The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-08-09
FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE

readers a simple explanation of what
is meant by the plank in the Omaha
platform which reads:
1--WE demand free and unlimited
coinage of silver and gold at the pres
ent legal ratio of Is to l."
In 1888 the Act of Congress was
passed which fixed the ratio of silver
to gold at 16 to 1, and authorized the
free and unlimited coinage of both
metals. That is, that all the gold and
! silver bullion which might be carried
to any United States mint by any per
son should be converted into United
States coins and returned to the person
presenting it without any charge for
coming The weight of gold dollars to
be 25.8 gains, and the weight of silver
dollars to be sixteen times as heavy as
the gold dollars, which is 412B grains.
This law continued in force from 1888
to 1873.
In 1873 the holders Of U. S. bonds
had succeeded in having laws enacted
by Congress making the interest and
the principal of these bonds payable in
legal tender coin, that is either gold or
silver. Both wero then legal tender.
The bondholders had by this time
boarded up or cornered most of the
gold, and they made U~nderhand war
on silver, and by some slight-of-hand
performance, manipulated, it is said,
by John Sherman, who was then and
is now Senator from Ohio, silver was
demonetized. This made the word
coin " in the bonds mean gold, Thus
the parties holding the bonds and the
gold could dictate terms of surrender
to the U. S. Treasurer. He must have
gold with which to pay interest on the
bonds, and he must get that gold from
the very men to whom he was to pay
it, and at whatever price they might
name. Hence, gold Immediately went
up, as the demand for it as q legal ten
der coin was increased to the amount
of the demOnetized silver which was
thrown out of circulation, and hence
diminished in market value as bullion.
This shows why the gold-bugs cry
aloud against the restoring of silver to
it's proper place as a money metal. They
say with an air Of contempt, as com
pared with gold, asilver dollar of 1873 is
not worth but &c cents. Gold is being
minted into coin yet in unlimited guam
titles. Laws have been passed since
1873 authorizing the q. S. Treasurer to
purchase not less than two million dol
lars worth of silver per month, nor
more than four million dollars, and
mint it, or issue treasury notes for it.
But lie has exercised his prerogative
and stopped with 81, 600, 900 per month,
the lowest limit, in order to accommo-
date the gold bugs.
1t is very evident that if silver should
be restored to its proper position as a
money metal that it would be but a
short while before the market value of
it would be in the same ratio as when
it was demonetized in 1873. The advo-
Gates of gold admit now, since they
see free coinage coming, that they will
not object if you will just put as much
silver in a dollar as a gold dollar will
purchase, and they say that a silver
dollar, present standard, contains only
66 cents worth of silver. What would
follow q law of that kind?
1st. Those who have silver in hand
the farmer, the mechanic, the produc-
ers of wealth who have received it for
their labor and their products-would
be called upon to lose 81 cents out of
every dollar of the silver in circulation
"a little more than one third. A repe-
tition of the "trade-dollar" steal some
of us still remember.
I'd. The minis would go to work
coming them up, putting Isl! cents
of the present dollar into one new dol
lar. Then the gold bugs might buy up
all the silver bullion, put the price up
and the minis would be bound to take
all according to the gold standard at
the time it vas presented in a dollar
and we would have a change in the
weight of a silver dollar every time the
price of silver fuctuated either up or
down. This the gold-bugs could man
~ipulate at their own sweet will with
the average Congress and United States
Treasurer.
Then let us remember that when sill
yer was demonetized and as the de-
mand for it for coming was stopped,
the price of it declined as compared
with gold, which had by law to take
it's place. The amount of gold bullion
was not increased by the law, but the
demand for it was almost doubled by