Nevada County picayune., 1891-07-23
FREE SILVER COINAGE.

discussed the silver question rom the standpoint of the anti-silver men, stating that we denied their premls- es as taken, and that we would an swer the same, giving main reasons why we should have free coinage,
 Before answering the points against silver, we wish to reason a little. At the close of the war be- tween the States there was much larger per capita of money In circu- lation than now, and trade was much freer. and the farmers and laborers more prosperous and contented' Resumption and demonetizat'on Of silver followed, together with other bad class legislation, enacted by the Republican party, then in full con irol of the government. Naturally depression in all the avenues of trade, financial disaster and distress, followed. But for the internal class laws enacted by the Republicans then. we claim our country would have remained prosperous and con tented-our national debt long ago liquidated.
 First, the anti-silver men say the government has been buying silver bullion at profit of pc on the dol lar, that we have "debased coin to that extent, and lose that much in each dollars worth of trade with foreign countries. We say nay our silver dollars are at par with gold and the loss they talk of IS all "moonshine. ," It has been proven Europe has use for all the silver she has-not only this, but she exports 1t largely from this country every year. Hence silver can not be "dumped" upon us from across the ocean, for this reason. Thus the idea of losing all our gold, in ex- change for silver is exploded. As to buying our products with our silver money bought at profit of 22c on the dollar, that will be impossible, as our silver dollars are at par with gold here. When our silver IS not discriminated against it will rise Tn value to gold As to silver money being bulky, this can easily be over come, by the issuance of silver cer- tifcatcs, which will easily pass cur rent with gold.
 Second as to who would be the beneiiciaries from free coinage, and the getting of it in circulation after being coined, Everybody would re- ceiye benefits from it, because mon cy when once issued will naturally seek the varied avenues of trade. Jay Gould's millions are scattered all over the country, in railroads, and other investments, giving em- plovment to thousands and benefit ting thousands of others indirectly. So will it be with other millionaires, if free coinage creates them. Of course these railroads and big corpo- rations need regulation, and must be controlled by law, lest they become engines of oppression, as in some ca ses now.
 Its enemies claim that silver will deprecate under free coinage. They claimed the same thing would hap pen under the Bland law which fore ed the coinage of from two to four million silver dollars every month. But such was not the case, and will not be under absolute free coinage. To satisfy the alarmists, however, we think the silver men of this conn- try would be satisfied at first with only free coinage of the American product of silver.
 We have absolute free coinage of gold. Why not of silver? Under our Federal constitution both pre- cious metals are put upon a parity, and we believe with some of our greatest statesmen, that the discrim- ination against silver is clearly un- constitutional. Silver is as much entitled to free coinage as gold un- der it. If necessary to maintain the commercial value between the two metals, less quantity of gold could be put in a dollar, so as to keep 1t in the country. This could very easily be accomplished. Or,