The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-12-22
CLIPPED COIN.


take their wages in mutiated money, and
!. would buy good deal less than its nomina
> value called for Large dealers, of course, tn
weltodo classes, would take the metal onl
for what it was actually worth Ewing & CO
4 are eager TO repeat the swindlr here. They or
! aloud about the wrongs Of the workingman
but they say that coin which in effect ha
been clipped of one tenth of its weight Is goOC
enough money for him.-N. Y. Ere. Past.
); There Is no paper in New York city NOR
slavishly devoted to the interest Of the golC
bullionists and Shylocks than the E'cenin,
\ Post, or that champions their cause with more
reckless zeal and ability The above is {
specimen of its manner BY Ewing Il Co.
of course it means all the friends of silver re-
monetzation, and that includes two-thirds OF
the people Of this country. The basis Of cv'
cry argument of the Shylocks against silver i
the same, and is here dettly coupled with the
idea of clipped coin" That is, the mass OF
the people of this country are accused of favor
! ing silver reconciliation because it will give
them a cheap, debased or "clipped' money to
pay their debts with at ten per cent as this
mcndacious champion has il, less than the par
value of real money This is the one string
upon which the Shylocks play their thousand
tunes 1t involves avlllainous tasehOod. Sill
yer today in the London market is worth but
10 per cent less than gold, instead of "ten per
cent and even David \. Wells, as ardent a
gold maniac as the country has, admits that
the reconciliation of silver under the bill
now before the senate, would at once bring up
silver to.!par, orwithin fraction of par, with
gold. The same admission was made by the
New York Sun, another bullionist organ, not
four days ago. Said the Sun;
For the resumption of specie payments the
country needs about $20O,0OOO00 of coin. The
by our minis of this amount Of
silver would probably, so far absorb the pres
cnt surplus stock Of the metal as to raise its
price from about eight per cent. discount, as
with gold to about one or two per
cent or just enough to make the shipment of
gold abroad profitable business.
The West solemnly believing this is not
hen clamoring for the decentralization of sill
yer because it will give them cheap money, or
| clipped coin" to pay their debts with. They
know il will bring good money-money as
rood as gold-the same solid .tact that made
he silver dollar the best dollar ten twenty, and
if(y years ago,
The Sbylocks know this, and they know that
he west knows it, but what they think the
vest does not know, and what in all their dis
ussions they sedulously conceal, is the one
ishonest motive at the bottom of their whole
mpudent demand for gold-thc certainty that
gold is made the only standard, and so
dopted by the whole commercial world now
la, its production has largely fallen off com
AIRED with former years, ii will steadily grow |,
career and more and more in demand, so that {
few years Its actual value compared with .
,day will be ten or fifteen per cent. higher
nd this appreciation will steadily go on as II
ing rs it remains the only standard. Wall Ir
root o,-.s thare~..io vr ...,ni--- . $50 1
ondon more and Frankfort and Amsterdam /
lore still Make all these payable principal t
nd interest, in gold alone, casting out all the 5
liver of the world as debased and "clippcd n
Din :" and who can calculate the amount this Q
eady appreciation of gold will add t. the
aluc oil billions on billions of bonds owned
Y the European and American Shylocks? 1t
against this robbery that the friends of sill
er protest, and against which, rather than
ubmit to It's consummation, Mr.. Ewing went
o far in the house as to hint that the people
nj ght even be goaded into iorcibc resistance.
As to the hint in the above extract from the
;Ul that the reconciliation of silver would
make il profitable TO export gold" and that
therefore, its effect would DC 20 drive all the
old out Of the country, suppose that is true
Who cares? There has not been dollar of
old in the country in fifteen years that was
lot bought and paid for. The government
ompels the importers TO pay duties in gold,
nd the importers 30 to the brokers and buy il
With greenbacks at I'M advance, or discount"
f from 3 TO 40 per cent If the government
leeds gold after silver reconciliation, let il
,uy it in the market as the importers now buy
!. Or if our merchants need gold 10 settle |.
balances with foreign countries, let them do
xactly as they have done for the last fifteen
ears, pay for it--one or two per cent in silver
II, as they formerly did, TO 40 per cent. in lc
,al tender greenbacks. PrdcticdHy, for the
of currency and circulation, this
ountry has not had dollar of gold in fifteen
ears. The country got along very well with
mt il, and can do so again, especially with an
edition of three or four hundred millions of
old, hard silver dollars to her present 5000
10000 of greenbacks and national bank bills.
4 letter has been shown us from Hon ID, c.
)ook 10 friend in Ottawa in which he says
he FREE TRADER has done him injustice by
grea,ly oversta,ing the extent of his intericr-
nee in the Ottawa postoilicc appointment.
Having had occasion 10 30 10 Washington on