The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-12-30
Friday. Dec. 80, 1892.
Free Coinage.


coins and bullion, aggregating TO S3l6, $685.
93O.3S. This silver weighs 9,3lS TONS"
Mr.. Spinner took these figures from the
Treasurer's Report, and he was man
undoubtedly well informed on Treasury
matters. The following summer the law
was repealed requiring 100000 10 be
coined monthly, and the present act gen
orally called the Sherman law was passed.
which requires the purchase of 100000
ounces of fine silver monthly, which has
added to the silver stock in the Treasury
vaults considerably over four hundred tons.
The trade dollars have since Spinner wrote
been coined into half dollars and smaller
pieces, but deducting whatever coinage may
have been made from the above stock, there
must be fully 10000 tons of silver piled up
in the government vaults. Any one can
see with half an eye that such financial
system as this is an absnrdity. We must
adopt free coinage plain and simple or drop
silver altogether. The government had
far better go into the market rs dealer in
Mig iron and issue certificates on it than
silver, The iron could be sold for use
monthly or daily without breaking the
market, while there would be an abundance
TO redeem the certficates-pig iron certificates
locked up in government yards over the
country. No expensive vaults or store
houses would be required for the iron. A
pig iron "basis" for money would be per-
feet. Itwould defy food and fire, moth and
r.st. neither would thieves break in and
steal. And beyond all and above all there
is not shadow of doubt that the Seer
tiicates'' would pass as freely as gold and
silver notes, with scarcely any person to
glance at the note to ascertain what kind OF
''metal basis" 1t rested upon. They would
know that the United States Congress had
decreed the pig iron notes should be legal
tender for all debts, dues and taxes public
and private, in the United States. Such
notes would not only pass at par with gold
notes in this country but they would be on
par with gold in every commercial nation
in Europe as greenbacks are. The reason
why this would be so is plain. There are
twenty thousand millions of wealth created
in the United States annually, the products
of field, mine and factory which have to be
sold and money must De used 10 effect the
exchanges, and the money Congress decreed
should be used for this purpose would have
TO be, and that medium of exchange which
will purchase thousands of millions oil
property in this country will stand at par
anywhere American trade is piled.
We don't propose to advocate pig iron
"basis" for our circulating medium. but by
this illustration 10 expose the intolerabe
rot which has been forced into the minds Of
the people OF 'gold basis" the "parity Of
metals" the redemption" of one kind Of
money by another, and all this nonsense
nd nauseani The point we wish our readers
10 note is the evil practice which has crepl
into our monetary system of storing gold
and silver bullion in government ware
houses (vaults) and issuing notes TO serve as
money based on this warehoused bullion.
which is not likely ever 10 be called on for
use. In a few years, not ten but fifty
thousand tons of silver would be in the
hands of the government, when the folly Of
the system would become apparent to the
most obtuse mind. If these paper bills
issued by the government are taking the
place of money, they are money, and OF
what use TO the public are these thousands
of tons ofsilver boarded by the government?
The point is this. If we are 10 nse silver
and gold as money let US make the metal
into money al once and no more beating
about the bush with gold certificates, and
silver certi6cstes-paper make believes.
Free coinage means coinage, and not pur-
chasing metal or issuing, on deposit OF
metal, to be held by the government, notes
or certificates to the people who own the
metal, or by the government which bnyes
outright the metal. Free coinage means
coming silver and gold into dollars, dimes,
eagles. etc., and handing the coins over to
fhe man who presents the bullion for coin,
age, TO take home, or anywhere else he
choose, TO use as money in transactlng
business with his fellow men. Silver then
would go into circulation all over the
country. These thousands of tons in place
of being stored in canvas sacks in govern
ment warehouses would be spread all over
the couutry from Atlantic to Pacific and
from Canads to Mexico, and divided among
81 100000 people. This silver money
would stag in the neighborhoods where il
wss disbnrsed, and supply the wants OF the
people for money in every square mile Of
the entire nation where trade and business
went on, and not be sent off to the money
ceutersn as the paper certificates, its present
representatives, are. Let us have free
coinage, plain and simple, and stop this
hocus pocus, make believe business, OF plilne
up metal and issuing notes TO represent II
If we are to. have silver money lei us have
silver money, and the men who own thf
silversand want it coined, let them take i
to the mint, have it coined and take theil
coins and go about their business with then
money, and the Treasury department hays
nothing more to do with, OF bother about 1t
As thipgs are at present and hsve beer
for st.irty years it is constant cicker oSe
silver and gold between the United State