Revisions to the electronic version
August 1996 corrector Catherine Tousignant, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
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Half a Hundred --
....REASONS....
Why the American People Should Favor -- Free Coinage.
--
Mr. Eugene T. Brewster, in a recent communication addressed to the
Brooklyn Citizen, cites the following reasons in favor of free coinage:
1. Because all of the national parties have declared in favor of bi-
metallism and not one favors the gold standard, which we have today.
2. Because no voters ever yet voted for the gold standard, and only
those who benefit by the appreciation of the gold dollar favor it.
3. Because gold standard money is dishonest and makes the debtor
pay back a dollar larger than the one he borrowed.
4. Because the gold dollar is appreciating in value more and more,
making debts harder and harder to pay.
5. Because the only objections yet heard against bimetallism is, we
are not big and strong enough to have it without foreign aid. Can we
not legislate for ourselves?
6. Because we can introduce bimetallism without foreign help, for
we would have with us twenty-seven silver and bimetallic countries,
with a population of 995,000,000.
7. Because we would have against us only eleven gold countries,
population 196,000,000, and about all of those except England would
be glad to follow our example.
8. Because the average ratio in the silver and bimetallic countries,
via: Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador,
Columbia, China, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Tripoli, Ar-
gentine Republic, Belgium, Chili, Cuba, France, Greece, Hayti, Italy,
Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela, is 15 1/2 to 1!
9. Because the very highest ratio of any country in the world is
Mexico, 161/2 to 1!
10. Because if Mexico is a fair sample of a silver country, Turkey is
a fair sample of a gold country.
11. Because, if everybody admits that bimetallism is right, and the
only objection is that we cannot go it alone, that objection is overruled
by the figures given above.
12. Because there is no accumulation of silver anywhere in the world
that could flood us; and even if there were, it would only give a greater
impetus to our commerce, for every dollar's worth of silver brought
here would represent a dollar spent here among us. Our silver dollar
would not be taken abroad again, but left here among us, thus giving
us more money and greater business.
13. Because even if there were a flood of silver in Germany, Japan
or anywhere, a little diplomacy would prevent its coming here. In the
international conference at Brussels, all the great nations except Eng-
land were so anxious to have bimetallism that they offered not to un-
load their silver on any nation that introduced it.
14. Because free coinage at 16 to 1 would create an unlimited de-
mand for silver and fix that price all over the world.
15. Because, if we said we would take all the silver that comes at 16
to 1, nobody would sell their silver for less than that price, and then
sixteen ounces of silver would be worth one ounce of gold the world
over.
16. Because the silver dollar would then necessarily contain 100
cents' worth of silver and be worth a dollar everywhere.
17. Because that silver dollar would be a better dollar than the pre-
sent silver dollar, for this contains only 53 cents' worth of silver.
18. Because if the present silver dollar is dishonest, it was the gold
people who made it so by demonetizing silver by the "crime of 1874."
19. Because the dollar under free coinage would contain just so
much silver as the silver dollar today, and this dollar buys 100 cents
worth every day.
20. Because if the mine owner may take 53 cents' worth of silver to
the mints and get a 100-cent dollar for it, the laborer may do the same
thing.
21. Because if the miner gets a 100-cent dollar, then there is no such
thing as 53-cent dollars in circulation.
22. Because it is funny if the dollar can be a 100-cent dollar to the
mine owner and only a 53-cent dollar to the laborer.
23. Because every dollar that gets in circulation means the sale of
some commodity or the installation of capital in business
24. Because free coinage means rising prices.
25. Because rising prices means more profit in business and more
new industries and enterprises.
26. Because more industries mean more employment.
27. Because more employment means a lessening of the supply of
labor.
28. Because more
thus by increasing the demand and lessening the supply you raise wa-
ges.
29. Because free coinage means nearly twice as much in circulation
and with an abundance of money there will be an abundance of in-
dustries, factories, mills and enterprises of all kinds in
30. Because the employers, making more sales and more profit will
pay more wages.
31. Because free coinage will make the dollar nearly twice as easy
to get, thus making debts nearly twice as easy to pay.
32. Because the gold people are dishonest and refuse to print in
their newspapers the silver side of the question, while the silver peo-
ple circulate The New York Journal as a campaign document, and
that paper prints the best arguments from the very best gold advocates.
Which shows the silverites do not fear to have both sides heard, being
confident that they have by far the better of the argument.
