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Mr. Bryan's Tour In Mexico

Mr. Bryan's Tour In Mexico image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
December
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Fi'otn The New York Tribune. Washington, Dec. 19. - Statestnan and financiers who are watching with sotne interest the tour of Mr. Bryan through Mexico are wondering whether lie will discover any errors in the statements he put forth last year in behalf of the Mexican systein of flnance, which he asked the United States to adopt. VVhile the fact that he received $1,000 in Mexican money in exchange for $500 of United States currency on entering Mexico inight have the effect of weakening the faith he expressed in his Aslieville, N. C, speech and on many other occasions, that gold would not go to a premium in the United States if the free-coinage proposition were adopted, there are a number of other facts easily accessible in Mexico which it is hoped he will have time to look into and compare with the statements he made to the American people in the campaign of 1896. One of the interesting statements of his addresses was the insistence that the gold would not leave the country under the free coinage of silver. In his Asheville speech referred toabove he said pointedly : "Xot a (lollar's worth of gold would leave tliis country until those who held it feit they would benefit by letting it go. I believe under free coinage gold would come here instead of going away, and the only way to stop the ontflow of gold is to adopt bimetallism, raise the price of wheat and pay our debts in produce instead of gold." There are several things which Mr. Bryan can learn in Mexico which may fail to confirm the belief he expressed a short fifteen months ago. For instance, if he will take the trouble to inquire about Mexico's experience with gold he will find that of the large sums of gold mined there in the last few years only $5,000,000 now remains in the country. The gold mined in Mexico in the last three years aggregates about $20,000,000, being $4,500,000 in 1894, $6,000,000 in 1895 and something over $8,000,000 in 1896; yet, according to the official statement of the Mint Bureau published at the beginning of the present fiscal year, the total amount of gold in Mexico was at the present time only $5,000,000, or practically one-fourth of the amount mined in three years. Gold has been mined in Mexico, of course, for many years and at times in great quantities, and the fact that Mr. Bryan on arriving there finds reinaining in the entire country less than a single year's production ought to convince him that there is soine error in his assumption that the free-silver system, as exemplified there, will "bring gold into the country" or prevent its leaving the country. Another statement of the paragraph from his speech quoted above, that the only way to stop the outflow of gold is to adopt bimetallism, raise the price of wheat and pay our debts in produce instead of gold," seems to be fully met by some figures just coming to the surface here. Bimetallism was not adopted in 1896, according to Mr. Bryan's programme ; yet the statistics relating to imports, exports and ciroulation of gold and the exportation of American products with which to pay debts abroad, shows that the things which he assumed could only be accomplished through the adoption of bimetallism have occurred without that action. The latest statement of the Treasury Department indicated the amount of gold in circulalion in the United States shows that the amount bas increased nearly $100,000,000 since the date of his nomination and without the adoption of free coinage. On Julyl, 1896, justa week before his nomination, the gold coin in circulation in the United States was, according to Treasury figures, $454,905,064, and at the beginning of the present month it was $544,494,748. That this increase has been brought about largely by the very methods he recommended in conjunction with his financia] systein, "raising the price of wheat and paying our debts in produce instead of gold," is found by the figures just issued by the Bureau of Statistics, covering the exportations during eleven months of the present year. These figures, show that the exports of domestic merchandise, in which wheat is, of course the largest item, since it has doubledin price since Mr. Bryan's statement was made, amout to, $956,644,357 for eleven months, and will be for the calendar year the largest in the history of the country. Another striking evidence that Mr. Bryan's views of last year were not altoecether accurate is found in a statement of the Treasury Department, just issued, whie-h shows the total amount of money in cirulation in the United States, compared with the amount in circulation at a time when he was trying to persuade the people that the only possible way of increasing the volume of money was by the free and unlimited coinage of silver. It will be remembored that this was the barden of his speeches from the day on which he captured the Chicago Convention until the Jast ballot was cast on November 6, and that he insisted day after day that only the free coinage of silver could give the increase of volume necessary to equal the increase in population. Free coinage was not adopted but the statement which ia issued by the Treasury Department shows that the money in circulation in the United States at the beginning of the present month was $214,000,000 more than when Mr. Bryan made Iris famous "cross of gold" speech. The money in circulation on July 1, 1896, just a week before the meeting of Chicago Couvention, was $1,506,434,966 and on December 1, 1897, was $1,721,084,538. This increase in the volume of circulation in the L'nited States since Mr. Bryan's nomination, and covering the period in which the free coinage proposition was discussed and rejected, is more than doublé the amount of the entire sum of money existingin Mexico, as shown in the publication of the United States Treasury at the beginning of the present fiscal year. Nearly $100,000,000 cf this increase in circulation in the seventeen months in question has been as shown above, in gold, almost $10,000,000 in . silver dollars, $4,000,000 in subsidiary coin, and $43,000,000 in silver certificates. The actual figures showing the money in circulation on July 1, 1897, is given in the official tables of the Treasury Department, are as follows : MONEY IS' C1RCULATIOX IN THE UNITED STATES. July 1, 1896. Dec. 1, 1897. Gold coin $454.905.061 $544,494,748 Stand'rdsüv'rdoü'rs 52,116,904 61280761 Subsidiary silver 0,204,451 64$29 045 Gold certiflcates 42,198,119 36,725,409 Silver certificates 330.657,191 373,298 967 Treasury notes 95,245,047 J04,676,388 United States notes. 224,249,808 262,183 000 Currency certiflcates 31,890,000 46,640,000 National bank notes 215,168,122 224,956,210 Total $1,506,434,966 $1,721,084,538 Note- Gain in circulation in seventeen months, $214,649,572.

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier