Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1892-08-18
A FAIR STATEMENT.
FREE SILVER COINAGE MEANS RELIEF
TO WORKINGMEN.

"OuAO nuPpcD chtCT W 80 INV II H
Its Old Position.
Several readers send request for in
formation on the silver question. They
ask what the "free and unlimited coin
age of silver" means, and wherein it
would benefit the masses Of our 65,000,-
600 of people: how much it would in
crease the circulating medium, and what
effect it would have on general trade;
and would it not benefit the mining
states at the expense of the othersf"
They ask also what is the amount of
money in circulation.
The free and unlimited coinage Of sill
yer means that the United States minis
shall coin al the silver brought to them
at no other charge than the cost of coin
age, which is a trihe, any owner of the
metal being allowed to deposit it at the
mint and have it coined on his account
or receive at once it's value Ill silver
money already coined.
The mints do this now with gold, and
from 1900 to 1873 they did it likewise
with silver. In other words, the free
coinage of both metals was the rule and
practice from the establishment Of the
mint down to 1878-eighty-three years
when silver was practically demOnetized
by being dropped from the coinage.
Five years later, in 1873, under the
Bland Allison act, the right Of coinage
was partially restored, and limited
amount of silver-not less than $2,000,-
600 nor more than $4,0O0, 900 month
was authorized to be coined on the &C
count Of the government, the govern
ment buying the metal at its CONNER
cial price, about sevehty-three to eighty
cents for the dollars worth, and there
by making twenty to twenty-seven cents
on every dollar coined.
This practice prevailed till 1890, when
the existing Sherman bullion act was
passed, which stopped the coinage Of sill
yer dollars entirely, and at present gold
is the oily one Of the two metals allowed
to be coined.
The ratio of silver to gold in this coun.
try is sixteen to- one-sixteen ounces of
silver being equal in value to one ounce
Of gold Abpt owing to the increased de-
mand for gold in Europe consequent on
the Decentralization of silver, the increas-
ing consumption Of it in the arts, and
the insufficient production Of it in the
world, that metal has become valuable
above the ratio, and at this time gold il
worth $1.30 to the dollar in silver. The
practical effect Of this is to increase all
funded debts 30 per cent. or, which is
the same thing, to reduce the prices of
all products and property 80 per cent, a
result which falls upon all producing
and debtor classes and interests.
II silver coinage were made free this
premium on funded Indebtedness would
disappear, silver would become. the
standard for measuring debts, since the
debtor would have restored to him the
option of paying in gold or silver, and
the prices Of all products would be pro-
portionately advanced. There would
follow also an increase Of the supply Of
money in circu.ation-for all the silver
that might be offered at the minis would
be coined into money instead of being
used, as now, Tas basis for bullion cor
tifcates. The more good metal money.
gold and silver - country has the bet
ter for the people, for the invariable
effect of an abundant supply is to stimu-
late enterprise, facilitate that inter
change of,products which we call traffic,
increase production and multiply com
forts among the people, whereas scarcity
Of money, as. every one knows, is at
tended by stagnstion, inactivity and
hard times. =, %>F F..
The,silyer product Of our own mines
in 1901 40 est;rnafatl at RI 330 O00 o1nees