The morning call., 1891-02-17
FREE SILVER COINAGE.

is now almost certain that the bills be-
fore Congress for the free coinage of silver
Will fail, and that several months viii
rlapse before the subject viii again come
before the national legislature The delay
viii afford the people time to give the pro-
posed changes the careful consideration
they deserve. This should be a matter of
feicltation. 1t would have been no conf
mon misfortune if party of mine-awners,
aiming at the creation OF an artificial price
for silver, had been allowed TO disturb the
business OF the country for selfish ends.
When the people at large come to study
this silver question dispasSionately they
will be likely to reach conclusions which
will be salts factory TO the great mass of the
nation, however they may strike the gold
mOnometailists of the Atlantic cities or the
infatoniSts of the river valleys. In this
State there is hardly doubt how the pee
pie will decide. The feeling here is that
Will an increase Of silver coinage would by
no means entail the disasters which have
been predicted in the East, it is not called
for: no reason is apparent why Congress
should disturb the laws as they stand.
Business generally is prosperous, aud it
would be rash policy to disturb things in
the hope Of betteriag it.
The advocates of free and unlimited silver
coinage belong TO one of two classes. One
class demands that the minis shall buy at
the market gold price of the day all the sill
yer which Is offered, and shall coin it into
dollars of 412B grains each, such dol ars tn
be put in circulation through Government
disbursements, either in their metallic shape
or through paper representatives. In this
case the profit of the transaction, which rep
resents the difference between a standard
dollar and the gold value of 4l215 grains of
silver would 60 to the Government, as itnow
does The advocates of this plan have an
idea that so much silver would be coined
that it would ultimately rise in value.
The other class, which consists chiefly Of
mine-owners aud persons whom they con-
troll, demands that Government shall coin
all silver offered at the minis into standard
dollars, and hand over the dollars to the
sellers Of the silver at the rate of 100 cents
for every 412A grains, without regard to the
market price of silver at the time. These
persons propose to transfer the profits of
coinage, which now 90 to the Government.
to the owners of silver mines. The mo 1esty
of this proposition is as striking as the in
difference it exhibits to all interests except
mining.
The CALI. does not assume for any State
except California. Speaking for that State,
it is clear that there is hardly any one here,
outside of the circle of silyer-miners, who
attempts to justify the scheme for handing
over to that circle the eight or ten millions
year which the Mint now realizes by buying
silver at discount and coming it at par
1t appears to the people of this slope that
farmers in the Mississippi Valley are under
a delusion when they fancy that they would
raise the price Of their products by depre-
ciaing the currency. That experiment has
often been tried and has never succeeded.
The whrat-grower of Kansas can no more
raise the market price of his wheat by free
coinage than he could by reducing the size
Of his buShel basket.