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About Conyers weekly. (Conyers, GA.) 1895-1901 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1895)
THE CO NY EES WEEKLY, SATURDAY,iDECEMBER 14, 1895. SMALL CHANCE. The “dollar of the daddies” is in a nad way since November 5. The rag baby of the greenbackers will be knocked out just ns neatly when it gets big enough to go to the polls. The American people want neither the out of-date silver standard nor the fiat money foundling. Gold is good enough for them. According to the Populist and sil verite press the farmers and working¬ men were all in favor of the fifty-cent dollar, and were eager to get a chance to show their faith in the white metal. But whet Election Day came the boasted hosts of the silver army were nowhere to be found. Candidates favoring free coinage were nominated by the Populists in nearly every State in which elections were held, and the robber bankers and gold bugs were denounced in the good old style. Strangely enough, from a cheap money point of view, the dear people did notrash to vote for the silverites, but cruelly ignored their existence. “Gold,” shrieked the army of office seeking orators, “is the money of the rich. Silver is the money of the peo¬ ple.” Considering thut the great ma¬ jority of the people voted against more silver money, it is in order for the free coinage advocates to explain why tho money of the rich was pre¬ ferred to the cheaper metal. Can it be possible that Americans are so lost to all the traditions of their country, as expounded by repudiationists and en¬ emies of capital, that they are willing, "is even anxious, to get rich? If this Teallv tho case the cause of the Popu lists is hopeless. Their gospel teaches that poverty is a virtue and wealth a crime. So long as free coinage was merely a matter o f speculative discussion con¬ cerning questions upon which so called authorities differed, it was tolerated by many persons who were too lazy or indifferent to oppose it. Tho belief that free silver was a huge joke, like perpotual motion or tho elixir of life, made it a good subject for newspaper wit and country htoro argument. Peo¬ ple said: “There’s nothing in tins free coinage agitation, but tho fellows that’s talking it up are amusing cusses. Let’em spout.” So they spouted and they shouted, and they wrote many articles, all to show that fifty-cent dol¬ lars were the only thing which could save tho country irom calamity and ruin. When it was seen that, some deluded people were taking tho joke seriously, and that candidates were running for oflico ou a platform of repudiation of debts, debased currency, and financial chaos, tli 3 mild toleration of the sil¬ ver heresy suddenly ceased. Sensi¬ ble men stopped laughing at the antics of tho free coinage clowns, and plain¬ ly declared that tho comedy had gone far enough. Businoss had already been injured by tho threats of a mone¬ tary revolution, capitalists refusing to invest their money so long as there was even tho slightest danger of tho silver standard replacing gold. Pub¬ lic sentiment demanded a prompt re¬ pudiation of all unsound money .schemes and the endorsement of tho gold standard on which the country’s business aud financial luterests ure based. Sharp and clear camo the answer. The people were aroused and there was no doubt as to their position. They were asked by the silver mine owners and their agents to elect men who favored the unlimited coinage of all silver brought to the mints, at a ratio of 16 to 1. They wero told that the country was being ruined by the gold standard, and unbounded wealth and prosperity was promised if tho dollar was made worth only fifty •cents. On the other hand the advo¬ cates of a sound currency urged the rejection of the silverite3 and their scheme; pointed out all the evils which must certainly follow the adop¬ tion of free coinage and demanded the maintenance of our present honest dollar. Wherever the issue was made the popular verdict was overwhelming¬ ly against free silver and for Bound money. The theories that the Gov¬ ernment can create money by placing its stamp upon paper or other material, that a legislative enactment can make 50 cents equal to 100 cents, that artificially inflated prices, paid in a depreciated currency, are better for tho people than natural prices, paid in a sound currency, and various other vagaries now floating like bubbles in the political atmosphere, are all directly attributable to the long-continued use of legal tender paper.