The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-12
The Silver Question.

The Silver Question
The letter of Senator Carlisle, Of Ken
lucky, on the silver question should be
carefully studied by every one who 10 sin
cerely anxious TO understand that question
and the position Of the Democratic party
with regard to IT, The MORNING NEWS
published a synopsis of the letter in its dis
patches a few days ago. The full text
of it will be found in this issue.
Senator Carlisle does not object to the
free and unlimited coinage Of silver, pro-
vided dollars worth of silver is coined
| into a silver dollar. This Is the position oc-
cupied by the Democratic party, as shown
! by the following extract from the Chicago
| platform: owe hold to the use Of both
! gold and silver as the standard money OF
the country. and to the coinage Of both
| gold and silver without discrimination
! against either metal or charge for mintage,
but the dollar unit Of coinage OF
both metals must be Of equal intrinsic and
exchangable value. or he adjusted through
international agreement, or by such SAFE"
guards of legislation as shall insure the
maintenance of the purity of the two
metals and the equal power Of every dollar
at all times in the markets and payments
OF debts; and we demand that all paper
currency shall be kept at par with and re-
deemable in such coin. We insist upon
this policy as especially necessary for the
protection OF the farmers and laboring
classes, the first and most defenseless vic
Tins Of unstable money and fuctuating
currency"
The foregoing indicates a Thoroughly hon
| est policy with respect to silver. 1t is diff
fcult to understand why the farmers, or any
other class Of people except the owners OF
silver mines and those dependent upon such
mines should favor any other pol
10y The silver mine owners want the
privilege of carrying their silver ore to
the minis and having 1t coined at the
present ratio OF 16 to l, because they would
then get about As per cent more for their
silver than they are getting now. The
silver dollars they would get, which are in
trinsically worth only 6S cents each,
they would distribute among the
people at their face value. The
amount OF silver coin that would be put
into circulation would, in q very short
time, be so great that a silver dollar would
cease to pass at its face value, and the peo-
pie, holding hundreds of millions Of dollars
in silver, would suffer a heavy loss. The
farmers and laboring class, especially,
would be the sufferers. The only ones who
would be benefited by the free and un-
limited coinage of silver are the producers
of silver and those directly dependent upon
them.
The third party is In favor Of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the pres
emit ratio, but there isn't one of its newspa-
pers or stump speakers that can show salts
factorily that the farmer and laboring man
would be benefited by it. And why should
the prosperity Of the country be
jeopsrdized simply to benefit the producers
of sllverl What interest has the Georgia
farmer In helping TO make the product Of
the silver mine owner more valua blel
The silverites say that the free and I'M
limited coinage of silver would cause the
price of silver to rise until the bullion value
Of the present silver dollar would be equal
to the bullion value of a gold dollar. They
know they have no ground for making such
an assertion. This country has been ooin-
ing silver freely since 1878. Since that time
it has coined more than $500, 100000, but
the bullion value of a silver dollar has
steadily fallen. In 1878 the bullion value
of silver dollar was about 80 cents. Now
IL is about 6S cents. 1t is apparent, there
fore, that If the bullion value Of the silver
dollar has steadily fallen while this immense
amount of silver was being coined free and
unlimited coinage would not make the
bullion value Of silver dollar equal to the
bullion value OF gold dollar.
There are only two ways in which the
silver question can be settled. One is by
putting dollars worth of silver in the
silver dollar, and the other is by fixing q
ratio between gold end silver for coinage
purposes that is acceptable to all CONNER
cial countries. This ratio can be fixed only
by international agreement. An interna-
tional monetary conference will soon assem-
be for the purpose of making such an agree
ment-