The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-02-17
silver Rricks.
Editor REPUBLIC:


times guide a pillow. husk pumpkins,
and do certain other agricultural
acts which are looked down upon by
the advocates of the idea that the far
mer should tend to his pillow and let
the city fellows do his sinking. politi-
-calIy. would like to give you few
of my ideas on the silver question.
1t is generally conceded that from a
period, long before we have any writ
ten history. up to 1873. silver and gold
were interchangeable. as currency, at
various ratios. The comparative
values fuctuated. at different times. to
the extent of so per cent-gold some
times being worth as 1 to 8, instead of
as in coin, in 1873, being rated at to
10. Its money value-gold as COM
pared to silver-was matter of legal
inactment; each government arbi-
trarily decreed the relation they should
have to one another, even as now, the
bank of England is obliged to pay
certain price for ali fine gold that may
be offered. At the old rate of 10 to 1.
silver, at times, was worth as bullion,
IL to 1; or gold had fallen in value
about 80 per cent. Did the bankers
kick and swear; 4'the country would
go to the devil'' if gold was not de-
monetizedg Did it interfere with the
business relations of this or other
countriesP Not much! If you owed
debt. silver or gold paid it. The diff
ference IN commercial value of the
two metals, as bullion, cut no figure in
business circles. You heard nothing
of the dishonest gold dollar. - So it
would De with regard to silver if the
characterization act was repealed, free
coinage the order of the day, and the
''dollar of the dads made legal
tender for all debts public or private
where not, at the passage of the act.
otherwise specified, and in any
amount.
OF course our gold bug friends will
say that times are changed, and that
disaster would follow the reliabilita-
ton of silver. Well 1t is barely posi-
BILE that the gold bugs would suffer
some, because it would increase the
circulating medium one-half, neees-
sarily increasing the ability of debtors
to meet their observation-disclosures to
save their homes,-increase the value
of all products and wages. also on ac-
count of the plentitude of money. cut
down the usurious rates of interest
which men in hard luck are obliged to
pay. They-the gold bugs-will claim
that 1t is dishonest to pay debt con-
tracted when everything was on a
gold basis in anything else. Well we
| have heard that howl for 10, these
many years; but does anyone remem-
! Der to have heard them find fault
when bonds. bought with Deprecated
currency, worth fraction over 35
cents on the dollar, and payable in
lawful money-green backs. if the
government so minded. were made
payable in gold-giving them a bonus
of nearly 200 per cent? Nary!
Now, what will the result be if free
coinage becomes a fact? 1t will be
similar to the action of eastern capt.
talists about loaning money on west
ern Kansas farms after the cyclones of
go and '92,-they will cut off supplies
for time, until they find the people
can get along without them, and then
come to terms-be the biggest toads
in the puddle in the work of equaliz-
ing values, and swear they always
were friends of free silver and q
double standard.
There is one point l forgot TO men
ton that should properly have come
in further back, the claim that Mono
metalists make, that our silver won't
circulate in Europe. Well, we don't
want it to-, for that matter; but they
forget TO state that neither do our gold
coins or our greenbacks. The most of
the gold shipped either to or from
America is in bricks (bullion) and if
coin is sent. it is weighed the same as
lead or iron, the only difference being
that it occupies less space.
Another matter that our gold bug
friends fail to brag about. when run
ming down silver as legal tender. is
that the national bank notes, are not
4 now. and never have been. legal
tender for the payment of debt. and
can be refused by anyone. Of course
they are good, because the govern
ment guarantees them on account OF
the bonds it holds as collateral, and a
man would be foolish to find fault
with them, on that account.
One more point and will close 1t
is this; the constitution of the United
States is the authority under which
the government coins money, and de-
signates the kind and quality of coins,
and sets the standard. That standard