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Ex-president Harrison On The Powers Of Government

Ex-president Harrison On The Powers Of Government image
Parent Issue
Day
10
Month
December
Year
1896
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

I will feil you what this govcrnilone. It can flx its montít. it can declare by law what Bhall be the relativo valué of an ounce ild and an ounoe of silver, but it lot make that last declaration Bood. It is nnquestionably ful!y withj in the power of thSa government to I bring this country tp a silver basig by coining silver dollars and making i thcm legal tender. They can do that. I This goveróment can say you shall i take one of those dolían? in discharge I of any debt owing to you for $1, not! withstanding you may have loaned gold dollars; but it cannot say, and enforco its decree, ií you should cali out the re.srular army and navy and I muster all our great modern ships and add the mllitla, and put WHUam .T. Bryan in command of tiem- it cannot enforce tho decree that 1 ouncc of gold la the equtvftlent of 16 ounces of si!ver. Not only that, nof France and England and Germany can do that unless tho markets respond. "Why? You niay make n:0 take a silver dollar for a debt, bnt if I have bouglit my goods at gold prices you cannot make me give as niany yards of cloth for a süver dollar a3 I have been in the habit of giving for a geld one. If I have a gold dollar in this hand and a silver one in that, and you declaro they are equal, and I can tako i that gold dollar to a bullion broker and get ?2 for it, I know it is a líe. If I -have nothing but a gold dollar, and sugar is 20 pounds for $1, 1 will not give that gold dollar for 20 'pounds of sugar. I will take it around to n. broker and get tv.-o silver dollars for it and get the 20 pounds of sugar and have ono eilver dollar left. So it is, my friends. We c-an ff ourselvcs, of our own wisdom, declaro the unit of value. We can coin silver freely, but we cannot make 1G ounces of silver equal to 1 ounco of gold unless it is. And it is not unless the merehaata take it at that rate. That is where all this thing comes in. It ia trade, it is the merchant, it is the man who exehanges and deals in these things that fixes the relative value, and if you do not take the value he fixes the gold dollar will go back to the gold vault, and the gold will go out of circulaüon.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register