Los Angeles herald., 1891-09-10
THE SILVER QUESTION.
Several Interesting Phases of the Dis
cussion Treated.

cussion Treated.
EDITORS HERALD: If ever there wa
an exhibition of effrontery to challenge
the admiration of gods and men, it il
afforded by John Sherman clamoring fol
"honest money" and the rights of the
laboring man, and denouncing the
"eighty-cent dollar" Ii the impatience
of Providence is not manifested by DO
litical cataclysm in Ohio that shall syeer
the statesman of abysmal gall into "a
cold and clammy oblivion" our faith
that Pharaoh is god of retributive Jus.
tice will be sorely tried. Until John
Sherman and his crew of pirates and
spectators perpetrated against silver
coinage and the American people an
infamy to which the financial legislation
of all history scarce furnishes parallel
the bullion of our silver dollar was worth
one hundred cents; yet he has the un-
blushing audacity to stand up be-
fore an intelligent people and
prate about the dishonest dol
lar" like a bastard who should
ravish virgin and then taunt her with
non-chastity; and adding mendacity to
hypocrisy, he tells the people of Ohio
that the friends of silver coinage pro-
pose that the government, instead of
buying fOrty-fve million ounces of sill
yer per month at its market price of
! about $l.OO per ounce, as at present,
shall purchase all the silver of the
world at $1.29 per ounce, and thus drive
all the gold out of the country and flood
it with foreign silver.
The man who so states the purpose of
the friends of silver is either hopeless
idiot or an incorrigible knave. John
Sherman has never been thoug ht to be
fool.
Such assertions would not merit con-
futation or notice were they not con-
stantly reiterated by men whose unsup-
ported dlctum is wont to be- received bv
large numbers of people as absolute
authority.
No one knows better than John Sher-
man that free coinage of silver does not
involve the proposition that the govern
ment shall purchase one ounce of any,
thing on the contrary, it means that it
shall not purchase one grain of gold or
silver for coinage, but that the govern
ment will coin into standard dollars.
free of charge, for any person, any
quantity of silver of standard fineness
that he may offer, at the rate of 4I21%
grains to the dollar, in exactly the
same manner as it now coins gold
for any person who may offer it for coin
age, and as it did silver prior to 1873.
That is all there is to free and unlimited
coinage.
1t seems to be assumed, as a major
premise by Sherman, Mckinley and
Harrison and economists of that school,
that for this country to come to a silver
basis would be an unmitigated calamity !;
just why silver monometalism is bad
and gold monometalism is good they
forbear to explain.
The business world, which does not
properly embrace do-nothing bond
holders and millionaire money loaners,
is suffering from monetary stringency;
we need more current money, and there
fore silver, being more abundant, is a
better money metal than gold, and for
like reason both are better than either,
and both we want and will have.
A recent writer of the Sherman Nc
Kinley school declares that under free
coinage in the United States the entire
silver product OF Mexico would be
brought to the United States, coined at
our mints and exchanged dollar for dol
to Mexico, and that other countries
would serve US the like trick. This is
easy to say, and Mr.. Mckinley SAYS it
takes "no wise man" to see that it
would soon happen. agree with him,
it takes gimlet-eyed gold bug, stepped
in monometalism prejudice to see it.
Between countries using different sys-
stems OF money or standards of coinage,
the coin of the one country is treated as
bullion in the other-a mere commodity
like pig iron or pork-and worth what
ever may be the market price. The
coin stamp goes for naught. This is not
the less true of gold than of silver, be-
cause gold, by leason of more general
and stable demand, happens to fuctu-
ate less
When there is no trade restriction the
price of given staple commodity in
two different places will not generally
vary by more than the cost of getting
the commodity from the one place to
the other.
The price of wheat in Chicago is the
price in Liverpool, less the freight, in
surance, brokerage, etc.
1t seems beyond doubt that free and
unlimited coinage of silver would make
the metal worth, at the door of the
United States mint, $1.29 per ounce, be-
cause every ounce could be coined.
without cost, Into $l.29. The price of silver
in Mexico and elsewhere would become
$1.29 per ounce, less the cost of getting
it to the nearest United States mint,
upon much the same principle that a
hydrant will throw a stream to the
height of the water in the reservoir, less
the deduction for resistance of the air,
etc; and the foreign silver being enabled
by its enhanced price to purchase so
much more of general commodities, in
Guiding gold, that it would before the
inducement to ship it to the United
States mints would be overcome.
But suppose that the silver OF Mexico,
for example, should really come to the
United States and be coined into dol
lars, what then? Sherman says it
would then be exchanged for as many
gold dollars. When the time comes no
doubt the Senator will be in demand to
furnish owners of gold willing to swap
gold for silver. Only the banker could