The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-12-06
FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.

Now is a good time to read up on
the question of free coinage. During
the past few months the Alliance
papers and books have shed much
light on the subject, but there is much
to learn yet. The gold-bugs try to
mystify the money question, and lead
ing papers that lean that way poo boo
anything said in favor of free coinage
or an increase in the volume of cur.
rency, by any method suggested
Statesmen, philosophers and political
economists from the time of Aristotle
to the present day have always agreed
upon two points-that O is the
creation of law, and that to DESTROY or
withdraw one-half of the none in cir
culatiOn doubles the purchasing power
of the half that remain in circulation.
The efforts is felt rather than e in
the decline of prices. In 1864, the Su-
preme Court of Iowa handed down the
following decision: "When the legal
test is applied each dollar of every
mode or form of currency, declared to
be legal tender, has the same value,
without reference to the material Of
1Uhicb 1T is composed {"
In the legal tender decision the
United States Supreme Court covers
the same point. After saying that 100
eagles coined after 1884 would pay a
debt of 81. 900 contracted before that
date, though they contained no more
gold than ninety four eagles at the time
the contract vas made, it says, land
this not because Of the intrinsic vGIue
OF the coin, but because Of ats legal
UuLue." Two values are recognized by
the court, a bullion value and a coinage
value.
Up to 1873 silver had been a full legal
tender for all debts public and private.
At that time this quality that had been
conferred upon it by law was taken
away and has never been restored.
Silver is money now only in the sense
that paper is money and for the same
reason. Neither is a full legal tender.
Both represent gold which alone is
money. In gold standard countries
gold does all the work of money.
Having settled the question of what
constitutes money" its legal value"
the next thing is to consider the effect
Of demonstration. The methods
adopted to secure the passage of the
bill in 1873, by the use of English
Doodle, and the insertion of a word
after the bill was disposed of, ought to
be looked upon as crimes Of the black
est hue by all honest people. That Con
gress has failed to remedy the wrong
since is another crime. @
We have shown in these columns al
ready how cotton fell in price about 81
per hundred since 1873, until it became
impossible for farmers to raise it and
live. The demonstration act no doubt
had much to do with it, but there are
other causes, most of them growing
out of the same legislation.
1t is the same thing to say that it
takes nor wheat, cotton, beef, etc, to
pay a debt than it did before; and that
is the same as to say that the dollar is
harder to get-it takes more work to
get it-than before. The natural effect
is to dwarf enterprise, cramp business,
Cypress labor, prevent the debtor from
paying his debts, stagnate agriculture
and reduce the value of all real estate.
The value of land must decline as the
value of the produce the of land declines.
Here is where the laborer, farmer, me-
chanic, banker, merchant and profes-.
man all find a common interest
in the silver question. By the fiat of
law we have decreed a short crop, an
artificial famine of money. AS with a
short crop of anything, so with this;
what there is, is more valuable because
it will exchange for more of other
things. AS money increases in value,
everything else decreases in value.
FARMERS. FAIL IN ENGLAND.