Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-12-12

NdiueS NECESSARY Ill our dealings WIN
other counties, will be at premium
over silver. The banks, which have
substituted gold for the deposits of
their customers, may pay them with
silver bought with such gold, thus
making a handsome profit. Rich
spectators will sell their boarded
gold to their neighbors who need it
to liquidate their debts at a ruinous
premium over silver, and the labor
ing men and women of the land, the
most defenseless of all, will find that
the dollar received for the wage of
their toll has sadly shrunk in its pur-
chasing power. @
1t may be said that the result will
be but temporary, and that ultimately
the price of labor will be adjusted to
the change; but even if this takes
place, the wage worker cannot posi-
bly, gain, but must inevitably lose,
since the price he is compelled to pay
for his living will not only be meas
ured in coin heavily depreciateL,
and fiuctuating and uncertain in its
value, but this uncertainty in the
value of the purchasing medium will
be made the pretext for an advance
in prices beyond that justified by the
actual depreciation.
The words uttered in 1884 by Daniel
Webster, in the Senate of the United
States, are true today: "The very
man Of all others who has the deepest
interest in sound currency and who
suffersmost by mischievous legislation
in money matters, is the man who
earns his daily bread by his daily
toll"
The most distinguished advocate of
bimetallism, discussing our silver
coinage, has lately written: "No
American citizens hand has yet felt
the sensation of cheapness, either in
receiving or expanding the Silver Act
dollars"
And those who live by labor or
legitimate trade never will feel that
sensation Of cheapDess. However
plenty silver dollars may become,
they will not be distributed as gifts
, among the people, and ifthe labOring
man should receive four deprecated
dollars where he now receives but
two, he will pay in the deprecated
coin more than double the price he
now pays for all the necessaries and
1 comforts of life. Those who do not
j. fear any disastrous consequences arts
: ing from the continued compulsory
coinage of silver, as now directed by
I law, and who suppose that the add
G ton TO the currency of the country
intended as its results, will be a public
G benefit, are reminded that history
s demonstrates that the point is easily
, reached in the attempt to float at thu
# same time two sorts of money o
q different excellence, when the bette
: will cease to be in circulation. TIL,
IS boarding of gold, which has alread.
&c taken place, indicates that we shall
l. not escape the same experience il
o such cases.
IS If this silver coinage be continue,
IF we may reasonably expect that gol,
IS and its equivalent will abandon tn
,e field of circulation to silver alone
1t This, of course, must produce a sever
e contraction ofour circulating medium
lie instead of adding to it. 1t will nc
ID be disputed, that any attempt on tn
N part of the Government to cause tn
III circulation of silver dollars, wort
of eighty cents, side by side with gol
he dollars worth one hundred cents, eve
le with the limit that legislation doc
e, not run counter to the laws of trad
er to be successful must be seconded
I'd the confidence of the people that bot
lg coins will retain the same purchasin
IN power, and be interchangeable {
tn will. A special effort has been mac
IS by the Secretary Of the Treasury
or increase the amount of our silver col
to in circulation, but the fact that a larl
d. share of this limited amount thu
"a put out has soon returned to Il
of public treasury in payment of dutie
mt leads to the belief that the people {
IT. not now desire to keep itin han
on and this with the evident dispositiC
n to hoard gold gives rise to the suspi
Id, ion that there already exists la,
en- of confidence among the people touc
nd ing our financial process. There
ir- certainly not enough silver now
Mt. circulation to cause uneasiness, al
en- the whole amount coined and now
he hand might after time be absorb
en by the people without apprehensio
yer but it is the ceaseless stream til