BIMETALLISM-Continued.

PLATFORMS.
1884.

"We have always recommended the best money known to the civilized world; and we urge that efforts should be made to unite all commercial nations in the establishment of an international standard which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and silver coinage."

1888.

"The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic Administration in its efforts to demonetize silver."

1892.

"The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals so that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the producers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen, demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Government shall be as good as any other. We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our Government to secure an international conference to adopt such measures as will insure a parity of value between gold and silver for use as money throughout the world."

1896.

"The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payments in 1879; since then every dollar has been as good as gold.

"We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All

BIMETALLISM-Continued.

our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obligations of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth."

LEGISLATION.

For sixteen years the Republican party has contended for the largest possible use of silver; and under the operation of the Acts of 1878 and 1890 more silver has been coined and put to money use than in all the years preceding such legislation. This silver money was never discredited until it was assaulted by the pretended friends of silver in a demand for its free and unlimited coinage. Silver coinage of standard dollars was suspended in 1806, was subjected to a mint charge by the Act of June 28, 1834, of one-half of 1 per cent., which was modified by the Act of January 18, 1837 (Section 18), to the reasonable cost of preparing the metal.

The Act of January 21, 1853, reduced the weight of subsidiary coins, and provided for all such coinage in the future to be on Government account. Government account as applied to subsidiary coin was adopted by the Republican party as the best method of keeping silver in use as standard money. Seventy-eight per cent. of the silver produced in the world is dependent upon money use, as only 22 per cent. is used in the arts. In the United States we have produced since 1878 silver to the value of $914,150,000, of which $201,150,000 worth was used in the arts, leaving $713,000,000 worth for money use. The Government has coined from 1878 to 1895 $450,387,000, and hold bullion in the Treasury to the amount of $124,921,000, thereby giving to $575,308,000 money use, which otherwise would have gone to depress the market price of silver used in the arts.

BIMETALLISM-Monetary Conference, Brussels, 1892— Instruction to Commissioners from U. S.

No. 30.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, Nov. 10, 1892. * * The main purpose which this Government seeks to accomplish by this conference is to bring about a stable relation between gold and silver.

It is the opinion of the President, and, as he believes, of the people of the United States, with singular unanimity, that a full use of

BIMETALLISM-Continued.

silver as a coined metal at a ratio to gold to be fixed by an agreement between the great commercial nations of the world, would very highly promote the prosperity of all the people of all the countries of the world. For this reason your first and most important duty will be to secure, if possible, an agreement among the chief commercial countries of the world looking to international bimetallism-that is the unlimited coinage of gold and silver into money of full debt-paying power at a fixed ratio in coinage common to all the agreeing powers.

You should not lose sight of the fact that no arrangement will be acceptable to the people or satisfactory to the Government of the United States which would by any possibility place this country on a silver basis while European countries maintain the single gold standard.

Failing to secure international bimetallism, the next important duty will be to secure, if possible, some action upon the part of European countries looking to a larger use of silver as currency, in order to put an end to the further depreciation of that metal. JOHN W. FOSTER, Secretary of State.

*

The foregoing is a further proof of the declared purpose of the Republican party to maintain bimetallism as in the interest of the

masses.

BIMETALLISM—England Concedes the Necessity for a Bimetallic Agreement.

No. 31.

Sir William Houldsworth, a delegate of Great Britain to the Brussels Monetary Conference, 1892, said:

I

"A further fall [in the level of prices] would be a disaster. frankly admit that, in my opinion, there will never be a permanent solution of this difficulty until we have an international bimetallic agreement." Report p. 365.

No. 32.

BIMETALLISM vs. MONOMETALLISM.
[Statements of prominent Englishmen.]

Great Britain may undergo some change if we may reason from the analogy of his eminent predecessors of the conference of 1878, Mr. Gibbs, late governor of the Bank of England, and Mr. Goschen, late Chancellor of Exchequer. Mr. Gibbs, now the most prominent champion of bimetallism, made the following statement at a public meeting:

BIMETALLISM-Continued.

"Mr. Goschen and I were together on the conference in Paris; both of us were sturdy defenders of gold monometalism; but I have changed my mind. I do not say Mr. Goschen has changed his mind, but he has somewhat modified it."

Now, let me quote Mr. Goschen's utterances at a public meeting. He said:

"There is a class of monometallists who say that bimetallism is all nonsense, and they cannot understand what it means. Now, I do not think it is nonsense at all. I think it is a very serious demand for a change, which, if adopted, would produce very large results. * * * The action of the Latin Union, the action of Germany, the displacement of silver and the enthronement of gold in its place in many countries, have had an immense effect in producing the changes which bimetallists deplore and attempt to remedy. So far, it appears to me, it can fairly be said that the action of governments have a distinct influence on the question of standards. I fully appreciate the importance of the question. I feel it almost impossible to exaggerate its importance."

On another occasion Mr. Goschen publicly remarked that monometallists, like many highly orthodox people, were so firmly impressed in their belief that they were unable to give a reason for the faith that was in them.

Now, the quasi official declaration of the honorable delegate's views, absolutely opposed to those of his colleague (Sir William Houldsworth), not only preclude any advance by other powers toward a solution of the difficulty, but places Great Britain in the invidious position of being the principal, if not the sole, obstacle to a satisfactory solution of the difficulties under which we labor. -Sir GUILFORD MOLESWORTHY, of British India, at Erussels Conf., p. 223.

No. 33.

BINDING TWINE.

The present tariff bill strikes down the manufacture of binding twine in this country. Under the old law there was laid a duty of seven-tenths of a cent per pound. The istle or Tampico fiber, manila, sisal grass, and sunn used in its manufacture, and which are not grown to any extent in this country, were by the act of 1890 put on the free list, while hemp, a product of the American farm, was made dutiable at $25 per ton.

BINDING TWINE-Continued.

Hemp and binding twine under the present bill are placed on the free list.

The results show imports of hemp in 1895 to be $754,975, and binding twine $16,422. None reported in previous years. The Census statistics show that the "Cordage and Twine" interests of the United States embraced 140 establishments, with a capital of $22,786,019, employing 12,506 men, paying $4,412,640 in wages, consuming $23,372,627 worth of material, and turning out products to the value of $32,376,454.

No. 34.

BISMARK ON AMERICAN PROTECTION.

The success of the United States in material development is the most illustrious of modern times. The American Nation has not only successfully borne and suppressed the most gigantic and expensive war of all history, but immediately after disbanded its army, found work for all its soldiers and marines, paid off most of its debt, gave labor and homes to all the unemployed of Europe as fast as they could arrive within the territory, and still by a system of taxation so indirect as not to be perceived, much less felt. Because it is my deliberate judgment that the prosperity of America is mainly due to its system of protective laws, I urge that Germany has now reached that point where it is necessary to imitate the tariff system of the United States.-(Speech in the Reichstag, May 12, 1882.)

BLAINE ON BRITISH AND AMERICAN PROGRESS. No. 35.

In 1860 the population of the United States was, in round numbers, 31,000,000. At the same time the population of the United Kingdom was, in round numbers, 29,000,000. The wealth of the United States at that time was $14,000,000,000; the wealth of the United Kingdom was $29,000,000,000. The United Kingdom had therefore nearly the same population, but more than double the wealth of the United States, with the machinery for manufacturing fourfold greater than that of the United States. At the end of twenty years (1880) it appeared that the United States had added nearly $30,000,000,000 to all her wealth, while the United Kingdom had added nearly $15,000,000,000, or about one-half.