Ninth. We have enough railroads to parallel every line of road in Europe and to more than circle the globe besides.

Tenth. We carry more freights inland, by river, canal, etc., than the bal ance of the world combined carries.

Eleventh. Whilst our foreign commerce, exports, imports, etc., are great, it is probably a conservative estimate that our domestic transactions are twenty times greater.

Twelfth. It is estimated that we do 31 per cent, of all the manufacturing done in the world.

Thirteenth. We do 32 per cent. of all of the world's banking.

Fourteenth. As a further evidence of the power of our people, let it be remembered that when our war of 1861 arose the South was not manufac turing its own clothing, much less its arms. In less than two years there were two hostile armics mustered from the same great people, either one of which would have been able to compete successfully with any other nation, and the two combined constituted the most formidable military array ever mustered in the history of mankind.

We are now three times as great as we were then in real power.

Fifteenth. Europe has four millions of men under arms or in military serv· They are drawn from industrial pursuits and are It requires the work of a million more to support them.

ice.

mere consumers.

The standing army of the United States is insignificant. Our people are not drawn, in the prime of life and activity, from industrial vocations and cooped up in camps and garrisons. They, therefore, not only require more currency than a less active community, but they can do more to sustain any currency they devise than those less fortunately situated.

Sixteenth. It will hardly be denied that Great Britain, France, and Germany combined, and moving together, could maintain free coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1.

England's greatest statistician, Mulhall, after the most careful and pains. taking calculations, estimating our energy by foot-tons, horse power, steam, etc., concludes that the United States is nearly equal to the three combined. He says: "It will be impossible to find a parallel to the progress of the United States in the last ten years. Every day that the sun rises upon the American people it sees an addition of $2,500,000 to the accumulation of the wealth of the Republic, which is equal to one-third of the daily accumulation of all mankind outside of the United States."

If we produce one-fourth of all the world's wealth daily, can we not return to that free and unlimited coinage which we sustained for two generations, when we did not produce one-twelfth of its wealth?

IX.

SILVER AND MONETARY STATISTICS.

The following facts and figures relating to silver and monetary subjects, and which will be useful to the campaign speaker, are reproduced from Cir cular No. 123, an official document of the United States Treasury Depart ment.

United States Bonds.

The United States bonds now outstanding were issued either for the purpose of refunding other forms of national indebtedness, or to supply gold for the redemption of United States notes.

The refunding acts, so called, were approved July 14, 1870, and January 20, 1871. Under these acts about $1,400,000,000 of bonds were issued, of which $500,000,000 were 5 per cent. ten-year bonds, redeemable after May 1, 1881; $185,000,000 were 42 per cent. fifteen-year bonds, redeemable after September 1, 1891, and the remainder were thirty-year 4 per cent. bonds, redeemable after July 1, 1907.

The resumption act was approved January 14, 1875; it directed the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and provide for the redemption of United States notes in coin on and after January 1, 1879, and it authorized him to use the surplus revenues for that purpose, from time to time, and to sell and dispose of, at not less than par in coin, either of the descriptions of bonds described in the refunding acts above mentioned. In pursuance of this authority, $95,500,000 of the 42 and 4 per cent. bonds were sold for redemption purposes, and the proceeds ($96,000,000 in gold) were placed in the Treasury as a fund for such redemption. In time this fund became known as the "gold reserve," and in the bank act, approved July 12, 1882, in a section providing for the issue of gold certificates, the sum of $100,000,000 was prescribed by Congress as the limit to which the gold reserve might be reduced without affecting the issue of gold certificates.

The presentation of United States notes for redemption prior to 1893 was not great enough to reduce the reserve fund below $100,000,000; in April of that year, however, the minimum was reached, and the fund became so low that in February, 1894, an issue of bonds became necessary to enable the Government to restore the gold reserve and redeem the obligations of the United States. Accordingly, popular subscriptions were invited for an issue of $50,000,000 of ten-year 5 per cent. bonds, which were dated February 1, 1894, and realized to the Government $58,633,295 in gold. In November, 1894, another issue of $50,000,000 of the same class of bonds was necessary,

the sum realized being $58,538,500. In February, 1895, the Government was again obliged to replenish the gold reserve, which it did by the purchase, under contract, of 3,500,000 ounces of gold coin, which were paid for with United States 4 per cent. thirty-year bonds amounting to $62,315,400. Another sale of $100,000,000 of 4 per cent. thirty-year bonds was made through popular subscriptions, invited in January, 1896. The total amount of bonds. thus issued since 1893 to protect the gold reserve was $262,315,400, and the total proceeds thereof, in gold coin, was $293,454,286.74.

The amount of United States bonds outstanding July 1, 1896, was as follows:

42 per cent. bonds continued at 2 per cent....

4 per cent. bonds of 1907....

5 per cent. bonds of 1904.

4 per cent. bonds of 1925..

Total

.$25,364,500

559,636,850

100,000,000

162,315,400

847,316,750

All these bonds were sold at not less than par for gold coin, or its equivalent; they are all redeemable in coin of the standard value of July 14, 1870, which was the date of the first of the refunding acts. The standard weights and fineness for coins at that date were the same as at present, the gold unit being a dollar of the standard weight of 25.8 grains and the silver unit being the silver dollar of the standard weight of 4121⁄2 grains. The interest on all these bonds is payable quarterly in coin of the same standard.

