Under gold monometallism. Money which must be redeemed. 10 billions of dollars. 4 billions of dollars. Real money with which to redeem it. The situation in the United States will not be as unfortunate under the proposed gold monometallism as it will be in the world at large. But the change will be most unwise. The gold in the United States, including bullion in the United States The silver money in the United States was $476,201,341 and The total money in circulation, less the gold and silver coins, was.. The total metallic money was.. Leaving a surplus of real money of.... $1,016,009,857 555,845,062 $1,571,854,919 1,215,348,972 $356,505,947 The situation under gold monometallism would be $1,016,009,857 Gold in the United States, as above estimated We have thus a total of $20,240,000,000 of debt upon $65,000,000,000 of assets, or a proportion of $1 owed to every $3 owned. It is true that the valuation of the wealth of the country, if it were made now, would probably be much more than $65,000,000,000, so that the proportion to it of the above total of debts of $20,240,000,000 would be less than 1 to 3. On the other hand, the debts enumerated in the table do not include those of private corporations other than railroad companies, nor the innumerable little debts owing to individuals for money lent on personal security. Making allowances on both sides of the account, it is, therefore, safe to assume, approximately, that the property of the citizens of this country is incumbered by debts to the amount of one-third of its value, and to that extent does not belong to its owners. How marvelous it would be if, under these conditions, the United States should join Great Britain and Germany As an intellectual achievement it is puerile. A ProtestantCatholic, a Union-Secessionist, an Irish-Englishman, a Pink-Yellow, a Methodist-Pope, a White-African, a Christian-Infidel, or a Land-Whale are not more grandiose antonyms than a Gold Democrat. SENATOR: I often feared the artifices artificiarum of Mr. Cleveland's Gold Democracy would cost us the election in 1896. Their holdings were the crumbs which had fallen from the Republicans' table. English syndicates had feathered most of their trust nests, and they feared lest their gold bonds might be thrown upon the market if Mr. Bryan was elected. Their scientific concept of Bimetallism was the market value of their bonds. Mr. Cleveland was the economic wet-nurse of Gold Democracy. His acquirements in the broad field of political economy were extremely modest. The ex-President's first lesson was in the political science and pathology of hanging. The Mayor's office and Albany as universities of learning are not favorable to the pathognomy of erudite abstract sciences. PRESIDENT: You are at times tainted with a malignity truly diabolical. SENATOR: No economist of repute but knows whatever may be the literary skill of the accoucheur of his productions, upon subjects of speculative sociology, Mr. Cleveland is a childish talker. PRESIDENT: I have observed he either breaks off in medio of his "innocuous desuetudes" or wanders to a measureless distance from their main purpose. SENATOR: As Carlyle says, tending no whither. PRESIDENT: In their efforts to efface from Bimetallism the stains affixed by ignorant or disingenuous adversaries, our friends the enemy in 1896 were diverted from the real issue-viz., Direct Taxation in the distribution of wealth and Indirect Taxation in manipulating the legislation of the Government. Our opponents did not perceive in 1896 that the Gold Standard and its cluster of satellites afforded the Power-holding Class the necessary infernal machinery of Funded Debt, National Bank, High Protective Tariff, Gold Standard and Trust, to subsidize the physical forces of industry. The Democrats did not in that campaign understand the historical causation of the inequitable distribution of wealth. It is capable of being established beyond contradiction by going back to the proof of the statistics. I shall not weary you by throwing out more than a few hints by way of illustration. The interest-bearing securities, whether issued before or since the war, are exempt from taxation. The Power-holding Class holds to-day $1,026,482,990 securities which are exempt from taxation. Calculate the savings of the privileged classes on their original securities, nearly three thousand millions, with the interest compounded. What figures can express their gain totally escaping taxation thus shifted from the uncrowned kings to the shoulders of the well-to-do and poorer class? Aside from the transition of this stupendous burden, remember the well-to-do and poorer class, as we have seen, by the close of 1895 had paid. to the holders of these securities in principal and interest, under the Gold Standard, the enormous aggregate of $4,400,000,000. Credit 3,583 National Banks, whose resources on April 5 aggregated $4,639,138,160.36, with interest of one dollar for one hundred years at 1 per cent., and reduce the sum total to the amount which accrued during their forty years' existence. Bear in mind the rate of interest is often higher in Wall Street than 30 per cent., and examine a table which shows. the accumulation on $1,000 for sixty years, at the various rates of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 18, 24, and 30 per cent. per |