Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-03-12
Tariff Reform and Free Coinage.

The man who is logically Democrat
must beleve in free coinage by The
same logic which forces him to oppose
taxation for any other purpose than
that revenue. If taxation is excessive
on imports it creates monopoly control
ot supply. If the coinage of the prec-
ious metals il restricted by law 1t tends
to create class control of money.
But while this is true, every sensible
Democrat is i'm favor of doing that first
which can best be done first, and it
would be absurd to drop tariff reform
as ltading issue to take up free COIN
age rs leading issue now when the
tariff reform fight is almost won, when
the fight for free coinage is not even
well begun.
The reform of the tariff will result in
the gradual reduction of the prices of
manufactured goods to natural basis,
ana IN steadying of our markets for
Agricultural products by giving all ag-
ricu Iturai surplus an Immediate outlet
to Europe. No other measure could
do 80 much for the relief of the people
from poverty or to stop the reign of
corrupt extravagance in Washington.
Whether the money supply is large or
small IS OF far less Importance than
whether the SUPPLY of the necessaries
VI iiAS 10 Aai va OI
the Democratic party has been 10 in
crease the supply of necessaries of life.
If it can do that on the present money
basis; if by a reform of the tariff il can
give theworker one-third more for his
dollar or for his days labor than now,
the gain will be far greater than If il
had simply put more dollars in circu-
lati"n for him to work for.
While it is an unQuestionable fact
that OUTSIDE ofthe banking towns there
is not money enough to do the business
of the country on any other basis
than that of long credits, one of the
chief causes of this is the excessively
high tariff under which the govern
ment takes every year a total of $400,-
900, 900, or one-third of the total
cash in the hands of the people.
This immense sum is taken from la
Dor and from the channels of trade
and is given out to office-holders and
nop-earners. The worlds total yearly
output of silver is only about $l20, 900
600. Ii we could get the whole of 1t
and coin every ounce of it, it would
not come within $50 600, 900 year of
meeting our expense for the single
item of pensions.
Free coinage would give an uncOr-
trolled currency but the comparatively
| small increase it would make i'm the
| amount of money in circulation would
| hardly be felt while we are under pres
sure of the laws which create the pres
ent enormous drain on the country's
| cash for Federal taxes.
The issue Of first and highest impor-
! tance is to reduce these taxes. The dis
proportion between the country's Fed
eral taxes and the country's cash, when
the years total taxes is third of the
total cash, is alarming, but 1t is GER
tain1y not the common-sensible reme-
dy to stop trying to cut down bad
taxes in order to try to increase the
amount of good money to pay them
with. The taxes must come down first.
Then if the supply of cash in the hanhs
of the people is increased the people will
he better able to keep it than now,w ,wh n
the country's whoie supply Of cash in
circulation must go to the District of
Columbia in payment of taxes once
every three years.-Republic.