ion is at the time deposited in the
Treasury as a security for its redemption. Upon this subject, as upon
the tariff, my recommendation is that the existing laws be given a full
trial and that our business interests be spared the distressing
influence which threats of radical changes always impart. Under existing
legislation it is in the power of the Treasury Department to maintain
that essential condition of national finance as well as of commercial
prosperity--the parity in use of the coined dollars and their paper
representatives. The assurance that these powers would be freely and
unhesitatingly used has done much to produce and sustain the present
favorable business conditions.

I am still of the opinion that the free coinage of silver under existing
conditions would disastrously affect our business interests at home and
abroad. We could not hope to maintain an equality in the purchasing
power of the gold and silver dollar in our own markets, and in foreign
trade the stamp gives no added value to the bullion contained in coins.
The producers of the country, its farmers and laborers, have the highest
interest that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Government
shall be as good as any other. If there is one less valuable than
another, its sure and constant errand will be to pay them for their
toil and for their crops. The money lender will protect himself by
stipulating for payment in gold, but the laborer has never been able to
do that. To place business upon a silver basis would mean a sudden and
severe contraction of the currency by the withdrawal of gold and gold
notes and such an unsettling of all values as would produce a commercial
panic. I can not believe that a people so strong and prosperous as ours
will promote such a policy.

The producers of silver are entitled to just consideration, but they
should not forget that the Government is now buying and putting out of
the market what is the equivalent of the entire product of our silver
mines. This is more than they themselves thought of asking two years
ago. I believe it is the earnest desire of a great majority of the
people, as it is mine, that a full coin use shall be made of silver
just as soon as the cooperation of other nations can be secured and a
ratio fixed that will give circulation equally to gold and silver. The
business of the world requires the use of both metals; but I do not see
any prospect of gain, but much of loss, by giving up the