The Government has never issued any bonds payable, by their terms, either principal or interest, in gold coin or in silver coin. Before the war, the obligations of the Government contained no statement as to the kind of money in which they should be paid, and none of the war obligations contained any such provision, except the certificates of temporary loan and the 7-30 notes of 1864 and 1865, which were all payable, by their terms, in lawful money.

Copies of the regulations of this Department for the issue, exchange, transfer, and redemption of United States bonds may be had upon application to the Secretary of the Treasury.

Coins and Paper Currency.

There are ten different kinds of money in circulation in the United States, namely, gold, coins, standard silver dollars, subsidiary silver, gold certificates, silver certificates, Treasury notes issued under the act of July 14, 1890, United States notes (also called greenbacks and legal tenders), national-bank notes, and nickel and bronze coins. These forms of money are all available as circulation. While they do not all possess the full legal-tender quality, each kind has such attributes as to give it currency. The status of each kind is as follows:

Gold coin is legal tender at its nominal or face value for all debts, public and private, when not below the standard weight and limit of tolerance

prescribed by law; and when below such standard and limit of tolerance, it is legal tender in proportion to its weight.

Standard silver dollars are legal tender at their nominal or face value in payment of all debts, public and private, without regard to the amount, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.

Subsidiary silver is legal tender for amounts not exceeding $10 in any one payment.

Treasury notes of the act of July 14, 1890, are legal tender for all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.

United States notes are legal tender for all debts, public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt.

Gold certificates, silver certificates, and national-bank notes are not legal tender, but both classes of certificates are receivable for all public dues, while national-bank notes are receivable for all public dues, except duties on imports, and may be paid out by the Government for all salaries, and other debts and demands owing by the United States to individuals, corporations, and associations within the United States, except interest on the public debt, and in redempion of the national currency. All national banks are required by law to receive the notes of other national banks at par. The minor coins of nickel and copper are legal tender to the extent of 25 cents.

Gold Coins.

The coinage of legal-tender gold was authorized by the first coinage act passed by Congress, April 2, 1792.

The gold unit of value is the dollar which contains 25.8 grains of standard gold 900 fine. The amount of fine gold in the dollar is 23.22 grains, and the remainder of the weight is an alloy of copper. While the gold dollar is the unit and standard of value, the actual coinage of the $1 piece was discontinued under authority of the act of September 26, 1890. Gold is now coined in denominations of $2.50, $5, $10, and $20, called, respectively, quarter eagles, half eagles, eagles, and double eagles.

The total coinage of gold by the mints of the United States from 1792 to June 30, 1896, is $1,814,692,253, of which it is estimated that $567,931,823 is still in existence as coin in the United States, while the remainder, $1,246,760,430, has been exported or consumed in the fine arts. The gold bullion now in the United States amounts to $32,268,955.

The basis for the estimate of the amount of gold coin in the United States was established in 1873, when the amount in the vaults of the national banks and in the Treasury was ascertained from reports to be $98,389,864. To this was added $20,000,000 as an estimate of the amount of gold in use on the Pacific coast, and $10,000,000 as the amount held by all other banks and by the people. The amount thus ascertained was $128,389,864, to which have been added from year to year the new coinage reported by the Director of the Mint, and the imports as shown by the custom house reports;

and from which have been deducted the exports and the amounts consumed in the arts. It will be seen that more than two-thirds of the gold coins struck at the mints of the United States have disappeared from circulation.

Silver Coins.

The silver unit is the dollar which contains 4121⁄2 grains of standard silver 900 fine. The amount of fine silver in the dollar is 3714 grains, and there are 414 grains of copper alloy. The standard silver dollar was. first authorized by the act of April 2, 1792. Its weight was 416 grains 892.4 fine. It contained the same quantity of fine silver as the present dollar, whose weight and fineness were established by the act of January 18, 1837. The coinage of the standard silver dollar was discontinued by the act of February 12, 1873, and it was restored by the act of February 28, 1878. The total amount coined from 1792 to 1873 was $8,031,238, and the amount coined from 1878 to June 30, 1896, was $430,790,041. The coinage ratio be tween gold and silver under the act of 1792 was 15 to 1, but by the act of 1837 it was changed to 15.988 to 1 (commonly called 16 to 1). This is the present ratio.

Of the $430,790,041 standard silver dollars coined since February, 1878, there were held in the Treasury June 30, 1896, $378,614,043, and the amount outside the Treasury was $52,175,998. Silver certificates to the amount of $342,619,504 have been issued against that amount of the standard silver dollars held in the Treasury. The commercial value of an ounce of fine silver June 30, 1896, was $0.6924, and the commercial value of the silver in the silver dollar on that date was 53.55 cents.

Subsidiary Silver.

The silver coins of smaller denominations than one dollar, authorized by the act of April 2, 1792, were half dollars, quarter dollars, dimes, and half dimes. They were the equivalent in value of the fractional parts of a dollar which they represented that is, two half dollars were equal in weight to one silver dollar, and so on. These coins were full legal tender, when of standard weight, and those of less than full weight were legal tender at values proportional to their respective weights.

By the act of February 21, 1853, the weight of the fractional silver coins was reduced so that the half dollar weighed only 192 grains, and all the smaller denominations were reduced in proportion. Their legal tender quality was at the same time limited to $5, and they thus became subsidiary coins. The present subsidiary coins are half dollars, quarter dollars, and dimes. Their weight is the same as that prescribed by the act of 1853; but the limit of their legal tender quality has been raised to $10, and $86,096,860.40 have been coined since 1873.

The amount of full-weight fractional silver coined prior to 1853 was $76,734.964.50, and the amount of subsidiary silver coined since that year is $144.942,175.50.