English VI.

Question: "Resolved, That any further coinage of silver by the United States is undesirable."

Brief for the Affirmative.

M. A. ALDRICH and F. S. ELLIOT.Best general references: W. S. Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance, 303-316; F. W. Taussig, The Silver Situation in the U. S.; J. L. Laughlin, The History of Bimetallism in the U. S., chaps. 13-14; Nation, vol. 56, pp. 96, 432, 466, 448, vol. 57, pp. 22, 61, 94-95, 222, vol. 58, pp. 266, 463; Forum, XV, 657 (Aug. 1893).

I. International Bimetallism is at present impracticable. - (a) Great Britain, the chief commercial nation, would stay out: Jevons, 307-309.

II. The U. S. must remain on a gold basis. - (a) Gold is more stable in value than silver: Jevons, pp. 305, 311-313. - (b) A silver standard would injure trade. - (1) Would produce violent fluctuations in foreign exchange: F. A. Walker, Political Economy, pp. 409-411. - (2) Would render the value of debts uncertain. - (c) The morale of tinkering with the currency is bad: Taussig, 126-127. - (d) Change to a silver standard means another financial crisis. - (e) A silver standard is dishonest. - (1) Injures creditor. - (2) Does not permanently help debtor.

III. Further coinage of silver would render a gold basis impossible. - (a) National bimetallism means silver monometallism. - (1) Only exceptional good fortune has prevented previous issues of silver from driving the U. S. to a silver basis. - (v) Silver replaced disappearing bank notes: Taussig, 38-39. - (w) Treasury offered baits to induce use of silver: Taussig, 20, 41. - (x) Banks received treasury notes of 1890 freely: Taussig, 59. - (y) Large surplus in '85-'86: Taussig, p. 32. - (z) Favorable balance of trade. - (2) Such exceptional good luck can not be expected to continue. - (3) Events of this last winter prove that with an unfavorable balance of trade we can not maintain gold payment. - (x) The drain of gold falls wholly on the treasury. - (y) Gold bonds are a temporary expedient.

IV. If a currency supplementary to gold is needed a revised system of national bank notes is better than silver.

Brief for the Negative.

H. A. BULL and W. B. MOULTON.Best general references: F. A. Walker, Money; J. S. Nicholson, Money and Monetary Problems; E. Benj. Andrews Pol. Sci. Q., VIII, 197-219 (June 1893); E. Suess, Future of Silver; S. D. Horton, Silver in Europe; J. W. Jenks in Amer. Journ. Soc. Sci., XXXII, 27 (Nov. 1894).

I. Single gold standard would give rise to great evils. - (a) Would depress trade and industry: Amer. Jour. Soc. Sci. XXXII, 27. - (1) On a gold basis, the amount of money could not increase with the growth of population and business. - (x) Supply of gold is insufficient: Report of U. S. Monetary Commission of 1877, p. 15; Pol. Sci. Q. VIII, 211. - (2) Contraction of amount of money means lower prices: Mill, Pol. Econ., book III, ch. 8. - (b) Would injure the debtor class. - (1) They would have to pay in an appreciated currency: MacVane, Pol. Econ., 123. - (c) Would injure the farmers. - (1) Many of them are in debt. - (2) Price of their commodities lowered: Taussig, Silver Situation, 112-115. - (d) Would place dangerous power in hands of money syndicates to influence market prices, etc. - (e) Need of more currency would lead to wild schemes for paper currency. - (f) Adoption of gold standard injured Germany: Hugh McCulloch, lecture delivered at Harvard, May 8, 1879, p. 16.

II. Use of silver as money is most desirable. - (a) Silver and gold the only suitable money metals: Mill, bk. III, ch. 8. - (b) Gold is insufficient: see above I, (a) 1. - (c) Silver in relation to commodities a more stable standard than gold: Amer. Jour. Soc. Sci. XXXII, 27; Sen. Stewart in Cong. Record, XXV, App. 158-159 - (d) Silver and gold together a non-fluctuating standard: McCulloch, p. 21. - (e) Silver will eventually become standard money metal of the world. - (1) Exhaustion of gold mines. - (2) Increased use of gold in the arts: Suess, 100-101. - (f) Present suspicion of silver unjustifiable. - (1) Silver has not depreciated, but gold has appreciated: International Monetary Conference of 1892, p. 54; British Monetary Commission of 1887-88. - (2) No danger of a flood of silver: Suess, 51; Forum XV, 67 (Mar. 1893); Pol. Sci. Q. VIII, 206.

III. The U. S. alone might safely coin silver at a proper ratio: A. S. Stokes, Joint Metallism; W. C. Oates in Cong, Record XXV, App., 152-155. - (a) The proper ratio would be that which would most nearly coincide with market ratio. - (b) This ratio is ascertainable. - (c) There would be no tendency for silver to drive out gold. - (1) A silver dollar would contain a gold dollar's worth of silver. - (d) Our present silver money could be gradually recoined at new ratio; meanwhile government's fiat would maintain it at parity with gold as it does now.

IV. Such coinage of silver by the U. S. would be highly beneficial. - (a) Would prevent evils of single gold standard: See I above. - (b) Would lead to establishing our whole currency system on a sound basis. - (1) Silver money would be honest: See III (c) above. - (2) Greenbacks, which drain Treasury of gold, might be withdrawn: Harpers Weekly, Dec. 22, 1894. - (3) Silver might replace National Bank circulation, which is decreasing and must soon end: U. S. Statistical abstract, 1893, p. 42. - (c) Would likely lead to an international bimetallic agreement.