The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, May 01, 1899, Image 18

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    10
THE BATTALION.
was that its coinage, to a large extent, has been stopped.
But statistics show that there has been more silver coined
annually since ’78 than was ever coined before.
Likewise cotton has gone down from 90 cents per
pound, 30 years ago, to at the present date. The
cause of this was over production. The same it is with
silver. For this reason the civilized nations of the world
have abandoned the silver and double standards and
adopted the gold standard.
In 1816 England adopted the gold standard; Germany
in 1871; Norway, Sweden and Denmark in 1873; Finland
in 1877; Austria-Hungaria in 1892; Russia and Chile in
1895, and Japan in 1897. Holland in 1847 adopted the sil
ver standard, but saw her mistake and adopted the gold
standard in 1873, and now warns the United States to be
ware of the silver standard. France in vain tried to main
tain the double standard, for she changed her ratio 150
times in the previous 100 years, gave up the attempt and
adopted the gold standard in 1891. China and Mexico are
the nations that retain the silver standard, and the value
of their money is regulated by the intrinsic value of the
metal it contains, which is about one-half of that of na
tions whose money is based on gold. But silver men claim
that the credit of these nations is what keeps the silver
down; that if the United States would coin it the old ratio
with gold would be replaced. The United States to-day
has piled to her indebtednrss $1,800,000,000. I don’t
think she can stand much more.
But is it for the people to restore the old value of sil
ver, democracy? No. Why did not Jefferson restore the