FREE COINAGE OF SILVER. 503 



money lias been destroyed, it makes it more difficult for 

 him to deliver the money. The same as it would if he 

 sold New York Central stock short, when there was, say 

 1,000,000 shares, and the stock should be so pooled, when 

 the time for delivery came less than half of the stock 

 was on the market In that case, in the language of the 

 street, he would be "cinched." This would be contrac- 

 tion of the circulating medium in the one case, and of the 

 New York Central stock in the other. 



"But how do you apply this to the bondholders ? n 



"In 1850 there were in the civilized world about 

 $200,000,000 of gold and silver in circulation among the 

 people. The discovery of gold in California and Australia 

 occasioned avast increase in the supply of gold. Prices of 

 labor and commodities went up. It was easy to pay debts. 

 The bondholders immediately declared that it was the 

 duty of every government to stop using gold as money ; 

 that gold was a base and worthless metal ; that the use of it 

 would drive silver, which was the better metal, out of exist- 

 ence as a circulating medium. They employed Chevalier, 

 of France, and Maclaren, of England, to write against the 

 use of gold, in the same way that the bondholders are 

 employing David A. Wells and Edward Atkinson to write 

 against silver to-day. Germany and Austria, in 1857, 

 demonetized gold by excluding that metal from their 

 mints, and Belgium and Holland adopted the single silver 

 standard. Chevalier and others contended that gold was 

 not a legal tender in France, as others contend that silver 

 is not now a legal tender in the United States. " 



"Why did they not continue the war on gold?'' 



"Because early in the '70's it became certain that the 



product of silver would equal, and probably exceed, that 



of gold, and silver would be the plentier material. At 



that time the national debts of the civilized world exceed- 



