The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-01-27
iNOUIRERS ABOUT SILVER.

suffice to accomplish this.
iNOUIRERS ABOUT SILVER.
EDITOR TIMEs:-Kindly state the
difference between free coinage of
silver and contrariwise; also, please,
the advantages as claimed by the
Democracy and the disadvantages as
claimed by the Republicans.
A READER.
Free coinage Of silver, as it is de-
mandcd by that controlling element
of the Democracy which elected
Speaker Crisp, means that any man,
who is able to 90 out west and buy a
silver mine, can bring the product
of that mine to the United States
minis and have it coined free of
charge, so that he will make the prof
it on the coinage instead of the gov
ernment's making it, as the govern
ment does now. Bar silver is now
selling at 938 cents per ounce of 430
grains. That means that the 371.25
grains ofpure silver which with the
HIPS grains Of alloy are used in
making a standard silver dollar,
whose weight is 1925, are actually,
worth about 70 cents, and that un-I
der free coinage the silver owner
could get a dollar Tor % cents worth
oc his product M
\ very good thing for the silver
owner, for awhile, perhaps; but how
would the rest of us fare, and how
would even the silver owner fare un-
der such ''inhation?" The mer-
chant wouldn't tell us that he would
not take a legal tender dollar for
more than 70 cents, but he could
and would mark up his 70 cent goods
to a dollar, and others in proportion.
Just as soon as the rush Of silver to
be coined free of charge had result
ed in the circulation of a greatly in
creased number of silver dollars, and
the advance of the gold dollar to q
corresponding premium. The Dem
ocracy claims that that sort of inAa-
ton Of the currency would bring bus
mess Expansion" and activity.
But it would be the activity of fever
and delerium. 1t would be as rea-
sonable for a man with a flying ma
chine to fly higher and higher not
withstanding the certainty that his
machine would sooner or later COL
lapse. The higher such man flew,
the worse he would get hurt when
the drop came. The experience Of
business panics shows that the great
er the "activity" and Expansion"
of this speculative character, the
greater the financial disaster that
comes with the collapse.
A gainst that sort of silver fnan-
ciering the Republicans urge that
no silver be coined free until We
have agreed with other nations as to
a uniform ratio with the civilized
world, in order to avoid the diiferen-
ces of valuation which would cause
other nations 10 draw our gold away
from us and speculate ut our ex-
peusc. The present American silver
dollar is coined at u ratio of | to 16,
or in other words We put sixteen
times as much silver in silver dol.
lar us we put gold in a gold dollar,
Other silver coming nations in Eu.
rope put fifteen and one-half times
as much, aud they are not willing tc
come to an agreement with us until
we provide for the re-coinage here
at home of the $500, 900, 900 silver al.
ready coined. Such all agreemen,
as we ought to seek would be bes,
for 60,00O,0O0 of ordinary citizens
because it would mean a steady and
sound currency, and a dollar thai
was worth just as much when tht
workingman bought groceries with i
on Monday as it was when he receiv
' ed it in his pay envelope on Satur
day. But you can see that Their,
would be no extra profit to the sill