—Hon. JohnG, Carlisle, Nov. 19, 1895. THE TROUBLE LOCATED. CAELHLE AGAIN DISCUS FINAN¬ CIAL LEGISLATION Legal J'ender Notes a Menace to X*rospcrity—They Sap the Life of Our Treasury—Always Being Re¬ deemed in Bold But Never lie deemed—Can Be Gotten Rid of Only by Legislation—Treasury Never Intended for a Bank. Secretary Carlisle delivered another able and sound address on the currency question at the annual banquet of the New Y’ork Chamber of Commerce on November 19. Be said in part: “Two years ago I had the honor to attend your annual banquet and to make some remarks in the coarse of which I said that the disposition and ability of the Government to main¬ tain its own credit at the highest standard, and to preserve the integ¬ rity of all the forms of currency in cir¬ culation ampng the people, could not be reasonably doubted and ought not to be the subject of further controversy. Since that declaration was made here, interest-bearing bonds to the amount of $102,315,403 have been issued to procure gold for the redemp¬ tion of United States notes and Treas¬ ury notes, and tho obligations of the Government on account of tho notes still remain the same as at the begin¬ ning. The notes are redeemed, but they are unpaid, and if our legislation is not changed, no matter how often they may be presented and redeemed hereafter, they will remain unpaid. If this policy of redemption and reissue is continued, the interest-bearing debt will be greatly inereased, while the ncn-interest-bearing debt will not be in the least diminished. Although the amount of United States notes is fixed at $340,681,000, and the amount of Treasury notes out¬ standing is a little over $140,000,000, yet the total amount that may be pre¬ sented for redemption is unlimited, because there is no restriction as to the number of times the same note may be returned to the Treasury and exchanged for gold. Our legal standard of value is as sound as that of any country in the world, and if we had such a currency system as would certainly guarantee its permanent maintenance no Govern¬ ment or people would command a larger credit or realize greater bene¬ fits from it than ours; but the great investors of the world appreciate the difficulties tinder which we aie labor¬ ing, aud until those difficulties are re¬ moved we cannot reasonably hope to see perfect confidence restored at home or abroad. Every student of monetary science and every practical man of business knows that the fundamental vice in our currency system is the legal tender note, redeemable in coin by the Gov ment and reissuable under the law. There are other defects, but this is fundamental and radical,andthreatens the stability of the whole volume of oar currency. So long as these notes are outstanding the slightest diminu¬ tion of the coin reserve authorized by law for their redemption at once ex¬ cites a feeling of apprehension and distrust in the public mind, affects the values of all our securities, cur¬ tails investments and more or less seriously embarrasses all the busiuess affairs of the people. How much has been lost to our peo¬ ple on account of unavoidable fluctua¬ tions in the reserve it is impossible to state, but all classes have suffered more or less from the effects of these fluctuations upon the markets for products, upon wages and upon the values of all kinds of property; and, consequently, the condition of that fund is a subject of constant attention and anxiety throughout the country. With an almost constant drain upon it, with frequent and sudden demands for for very large and with sums for hoarding or export, no certain means of replenishing it, except by sales of bonds, it is absolutely impossible to maintain the reserve at any fixed amount, and, therefore, impossible to keep the public constantly assured of financial and Iu attempting to provide a circu¬ lating medium consisting of its own notes, redeemable in coin on presen¬ tation, and reissuable after redemp¬ tion the Government of the United States is engaged in a business for which it is wholly unfitted, and which was never for a moment contemplated by its founders. No change that, can be made in our currency system ..will afford the relief to which the Government and ths peo¬ ple are entitled unless it provides for the retirement aud cancellation of the legal tender United States notes. Any¬ thing less than this will be simply a palliative, and not a cure, for the financial ills to which the country is now subject. this di¬ In my opiuion legislation in rection at the earliest possible day is imperatively demanded by every sub¬ stantial interest in the country, and its postponement upon any pretext of political expediency, or upon satisfac¬ the as¬ sumption iu advance that no tory result can be accomplished, would be,'to say the least, a very grave mis¬ take. ORATOR SHUKKS’S REVENUE. fie Was Loaded for Anvthing, end Hie First (lame lie Sighted Was a Burglar. It was an inclement night, hut the glgomy-iooking man who stood in the doorway of the little Town Hall and looked out at the pelting rain did not blame it entirely on the weather. The gloomy-looking man was Web¬ ster Shukks, leading citizen and prom inent'debater of Bainbridge Township. He had come to Spiketown, pursuant to announcement, to deliver an address on the “Crime of ’73,” and only three persons had turned out, one of them being the janitor of the building. The other two had heard the orator once or twice already. It was decided to post¬ pone the meeting. The lights wpre put out, and Mr. Shukks, buttoning his overcoat about him, turned up his col¬ lar, and, pulling his hat brim down all around, went forth into the storpi. Oppressed by the burden of an un¬ spoken speech, he wandered