Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-10-01
BURROWS POSITION.
THE MICHIGAN SENATOR ARGUES
 AGAINST FREE COINAGE.


 Mich, Senator Burrows of Michigan vigorously opposed the free coinage .fa1- lacy and upheld our present financial system. After reviewing our monetary legislation he said
 Tn the first place the free and un- limited coinage of silver at 16 to would in my judgment expel from our circulation not only our entire volume of gold, but every dollar of paper money tion of the currency and resultant panic the like of which has not been seen in this generation.
 "This would follow as the inevitable result of that law cf monetary science which where two moneys are issued of unequal value the cheaper will always expel the dearer from circulation. It certainly needs no argument to demon stFate the truth of the proposition that if two dollars are issued, one worth 50 cents and the other 100 cents, the 30 cent dollar will be the only dollar in circulation and the 100 cent dollar will be hoarded by the banks and individuals until the whole volume of such currency entirely disappears. This law is of uni versal application and has it's origin in human nature itself. No debtor owing $100 would discharge that indebtedness in the more valuable of two moneys. He would surely make use of the cheaper and retain the dearer. 1t was the knowl- edge of this law that guided the fathers ill fixing the ratio in the beginning at 15 to |.
 "They knew that dollars of unequal commercial value could not be made to circulate permanently side by side, and so, having ascertained that 2434 grains of pure gold were of equal value with 3714 grains of pure silver, they pro- Yided for the coinage of these two met als into dollars at the ration of 15 to 1. But the truth of this principle has been demonstrated over and over again even ill our own history. The gold and silver coins issued at the ratio of b to l un- der the act of 1792 shortly became of unequal commercial value, the bullion in the gold dollar being of greater value than the bullion in the silver dollar. The silver dollar became cheaper than the gold dollar, and the consequence was that silver alone circulated and gold gradually disappeared. Indeed, and for the same reason, the coinage of gold declined, for the 243 grains of pure gold provided for i'll the gold dol lar were worth more uncoined than when coined, and therefore its coinage @Ciix hr4I1 alone found its way to the hints of the United States.
 It remains only to be inquired what would be the probable effect of adopting the silver dollar of 37116 grains as our single standard of value The first and most patent result, as already noticed, would be to drive from our circulation every other dollar of superior value, whether of coin or paper. Our $600, 900, 900 of gold, constituting one-third of the entire volume of our money, would be quickly eliminated from our circulation by being hoarded or sent abroad, followed by the retirement of our $400, 900, 900 of paper currency re- deemable in gold, producing a contrae tion of the currency unexampled ill our history, of over $1,000, 000,000, to be followed by financial conyulsion un- precedented in modern times. 1t will not do to say that with free and unlim ited coinage this vacuum would be quickly supplied, for it would require 25 years, with the present capacity of our mints, to replace this vast volume of currency with silver
 This consideration alone ought to be sufficient to deter us from venturing upon such hazardous policy. More than this. The silver dollar of 371L grains produced under free coinage and not maintained at a parity with the gold dollar, as it surely would not be, would, as we have seen, at once sink to the level of its bullion value and be worth only about 50 cents Every depositer in saw ings, national and state banks, the hold CTS of policies in life, fire and all other insurance companies, investments ill loan and building associations, represent ed by great body of people numbering more than 20, ,000,0 ,000, would be forced to receive i'll return for their deposits, premiums and investments dollar of only one-half the value of that with which they parted, to the enormous and incalculable advantage of these great corporations. Suppose an importer of foreign goods should become indebted to the government of the United States in the sum of $10,000 for customs dues, what would prevent him from purchas- ing $5, ,000 of silver bullion and under free coinage converting it into 10000 silver dollars, and with these liquidate the indebtedness to the government? Every pensioner would find his meager stipend lessened one-half, and many of them would be reduced to beggary. Not only this, but all lhe recipients of fixed salaries, every clerk, teacher, railway employee and receiver of stated in- come would be forced to take money which in procuring the necessities of life for himself and family would pos ross only ona-haH af it's former Durchas-