The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-18
Why The West Asks
for Free Coinage
Interesting Presentation of the Other
Side OF This Question.
JUDGE c. c. GOODWIN EXPLAINS
The East, Even More Than the West, lie
Contends, Is Interested in the Res.
toration of Silver as
Money Metal.

At the time of Senator John p. Jones'
announced withdrawal from the Re-
publican party, of which he had long
been an able and distinguished leader,
The Tribune, in reviewing his reasons
for that step, took occasion to say:
Let it even be assumed that the masses
of the Republican party of today enter
tain beliefs inimical TO free coinage. Is
the prospect of continued Democratic ad-
ministration more auspiCious for the pros
perity Of the silver states than the re-
turn to power of intelligent and reason
able Republicans, upon whom manly ar
gument and rational explanation are sell
dom lost? The position of the great ma
jority of the rank and file of the Republi-
can party upon this coinage question may
be expressed without recourse to bewil-
dering figures or recondite discussion. 1t
IS one not of preconceived hostility to
silver, but simply of profound regard
for the honor and stability of a currency
'every dollar of which," in the forceful
words of General Harrison, Shall be the
purchasing equal of every other dollar"
and have behind 1t, If necessary, the
quivalent Of a dollar in real value. We,
in the east. do not believe 1t to be FEAST
BILE to open the nations mints to the sill
ver of the world; but few of us are so in
sincere in our devotion to protection. as to
wish i'll fortune to come to the silver pro-
duced in American mines by American
capital giving employment to American
labor. The use of silver as money
metal, up to the limit of the safety of the
national credit and up to the limit of the
solvency of the American treasury, is
conceded to be wise, right and proper;
but we submit. for the consideration Of
our western friends, that this limit will
be sooner reached under Democratic su-
premacy than 1t will be under the wise
control of experienced and prescient Re-
publican statesmen, to whom the for
mulatng of progressive financial legis-
latlon is not an impossible task.
Among the numerous letters which
this expression elected was one of par
tlcular merit from the pen of Judge c..
G. Goodwin, editor of the Salt Lake Tri-
bune. The increasing interest taken by
all classes of people, east and west, in
what may be conveniently called the
currency problem, and the apparent
certainty that this question will figure
more largely in the politics of the COM
ing eight or ten years than 1t has fig
ured in the past, induce us to give
space to Judge Goodwin'S letter. At
the same time, we throw our columns
open to a general discussion of this sub
ject conditional, of course, upon space
limits; and invite contributions from
those of our readers who may wish to
supplement or refute statements in the
following expression of western opin-
ion:
Judge Goodwin's Letter.
"You are entirely right when you say
that you find no provocation to flip
paney in the loss of comrades like Sena-
tor Jones. When you say, We cannot
bring ourselves around to the radical
belief that they are less honest and less
patriotic than the inhabitants of other
places, you make people in the west
smile, because. II you knew something
Of the hearts and the heads of the west