sailor and trader; and of the British Chancellors of the Exchequer whose
names shine in history, scarcely one was a banker. One of Christ's
disciples was a banker, and the end of his scientific financiering is
reported in Acts i. 18. John Law also, whose very name is a synonym for
foolish financial schemes, was a banker, and a very successful one. Where
was there ever a crazier scheme than the so-called "Baltimore Plan,"
exclusively the work of bankers?


=But as the bankers and great capitalists have no faith in it, the free
coinage of silver would certainly precipitate a panic.=

The gold basis has already precipitated several panics. Even in so
conservative a country as England they have, since adopting monometallism,
had a severe currency panic every four years, and a great industrial
depression on an average once in seven years. The only reason we have not
done worse is that the rapid development of the natural resources of the
country saves us from the consequences of our folly. We draw on the
future, and in no long time it honors our drafts. Nevertheless, in the
twenty-three years since silver was demonetized we have had two grand
panics, several minor currency panics, hundreds of thousands of
bankruptcies with liabilities of billions, and five labor wars in which
900 persons were killed and $230,000,000 worth of property destroyed.
Could a silver basis do worse?


=You admit, then, that the immediate adoption of free coinage would, for
a while at least, drive gold abroad?=

And what then? Why do the gold men always stop with that statement and so