Mexico weekly ledger., 1891-03-26
SILVER AMI
Free Coinage Claimed to Be a
Detriment to the .Agrfcuitu-
raj snterests-John V.
Farwell Says He
Knows What He
is Talking
About.

pt Tue eueCb Vi Tree III uu inc
farmer" The following by John
V. Farewll, a prominent anti-free
coinage man, shows the position
held in regard to this matter:
Having had, in my business expert
ence of over forty years in Chicago,
some opportunities of observing the
results of State and National legisla-
ton affecting the currency of the coun-
try, I wish to protest, in the name of
all business interests, against the pres
ent craze for the ''free coinage of sill
ver,n by the Government, to which
the United States Senate has affixed
it's official Endorsement.
If this measure becomes effective
law, it must inevitably marshal all
moneyed institutions, which control
the money of the country, against all
other business interests, simply to pro-
tect their W property from the in
| evitable depreciation which must fol-
low the fiat of the Government, that
debtors can pay their obligations with
silver, at about eighty cents on the
dollar.
Can any one blame them if every
gold coin and gold certificate in their
reach land they have most of them), is
taken out of circulation and held for
the premium, which gold must COM
mand, and in the face of such a law
The silver legislation of the past mot
referring to the present law, which
Utilities silver OF a gold basis to the ex-
tent of s52, 00o 900 per annum), has had
the effect to induce monetary institu-
tons to make their time contracts
payable in gold. Probably seventy
five per cent, at least, of the Western
farm mortgages are thus payable.
The farmer is bad enough now, as
the result of rapid utilization of arabic
lands since the war; but with gold
at a premium of thirty per cent, and
his mortgage, principal and interest,
payable in gold, what would then be
left of him but a financial corpse, with
out benefit of clergy for burial?
Railroads have almost universally
issued gold bonds for their construc-
ton. If they have to collect freight
and passage money in sitcer to meet
their Indebtedness, they must neces-
sarily collect thirty per cent. more to
meet their obligations, which the dear
people must pay. DO the present
dividends on railroad stock and the
herculean efforts of railroad managers
to make them more satisfactory tc
their owners, indicate that it will be
an easy job, with the business inter.
ests of the country cast into the vortex
ola monetary revolution?
Railroads have created the indus.
trial interests of this country from the
farmer to the artisan, by opening it uI
to labor. Our vast acreage has beer
turned into money-making machines
by the aid of that labor, till the United
States is supposed to be the richest
country in the world. Farms and
railroads have been made just a little
too fast in the past decade, and as is
always the case, farms have to suffer
first, when corn and potatoes won'1
bear transportation for want of re-
munerative markets.
1t is not too little money, but tot
many railroads and too many farms
as compared with other interests, thai
ails the country just now, and a dema
gogic legal patent to retire Immediate
ly several hundred millions of golG
from our circulating money, and wal
due process of law to fill the vacuum
with silver, as our only lawful money
and to discount our obligations a
thirty per cent. tor the richest people
in the world-this looks to me like
political, financial and business dis
honesty. 1t is the full team which
bogus democracy expects to pullit into
power by the farmers vote in 1892
without reference to results in the
meantime.
1t does not follow, because the far
mer said in unmistakable language al
the polls that an increase in u tariff
(which should have been reduced) wal
a Republican blunder, that a Demo
cratic btunder two years in advance
of the election, which by its operations
will make them all paupers, will put
the blunders into power by Mei,
votes. If any one thinks so, let him
wait and see how farmers will vote il
1892, with a free silver coinage Law
that will certainly create the mos
colossal panic that eve cursed oul
country.
In 1857 and '5s 'stumptailn State
currency was the heritage of Illinois
and my firm adopted wheat as the
then best currency, because it would
aud did, pay its debts, while "stump'
tail" State bank bills would not. We
got through the panic of '57 and '5s by
the aid of the farmers wheat.
From the panic of 1891, with silver
as our only money, no farmers wheat
will deliver us, and so, for one, I ex'
pect our Senators to get wisdom, by
the way ofa White House veto, pro.
vided the other House does not relieve
the President by giving the country
unlimited coinage of american silver
into legat-tender certificates on q goio
bdsis,a as a compromise measure instead
of Si,5 900 per month, Such 6
measure would be Endorsed by none
tray institutions until the volume o
such currency was equal to the de
mands of commerce, and such use o
silver, by both bankers and people
demonstrated al ~beneficient by fail
trial, would probably open the way
for All international agreement for us
limited coinage at agreed ratio wia
gotd, which, to my mind, is the only
cure for scarcity of money and period
cal monetary panies.
Senator Jones, in proposing such
method for the limited use of silver
has become the John the Baptist Ii
monetary science, if such a result
shall follow its unlimited use on tn,
same basis as it very likely will
England needs bimetallism more thar
aann aud IL Ifna.~- 49,,