33. Because the wage-earner will be benefitted most by silver and
the Wall street people's decline.
34. Because all the labor organizations have arrayed themselves on
the side of free silver, and they generally know their business.
35. Because the
gold, and they generally know their business.
36. Because wages have fallen 11 per cent. under the gold standard.
37. Because the goldites resort to shallow sneers instead of argu-
ment.
38. Because there is not enough gold in the world to do one month's
business -- only $2.50 per capita of the world.
39. Because there is only $22.90 per capita in this country, counting
all kinds of money, and less than half of that in circulation, the rest
being tied up and hoarded.
40. Because free coinage will raise the price of silver by giving it
use and cheapen gold by taking away the demand.
41. Because Blaine said the maintainance of a gold standard would
produce wide spread disaster, and his prediction came true within eigh-
teen years.
42. Because the silver mines never yet and never will produce more
than enough silver to supply the world's nations with coins and the
arts with silverware, and there can be no over production.
43. Because it
it, and invite in foreign capital by our increased prosperity, just as
capital is now rushing to Japan.
44. Because only about 4 per cent. of our business is with foreign
nations and part of that is with nations that favor silver.
45. Because McKinley says it will cause an over supply of money,
thus raising prices; while Harrison says it will drive gold out, making
money scarce and thus lowering prices.
46. Because the Hon. Bourke Cockran says both of these are wrong
and that the London prices of silver will make the price here, and con-
sequently prices of all commodities here will vary as the London price
varies.
47. Because free coinage will benefit the people of the Silver states
only in common with the people of the whole United States, giving to
all only that which the act of 1873 took away.
48. Because Mexico has prospered and kept the purchasing power
of her currency stable under free coinage, and her labor in many cases
far better off than ours. Why does she not change to the gold stand-
ard if dissatisfied? England would help her and welcome her as one
of her financial colonies, along with the United States.
49. Because President Andrews of Brown university, is neither a
lunatic, anarchist or mine owner, and he says: "There must be a
change if we would avoid bankruptcy. With free coinage every in-
dustry would look up. Never since slavery days has the press dis-
played such disregard for truth and such stubborn obtuseness," etc.
50. Because free coinage means continuous prosperity, employment
and higher wages, government of the people, for the people and by the
people, and not government of Hanna, for the trusts and by the pluto-
crats.
Transcriber's note
Free coinage. Crime of 1873:
A general revision of the coinage laws occurred in 1873. Several years of debate preceeded the final enactment and the legislative history of the bill occupies hundreds of pages in the Congressional Globe. The final enactment has been considered by many as a clumsy attempt and a failure. The law has sometimes been called the "Crime of '73." One consequence of the bill, which was finally enacted February 12, 1873, was the elimination of the silver dollar. The silver dollar's replacement of greater weight, the Trade Dollar, was issued for purposes of commerce with the Orient to compete with the Mexican Dollar. The legal tender provision, which gave the Trade Dollar legal tender status within the United States, was repealed the following year.
The act also reduced the charge for converting standard gold bullion into coins to one-fifth of one percent. The same charge was levied on silver bullion, but only for coinage of Trade Dollars.
Surprisingly, the silver dollar had not circulated to great extent in the United States after 1803. Even though it had been produced steadily since 1840, it was virtually an unknown coin due to exportation, melting and holding in bank vaults. In effect, the law of 1873 demonitized silver and placed the United States on a gold standard. A few years later, the silver interests in the country realized what had occurred and for the next quarter century, their adamant protests continued. During this time, there was a constant struggle for the return to a bimetal monetary system.
Economically, the inadequate supply of gold caused a gradual decline in prices worldwide and the United States sunk slowly into a depression. The South and the Mid-west were the most heavily affected. A great number of private silver interests influenced large sections of the West for a return to bimetallism to combat the falling price levels. Historians have since concluded that a world-wide adoption of bimetallism would have improved economic conditions. However, if the United States alone had adopted bimetallism, the situation would have grown worse.
The features of the law of 1873 that interest collectors the most are those that affected the the status and physical properties of the coins themselves. The weight of the half dollar, quarter and dime was slightly changed and arrows were placed at the date during those years to denote the difference in weight. Silver three cent pieces, half dimes and two cent pieces were abolished, and the manufacture of minor coins was the sole responsibility of the Philadelphia Mint.