Q. David Bowers
"The two metals, as metals, never have been, are not now, and never can be kept at par with each other for any consid-erable time at any fixed ratio. This necessarily imposes upon the government the duty of buying the cheaper metal and coining it into money. The government should only pay for the bullion its market value, for it has the burden of maintaining it at par with the dearer metal. If the bullion falls in price the government must make it good; if it rises in value the government gains.
"The government is thus always interested in advancing the value of the cheaper metal. This is the kind of bimetallism I believe in. It is the only way in which two commodities of unequal value can be maintained at parity with each other. The free coinage of silver and gold at any ratio you may fix means the use of the cheaper metal only. This is founded on the universal law of humanity, the law of selfishness. No man will carry to the mint 1 ounce of gold to be coined into dollars when he can carry 16 ounces of silver, worth but little more in the market than half an ounce of gold, and get the same number of dollars.
"The free coinage of silver means the single standard of silver. It means a cheaper dollar, with less purchasing power. It means a reduction in the wages of labor; not in the number of dollars, but in the quantity of bread, meat, clothes, comforts he can purchase with his daily wage. It means a repudiation of a portion of all debts, public and private. It means a bounty to all the banks, savings institutions, trust companies that are in debt more than their credits. It means a nominal advance in prices of the produce of the farmer, but a decrease in the purchasing power of his money. Its chief attraction is that it enables a debtor to pay his debt contracted upon the existing standard with money of less value. If we want cheap money and to advance prices, free coinage is the way to do it; but do not call [sic; the article ends abruptly on this word, and the overleaf of the page goes on to another subject by someone else other than Sherman]."
The Year 1895 in History
As the poor economic climate continued, funds in the United States Treasury reserves fell to $41 million, but bankers J.P. Morgan and August Belmont loaned the government $62 million in gold, against bonds at an attractive rate, in an effort to avert further financial problems. Gold became some-what scarce because of exports and because the public began hoarding it, in view of the declining price of silver. Several conventions were staged by advocates of free and unlimited coinage of silver to support the diminishing market. In the meantime, gold discoveries in the Cripple Creek District of Colorado were bringing new supplies of the yellow metal onto the market.
No one knows when or where the first motion picture was projected to a paying audience, but tradition has it that the event occurred in Paris in December 1895. Another contender is a display said to have taken place in May 20, 1895 in New York City in a converted store at 153 Broadway, where viewers saw a four-minute film of a boxing match. In the same year the American Bowling Congress was founded in New York City. Although the sport of bowling, also called box ball, had been popular for some years previous, the late 1890s would see a revival of interest and standardization of rules.
In East Aurora, New York, philosopher Elbert Hubbard started the Roycroft Press, which produced publications with ornate borders and other displays of old-time craftsmanship. The Roycrofters, as his followers became known, garnered much publicity during the ensuing decade. Stephen Crane'sCivil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, was published. In a lighter vein; the four-line poem, "The Purple Cow," by Gelett Burgess, saw print, after which countless American citizens repeated the dictum that they would rather see one than be one. America the Beautiful; by Katherine Lee Bates, was published. In 1904 and 1911 it would be revised, and eventually it would become one of our country's best-loved anthems, although not the official one (that honor was reserved for Francis Scott Key's The Star Spangled Banner). This was the decade of Art Nouveau, popularized largely from the immense influence of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who built a fantastic chapel for the World's Columbian Exposition.
For the Library of Congress, sculptor Frederick MacMonnies produced a statue of William Shakespeare. MacMonnies was one of the few at the top of his profession who did not in one way or another become involved with United States regular or commemorative coinage. In Paris (especially) and elsewhere, colorful lithographed posters by Alphonse Mucha, Jules Cheret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others were very popular. Of large size, they advertised stage performances, wines and champagnes, and other commercial events and products.