William Hope Harvey

“ So blighting and destructive is the effect, the people are being reduced to poverty and misery; the conditions of life are so hard that individual selfishness is the only thing consistent with the instinct of self-preservation; all public spirit, all generous emotions, all the noble aspirations of man, are shriveling up and disappearing as the volume of primary money shrinks and as prices fall. Honest labor seeks employment it cannot find, and hungry and shelterless, our unemployed are seen daily around the Columbus statue, without hope and in despair. ”

“ That in the exchange value between commodity money and all other property, credit money does not add anything—it facilitates—makes convenient the transaction of business. Just as your wheat certificates add nothing to the exchange value of wheat, or the things for which wheat are exchanged; yet they facilitate its exchange.
"This commodity money is the measure of values. Its quantity becomes the measure, and each dollar is a part of that measure. Credit money adds nothing to its value, it only facilitates the transaction of business based on that measure of values. ”

“ How in the name of commercial sanity, how with a profession of national honesty, how with a claim to the meanest common sense, the Government of England continues to oppose the restoration of our ancient, proved, and only honest standard of value passes the wit of sane onlookers to understand. ”

“ Those who would have you think that we must wait for England, either have not studied this subject, or have the same interest in continuing the present conditions as England. It is a vain hope to expect her voluntarily to consent. England is the creditor nation of the globe, and collects hundreds of millions of dollars in interest annually in gold from the rest of the world. We are paying her two hundred millions yearly in interest. ”

“ As compared with other property, both are very durable. Of the two, silver is the most durable. Abrasion causes more loss to gold than to silver, and the latter may be carried in the pocket and subjected to great use with but little loss. One was the money of the people—the other, of the rich. As two legs are necessary to walk and two eyes to see, so were these two monies necessary to the prosperity of the people. ”

“ Who can estimate the damage to the commerce and business of the world? Who can estimate the suffering that humanity has and must yet experience? In what language can we characterize the men behind the scenes who knowingly are directing this world to the gold standard? ”

“ You can empty all of the pockets of the people of the world of their silver, the bank vaults, the merchants' money drawers, the sub-treasuries, the children's safes, all India, Mexico, South America, England, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, British America, China, Japan, and the islands, big and little, of the oceans, and you can put it all into this room, or in the basement of the Treasury building of the United States. ”

“ It is common now to hear the expression that the silver in a silver dollar is only worth sixty cents, or fifty cents, or forty-eight cents, as the case may be at the time. People do not stop to think what measure that value is being taken in. When we had a double standard, and silver was the unit, such a thing as its being worth less than a dollar was as impossible as it would be now for the gold in a gold dollar to be worth less than a dollar. ”

“ The gold standard, now fitted to a shivering world, is squeezing the life out of it. The men of the country, the backbone of the republic, on whose strong arms the life of the nation may depend, are delivering over their property to their creditors, and going into beggary. ”

“ Where before silver and gold had been tied together as one mass of commodity money, and all property had measured its value in it, now gold became the only measure of value, and silver became credit money—token money. ”

“ MARTIN J. RUSSELL. "The paper or substance out of which it is made, would have no exchangeable value, unlike money made from a valuable commodity; when much disturbed a lack of confidence it would in value; and if the government went down it would be entirely worthless.
"Money with a commercial value makes a medium of exchange with the balance of the world, and facilitates our trade."
"But," said Mr. Ridgeley, who was still standing: "Isn't it a fact, that when war, and great disturbances come, that redemption money disappears, and paper money takes its place anyhow? ”

“ Is a drought of gold to be more desired than a flood of silver? It is only a question of time under a gold system when England will take it all. The way to keep our gold is to remonetize silver. Remonetization will give us higher prices for our exports, and will make a balance of trade in our favor large enough to bring us English gold and silver. ”

“ When we consider that the native Indians of this country were known to give up large quantities of valuable property in exchange for a few trinkets and ornaments, and that large domains of land were purchased in this way, it is natural to believe that a civilized man would give up as much as a bushel of wheat for the amount of silver in one of our silver fifty-cent pieces when fashioned into a ring. ”

“ In money there must be a unit. In arithmetic, as you are aware, you are taught what a unit is. Thus, I make here on the blackboard the figure 1. That, in arithmetic, is a unit. All countings are sums or multiples of that unit. A unit, therefore, in mathematics, was a necessity as a basis to start from. In making money it was equally as necessary to establish a unit. The constitution gave the power to Congress to 'coin money and regulate the value thereof.' Congress adopted silver and gold as money. ”

“ Coin was here interrupted by President Struckman, of the Board of County Commissioners, who said:
"Is it not unfair to give the owners of silver bullion the special privilege of having the value of their property enhanced? Is it not virtually making a present of millions of dollars to the owners of silver bullion by remonetizing silver? Is this just or right?"
"In the first place," replied Coin, "whatever you select as primary money should be treated distinctively different from all other property. It should not be left on the market to be bulled or beared. ”

