Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-22

statement 1t is only necessary to call at tention to the fact that the hints by or der of the treasurer have ceased coining silver dollars No man can take silver to the mint today as he can gold, and have it coined into dollars. Silver is no longer coined except in small pieces as subsidiary money. It is demonetized. Of course the existing stock will remain current, but no new money is being add ed to it to meet the losses by deportation, by abrasion, by sinking in the sea and otherwise, and not a dollar is being add ed to our money supply to meet the growth of populations and commerce. We are not simply stationary. but are actually retrograding. so rapidly that it is estimated that our money circulation in the past year has diminished to the. extent of $100 GOO 900. with gold going out Of the; country to fill the war chests of Europe, with silver at standstill at the best, with no new bank currency and with no increase of greenbacks, and with all of these kinds of money diminishing by exportation, loss and abrasion, we find a steadily contracting currency, all based upon gold, which we cannot keep.
 The governor protests that he is not in favor of contraction. If not in favor of st he is content to submit to it, if he favors the presidents policy.
 It would be far better for Governor Oates to let the people know how much silver dollar coinage we should have, at what ratio he thinks we can maintain free silver coinage and in what way we can secure a volume of currency equal to He demands of commerce and popula- tion. If he should be elected to the sen ate he would have to deal with these questions and we think it is his duty to declare plainly whether he is in favor of free silver coinage at any ratio. It will not do to simply say that the present supply of silver is good money and is le- gal tender. We all know that. We know also that it was better money than gold when it was demonetized by Sherman in 1873 and again by Cleveland in 1S93 What we want to know is how we can get as much of this good money as the people of this country may need. No doubt in the progress of the campaign the gov ernor will give his views more in detail. When he and MT. Clarke and MT. Pugh or MT Bankhead meet to discuss this matter we will find out morep4about it. At present things are misty. We see men like trees walking
 While we are at loss to know from the governors letter what he means by bimetallism and primal money when he places silver in the same attitude as paper legal tender money in its relation to gold we are not left in doubt about what he meant in his speech of 1893, which he now indorses throughout. In that speech the governor said:
 Sir. am one who believes implicitly in the maintenance of good faith with the. voters of my party. In t5--a last campaign l advocated the three fihancial provisions of the Chicago platform. and upon them, l appealed tn my people to vote the dem ocratic ticket, and succeeded in obtaining many votes on these propositions. They are:
 "1. To repeal the Sherman law. which was denounced in that platform.
 ''2. To repeal the tax upon state bank note circulation.
 '3. To favor the free coinage of both gold and silver upon a parity with each other and without discrimination against either metal.
 "As meant in the best of faith all that said 70 the people, I shall maintain the same here by my votes and influenza. limited though it be. The questions in volved. in my judgment, are vastly su- perior in importance to those which have ordinarily been attached to them. While agree with the president in much that he has said of the Sherman law. and will vote for it's repeal, I am utterly opposed to stopping there and as strongly favor embodytng in the same bill each of the other financial propositions embra ced in the platform
 Upon these three propositions the gov FIrI,. l10 executed The remaining two await the action of congress. The third proposi- tion commits Governor Oates unequivo- calIy to free coinage of silver equally with gold and without discrimination against al