The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-08-10
MILLS'S POSITION.
OUTSIDE THE SILVER CAMP

He Finds 1t Impossible Longer to Be-
lieve in the Free Coinage Delus1on
He Gives Most Excellent Rea-
sons for His Change of Front.
Senator Mills, of Texas, has during
the past six months renewed his study
of the money question, aud has come
to the conclusion that free coinage of
silver at ratio of 16 to l with gold is
delusion. His recent letter to the
Chairman of the Democratic State
Committee of Texas has created con-
sternation i'll the camp of the silver
ties. Why it should do SO will be un-
derstood after reading the following
extracts from his letter:
"The proposition is not to be dis
puted that the increase of currency,
all other things being equal, raises
prices wherever the money circulates
But prices are not affected in any
country where the money does not
circulate. The opening of our minis
to the unlimited coinage OF silver will
increase prices in the United States,
but not in Europe. AS the prices of
commodities rise here, the value OF the
dollar falls here in precisely the same
proportion. The price of the gold
dollar, which is the common measure
of value, remaining the same in Eu-
rope, it would go to Europe, because
it would buy more commodities there
than here.
81 object to the silver standard be-
ing adopted IN lieu of the existing
standard because it will defraud all
creditors out of one-half the value of
their debts. Every debt contracted
since January l, 1879, was contracted
on the gold standard. The debtor
honestly owes the value of 1922
grains of gold for every dollar prom
Used, and the creditor is honestly en-
titled to receive it. When it was pro-
posed years ago to demonetize all the
coined silver of the world and sup
press the further coinage of that
metal, I joined with other friends of
silver in denouncing the monstrous
proposition, because it was an attempt
to double the debts of the world, and
to bring all debts in this country CON
tracted on paper standard, much of
it at less than so cents on the dollar,
to par with gold. Is not the propo-
sition now to substitute the silver dol
lar on the silver standard for that gold
dollar the same that we all con-
demned, except it is the creditor now
who is to be the victim instead of the
debtor then?
"No persons would receive the
least benefit from the change of stand
ard to silver except the man who
owes 100 cents and wishes to pay it
with 80. He would under the silver
standard be able to discharge his debt
by paying one-half of what he prom
ised. This would be scheme to en-
rich one.half of a community by
despoiling the other half. Wherever
there is debtor there is creditor,
and he is entitled to the same protec-
ton as the debtor. Congress has the
power to discharge insolvent debtors
by bankrupt law, but the adoption
of the silver standard now would dis
charge all solvent debtors from one
half the obligation of their contracts,
even though as class they might be
the Weather part of the community.
believing that the silver standard
would prove injurious to the people
of the United States, and especially to
that part of them engaged in growing
cotton, I am unwilling to take any
steps in legislation calculated to i'm
peril that great industry upon which
the welfare of my constituency SO
greatly depends.
"The vast army of wage-workers will
be injured, and seriously injured, by
the expulsion of the present standard
and the adoption of any deprecated
standard of values. The paper stand
ard, as 1 have said, is the worst, be-
cause the paper has no appreciable in
trinsic value to check its expansion.
The silver standard is the next in or
der, but its mischief is limited by the
market value of the metal in the dol
lar. The most stable, invariable and
the Lest of III moneys is that one of
the precious metals which is recog-
lized as the con mon measure of
7alue' of the commercial world. We
have that stable, invariable standard
If value now-and there is nothing
wanting for its improvement bat the
substitution of halves, quarters and
lines in the place of National bank
totes and a continued coinage OF silver
o limited in its amount as to keep 1t
Z nor with ool3