The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-27
THE SHORT ANSWER"
TO THE "GQ-IT-ALONE" FREE Sill
VERITE ARGUMENT.

Owner, hut Not n Free silver
knight" Writes an Open Letter to
Mr.. II. ID. King.
From the Augusta Chronicle
Flat Rock, n. c.. Aug. 23.-Dear Mr..
King: have read with great interest
and with almost entire acqulescence in
all Of your views. you recent letter upon
silver coinage in the Augusta Chronicle.
But 1 am forcibly Impressed with the
fact that the presentation of your letter
as a whole. with the headlines, the letter
of Mr.. Fleming. and the editorial re-
marks. are calculated TO put the entire
weight Of your influences and your con-
vie;ions on exactly the opposite side. Of
the only real question before the voters,
to the one which you really take.
In other words. you declare yourself
bimetalllst, but on the question whether
the United States can ''go it alone" you
expressly say that you think 1t doubtful.
and that the attempt might be costly
experiment" Now, the latter quests n
is really the only live issue at present
before us. Every party, democratic re-
publican and pOpulist, is committed TO
bimetallism. Monometallists are too
few and far between 10 be worth wasting
powder on. But many bimetallists, in
all parties, fear that the experiment of
our going IL alone" as we may call
1t for short, would not only be disas-
trous, but that 1t would set back the
cause Of International bimetallism for
generation.
OF arguments in the press on this, the
real issue. there is absolutely none. All
the argument published is merely bimetal-
lie. For instance, see the recent long let
ter of our mutual friend. Hon. ]. c. c.
Black, and the republished speech of Gov.
Brown, delivered a number of years ago
Mr. Black does, Indeed, believe. say he
favors going 1t alone" but he says IL
at the close of his long letter, without
one word of discussion, or even recog-
milton of the grave issues involved. And
now you are paraded in headlines as Gin
favor of free coinage" and the public left
to infer that it is Independent free coin
age" Do you not owe 1t to yourself and
10 others also. now to state your views
more decidedly, and SO that they cannot
be misunderstood?
In hopes that you will, address you
this open letter, and / beg leave to OUT
line briefly the reasons which, to me, seem
to make against 'going 1t alone" No
one can regret them more than /. as you
will appreciate when l tell you that am
myself a silver miner. That is, very con-
siderable part of my small means is in
vested in silver mines in Colorado and
Mexico. If legislation in this country can
double the value of all the silver In the
bowels of the mines, 1t will add 500 per
cent. to the profit of mining II las the cost
will not be increased. and all the increase
in value will be profit, and 1t will enable
us TO also work number of inferior veins
al. "A. ~
And If this great benefit to me will also
benefit all my fellow citizens of course,
1t IS the one thing / would work earnestly
for. But, unfortunately, the road of in
dependent free coinage does not seem 20
me to lead to the desired Eden Of universal
bimetallism, but in the very opposite d.
rection, and down steep incline of doubt.
uncertainty and stringency in financial
affairs, into very abyss Of panic, bank
ruptcy and business prostration.
And one reason why this would follow
seems to me so simple and self-evident
that 1t might be called the Short Answer
why we cannot 'go 1t alone"
The gist of It may be given I'm the
words: Too many people believe 1t would
fail. Only person ignorant Of all finan-
cial matters will ask what other people $
belief have to do with ease and abundance
in the money market. Business men do
not keep their money in their pockets, but
they put 1t in banks. The banks lend II
to move the crops and to carry merchants
and manufacturers; making only short
loans, for they must always be ready to
return the money to their deposltors on
demand.
Now it is too often forgotten that the
free coinage law cannot be passed in a
night, and sprung upon. debtors and cred
itors alike, without notice, leaving them TO
make the best of it as they may. It's pos
sibility will develop very slowly. into prob
ability, and then certainly, and at last a
day will appear-months in advance-when
the law will go into operation.
AS matters now stand, every man who
has money in bank, knows that he can get
It on demand, and in gold, If he wishes II,
or in money as good as gold in any market
in the world. But on and after that day
the banks will pay him in dollars which
will have exactly as much and no more
value in the great world market than
an equal weight of Mexican or South
American or Chinese silver dollars. Nor
will the great majority of business men
who have money in bank mot to mention
women, trustees and specuiators), quietly
await this transformation of their pres
ent gold dollars into silver ones? We may
eten say into Mexican silver dollars, fer
every Mexican, South American and Chi
nese coin in the world could be brought
to the mint and deposited for coinage,
and silver certificate gotten for 1t i'm
mediately, so that the American and
Mexican silver would be interchangeable.
1t is true that Mr.. Harvey, the author Of
Coin, assures us that the whole world
market Will at once accept all these dol
lars as equal to the gold, but who is pre-
pared to bet on Mr.. Harvey's opinion ?
1000 ar noo ooo ooo1I,