The morning call., 1892-02-18
HONEST MONEY

As file Sine approaches for The test vote
Oh the free coinage Of silver the courage Of
tie sIver-miuers seems to be oozng out Of
tue ends If tleir fingers. a few weeks ago
they boosted that they controlled two-thirds
Of the House Of Representatives. a closer
count If noses indicates that when the vote
is taken it is exceedingly doubtful whether
they can count On bare majority Such
Democrats as OUthWajte of Ohio, Bynum
Of Indiana. Lynch of Wisconsin and Dur
borrow Of Illinois declare positively that they
vii not be dragged into a support Of dis
honest money, even if ali the other members
Of the party 60 with Bland Of Missouri.
Their pos ton is not so much one Of direct
autaE0nIsm to increased coinage as it is an
attitude Of observation and inactivity. The
last Congress yielded to the silver-min6rs so
far as TO direct the Secretary Of the Treas
ury to buy $500. 900 ounces OF silver month
Iy. This was supposed 20 be the entire
product Of the domestic mines, and it was
confidently expected that the purchases
would cause silver to rise to its old parity
with gold. Tie silver has been bought eg-
UIarly, month by month; but silver is lower
than eyer-the standard dollar being now
only equivalent to about seventy cents in
gold. II this has been tie result Of the at
tempt of 1890 to regulate the price Of silver
by law, feeling is sure to develop that fur
Their EXPERIMENTS in the same direction had
better BE- postponed.
it is noticed that two Of the votes on
which Mr. Bland counts to support his free
coinage bill are those Of the two Democratic
members from this State MessrS. Can't
netJi and Geary. # they do vote on that
side they will have some difficulty in justi-
flying TO their constituents a vote to put the
money Of the wheat-grower, the fruit
grower. The wjne-maker, the hop-raiser, the
lumberman, the wool-grOwer and the farmer
into tie pocket Of tie silyer-miner without
any consideration or any compensating ad-
vantage. The grower Of agricultural prod
ucts has to take the market price for what
he produces. He has never asked nor has
Congress ever proposed to give him 40 per
per cent more than the market value OF his
product in order 10 encourage his industry.
lie takes his chances with other t0lers and
producers, and must be satisfied with
tie price consumers all over the
world are willing to pay for his product.
Alone of all producers, the man who digs
tie rocks for silver demands that he shall
be set on a plane Of his own, and shall be
paid out Of the pockets Of the taxpayers at
large 80 per cent more than his product is
worth. Messrs. Geary and Caminetti may
be able to justify the creation Of such a
privileged class But the task will not be
easy.
IN certain interior States free coinage. as
the pending scheme is incorrectly called. is
justified on the plea. that the West is
debtor community, and would be benefited
by any device which diminished the weight
81 debts. The plea IS as shallow as it is
dishonest. The debtor who defrauds bis
creditor by paying him in money with less
purchasing power than the money he re-
ceiyed pTecludes himself from borrowing
thereafter. He destroys his own credit and
commits financial suicide. If the Doliti-
clans Of the valley States who now think it
would be a great thing TO be authorized by
law to pay of their mortgages in depreci-
ated currency should succeed in their
efforts they would merely render it impos-
sble for them to borrow hereafter, and the
development of their States would be ar
rested.
But The excuses they may make have no
application TO California. This is a creditor
State. Adding together the wheat, fruit
wine, lumber, hops, bullion, barley, vegeta-
bles and canned goods which California ex-
ports they infinitely surpass in value the
dry goods. fine groceries, hardware and
manufactured goods which we import
There is always balance in favor of the
State on each years trade. Any scheme,
therefore. which tends to diminish the act
ual money value Of debts due to California
is proposal to take just so much out Of the
pockets Of Californians. II is scheme to
compel the agricultural producer on the
Slope TO take so much less for his product
his wheat and bis barley, and his fruit, and
his wine, and his wool, and his lumber-in
CT Ter that a few silver mines in the Sierra