158 



CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



age of both gold and silver dollars of full legal- 

 tender quality, regardless of the action of any other 

 Government, and in full view of the fact that the 

 ratio between the metuls which they suggest calls 

 for 100 cents' worth of gold in the gold dollar at 

 the present standard and only 50 cents in intrinsic 

 worth of silver in the silver dollar. 



Were there infinitely stronger reasons than can 

 be adduced for hoping that such action would se- 

 cure for us a bimetallic currency moving on lines 

 of parity, an experiment so novel and hazardous as 

 that proposed might well stagger those who believe 

 that stability is an imperative condition of sound 

 money. 



No Government, no human contrivance or act of 

 legislation, has ever been able to hold the two 

 metals together in free coinage at a ratio apprecia- 

 bly different from that which is established in the 

 markets of the world. 



Those who believe that our independent free 

 coinage of silver at an artificial ratio with gold of 

 16 to 1 would restore the parity between the metals, 

 and consequently between the coins, oppose an un- 

 supported and improbable theory to the general be- 

 lief and practice of other nations, and to the teach- 

 ing of the wisest statesmen and economists of the 

 world, both in the past and present, and, what is far 

 more conclusive, they run counter to our own actual 

 experiences. 



Twice in our earlier history our lawmakers in at- 

 tempting to establish a bimetallic currency under- 

 took free coinage upon a ratio which accidentally 

 varied from the actual relative values of the two 

 metals not more than 3 per cent. In both cases, 

 notwithstanding greater difficulties and cost of 

 transportation than now exists, the coins whose in- 

 trinsic worth was undervalued in the ratio gradu- 

 ally and surely disappeared from our circulation and 

 went to other countries where their real value was 

 better recognized. 



Acts of Congress were impotent to create equality 

 where natural causes decreed even a slight in- 

 equality. 



Twice in our recent history we have signally 

 failed to raise by legislation the value of silver. 

 Under an act of 'Congress passed in 1878 the Gov- 

 ernment was required for more than twelve years 

 to expend annually at least $24,000,000 in the pur- 

 chase of silver bullion for coinage. The act of July 

 14, 1890, in a still bolder effort increased the amount 

 of silver the Government was compelled to purchase, 

 and forced it to become the buyer annually of 54,- 

 000,000 ounces, or practically the entire product of 

 our mines. Under both laws silver rapidly and 

 steadily declined in value. The prophecy and the 

 expressed hope and expectation of those in the Con- 

 gress who led in the passage of the last-mentioned 

 act, that it would re-establish and maintain the 

 former parity between the two metals, are still fresh 

 in our memory. 



In the light of these experiences, which accord 

 with the experiences of other nations, there is cer- 

 tainly no secure ground for the belief that an act of 

 Congress could now bridge an inequality of 50 per 

 cent, between gold and silver at our present ratio, 

 nor is there the least possibility that our country, 

 which has less that one seventh of the silver money 

 in the world, could by its action alone raise not 

 only our own, but all silver to its lost ratio with 

 gold. Our attempt to accomplish this by the free 

 coinage of silver at a ratio differing widely from 

 actual relative values would be the signal for the 

 complete departure of gold from our circulation, 

 the immediate and large contraction of our circu- 

 lating medium, and a shrinkage in the real value 

 and 'iionHarv rilicicncy of all other forms of cur- 

 rency as they settled to the level of silver mono- 



metallism. Every one who receives a fixed salary 

 and every worker for wages would find the dollar 

 in his hand ruthlessly scaled down to the point of 

 bitter disappointment if not to pinching privation. 



A change in our standard to silver monometal- 

 lism would also bring on a collapse of the entire 

 system of credit which, when based on a standard 

 which is recognized and adopted by the world of 

 business, is many times more potent and useful 

 than the entire volume of currency and is safely 

 capable of almost indefinite expansion to meet the 

 growth of trade and enterprise. In a self-invited 

 struggle through darkness and uncertainty our 

 humiliation would be increased by the conscious- 

 ness that we had parted company with all the en- 

 lightened and progressive nations of the world, and 

 were desperately and hopelessly striving to meet 

 the stress of modern commerce and competition 

 with a debased and unsuitable currency, and in 

 association with the few weak and laggard nations 

 which have silver alone as their standard of value. 



All history warns us against rash experiments 

 which threaten violent changes in our monetary 

 standard and the degradation of our currency. 

 The past is full of lessons teaching not only the 

 economic dangers, but the national immorality that 

 follows in the train of such experiments. I will 

 not believe that the American people can be pur- 

 suaded after sober deliberation to jeopardize their 

 nation's prestige and proud standing by encourag- 

 ing financial nostrums, nor that they will yield to 

 the false allurements of cheap money, when they 

 realize that it must result in the weakening of that 

 financial integrity and rectitude which thus far in 

 our history has been so devotedly cherished as one 

 of the traits of true Americanism. 



Our country's indebtedness, whether owing by 

 the Government or existing between individuals, 

 has been contracted with reference to our present 

 standard. To decree by act of Congress that these 

 debts shall be payable in less valuable dollars than 

 those within the contemplation and intention of the 

 parties when contracted would operate to transfer, . 

 by the fiat of law and without compensation, an 

 amount of property and a volume of rights and in- 

 terests almost incalculable. 



Those who advocate a blind and headlong plunge 

 to free coinage in the name of bimetallism and pro- 

 fessing the belief, contrary to all experience, that 

 we could thus establish a double standard and a 

 concurrent circulation of both metals in our coin- 

 age, are certainly reckoning from a cloudy stand- 

 point. Our present standard of value is the stand- 

 ard of the civilized world and permits the only 

 bimetallism now possible, or at least that is within 

 the independent reach of any single nation, how- 

 ever powerful that nation may be. While the value 

 of gold as a standard is steadied by almost universal 

 commercial and business use, it does not despise 

 silver nor seek its banishment. Wherever this 

 standard is maintained there is at its side in free 

 and unquestioned circulation a volume of silver 

 currency sometimes equaling and sometimes even 

 exceeding it in amount, both maintained at a parity 

 notwithstanding a depreciation or fluctuation in the 

 intrinsic value of silver. 



There is a vast difference between a standard of 

 value and a currency for monetary use. The stand- 

 ard must necessarily be fixed and certain. The 

 currency may be in divers forms and of various 

 kinds. No silver-standard country has a gold cur- 

 rency in circulation ; but an enlightened and wise 

 system of finance secures the benefits of both gold 

 and silver as currency and circulating medium by 

 keeping the standard stable and all other currency 

 at par with it. Such a system and such a standard 

 also gives free scope for the use and expansion of 