aimlessly abont the little town for hours, re¬ gardless of the rain that soaked his garments and the mud that spattered and slopped as he wended his devious and uncertain wav through streets broad sidewalks and well-built crossings wero yet in the future. Bit¬ ter thoughts of the apathy of the people he had come to enlighten surged through his mind, and at times he felt an almost irresistible impulse to let them slide on to their -ruin without any further effort to save them. Finding himself at last opposite the village hotel, where he had engaged lodgings for the night, he went in. Climbing the stairs softly, in order not to disturb the slumbers of the other guests, ha proceeded to his room. Through the partly opened door he saw a man slipping about with a dim lantern in his band. Webster Shukks grasped his heavy cane firmly, slipped noiselessly inside, shut the door behind him, and spoke in a low tone : “Stop right where you are ! If you make a single movement I’ll brain you!” the intruder Taken by surprise, threw up his hands. “Now, you scoundrel,” said the statesman of Bainbridge Township, with the same low, tense utterance, “I don’t know who you are or where you come from, but I know what you’re prowling about my room for. You are here to steal!” “I—I—” began the baffled burglar. “There is nothing yon need say,” in¬ terrupted Webster Shukks, with a gleam of vengeance in his eye. “Open your head again and I’ll drive you down through the floor! Listen to ure. We have met this evening, my fellow citizens, to consider as calmly as we can the great crime committed against the people of this country in the year 1873, at the bidding of aa organization composed of a few Lon¬ don and New York bankers—a crime so dastardly, so fiendish, so monstrous in its conception and heartless in its execution that humanity may well stand appalled at the mere contempla¬ tion of it! Let us go back tothe be¬ ginning. In 1792, my fellow citizens, Congress juassed a mint aud coinage law by which gold and silver, whea coined, were declared to be tho pri¬ mary money of the Republic. The unit of value was the silver dollar of 371J grains of pure, or 410 grains of standard silver. The legal ratio was declared m this act to be, until other¬ wise provided for, 15 to 1. It was en¬ acted that any person could take either of the two metals to the mint and have them coined into money, free of all charge. Iu its sovereign capacity, fellow citizens, the founders of this great country laid down the broad principle of the free coinage of sil¬ ver—” There was a hoarse, gurgling sound, and the helpless villain who had been standing in a corner of the room with Ms hands above bis head, sank in a heap to the floor. Nature had come to his relief. He had fainted.—Chicago Record. Lillie Miss Mullet. i : rsji§e 1 1 m , 4 9$ il St IV U l Sr? U n. Yi rr\v “ _ __ — ** , Little Miss Mullet Sat on a tuffet, Rating curds a ad whey-. When ’long came a spider And sat down beside her. Aud frightened Miss Mufiet away. ihe silverites are now more than ever convinced that the tail cannot wag the dog.—Louisville (Ky.) Post, JILTED f.Y DOTH PARTIES. ' m © r -isn III V, 1 \ 9 ! V, ■'// : HP by ( '¥ ><U 'Q m /J ~ t * ./)■ / 1? iSJ % as# , vlf/i * yFXL VJ* 1 1(1 0 4\ tel# A :/ if V «• V 2A \ %£ /*\ l‘.r * MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, III., iii.-Mrs. Page to Mrs. Ford— “Go to now; * * * we’ll teach him to know turtles from jays.” Falstaff—“Have I lived to be carried in a basket like a barrow of butcher’s offal, and to be thrown in the Thames?” True Test of Real Money. I do not think that fiat money will answer just as well as fiat silver. The latter is at least worth 50 cents on the dollar. But the suggestion discloses the intimate relationship between the greenback craze and the silve move¬ ment. Nor do I agree that the true position of either gold, silver or paper, is as “redemption money”—or as the free silver advocates are wont to say, “the money of ultimate redemption.” There is no such thing as money being used for redemption except where good money or valuable money is used to redeem poor money or promises of money. The use of money is to stand as the medium through which ex¬ changes of commodities can be made. The value of money consists only in the facility with which it is itself re¬ deemable in the things that it will buy. That, aud that only, is ultimate redemption; and, just as in the ex¬ change of poor money for good money, so in the exchange of money for goods, that ultimate redemption is most successful which redeems it by offering for it the greatest amount of goods in exchange, and thus vindi¬ cates most thoroughly the quality of the money.