The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-06-08

responsibility resting upon him;
who strives earnestly and honestly,
as God gives him the wisdom to do
it, to maintain the honor and Sc
cure the prosperity of the whole
country and to hand them down un-
furnished and undiminished to his
children, we wish to address our
selves.
The issues which this financial
question present are few and simple.
The advocates of silver allege
that the act of Congress of 1873,
technically and actually demoni-
tized silver and very largely re-
duced the supply of metallic cur
rency then in circulation among
the people. That as direct re-
suit of the inadequate supply of
currency with which to transact
business, the price of nearly all of
the products of human labor has
steadily declined, and that the
price or the purchasing power of
gold-it being compelled to per-
form alone the functions which it
and silver previously performed
together-has steadily increased,
and they assign these alleged facts
as the cause of the panic which
recently swept over the country
and from the effects of which we
are still suffering.
They demand as a remedy for the
present, and preventive for flu
ture evils, that the United States
shall at once, and independently of
all other nations, begin the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at
the ratio of 16 to l.
A large number of the people of
the United States are united on
this platform, and the cause has
for its leaders a host men who are
able, conscientious and patriotic.
On the other hand their oppon-
ents, who are just as able, just as
conscientious and just as patriotic,
while admitting that the legisla-
ton of 1873 technically demoni-
tized silver, assert that it had al
ready been practically demonitized
by legislation in 1884, which re-
duced the quantity of gold in the
dollar, SO as to make the ratio be-
tween it and silver Is to / instead
of Is to l as it had been fixed by
the coinage act of 1892. That as
the commercial or bullion of the
two metals was at this time (1834)
1850 of silver to l of gold, the
former became more valuable as
commodity than it was as a coin,
and the coinage of it at once ceased,
and that practically no silver Tex
cep. small amount of subsidiary
coin) was coined between that
period and 1873, at which time
there was none in circulation.
Hence. they say, that the act Of
1873 was a simple recognition OF
condition which had existed in this
country for nearly half q century
and did not and could not change
the condition.
The opponents of free coinage
further assert that all civilized ma.
lions which have sought to coir
the two metals and make them cir.
culate together have recognized the
necessity of making the CONNER
cial, or bullion, or intrinsic value
of the two, correspond with thu
coinage value, and that in every
case where this rule has not beer
observed, and when for any rea
son the coinage value of one meta
has become appreciably create
than it's commercial value, it hal
driven from the field the othe
metal. Hence they assert, tina
under the operation of this law
which they claim is universal, and
is independent of legislation o
custom, the attempt on the part o
this country to coin without hmi
; silver and gold at ratio of Is t
III, when the commercial ratio Q
the two is 50 to l, will result in re
, firing, as q metallic currency, al
of the gold now in circulation
! which constitutes nearly, if nc
quite half, of our metallic currency
and thus largely decrease on
stock of such currency, and plac
} us upon a silver basis at the sam
5 time.
RI One of the greatest dificultie
. which an honest seeker for infol
. nation on this subject will er
Q counter, arises from the great col
: fiict between the two parties as