The record-union., 1891-02-17
SILVER AS a SECTIONAL ISSUE.


SILVER AS y SECTIONAL ISSUE.
Ex-President Grover Cleveland has ex-
hibited some of the higher qualities of
craftsmanship and independence of per-
sonal opinion in his recent expressions
on the subject of the free coinage of silver.
1t must have long since been manifest to
the President that free coinage is popular
in the West, and it is popular in that sec
ton simply because the section itself is
heavily in debt. The pretended protec-
ton system of the country, which is
merely name for excessive tariff rates,
has thrown all the profits of production
into the hands of the merchants, middle
men and manufacturers. The result OF
the impoverishment of all the industries
connected with the soil has bred very
large mass of bankrupts. To that class,
every suggestion of tinkering with
the finances, of issuing more money, of
making money more abundant, of max
ing money cheap, and other delusive
catch-words, is always most welcome
You look for fiat money idiots, free coin
age lunatics, greenback fanatics, and
other financial absurdities among the
debtor class, and you expect to find them
there on the same principle that you look
for and expect to find fishes in the sea
and birds in the air. Communities hope
lessly involved in debt and general bank
ruptcy generate an atmosphere which is
the natural medium for buoyancy to
quack financial remedies.
For the past ten years, the manufact-
urers and merchants have grown rich,
while the tillers of the soil have been i'm
poverished. This has not been due to the
fact that new parity between gold
and silver has resulted from a relative
production of these metals. 1t has not
been due to the fact that all currency
issued has been sound and redeemabie.
The financial basis of the country for the
past ten years has been particularly sound.
There has been no over-issue of ire
redundancy of circulating medium. On
the other hand, there has been no scar
city; the amount of circulating medium
in use to-day per capita is larger than
fully ascertained and officially announced
by the late Secretary of the Treasury.
The impoverishment of all the industries
connected with the soil has other cause
than the decentralization Of silver.
If the friends of free coinage were en-
tirely honest, they would recognize a new
parity between gold and silver, but the
silver-producing States lare unwilling to
do this. They do not propose to put an
additional amount of bullion in the dol
lar. What they are determined to do is
to raise the price of the metal by legisla-
ton, to fix the value of mineral product
by statutory enactment, to make it the
equivalent of crime to recognize the
new relative product of silver and gold
and they do all this on the plea of bene-
fitting the farmer of the West. The whole
device simply means the debasement OF
the coin. The silver bullion Of which il
is proposed to make dollar is worth
from y to 75 cents. This amount i:
to be coined into round discs and
stamped upon the coin, lone dollar,'' moi
with any promise to redeem it in value
equal to dollar, but it is to be circu
lated at the fiat of the Government al
that aiuation. The cheapening of
coin raises the nominal value of the
things for which it is exchanged, bat
nothing whatever is gained in that way
Suppose a finds his corn to have adj
vanced twenty-five per cent. in conse
quence of the debasement Of the currency
for the debased currency for the sole pur
pose of exchanging it for other commodi
ties. When he attempts to do this, ht
finds the commodities he seeks to buy
have also advanced twenty-five per cent
in consequence OF the debasement of The
coin, and he has gained nothing. There
are two classes, however, to be benefited
by this species of Reputation of homes
obligations, and they are tie silver pro
ducers and the debtor class. The min,
owner will not advance the wages of tn,
miner proportionately to the reduction
in the purchasing power of the coin il
which they are paid. The cost of pro
ducing ton of silver will remain tn,
same for some time at least, and since th'
owner of the bullion can take seventy