—Hon. John DeWitt War¬ ner. Unappreciated Silver Leaders. . Not many months ago “Coin” was waxing wealthy by the prodigious sale of Ms fantastic “School,” aud wher¬ ever he appeared to make a speech there was a concourse like that evoked by a prima donna. A few nights ago he was to speak m the Opera House at Ashland, Wisconsin, provided that not less than 200 tickets were sold. When the time arrived not nearly that small number of persons had bought tickets to hear him demolish the “gold bugs,” and the few who were present were in¬ vited to step up to the box office and get—their money back. A free silver meeting lately called for a town in Alabama was not held because no one went to it, and it is repotted now that Senators Morgan and Pugh are con¬ sidering with other Democrats of tho State the propriety of stopping the free silver campaign the/ instituted only afewdays ago.—Journal of Com¬ merce. The farmer aud the mo . chanic must be free to use the very best tools and im¬ plements, and the merchant and banker must oe free to use the very best money aud instruments of credit. An honest and stable measure of value is just as necessary to both as are honest and stable measures of weights and qualities, and it requires no argument to show that with¬ out these it would be impos¬ sible to transact the ordinary business of the country.— Hon. John G. Carlisle, Nov. 19, 1895. Credit and Money. “To the question, ‘Is there gold enough iu the world to do the world’s business?’ the unhesitating answer is ‘Yes.’ The real currency of a coun try is net limited by its gold. Its circulating medium is iu the forms of credit, the many devices—notes, checks, drafts, bills of exchange— designed to replace the use of other money. This is the real volume of a country’s currency, and by this meth¬ od of National and international book¬ keeping, is carried on ninety-five per cent of the world’s commerce, It is inadequate only whfeu credit is dis¬ turbed, and credit is disturbed only when the silver men threaten to over turn the stable foundation on which all these forms of credit are based, and without which their circulation would of necessity be largely im paired.”—Joseph shoe’s Dana Miller in Don Magazine, Nov. 1895. Money a Product of Evolution. Money is the product of evolution a result of the ages. The better has gradually crowded the worst out of! existence. Our own history forms so exception to this rule, for although our colonial ancestors for a time went back to a system almost as rude as that of ihe Homeric period, they eventually abandoned it and resumed metallic money, which always served! as a mental standard, even when it was not a legal one. It is difficult now to understand why they endured the burden of bad money so long., There is evidence showing that the taxpayers and the “debtor class” wanted to have a variety of mousy as well as a great quantity of it. Noth¬ ing could be more abundant than the crops of wheat, corn, tobacco aud rice, yet it does not appear from the colonial records that either taxpayers : or debtors as a whole gained any ad¬ vantage from this abundance nor that they were at all satisfied with it. In fact, laws were frequently passed in Virginia to save them from the op ‘pression of being obliged to pay to¬ bacco, and not infrequently relief was granted by enabling them to pay silver instead.—Horace White, ia “Money and Banking.” The variety and abundance of our resources, the skill and enterprise of our people, and the character of our so¬ cial and political institutions fully justify the belief that, if we had assured financial stability, the surplus capital of other countries would flow in a steady stream to our shores, and we would soon be in a position not only greatly » to increase our domestic pro¬ ductions and trade, but to ex¬ ert a controlling influence on the trade of the world.— Hon. Johu G. Carlisle. Nov. 19. 1895. Colorado’s Prosperity. The State of Colorado appears to be more prosperous than ever before, and the consequence is that people have to a large extent stopped talking about silver. The Eugiueeriug and Mining Journal takes notice of tl\e f ac ^ that at the recent “Festival of Mountain and Plain” in Denver there was no ref¬ erences in the banners and placards to the legend of 16 to 1 and none to any phase of the silver question as a polit¬ ical issue. “This,” says the Journal, ( i was the more striking since the pa¬ rade of the first day was intended to be an allegorical representation of the development of Colorado and its in¬ dustries. The fact of the matter is that the silver question is as dead in Denver as it is in New lork. We do not mean to say that the people of the Western city are no longer interested in the price of silver, for the metal is one that they prednee in large quan¬ tities, but, with the exception of the demagogues, every one has come to the conclusion that the cause of inde¬ pendent free coinage is hopeless, am the no one pays r^ft cn aitention to demagogues.” Punishing « Honest Money ” Men. “The canse of silver is indefinitely postponed,” sadly comments the pro¬ silver Salt Lake Herald (Dem.) iu Lake i 3 review of the returns. The Salt . Tribune (silver Rep.) “sincerely^ e plores” the result in Kentucky, oe cause it is not a legitimate Republican victory at all. It was brought a 0 by an unholv alliance between E 3 P’ a ”' licans and Cleveland and Carlisle Dem¬ ocrats. It not intended to up 0 was Republican principles, but it punish some honest men who “Lonest e in honest money”-by silver. money” meaning free
