mysterious manner, which no one has yat attempted to txplain. the government, by legislation or other wise, can increase the price of the things they have to sell without in creasing the prices of the things they have to buy. If there is any financal nacromancy by which the one sided increase of prices can be accomplished, our free coinage friends ought to explain it to the people The plain, every day, com mon sense view of this subject is tbe only correct one If prices are increased solely on account of an increase ic the volume of circula tion, or on acconnt of a deprecia tion of currency, without any change in the relation between the supply and demand of the commodities to be exchanged, the increase in prices will necessarily affect all things alike. If, therefore, the. farmer or planter receives a greater number of dollars for hia crop of cotton or wheat, he will bo compelled to pay a correspondingly greater number of dollars, for his agricultural im plements, for his groceries, for his clothing, and, in short, for every thing he purchases. Consequently, his profit, if he has any, will bear about the same relation to his ex penditures that it bears now that is to say, if he makes a profit of 10 per cent he will make a profit of no more than 10 per cent then. Now it is out of the clear profits of his business that he must pay his debts, and it therefore remains to be seen how much benefit he would ulti mately derive from a nominal in crease in the price of comomdities. He cannot c ntrol the. prices of the commodities produced by him to the same extent that other produc ers can control the prica of theirs, and it may bo that tbe price of the things he is compelled to buy will be increased in much greater pro portion than the prices of things he has to sell, and if 83 he will ba a loaar instead of a gainer by the change. It 13 contended, however, that pricw of commodities haye fallen 3.nce 1873, aad that the reduction, of prices h3 made it more difficult to p-iy debts now than it was then It is true that the prices of some, things have fallen, but it is eqaally true that the prices of some things have increased. It is not true, however, that our people owe any debts contracted as fai back aa 1873, but it may be that some of our great corporations which issued bonis bo fore that datfc still owe thee, but they have all been refunded at a low rate of interest, so that our free coinage friends need not ba di8turb: ed on their account. The funda mental proposition of the advocates of free coinage is that all values are measured and all prices are fixed and regulated by the amount of re demption money in the cointry,and that the amount of paper currency or credit money, a3 it 13 sometimes , called, such as bank notes, govern ment notes and other circulating media, exert no vatuea or pric93 of commodities Having dogmatically asserted this principle, they proceed without further argument to the legal demouctiz ition of silver in 1873 and the logal establishment of the gold standard of value at that time are the causes of the alleged fall in the prices of the commodities of this country, and then, upon the theory that high prices for the nec essaries of life would, ba a blessing to the people, they appeal to the consumers of agricultural and man ufactured products to unite with them in the effjrt to secure the free and unlimited coinage of all the silver that the owners of bullion may spe proper to present at tho mints E?en if we should admit the trnth of the first proposition, their conclusion that , the demone tizition of silver reduced prices is founded upon the assumption of a fact which cannot ba established. They have wholly failed to allege, much less to prove, that silver ac tually constituted any part of the redemption money in use or in ex istence in this country before or at the time of tbat legislation. If it did not, then it is clear that its le gal demonetization' did not and could not, in fact, reduce the amount I of such money in this country, and therefore cannot have rednced prices. It is well known personally ,to every gentleman id this audience who was old enough to know what was transpiring in 1873 that there was not a dollar of stiver in circula tion at that date. Tha assumption upon Which tha argumant is based ! is diametrically opposed to the his torical and official facU vTbe only metallic or redemption nnuey ir use here at that time was gold, which amounted to only $135,000, 000, incuding what the governmen; was using, whereas now we have about $62,000.0()0 in gold ard $397,652,873 in full legal tender silver, besides about $77,000,000 in Bibsidiary silver coin. If, there fore, prices have fallen since 1873 the decline has taken place in spite of, the fact that our full legal tender metallic money has been increased until it row amounts to more that 8ven times ts much a3 it did at that date, and const quently tha al leged decline in prices must be at tributed to some other cause than the demonetization of silver. These facts prove not only that the de monetization of silver did not rc duce the amount of redemption money in this country, but they prove a1 so that the fundamental propositon of the advocates of free coinage is erroneous and prices are not fixed or regulated by the amount of redemption money alone, for if so, prices, should have increased since 1875 Substantially, the whole argu ment fcr free coinage, so far as it is addressed to the honest people, of tbe country, is based upon this flim sy foundation, upon an erroneous principle and a false assumption of facts. That he