Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-12-12
FOR SOUND MONEY.
cLEvELANo's STRONG ARGUMENT
 FOR 100 CENT DOLLARS.

Each Other In value-Attempt at Free
 Coinage Now Would Result In Silver MonometalIism and In Great Financial
 Distress.
 President Cleveland, in his message to congress. reviews at considerable length the history of our greenbaoks, the great need of retiring them and the urgent need of changes ill our banking and currency laws to give us a suffi- cient, safe and elastic currency. His recommendations agree substantially not only with those of Secretary Carlisle and Comptroller Eckles, but with those of many eminent authorities on this subject. They should be, and we hope have been, read by all good and patri, otic citizens We, however, propose now to call renewed attention to his excel lent digeussen of the free coinage ques- tion. It is one of the most convincing arguments ever made against cheap sil- yer dollars. We reproduce below the greater part of this discussion:
 While 1 have endeavored to make plain statement of the disordered condi- tion of our currency and the present dangers menaeing our prosperity, and to suggest q way which leads to safer financial system, have constantly had in mind the fact that many of my coun- trymen, whose sincerity do not doubt, insist that the cure for the ills now threatening us may be found in the sin- gle and simple remedy of the free coin age of silver.
 We're there infinitely stronger reasons than can be adduced for hoping that such action would secure for us a bi- metallic currency moving on lines of parity, an experiment. so novel and haZ- ardous as that proposed might well stag ger those who believe that stability is an imperative condition of sound money.
 No government, no human contri- vance or act of legislation, has ever been able to hold the two metals together i'll free coinage at a ratio appreeiably diff ferent from that which is established iii the markets of the world.
 Those who believe that our independ- ent free coinage of silver at an artifi- cial ratio with gold of 16 to would re- store the parity between the metals, and consequently between the coins, oppose an unsupported and improbable theory to the general belief and practice of other nations, and to the teaching of the wisest statesmen and economists of the world, both in the past and present, and, what is far more conclusive, they run counter to our own actual experi- enees.
 Twice in our earlier history our law makers in attempting to establish bi- metallic currency undertook free coin age upon a ratio which accidentally va ried from the actual relative values of the two metals not more than 3 per cent. h both cases, notwithstanding greater difficulties and cost of transpor- tation than now exist, the coins, whose
 intrinsic worth was undervalued in the ratio. gradually and surely disappeared from our circulation and went to othel countries where their real value was better recognized.
 Acts of congress were impotent tC create equality where natural eanses de creed even slight inequality.
 Twice in our recent history we have signally failed to raise by Legislation the value of silver. Under an act of con gress passed in 1878 the government was required for more than 12 years tt . expend annually at least $24. GOO, 900 il the purchase of silver bullion for coin
 age. The act of July II, 1890, in stil
 bolder effort increased the amount ol
 silver the government was compelled tC
 purchase, and forced it to become tht
 buyer annually of 54, GOO, 900 ounces, ol
 practically the entire product of oul
 mines. Under both laws silver rapidly 3 and steadily declined in value. The
 prophecy and the expressed hope and ex
 peetation of those ill the congress whe
 led in the passage of the last mentioned
 act, that it would re-establish and main
 tain the former parity between the two
 metals, are still fresh in our memory.
 h the light of these experiences
 which accord with the experiences o1 s other nations, there is certainly no se
 cure ground for the belief that an act ei f congress conld now bridge an inequality , of 50 per cent between gold and silver at cur present ratio, nor is there the least possibility that our country, whicl l has less than one-seventh of the silver !. money in the world, could by its actior ? alone raise not only our own but all sil yer to it's lost ratio with gold. Our at a tempt to accomplish this by the free
 coinage of silver at ratio differing widely from actual relative values would be the signal for thecomplete de parture of gold from our circulation. ths { immediate and large contraction of oul { circulating medium, and shrinkage il n the real valne and monetary efficiency - of all other forms of currency as they
 settled to the level of silver monometal
 lism. Every one who receives fixed . salary and every worker for wages would
 find the dollar in sis hand ruthlessly scaled down to the point of bitter disap- | pointment if not to pinching privation { A change i'll our standard to silver r monometallism would also bring on a
 collapse of tho entire system of credit
 which, when based on a standard which
 is recognized and adopted by the world of business, is many times more potent and useful than the entire volume of currency and is safely capable of almost B indefinite expansion to meet the growth . of trade and enterprise
 In self invited struggle through
 darkness and uncertainty our humilia- } tion would be increased by the con