Page:Coin's Financial School.djvu/124

 106 room, or in the basement of the Treasury building of the United States. [Applause]

"It is a matter of mathematical calculation and no intelligent citizen need be either alarmed or deceived."

With this statement paused a moment, while people looked into each other's faces and back again at the speaker.

"Until 1873," he continued, "the primary money of the world was both silver and gold at a parity. They were virtually one metal. The demand for primary money was met by the supply of both metals. The relative valuations of property to money, and money to property, adjusted themselves accordingly.

"Thus we had dollar wheat and 16-cent cotton in bimetallic measurement. A bushel of wheat went out into the market and purchased a dollar.

"Then came the abandonment of the use of silver as primary money by the United States, followed by Germany four months later, and then by the Latin Union, and recently by India.

"A new standard of measuring values was set up. Silver and gold combined was displaced by gold alone.

"Silver being deprived of this privilege free coinage at the mints, and use as primary money became property of the world, to have its value also measured in gold.

"As the standard for measurement in the countries making this change was now only one-half of what it had been, it meant the decline in value of all property.

"The demand for gold now became greater, and as other countries threw silver aside, the demand for gold