Emerson on Sound Money: A Speech, 1896Emerson, Willis George
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Emerson on Sound Money: A Speech, 1896
Emerson, Willis George
Currency question -- United States; Silver question
constitution, fix the ratio to-day at about 32 to 1, simply because the
relative or market value of the two metals has varied to that extent.
HONESTY AND SOBER JUDGMENT NEEDED.
My countrymen, the questions involved in the present campaign merit
and deserve your most careful thought and study. It is the sober, honest
judgment of the thinking, reading, investigating American citizen that
the Republican party is relying upon for its support. Let me give you a
few facts which possibly you will consider worthy of remembrance:
FIRST. EVERY FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD IS ON A
SILVER BASIS.
SECOND. THERE IS NOT A GOLD STANDARD COUNTRY ON EARTH BUT WHAT USES BOTH
GOLD AND SILVER AS MONEY.
THIRD. THERE IS NOT A SILVER STANDARD COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT USES ANY
GOLD WHATEVER AS MONEY; AND
LASTLY, THERE IS NOT A SILVER STANDARD COUNTRY TO BE FOUND IN THE GREAT
OCEAN OF COMMERCE THAT ROLLS ALL 'ROUND THE WORLD THAT HAS ONE-FOURTH AS
MUCH MONEY PER CAPITA AS HAS THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER GOLD STANDARD
COUNTRIES.
China, Japan, India, Mexico and most of the South American states are
on a silver basis. The United States, England, France, Germany, Belgium,
Sweden and others are on a gold basis.
One of the most interesting facts which the student of finance will
encounter, is the vast difference of the amount of money per capita
between the gold standard and the silver standard countries.
PER CAPITA OF MONEY.
In the countries on a silver basis we find the Central American states
with a per capita of $3.78, Japan with a per capita of only $4.09, India
$3.33, China $2.08, Mexico $5.47. Now note the difference between these
countries and a few that I will mention that are on a gold basis:
The United States has a per capita of $21.10, England $19.98, France
$36.70, Germany $18.78, Belgium $27.82.
In this connection, fellow citizens, let me impress upon your minds the
facts that you cannot go into any country on the face of the earth where
its mints are open to free and unlimited coinage of silver and find a
single gold coin circulating among the people, moreover, that the silver
standard country does not exist where the United States gold dollar, the
United States silver dollar, or the United States paper dollar will
not purchase twice as much merchandise as any dollar which you can find
circulating among its people. I challenge the author of Coin's Financial
School or the Demosthenes of Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan, or any
one else, to successfully contradict this statement.
I AM A BIMETALLIST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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