The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-09-12
THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER: SEPTEMBER IL 1853

our legislation was to be great, as it
n~ecessitated this important move by
the council of India. The fall will GER
tainly be equal to that which followed
the action of the Indian council. In
my opinion it will be even greater, for
our annual purchase of silver exceeded
the coinage of India.
After we shall have repealed the sill
ve~r-purchase law and substituted moth
ing to uphold it as a money metal, sill
yer will, in my opinion, sink to the
level of the demand which is created
by the subsidiary Or token money of
the countries so using it, estimated at
about $3.50, 900, 900, IS before stated, or
about one eighth of the silver money
now in use. Seven-eighths Of the de
mand, therefore, being thus abolished,
natural economic laws would Justify
US in saying that the price would DC re
duced in the same proportion; but to
the figures thus arrived at must be
added whatever would be created by
| the demand for it's use in the arts.
Will not our remaining silver dollar
participate in this decline7 If, while
sustained by a coinage law and made a
legal tender, our dollar is denounced
as dishonest and as only having a bull
lion value of So cents, what will be said
of it when the bullion of it is worth
only about 30 cents? If now, our own
Secretary of the Treasury will not ten
der it in discharge of silver obligations,
what will become of it in the trading
world when it strikes the bottom; and
what must be thought Of a Senator or
Congressman who asserts that immedi-
ately after it's repeal our remaining
dollars will become equal to a gold
dollar, and that the parity will be com
plete? Is that what the Chicago plat
form meant, that you should make sill
yer dollars so scarce that the parity
with gold would be equal? Is that what
it means when saying I'VE hold to the
use of both gold and silver2"
If so, then all the world is bi-
metallic, for all use both, and the
people were deceived. Did it mean
by coming no silver that we
should thereby make no discrimina
ton against either metal? Did the
platform mean that we should first cut
off the coinage of silver and then show
no discrimin alton, but coin equally of
both2 After that, when the platform
said, That the dollar unit of all coin
age of both metals must be of equal
intrinsic and exchange able value" did
it mean that we must first reduce by
hostile legislation the intrinsic or bull
lion value of silver so low as to render
the carrying out Of that pledge an i'm
possibility? And when it says that
this intrinsic and Interchangeable value
is to "be adjusted through international
agreement, did it mean that weshould
first increase the disparity to the ex
tent of making silver worth only about
80 cents an ounce, or 40 to 1 of gold, in
order to facilitate the task of getting
foreign nations to agree to coin it with
us at 151 to I?
And falling in that, when the plat
form gees on to say, "or by such safe
| guards OIL ~legislation as shall insure the
maintenance of the parity Of the two
metals in equal power Of every dollar
at all times in the markets and in the
payment of debts" did it mean that
these legislative safeguards should be
applied while the silver dollar was
still alive, so as to help to maintain it's
parity with gold, Or after its coinage
was stopped and its intrinsic value
was reduced so that it was virtually
dead? Was it an invitation to the
nuptial ceremonies of the two metals.
Or was it a notice to attend the funeral
of silver2 And did it mean that it
should be good in payment of the
public debts, or only debts among
private parties and the small fry?
Was that a wink with a golden y
to the bOndhOlder and a broad, silver
smile to the common people, who love
the old dollar? And when the plat
form denounced the Sherman law as
"a cowardly makeshift," did it mean a
makeshift for free coinage Of silver, or
the use of gold9-a makeshift for bi-
metallism Or monometallism? under
which king, Bezonian2 Speak or die?o
Laughter
If the trainers of that plank meant
that it was a cowardly makeshift for
the free coinage of silver, is not the
bill for its repeal, without a line in its
place, a greater coward and a worse
makeshift? Is not the COINAGE of "a