The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-01-20
SILVER.

The laying aside of the Force bill
and the taking up of the Silver bill in
the Senate of the United States show,
that it will be possible to secure freq
coinage of silver under the next Con.
gress if indeed it shall not be secured
under the present Congress. The
Democrats and the silver Republicans
in the Senate are in the majority now;
and the next House will have an
overwhelming majority in favor of
tree silver. 1t is only necessary,
therefore, to wait until the next Con.
gress meets to secure the reinstate.
ment of silver to the performance of
all the money functions it ever did
per orm in the history of the govern.
ment.
The present outlook for silver
should encourage and stimulate Ali
ance men in every section of the
Union. For, be it remembered, the
Alliance demands free silver, is, in
act, the only organized party in the
country today that is united to a mar
in it's demands for free silver.
The opinion seems to be held by q
good many people that New York
and other great wealth centres of the
country have an irreconcilable d slike
of silver as silver. Others seem to
think that enemies of silver money
find some insuperable philosophical
objection to silver. We propose to
show that both these views are mis-.
taken. The men who are engaged in
decrying silver money in this C ,untry
have no antipathy to that metal as
such. 1t is not the BUSINESS of silver
in comparison with gold that fills
these men with disgust. Nor is their
opposition the result of superior philo.
.sophical insight. Men may be qaite
ure that there is nothing unphilO.
sophical about silver money. The
only difficulty about any scheme Of
bi metalism is a difficulty of mere ad.
iustment. When two metals are
placed side by side and clothed with
the powers of money, there may
arise, and there often does arise, some
di&ulty of maintaining a parity be.
tween them. Owing to the fact that
these metals are commodities, having
other uses then those of money, and
owing to the further fact that the
movements of exchange may create 8
local scarcity of one or the other OF
these metals, the parity which should
subsist between them is disturbed
that is n of them becomes more val
liable than the other. But these
differences have never become so
great in the experience of any bt
metallic power or country as to render
adjustment imprscticable. Our "
country furnishes an example Of the
easy pr~acticsbility of maintaining the
double standard extending over the
entire period from the adoption oil
the Constitution to the breaking out
of thu war between the States. Ana
the countries of Europe furnished e1
amples of equal force and effect from
the earliest period of modern ciVlllS'
ton up to the demonetization OF sIV"
BY the SO allied Latin Union. There
is NO difficulty, we repeat, in conneS
ton with bi. metalism but the d.thcuy
of keeping up q parity between WV
metals; and that difficulty is 0y ~
means indispensable to a very moderS'0
grade of craftsmanship.
If, therefore, there be no grouDU
for an innate repugnance to silver .
silver, if there be no philosoPo0~
reason for dlshonoring silver, II 'D0i'
be NO insur mounta ole difficulty IN 'n'
way of naming q parity oet~ix' Sn''l
and gold, why has silver peer demO'
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