OCR Text |
Show EEPUD!ATE DEBTS CI : BEMDNETIZE SILVER United States Senator Charles Thomas Discusses Future of Metal. "When the war broke out I ventured . the prediction that one of its ultimate and necessary results would be the re-establishment of silver as a money metal upon some general and fixed ratio with gold." says VnHed States Senator Charles S. Thomas in the Giipin County Observer. "I did this because I believed, and still believe, first, that the effect of the war upon exchan.se in gold-iifins; nations would be magnified by a corresponding, ; but more desirable, fluctuation between ?o!d and silver than it ever had. Second. : because gold would disappear from the . currents of trade in all the warrinc : countries and silver would, very naturally, ' fail into the vacuum thus created, beinc ; preferable to and perhaps an equally good ' bas'.s for paper currency. "Third and lastiy. because the enor- mous cost of the war represented by a debt of striking proportions would necessitate necessi-tate resort to silver as the only means of broadening the metallic basis for money and credit. If I am correct in this forecast, the intrigues of the money interests can only retard their operation opera-tion the movement cannot be avoided. "I do not think the moneyed interests had anything to do with the recent rise in silver or its more recent fall. This is one of the spasmodic fluctuations in the value of the commodity which are caused by sudden and temporary demand. I think these are liable to occur from time to time, resulting in a permanent rise of tile level of market quotations. It is too earlv to predict a close of the war, and until that arrives little, if anything, : will be done for silver. i "When the war ends the total public 1 debt of t'p.e belligerents and neutral En- i . ropean nations, which hav. been obliged ' ' to be at all times on a military basis at I ; ereat expense, will be far in excess of a j . hun.lred billion dollar?. The annual in-: in-: terest upon this sum at ? per cent represents repre-sents Sri,ui.OM.'i00, which, added to the cost of government operations, will mean an annual tax upon their producing masses of not less than S'.oOrt.OOO.OOO. "This is much more than the total productive pro-ductive wealth of t he c oun tries con-cemed con-cemed and means repudiation unless silver sil-ver comes to the rescue of gold. Even then the nations will have to stagger along under an awful load for many years, if they are ever to get out from under it. between repudiation nnd payment in sil-ver. sil-ver. the holders of these national securi- i i ties will prefer the latter. I. therefore, i.1 conclude that the interests heretofore 'responsible for silver's demonetization f will be found amonc the champions of La.-that metal through the stimulus of self-interest." |