Show resolutions TO THE DENVER CONGRESS in view of the meeting of the representatives senta tives of the west and south at denver may 19 to discuss the business interests inte reto of their states we the members ol of the salt lake chamber of commerce take occasion to resolve I 1 that we regard the restoration of silver to its former equal and rank with gold as perhaps the most important subject to which the said congress con greas can address itself and this in the in terest of not especially of the silver mining states but of the producing classes of the whole union the loss I 1 tg ta silver kalug aln aw sata romel wa depreciation of silver bullion as aa valued in gold by reason of its dishonor and disuse as a money metal is a conceivable sum to wit about a year whereas the low loss to all other producers whose output has been depreciated in price with silver is an inconceivable cei vable sum and must be reckoned in hundreds of millions per year a that we have not asked the government to purchase more or less silver to be coined into standard dollars this policy was afie result of the determination mi nation of the advocates of the single gold standard vi t be made merchandise of silver we are not in favor of the single gold standard or of the single silver standard but we favor the double standard believing the same from long experience to be practicable and better than either metal taken separately because less jess liable to fluctuation in value as measured against labor and the products of labor 3 that our position has been and is that congress had bad no right to discredit silver by discriminative coinage and legal tender acts as was done in 1878 74 because such action deprived debtors of the option enjoyed by virtue of law from the establishment of the united states mint down to that timeto time to discharge their indebtedness in either silver or gold as they chose and by dropping the silver dollar from coinage about one half of the real money in which all balances have finally to be settled was rendered unavailable and the remaining one half balf was by so much increased in value as measured by human labor or the products thereof and in consequence the weight of twelve thousand millions mill ioas of indebted ness was Inc by 30 per cent and ana in so BO far the labor profits and property of debtors was transferred to their creditors without consideration confiscation without due process of law is unconstitutional general consequences have been a steady decline in the value expressed in terms of gold 0 industrial output the discouragement of business busl and speculative enterprise the stagnation of trade and the confiscation of the profits of labor 4 that the bullion or commercial value of silver was depressed relatively to gold by the adoption of the gold standard by germany the dropping of the silver dollar from our coinage e and the cessation of the coinage of five franc pieces by the latin unto and it is taking advantage of their own wrong or error for those who have done this to now asdall the silver dollar as a light weight a clipped a dishon eitt dollar and to assert that its substitution for the gold dollar would impair existing contracts and be essentially dishonest 6 5 that this objection to the free coinage of even american silver which seems to nave have more weight with the general public than any or all others to the bo honor of human nature bad as it may be is more specious than valid because the great bulk of existing time indebtedness was incurred prior to 1873 when the silver liver dollar was more valuable than the che gold dollar at the present ratio when in face the greenback dollar which averaged a discount between 1861 and 1878 1873 of 87 per cent was the only dollar of account in use except on the pacific coast and since that period moss moet uwe contacts have stipulated A 14 payment y ment in gold and such is in fact the almost universal custom now in time transactions of importance we do not propose to au substitute biti tute one dollar for the other but that both shall be coined on equal terms so far at least al a the product of our own mines is cou con corned and shall take their chances 1 of circulating side by side that the addition of one silver dollar per capita per year to our circulation portends the expulsion of golej or any other disaster le is too puerile a notion to merit notice 0 6 we believe that to make the hullion bullion value of silver equal to its coin value to the gold dollar and with this appreciation to carry upward all values relatively to gold nothing is needed but the restoration of the law under which any owner of silver bullion formerly had the right to take it to the mint and have it there made into dollars dollare containing grains of silver tach each precisely as he may still do with gold at the bare cost of refining and alloying the metal this is our demand manaj and short of its attainment we will never rest we do not strenuously object to the exclusion of silver not produced from our own mines but let jet those who think we are in danger of having too much real money and who fear a deluge of foreign silver apply that restriction restrict ioB 7 that western and southern delegations in congress be requested to exert themselves to secure the meeting of another international monetary convention ven tion and that if great britain and germany connot bonnot be induced to join in fixing an international ratio between gold and silver the latin union be induced if possible to resume the coinage of live franc pieces it was the cessation of this coinage that sent silver downto down to 90 cents on the run england sustained the price of gold by law during ing the deluge from the mines of california and australia if the united states cannot do the same for silver now when there is no deluge of silver or likelihood of one certainly the tree free coinage of american silver and the resumption of the coinage of 6 5 franc pieces by the latin union will sustain it at the ratio of 1546 1516 to one and thus open the way to an international agreement to which great britain and germany will ultimate ultimately ly be forced to accede under steadily increasing popular pressure in those countries in that direction 8 that the large shipments of gold abroad at the present time are alarming inasmuch as our heaviest foreign balsi balances nem tire are customarily settled in the spring but are significant as indicating the sufficiency of gold as the sole basis of the monetary system of europe and the united hA tates the draft of gold from new york to is largely due to a panicky feeling in europe and the consequent struggle on the part of the leading nations to strengthen their reserves against contingencies were an international ter national agreement reached as to the ratio between the two metals the available supply of real money would be almost doubled and this strife to gather and hoard board gold would cease 0 J HOLLISTER hoisl esteb C C GOODWIN L E HOLDEN T FRED SIMON committee |