amount of money in, circulation, available tp circu lation, has moreVr less influence upon the prices ox commodities is not disputed by anybody, but it is not the amount of metallic or re demption money alone that exerts this influence. If all other condi tion remain the same, if tbe rela , tions between supply and demand are unchanged, if the cost, of pro duction, transportation and finan cial changes are stable, an increase or decrease of the currency in circu lation, or available for circulation, will, to a certain extent, increase or decrease prices, as the caso may b9; but by the terms 'money" and "currency," in this connection, 1 I mean every element that eaters into and is utilizad in tha complicated process of buying and selling in the markets for products and in the mercantile exchanges, whether it be gold, silver, bant ndtes. United Spates notes, checks, bills or other forma of credit, written or unwrit ten. Credit or confidence is an el ement of far greater importance in fixing or upholding prices than the mere amount of actual 'money in use, or available to use ; and, ia fact, ab ut 35 par cant of tha entira bu3;nefes of the country is transacted without tha actual U3a of metallic money, or its pipir represaatauye, tnd as to oittllio rmney itsalf, vvhother iu M or silver, it is not used to the ex'-nt of mo a than 1 per csnt in our bmiue3J transac tions. Ii vimw of thi,-5 fa-)ts, which are a3 weli established a3 any facts relating to oar o iii.uj:cial and fi nancial operations, how absurd it is to contend that prica3 are tired by tho amount of that particular kiod of currency which does not consti tute more than one hundredth part of the whole. Ia th9'bro-des5 and most comprehensible sense tha bus iue-33 capacity and pjrsonal integ rity of each individuil constitute a o-art of the efiVitive currency of the community in which he lives, be cau38 thc39 characteristics enable him t.o become a purchaser of tbe ooi modttiej it ha3 to sell, although at the timo he may have neither mony aor property Credit is a parc'ii? ;ng power, and the man who possess t compete iu the mrketa with meu ho poi8J33 actual inoaey, aud coa irinute aa much as thay do to the naintoaaaca of prica. To assert that prices are fixed by tha amount f redemption money alone is tqay ileat to the abortion that if ail the silver dollars, sabjidiary stiver join, silver certificated, Uaifcad .States note3. Treasury notos, na-f.ioaal-bank notes, aal every othar iorm of credit were destroyed, leav ing noihmg but gold, prices would remain the same aa they are now a proposition so preposterous upon its face that I presume no man with any regard for hi3 reputation would ro.i rure to make it except in a disguis. ed form. The great majority of our-pdop'e render srvca for wages in one form or another aal thay tire compelled to purchase in tha markets everything chey eat, drink or we.r, and iu mo3t 0863 they are coui palled to py rem for tha U3e of a'home for tham3aivtr and their families L;ka tna farm ers, they "have no silver bullion to carry to tha miuts to be coined at che public expeuse; they have noth ng to d spoaa of but their labor and iheir skill, and, as a general ruie, ail or substantially all. tha wages they receive must b used in procuriag commodities for the. personal use of themselves and thooa dependent up on them. They cannot eat, drink, or wear the money paid to them for their labor,' and it ia valuable to them blily because they can exchange it for the necessaries and comforts of life ; and thare naver wa3 a time in the history of the world when the workingmau8 dollar would buy as much of tha neces3aaie3 and com forts of life E3 it will buy no, and there never was a time in the history of the world when'tho wcrkingman received mora good dollars for the game amount of labor than he re- (Concluded on fourth page,) DAYENPORT COLLEGE Beiioir, N. O. j ' i i The College now affords to young men the oppor t unity to secure a practical education fitting .tha for basin eaa, teaching or for advanced atudy. For young ladies, tiie nrUoiwM advantagea hltb erto afforded wfll be maintained. John D. Mimck. A. M.. Pres. New Barber Shop, West Main Street. If yon want a good shave or hair cat oome to see me and give me a trial. All work done in the beat style. New chairs,' sharp razors, soft fcands. I can always be found at my shop No. 1, Jones House Bow. I solicit your patronage, THOS. W. SHELL. DR. 15. W. SCOTT, LENOIR, N. 0., Dealer in- t -V, j Pare Drugs, Medicines and fchemicals, All trie Standard Patent Medicines, PERFITVISRY,' ' ) COLOGNES, BAY RUM, FLORIDA WATER, HANDKERCHIEF EX VK UTSF Toilet andFaucv Goods SOAPS OF ALL KINDS, FACE POWDER, Or. INFANTPOWDERS, TOOTH PO VDERS, SACHET POWDERS, DRESSING COMBS AND FINE COMBS. Hair Brushes, Tco;a Brushes, )loth Brushes, Nail Brushes, Dust brushes and Camels' Hair Pencils. PONGES, CHAMOIS SKINS, &o . Large Assortment of Eye Glasses and. Spec tacles. CALL ASD SEE w. w. scorr. HERE WE ARE, ! V line of nice paper-bound novels at 5c each. A line of same, but better, at 7c. Paper bound noTels at 8c and 10c. Moth bound, 16 mos, at 15c each. Vice cloth bound 12 mos, at 25c Regular 11.00 books, such as Adam Bede, Ilomola, 20,000 L9iafi Under tho Sea, Tour of tho World in 80 Days. - Jane Ejre, j Modern Circe, Modern Don Juan, Iyanhoe (Scott),' Eiat Lynne; John Halifax, &c.,'&c. N E1T0X W. HENRY. i . i i ! U !;'! : : - :l- . a. SI .ill ''.! 1 : H
Lenoir News-Topic (Lenoir, N.C.)
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June 12, 1895, edition 1
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