Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1893-07-28
METAL HONEY.

The lenders of the free coinage con-
vention that assembled in Chicago last
Tuesday have decided to permit no ill.,
teri renee in the convention OH the
part of any men not in favor of free
coinage ut the ratio of | to 16. This ac-
ton reveals the true object If the silver
kings. They care nothing for the jus.
tice of their demands; they have no ill.,
terests in maintaining a wise financial
policy OH the part of the nation. and
they care absolutely. nothing for the
welfare of the remainder of the citizens
of this country. Such arrogance and
disregard for the opinions and inter-
ests of others has never been Witnessed
since IL considerable number of states
attempted to leave the Union in order
to perpetuate slavery.
With some people it is useless to
argue. To every objection. no matter
how valid. that may be made to their
peculiar ideas of finance, they only hiss
gold bug" at the party Directing.
but to all that are far minded and
that are willing to discuss the question
of finance with Il view to arriving at the
truth. to all that feel All interest i'm the
prosperity and glory of our common
country, the STAR wishes to speak.
The free coinage of silver at the ratio
of 1G to cans that the nation
would coin all the silver offered at the
mints into dollars weighing 41211s grains.
1t means that the country would stamp
as 100 cents a piece of silver that can
be bought anywhere for about 60 cents.
That is what is meant nowadays by free
coinage. Now let us examine some of
the effects surf to follow such an act.
To begin with. gold would quickly dis
appear because. as we have pointed out
before, a cheaper money always drives
a dearer money out of circulation.
Those people that are shouting SO Wig
orously about the conspiracy to lessen
the supply of money are the very ones
that are conspirlng to bring about such
IL result. Lessen the money supply and
the price of everything else is enhanced;
contract the currency by driving out
gold from circulation in the United
States and every industry in the land
will he crippled for years, if not ruined,
and every occupation will be seriously
impaired, except only that of the ''ca-
4 lon,;f,, (,o,vIor, "a la r o,o1,,
That would be one effect; now let us
look at another. and here we wish the
attention of our friends of tariff for
revenue only proc'ivities. These latter
will admit that commercial intercourse
with other nations is both desirable and
profitable. Now all the commercial ma
tons of the world and the ones will,
which we do nearly all of our trading
have the gold standard. When we
shipped products to them they could,
and not only could but would, pay us
in silver at the rate of 4i2ls grains for
merchandise worth 100 cents. When
we imported any merchandise from
Europe we would have to paw them not
in silver ut its nominal value, but in
silver at its real value; we would sell
them our silver dollars of 4l2 u grains
for SO or 80 cents. as the bullion price of
silver might vary from day to day.
Upon what. class would the greatest
burden fall? Upon the farmers. be.
cause we have an excess of agricultural
products. These products we would
ship abroad as we do now. II is impos-
sible to examine every side of this ques-
ton unless one intended to write VOL
umes upon it. How wages. pensions,
etc, would be effected. cannot at this
time be considered. However. we hope
enough has been said to convince even
the most skeptical of our opponents that
we are honest in the matter. Now
would free coinage by the United States
raise silver to the price it held
prior to 1873. or to Sl.20 an
ounce? 1t could not. In 1873 all
the great nations except England had
the double standard. or the silver stand
ard alone. Since then all the great ma
tions have adopted the gold standard.
The annual production of silver has
also enormously increased. The silver
advocates themselves know that free
coinage by the United States cannot
force the price of the white metal up to
where it Was previous to 1873. For
proof of this assertion we point to the
statutes of California and Nevada. The
statues Of the former state requires the
courts to give judgments in the kind
of money the contract calls for. The
statutes of Nevada make a similar pro.
] vision and 60 them one letter by pro.