Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-11-11
FINANCIAL COMMON SENSE.
A Plain Answer to the Cry for Free
Coinage.


Coinage.
1t should always be remembered, in
| reading anything written and printed con-
corning the value of silver bullion or
currency, that the custom of the gOld-bug
writer's is to reckon the value of silver IN
gOJd coin. Now, the Constitution recOg-
nIZcS silver as money equally with gold.
Why it should be treated as a commodity
and not as precious metal the financlerS
do not cOndeScend to inform us. In fact,
they give no reason why silver should not
be coined on the same terms as gold and
treated by the government with equal con-
SlderatiOn, except that, if silver were free
~ coined, there would then be plenty OF
money, easy times. and reduction Of the
interest value of capital. Exchange.
Though the Christian Union is not an
organ of 'gold-bugs," it will try to give
this question a plain answer.
Money is useful only for what it rep
resents and can procure. 1t will not
feed hungry man, nor shelter home
less one, nor clothe a naked one, nor
warm cold one. The ignorant cannot
read it, nor the weary enjoy its melo-
dies, nor the lover Of beauty feed his
taste upon it. 1t is neither food, nor
shelter, nor clothing, nor fuel, nor
books, nor music, nor pictures. And
yet it is al! these, because it will pro-
cure them, but only because it will pro-
cure them.
1t is, therefore, of the first Importance
to the community that the purchasing
power of every kind of money should
be the same. For the only value of
money is in its purchasing power. So
long as money will purchase what man
needs, and, of what man needs, an equal
amount, equal in quality, it is wholly i'm
material whether it be gold or silver,
or paper or wampum. But the moment
there is difference in the value Of diff
ferent kinds of money, trouble begins.
If the gold dollar will buy four pounds
of beef and the silver dollar only three
pounds, the owner may call each dol
lar, but he has not the same money in
one pocket as in the other. Calling
them the same does not make them the
same. And the only way to keep them
the same is to make one interchangeable
for the other.
If the United States government
could give the silver dollar purchasing
power in the worlds markets equal to
that of gold dollar, free coinage of sill
failed to do this, and there is no reason
it tries and fails, we snail have
two kinds of money in this
country, one of which will pur-
chase more than the other. And when
ever that condition OF affairs exists, the
men who are shrewd and strong will
get the gold, that is, the money that
will buy the most and best articles, and
the yage-earners and the salaried men
will get the silver, that is, the money
which will buy the least. They will
have to pay for all imported articles in
gold or a gold equivalent, and for their
labor will be paid in silver or silver
equivalent.
That is the reason why journals which,
like the Christian Union, believe there
ought to be more money in the country,
and that silver and gold ought to be
made equally money and equally a
standard of value, do not believe in free
and unlimited coinage of silver by the
United States government, acting with
out conference with other nations.
They believe that this would make two
kinds of money, and the rich would
certainly get the best money and the
poor would certainly get the poorest
money! Christian JniOO