num, to wit: from 49.2 cents in 1864, to 89 cents in 1872. In
other words the debtor who borrowed $492.00 in 1864 was obliged, eight
years later, to pay his creditor $890.00 of like purchasing power as he
had received, in addition to a considerably higher interest than now
current. I do not wish to be considered as standing sponsor for the
rising dollar, but it is a pertinent question to ask those who decry the
gold standard for this reason, why the same cause did not have the same
effect in each instance.

The objection may be made that I would make of a silver mere commodity,
but the point is not well taken, inasmuch as the mint offerings are
transmuted into paper currency, which is virtually making silver, money;
moreover, the silver itself is retained in its present form of
subsidiary coinage. Silver is not a moral being possessed of rights and
sensitive to insults; it is a mere thing whose function it is to serve
us in any way we may deem most conducive to our interests. If under the
system of natural bimetallism it does this best, the question as to its
money or commodity character is vain. Moreover, under Gresham's law, one
metal under the fixed ratio is not only "reduced to a commodity," but is
absolutely expelled from circulation and as a basis for circulation; and
we have also seen that in the last analysis both silver and gold are
commodities under any system of specie payments.

Under a republican form of government, where frequent and extreme
changes from one policy to another must be guarded against, that policy
should be adopted which most nearly conforms to justice, and which the
sense of the largest majority commends. What proposition, then, could be
fairer and more apt to commend itself to the general intelligence than
that the metals should be monetized at their commercial values from day
to day, or what policy more likely to remain unaffected by the mutations
of parties and politics?

In conclusion let me sum up the salient points: We have seen (1) that
the chief weakness of the present system is the non-availability of
silver for final redemptions; (2) that "currency reform" is inadequate
because of its unpopularity and in failing to increase the primary basis
of money by the addition of silver; and (3) that the principle of the
fixed ratio is fallacious and impracticable. On the other hand, we have
discovered Natural Bimetallism to be the application of the principles
of everyday business to that