CHAPTER X.

THE MONEY STANDARD QUESTIONS.

How the Money Standard Questions have been settled in and by the Republican party-Silver legislation in brief-How the country was saved from the silver standard-John Sherman and William McKinley have marched together-The Hon. Charles Emory Smith's exposition of this question-The unexampled supply of gold is solving the money questions for the people and abolishing this issue.

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HE money questions have been settled by the Republican party, and the standard of sound money is like the flag of the country, established, and the credit of the nation fixed. There was no compromise in the peace of Appomattox and there has been none in the resumption of specie payments which marked the restoration of the public solvency. Republican policy has provided a national currency of paper, silver, and gold, equal in volume to the wants of the people, and all good as gold. There was a powerful movement at the close of the war to enlarge the greenback issues and extend the limit of paper of that character to cover all the bonded obligations of the government, but the greenback was made as good as gold, and then the

stress of the passionate green paper illusion passed away.

The silver question took form when the country, under strong and wise guidance, approached resumption. It was then ascertained that we had participated so far in an international plan to employ the money of resumption and secure the advantage of uniformity in coin to facilitate the intercourse of nations, as to omit from the mint regulations the coinage of the silver dollar-our only white metal coin of full legal tender value-and there was a formidable tendency to retain the standing of silver in the mints without limitation. Silver had been "coin,' in the meaning of the laws and contracts, through the war, and when the bonds were issued-especially when specie payments had been suspended-and there was an impressive propriety that "gold and silver" should be "coin," when we resumed coin payments, the same as when they were suspended. There was but little variation then between the mint and market value of the two precious metals at their old familiar ratio of 15 to 1 in Europe and 16 to 1 in the United States, and the matter did not seem to be momentous. The fall of silver had set in, caused by the sale of silver in Germany, to establish the gold standard, and the enormous silver production in Nevada. The general judgment—at least of those who had not been profound students or business experts in money-was that if we replaced silver at the mints the value of the metal in the

markets would advance to our ratio. This view of the case was at first taken by Major McKinley, but he supported the Allison amendment of the Bland bill, which was not to have "free" coinage of silver dollars, but forced-commanded-coinage, not less than two or more than four millions per month. Unquestionably this movement, originating with Mr. Allison in the Senate and supported by Mr. McKinley in the House, saved the country from the free coinage of silver, and, therefore, the silver standard! John Sherman was Secretary of the Treasury, and coined the minimum sum-two millions a month. He advised against the veto of the measure by President Hayes, suggesting that he should allow the bill to become a law without his approval, as he had conscientious scruples against attaching his signature. The bill was passed over the President's veto, and the continued fall of silver-while we coined over four hundred millions of white dollars-was an object lesson most convincing that the United States could not alone restore silver as a standard money of the world.

We reached the point that it was necessary to stop the free coinage of silver or accept the silver standard, and we stopped, pledging ourselves to maintain the parity of the two money metals, and there we are now, and, like France, the great bimetallic country, we uphold silver as a money metal by the limitation of the coinage and the direct application of the public credit.

Major McKinley has stood with Secretary and Senator John Sherman with unfaltering courage and unshaken fidelity throughout this contest, and was conspicuous in it for his perfect understanding of the general situation, his intelligence as to the principles involved and applied, and his exact information in details. There is no better record for honest dealing with all the people on all the questions of sound money, first and last, than his.

One of the most frank, instructive, and luminous discussions of the silver question has been supplied by the Hon. Charles Emory Smith, of Philadelphia, and is as follows:

WHAT IS FREE COINAGE?

BY HON. CHARLES EMORY SMITH.

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We meet again the demand for independent, free, and unlimited coinage without regard to other nations. To this demand I now address myself. What is free coinage? The standard silver dollar is now worth about fifty cents. Free coinage means that the ment shall receive all the silver which may be presented, and upon every fifty cents' worth put the stamp of one dollar. As nobody, however, expects it to be coined, it really means that the government shall issue its note for one dollar in exchange for fifty cents' worth of bullion, and that this note which the favored bullion owner gets for fifty cents' worth of his commodity shall be made a legal tender for one

dollar in current circulation. Now, what would be the result? It would be a forced circulation of a dollar worth one half its face. It would be the debasement of the unit of value, and so the violent disturbance of all values. It would be the destruction of stability, and so the overthrow of confidence, security, and prosperity.

Let me be entirely frank. I know the advocates of free coinage claim that their measure would raise silver to the standard of gold, or perhaps they would prefer to put it, reduce gold to the standard of silver -that, in a word, it would establish parity. They point to the fact that the silver or silver certificates already in circulation have been kept at par at the ratio of 16 to 1, notwithstanding a far different market ratio. This is true, because we have limited the coinage or purchase, because we have maintained the gold reserve, because we have pledged the whole credit and power of the government to sustain parity. But when we enter upon unlimited coinage, under present conditions, we embark upon a new and dangerous sea. The free silver champions contend that our silver policy has failed, because we haven't gone far enough, and they insist that free coinage would bridge the divergence and remove the disparity of the two metals. There is no other pretense upon which it can be defended for a single instant. If it does not establish the equivalence of gold and silver at the determined ratio it is rank repudiation and dishonor. It is the willful adoption of the debased standard