The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-12-11
CONTRADICTORY ARGUMENTS.
RECOGNIZABLE ASSUMPTIONS OF
THE GOLD MONOMETALLLSTS.
(The Philadelphia American.)

The gold monometallists are much Civ
en- to inconsistent argument, seemingly
never hesitating to shift their positions
in argument whenever it suits their pur-
pose to do SO, even though in doing so
they assume positions contradictory to
those first held.
We have heard great deal about a
nifty cent dollar, and how the laborer and
all producers would be robbed if forced
to accept payment for their services or
products In deprecated dollar,-a dis
honest, fraudulent dollar, a dollar worth
but fifty cents. Yet with brazen effront-
cry the gold monometallists turn round
and tell us the millionaire monopolist sill
yer miner could, under free coinage take
fifty cents worth of silver to the mint,
have it coined into dollars worth q hun
dred cents, and thus reap an enormous
profit of so per cent. With one breath
they tell us that the silver dollars coined
under unlimited coinage would be worth
but SO cents to the workman and pro-
ducer, and in the next that the same dol
lars would be, worth 100 cents to the mine
owner.
Those demanding the free coinage
OF silver, ask that the silver miner, or
any one else possessing silver shall have
the right to take it to the minis for coin
age and be given in return for the silver
bullion deposited an equal weight of sill
yer coin,-receiving silver dollar weigh
ing 4121a grains for every 4121a grains Of
silver bullion of standard fineness. just
&C hn min 80 81 ~
right to take bullion to the mint, and re-
celve gold dollar correctly the multiple
of the gold dollar, for no one dollar gold
piece is coineD for every 25.S grains Of
standard gold, so it is demanded that the
owners of silver shall have an equal right
to receive a silver dollar for every 412k
grains of standard silver, or BIN grains
of pure silver deposited at the minis, a
right never denied before 1873, and seem
ingiy guaranteed by the constitution IT.
self, it being written in Section 10, Article
], that mo state shall make
anything but gold and silver coin ten
der in payment Of debts" thus implying
that the United States, to whom is re-
served the right to coin money, shall sup
ply the states with such coin.
371A grains of silver are now only
worth 50 cents of a gold dollar, and the
assumption of the gold monometall:sts
that the silver mine owner would make a
profit out OF the government of 48 cents
ON every dollar coined, seems very plaus-
ible. But as we have said the silver mine
owner would receive a silver dollar for
his bullion containing just as much silver
as he deposited, and it, as the gold mon
ometallist tell us, this silver dollar would
be after coinage only worth 50 cents Of a
gold dollar, only worth half as much to
the laborer, the farmer, the manufac-
turer, as the gold dollar, the silver mi
ner would certainly reap no enormous
profit at the expense of the government,
for the silver dollar could not possibly be
worth more to the miner than to the far,
mer, laborer, or manufacturer.
But what would really happen under
free coinage? The silver dollars would
be as serviceable in paying taxes, rent,
interest and debts of all kinds as gold
dollars. Now if these silver dollars could
be bought for 50 cents in gold (Which Of
course they could not as we shall show
any one possessed of gold and having pay
ments to make, certainly would not prof
fer his gold in payment, but seek to ex-
change it for silver, for with $50 in gold
he could only directly pay $50 of debt,
Jun ny SCllklS tutSC lUI SllN0I uC CUulu
pay $500 of debt And the result; every
one would try to sell his gold for silver,
but no one would want to buy gold so
long as more was asked for the gold dol
lar than the silver dollar. Nobody want
ing gold dollars as money if worth more
than silver, and everybody wanting silver
dollars if worth less than gold, the gold
dollars would naturally fall and the sill
yer rise until the parity between the dol
lars was restored, unit each dollar was
worth hundred cents in the other, when
the demand for the two dollars would be
equ2! and thus the parity maintained.
AS the dollars thus fell in value, the
wheat Of the farmer, the cotton of the
planter and the fabrics of the manufac-
turer would rise inversely, so also the
product of the silver miners. The silver
miner would not be benefited IN any
greater degree than the farmer, the plant
err, the manufacturer, or the wage Garner
To those who fear that some time would
elapse, should we open our minis to free
coinage Of silver, independently of other
powers, before the market value of sill
yer equal,ed the coin value, and that the
interim would be marked by uncertainty
and business distress, we submit the fol-
lowing proposition for unlimited coinage
a proposition acceptable to those favoring
free coinage, proposed by the editor of the
American when the repeal of the Sher-
man was pending, endorsed at the time
by nearly two hundred of philadelphia
leading manufacturing and business men
and taken as a basis of bill submitted
by Senator Jones, of Arkansas during the
last session Of congress, a bill that was ia
vorably received though not brought to
"a vote in the senate. The proposal is as
follows:
l That the United States shall admit
silver bullion from American mines to
coinage in its minis upon the payment by
the owner of a se:gn.orage absorbing
three-fourths of the difference between
the market Qondon price of the bullion
and it's value when coined. 2. That for
eign silver shall be admitted only for
cO.age purposes, at a seigniorage absorb
ing all of the difference between, the mar
ket Usondon) price and it's value when
coined.
This would not retard the re-establish-
ment Of the parity between the two metals
and would have all the advantages of free
coinage, which there is no reason to doubt
it would soon become, for the silver pro-
duced in the United States being with
drawn from the market, England in order
to supply the constant demands for her
Eastern trade, would be forced to bid up
the bullion price to the coinage price to
obtain It, when, all seigniorage disappear
ing, coinage would become free. Further
it has the advantage that it would allay
the fears and gain the support of many
bimetalists who hesitate to throw our
minis open to silver, believing that such
an Independent effort on the part Of the
United Safes would result in driving god
to a premium, for time at least. Should