“ If it is claimed we must adopt for our money the metal England selects, and can have no independent choice in the matter, let us make the test and find out if it is true. It is not American to give up without trying. If it is true, let us attach England to the United States and blot her name out from among the nations of the earth, [Applause.] ”

“ Mayor Hopkins wanted to know what effect the adoption of the gold standard by the governments using it had, if any, on those nations using a silver or bimetallic standard. What effect, if any, it had on their prosperity?
Coin's reply was: "If a bimetallic or silver standard nation, 'or its people, are largely in debt, with the obligations payable in gold, the effect is serious. Take our South American republics to illustrate it: During the last 30 years they have been getting deeper and deeper into debt to England, and during the last 25 years these debts have been made payable in gold. ”

“ The money lenders in the United States, who own substantially all of our money, have a selfish interest in maintaining the gold standard. They, too, will not yield. They believe that if the gold standard can survive for a few years longer, the people will get used to it—get used to their poverty—and quietly submit. ”

“ Our national currency should be as sacred as our national flag. The present law allowing gold to be named in the bond is statutory treason. The government would stand ready to redeem its paper and token money in primary money on demand, and should not allow any discrimination that would forestall its action or corrupt its financial system.
"With an administration in sympathy with bimetallism there would be no trouble as to the parity of the two metals. It could throw its great influence in favor of the weaker of the two metals if necessary in sustaining that parity. ”

“ Money may increase in value by reason of its scarcity. When this is the case it buys more property—property buys less money.
"The same law of supply and demand applies to it as applies to any specific class of property. You are of all men most familiar with that law of trade.
"If a certain number of bushels of wheat, is a normal supply for the World's use, and only half that quantity of wheat is produced, what is the result? Wheat is worth about twice as much per bushel as if the normal amount had been raised. ”

“ It is also a a error to suppose that checks and drafts to any very great extent take the place of credit money. It facilitates business for a man to be able to carry his check book with him instead of the danger and inconvenience of carrying a large roll of bills; but the equivalent of each check he draws must be to his credit in bank to meet the check. If a man gives a check for $100, and that check is transferred to six different parties and pays in that way six different debts in the course of the day, it does no more than a $100 bill would have done. ”

“ WILLIAM T. BAKER.
"You cannot maintain two kinds of money at a parity, when one has a commercial value and the other has none, except by making one redeemable in the other.
"But you might have a purely paper money. The method would be to have no redemption money and to make it legal tender in the payment of all debts public and private.
"Limit it in quantity by fixing the amount at so much per capita. Maintain the volume at that as population increased, and from time to time provide for what had been destroyed. ”

“ A REAL ESTATE MAN ASKS A QUESTION.
"I want to know," said Mr. George H. Rozet, a real estate dealer, here interrupting Coin, "why you say silver is demonetized, when it is in circulation every day and handled by us as money?"
"We have seen," replied Coin, "how the commercial value of the two metals were parted. By the same laws that produced this result, silver was made redeemable in gold, and ceased to be redemption money. Silver now circulates like paper money, both redeemable in gold. It is now subsidary coin or token money. ”

“ A war with England would be the most popular ever waged on the face of the earth. [Applause.] If it is true that she can dictate the money of the world, and thereby create world-wide misery, it would be the most just war ever waged by man. ”

“ A man does not carry a brick house around in his pocket, but he can carry the deed to it.
"When you have credit money in your pocket, you are carrying around with you the title to property of that commercial value.
"In issuing dollar for dollar of credit money to redemption money, it is not necessary that the government should keep the latter at all times in its treasury in full amount ready to redeem all the credit money.
"Experience teaches that so long as sufficient redemption money is in the country, the credit of the government can be depended upon to get it. ”

“ The demand for silver in the arts or for money by other nations might make the quantity of silver in a silver dollar sell for more than a dollar, but it could never be worth less than a dollar. Less than itself.
"In considering which of these two metals they would thus favor by making it the unit, they were led to adopt silver because it was the most reliable. It was the most favored as money by the people. It was scattered among all the people. Men having a design to injure business by making money scarce, could not so easily get hold of all the silver and hide it away, as they could gold. ”

“ Say a one-carat diamond is now worth under a gold standard $25.00. If a carat diamond was adopted as the unit of value for our monetary system—one-carat declared by our law to be a dollar, and diamonds the only money of redemption, you would not say that a carat diamond was worth $25.00 ”

“ The truly marvelous fact above stated is thus capable of absolute verification by each one for himself, and if this does not prove silver to be the true and world-wide standard of value then there is no significance in facts. ”

“ Free coinage by the United States will at once establish a parity between the two metals. Any nation that is big enough to take all the silver in the world, and give back merchandise and products in payment for it, will at once establish the parity between it and gold. ”

“ With silver remonetized, and gold at a premium, not one-tenth the hardships could result that now afflict us. Why? First: it would double the value of all property. Second: only 4 per cent of the business of the people of this nation is carried on with foreign countries; and a part of this 4 per cent would be transactions with silver using nations; while 96 per cent of the business of our people is domestic transactions. Home business. Is it not better to legislate in the interest of 96 per cent of our business, than the remaining 4 per cent? ”