Show A PLEA FOR SILVE m it made by a new york binker banker W P st john HE DEFENDS D THE SHERMAN LAW another view of the financial fact question cioll not taken by gold goia bugs or silver men it at a of the chamber of co commerce amerce ofner of new york city president william NV illiam P st jolin john of the mercantile national dank bank spoke as follows Re repeal fical the sherman law stop buying silver and yet vet if shakespeare is an authority there is some soul of goodness in things evil if men would but deservedly distil dastil it out this so called Sher sherman nian act requires a monthly absorption of a fixed amount of silver bullion at the market price under the provision that this bl bullion illion is not to bs be emitted from the treasury except in legal tender silver coin this coin valuing silver at per fine ounce our treasury hoard of silver therefore were theace the act appreciated would be without influence upon the worlds market price for silver until that price exceeded per fine ounce this monthly absorption F of bullion serves to create an all issue iss ue of united states legal tender notes at the market price of the bullion when absorbed orbed manifestly fi then the lower loner tile the price of silver the smaller the sun sum I 1 of notes noles put out at the present price of silver the sum sual of notes thus issued will barely exceed a month or in a year the present secretary of the treasury adopting his predecessors bors in interpretation terp of the statute determines that these notes are redeemable on demand invariably in gold the urgency of need of the repeal of the let act is therefore to be determined by the measure of the ability of the united states to provide the gold 0 with which to redeem on oil demand an annual addition a of to of its I 1 legal eal e 0 al tender notes my friend who offers your resolutions today and asks you to adopt them proposes to substitute bank notes for these automatically created notes of the united states and lie he offers these substituted bank notes for united states notes as a restorative of confidence among the people I 1 value more highly t than he the ability of the united states hence I 1 see no urgency of need for a repeal of the statute which I 1 think so EO much mali maligned ned but if the united states as a body politic of people thought 0 to be among the wealthiest of nations liati ons ia is indeed unable to maintain its legal tender notes redeemable it in gold gola 1 I am not persuaded that the banks of the united states assure us its a better ability to maintain their t I 1 acir notes in gold As I 1 have not indulged myself with any of the fears that have been engendered 0 I 1 cannot take part in the demand for undue haste on the part of congress M about to be assembled this statute will fall into the hands of a majority in both houses committed by their party platform to repeal it that platform makes quite as loud a demand for the equal access to mints of the united states slates for gold and silver and requires the lading finding of safeguards that shall make bucha a measure an acceptable substitute for tile the act repealed on these terms I 1 am with you in the demand that we stop buying silver and let it share with nith gold 0 old the full obligation 0 primary money my friend mr clafflin Cla fuin has attributed to this chiseo eo called sherman bill our recent exports of I 1 gold I 1 think this gold export is as independent in fact of our silver legislation as of our internal revenue legislation we had a vast excess of imports of merchandise to pay for our debts to europe E drope matured at a time when the australian bank failures were beginning to be mysteriously predicted in english banking circles when argentine interest payments due under the guarantee of english E bankers were in default when the austrian syndicate of bankers was accumulating gold old at a premium as we know under such euch conditions prevailing with our creditors they exacted payment instead of rein vesting their moneys here it is now entirely likely that unless un forseen events transpire to prohibit it a return flow of gold to the united states in payment for our surplus of cereals meats and cotton will begin 0 ero ere long iong C let us remember that the united states exported nearly of gold during the year ending june 30 1891 but afterward re imported ald old in the four months andin ending 0 with january cl J andary 1 1892 the sli sherman er nian law iw then in operation turning out a greater sum of le legal leal al tender notes a at t that time than now because of a higher price than now for silver but we are asked to abandon silver temporarily in in order that the united states stales may enter the scramble for gold as the means to bring england to the aid of international bimetallism mr higgins lias has answered for us by instancing the cost and pains of our period of preparation for specie payments 1870 to 1877 especially mr fr Cla illin ignoring 0 0 these dates substitutes utes th the e period after specie payments had been achieved instancing t the prosperity of the united st state ates during 1879 to 1883 1 well we adopt this instance of prosperity to demind you that the bland act was then in operation opel aaion continually attacked by resolutions of this chamber and increased the volume of our silver money by during this period at the same came time that the united states in spite of this increase of silver gained also of gold such occasion for prosperity pros is an instance which we like to use also we think prosperity a better example and more enticing and inviting to followers than adversity which we bring upon ourselves for the sake of any suffering it t may cause our neighbor my ily friend has instanced against us lis the experience of tile the batik bank of france we thank him for the object lesson which of all others we would use lie ile remarks upon the large increase of the gold reserves of that bank during duriac the last year please note that it itis is to bimetallic france that the natural how of gold is most commonly observed france has in circulation upward of of legal tender silver her coin valuing 0 it at 1 3 per ounce tho the bank ban k of france has oOOO OOOO of this silver coin as a share of reserve against of outstanding ing legal tender notes she exercises exercises her option freely to redeem these notes in silver our policy instead has been to permit the note holder hider to de determine ter the coin in which our notes dotes shall be redeemed this is is the administration mal put upon the so called sherman law the secretary who first administered the act gave 0 ave a provision of the statute this interpretation the interpretation inter governs s his afif s successor the bank of france however occasions on alarm no the bourse of france by her every day election to redeem silver or gold at the banks convenience lier her notes are not at a discount but in february last commanded a premium over gold the batik bank can at any time give them a premium value over 43 gold old by redeeming I 1 temporarily in gold and holding on to every single note that comes in the popular demand for the convenience of paper nione money y in france would soon put upon these notes a premium over gold even her bankers ignoring 0 the fact tha tany moment she bhe may acain again 0 exercise her option to redeem in silver verily we may learn of france let us remember that her population is showing no increase at about 1 3 while the tion of the united states increasing a at t the rate of nearly a year or in ten years and occupying a territory seventeen seventeen times the area of france Is As to a restoration of popular confidence by the substitution of bank notes for fir legal tender notes of the united states please note an all everyday experience of this week a as the notes of the combined banks of otherwise called their loan certificates and note how these banks themselves value these very best of bank notes in comparison with these same despised issues of the united states created automatically by the sherman bill banks in ia Phi ladelpha are paying 5 per 1000 for drafts on new york paying a for some with their loan certificates rather than part with the united states notes to ship to new york in settlement at a cost of cents per 1 this preference ernce of theirs for united states notes over their own combined bank notes aulo amounting to forty times the cost coit of a shipment to new york this sherman bill so called has been stigmatized a makeshift it is a makeshift as a hatchet is a makeshift for an ax in felling sap eap ings a it was enacted as a a compromise for no better nor any half so acceptable can bo be offered as its substitute apart fron the unfounded alarm which has been worked up against it the real operation of tho the X statute has I 1 been cen wholly beneficial it has furnished us of lawful money as good at home us as gold and the more acceptable I 1 that a portion of our gold is from time to time commanded inward and outward according 0 to our foreign trade |