The Forrest City times., 1895-08-09
FACTS ABOUT FREE COINAGE
Flow II will Affect the Farmer and Work
 iugman.

V. BeecH. Late DirectDr or the Mi0t ID
 Worth American Review" for July.
 1t is important to understand clearly and exactly what the free coinage of sil wer under present conditions means. II may be defined as the right of any one to deposit silver of any kind at a mint of the United States. and haveevery 37l r grains sof pure silver (now worth in its uncoined state about g cenisl stamped free Of .charge, '.One Dollar" which dollar shall sbe a fuI legal tender at it's face value in fhe payment of debts and obligations of ail kinds, public and private, in the U nted States.
 Such an act at this time would savor of national dishonesty. At the present val sue of silver oge of our legal tender dollars will purchase TIC grains of pure silver, rearly double tine amount contained in silver dollar From the foundation of the government tue effort Of our fathers has abeen to establish coinage ratio approxi- snating as nearly as possible tile commer- ,cial value of the precious metals The first coinage act l792) authorized the snintage of gold and silver coins at the Droportion of l Of gold to 15 of silver, which wqs believed to be abont the com mercial value of the metals at that period Gold being undervalued slightly, gold coins did not enter into circulation, and silver constituted the currency of the coun- frn ady hi i'm, ha was fixed at about l to 15 (exactly to 15.9s) which was believed to correspond more nearly 10 the comme rcial value of she two metals. The effort was always to approximate the commercial value of khe two metals.
 Hamilton, in his justly celebrated re- port on The Establishment of Mint :" says: There can hardly be better rule in any country for the legal than the market proportion"
 Jefferson said: Just principles will lead us to disregard legal proportions al- Together; to inquire into the market price of gold in the several countries with w hich we shall principally be connected Tn com merce and to take and average from them. The proportion between the values of &Olu duu siIVef IS htIcdltlile pfOUItul altogether"
 It remained for these latter days to SC. riously suggest to the American people the nnlimited mintage of coins of full debt paying power, worth intrinsically about one-half the face value. In point of hon esty there is no practical difference be- tween stamping and issuing coin with full debt paying qualities as Sl, which is geaiiy worth only 50 cents, aud cutting dollar in half and requiring everyone to accept the half as dollar. No country can thrive by dishonesty and of all forms of national dishonesty the clipped or over valued coin is the most ancient and most objectionable.
 The inevitable result of the unrestricted coinage of silver by this country acting in monetary isolation would be to place our currency on silver basis.
 What does silver basis mean 1t means in the first instance a violent contraction of the currency by the withdrawal Of gold coins aud gold certificates from circula- tIon. Ths stock of metallic and paper money ill the United States is about S2 : 2c9 900, 900, every dollar of which, under our presen; standard is Us good as a gold dollar and practically interchangeable with gold. The law makes il the impera- tive duty of the secretary of the treasury to maintain the two metals ou a parity with each other" and provides the neces- sary means to accomplish it, the pledge of the public credit. With free silver coinage tue obligation, both moral and le- gal, upon the government to maintain She two metals on parity" would end. The immediate result would he the de- struction of the parity. the separation of our currency between gold and silver, and the withdrawal of S676. .000, 900 of gold from circulation and use as money. This enormous contract ion Of the money which is the basis of our currency system would unsettle business. impair credit. destroy values and prrduees the most tremendous disturbance which this country has eyer witnessed.
 Alter the first shock of free coinage law. the effects of which no man can fully toresee, when values had adjusted them selves to existing conditions, as a silver basis means that the paying power of our money in foreign exchanges would be de- preciated to the commercial value of the silver in our dollars. whatever that may be. We have perfect illustration close at hand il our near neighbor. Mexico, of 3 country on d settled silver basis, with unrestricted gold and silver coinage The Mexican dollar, although it contains more silver than our dollar. has purchasing power tn foreign exchanges equal only to it's commercial value as bullion. The same is true of the currency of every coun- try which is on silver basis. There is pv country in lbe world 10 day where sil-