The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-12
THE SILVER QUESTION
As Understood By One Who Resides
Far From Wall Street.

Wootten's Mills, Telfair Co., Ca
Editor Morning News: Then most
remarkable thing connected with the
silver question is the unreasonable argu-
ments of the extreme advocates of free
coinage Apparently they entirely ignore
the potential fact that silver occupies a
different position now to what its status
was during former periods of free coinage
in the United States. They pay no at
tention to the recent action of nearly
every nation of advanced intelligence in de-
monetizing silver They go on repeating
the same arguments that would have been
applicable to the subject when silver had
a standard value among the civilized
nations of the earth
The extreme friends of silver want the
government of the United States to coin
silver free regardless of the indisputable
fact that the metal has no fixed value,
and, in view of its recent decline in price,
are willing to increase the ratio of value
between it and gold to cover the decrease
IN intrinsic value, Notwithstanding the
entire absence of any assurance that its
value will not continue to fall
in other words the government
could put enough silver in a
".
but 1t would have no guarantee that this
dollar would be worth 100 cents to-
morrow, simply because this government
alone cannot fix the value of silver any
more than it can control the price of ag-
ricultural products and other commod-
tiles. If it could fix standard value for
silver the question of free coinage, now
so much agitating the public mind, would
be easily settled without breach in the
orsfxr al
favor Of free coinage, provided silver
could be given a standard value
by international arrangement
Men of long established financial abil-
ity think that if the government of the
United States were to place silver upon
an equal footing with gold, silver,
being the cheaper metal on account of
its greater abundance, would drive gold
out of circulation: it would be speedily
gobbled up by capitalists and held at q
premium. This is reasonable view of
the matter and can scarcely be refuted
And then, when this country would
have to pay its obligations in
Europe, which amount to hundreds of
millions of dollars, contracted on the
basis of gold values, it would be in pitt
able condition, because it would not have
the gold to pay with and silver money
not being worth par in foreign countries,
we would be forced to purchase gold at
an enormous premium with which to
liquidate our obligations to foreign ma
tions. 1t is easy enough to understand
why the silver miners of the western
states advocate free coinage-it is
money in their pockets to have the
price Of silver advanced, which they
argue free coinage would accomplish, but
they advocate a short-sighted policy, be-
cause the advance in the price of silver, by
legislative action, would be only tempo
rary, and eventually the whole country
would lose by it-for the reasons already
stated-the advance in this country in
the value of gold which is the standard
OF values in all the civilized world. The
mere increase of the circulating medium,
by free coinage of silver, would be an ex-
pedient that could be otherwise provided,
by the adoption of sounder method to
expand the currency on gold basis with
out the use of silver as a legal tender
but 1t is not the purpose of this article to
discuss this branch of the subject at this
time.
But it is a difficult matter to under
stand how free coinage of silver would
benefit the people of this country so long
as the metal has no standard value in
this or any other civilized nation. The
advocates of free coinage seem to think
that the fat Of this government extends
to every civilized and heather land, and
that piece Of silver stamped with the
fat of the United States, making it worth
100 cents in this country, will pass for a
dollar all over the world, and this is one
way they mislead unthinking and unin-
formed people. 1t does not require brill
liant intelligence to know that the United
States has not the power to force other
nations to recognize its money currency
at a standard value any more than other
nations could force US to DO the same
thing. We had an illustration of this
matter SeQe years ago which will doubt
less be remembered by many business men.
Some twelve or fifteen years since a
great many Mexican dollars came into
this country, and while they were
stamped lone dollar by the government
of Mexico and passed for 100 cents in that
country, they did not contain enough sill
yer to make them worth 100 cents accord
ing to the standard of value in the United
States, consequently they were taken at
a discount by our people and circulated in
the channels of trade for only their in
trinsic value So would our silver dol
lars be treated ir other Countries, and at
the present price of silver they would be
worth less than 60 cents apiece. While
this is the grandest country on earth, and
one of the most powerful, it has no power
alone to fix the value of silver, or to force
the other nations to agree TO q standard
ratio between gold and silver.
Neither does it require superior fnan-
cial ability, or deep knowledge of po-
itical economy, to see that if silver were
placed on an equal footing with gold
(without international agreement as to
the ratio of coinage between the two
metals, no matter what ratio were
adopted, whether 1515 to /, or % to l, it
would speedily drive gold out Of circula-
ton, thereby contracting the currency to
the extent of the amount of gold now in
circulation-abOutS 5000, 900, 000-and while
this would be bad enough, it would not
be the worst, because, as already stated
we would be forced to buy gold at an ex-
tortionate premium, to pay our obliga-
tions in Europe.
The most important quality in the
metal that serves as the money of a ma
ton is the steadfastness and regularity
Of the purchasing power. Nothing
can be good measure Of
other YaluableS that is
itself fiuctuating in value If it is not
itself the same thing under all conditions,
in all localities and at all times, it is not
a safe medium to buy and sell by. The
miller or farmer would hardly regard an
elastic half bushel a reliable or honest
measure by which to buy or sell wheat or
corn. Neither should any government re-
gard a quality of money reliable and hon
est, that by reason of its fuctuating
value cannot be used as a universal stand
ard by which to measure the