Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-11-06
DEBASED CURRENCY.
WHAT A PROMINENT slLveRlTE's
 PROPOSITION MEANS.

Would Decrease the Weight of the Gold
 or Increase That of the Silver Dollar.
 Prescriptions of Different Ratios to Re
 Continued During Life of Patient.
 Governor Stone of Missouri is all ar dent advocate of cheap dollars and de- nounces all who favor our present tinan eial system as being guilty of 'unre- lenting hostility to silver. In speech at Sedalia, Mo-, he declared in favor of the immediate opening of the United States hints to the free coinage of sil yer at $ to 1 and said: If after fair trial it is demonstrated that we cannot on that ratio maintain both metals in circulation at parity, then congress can at any time ill the future do what it has done ill the past-change the ratio by decreasing the amount of gold in the gold dollar, or it can increase the amount of silver iii the silver dollar, or it can do both. '
 This is fair sample of silverite logic and shows clearly the lack of any we'll defined principle in the 50 cent dollar agitation. It is only fair to Governor Stone to say that his plan of establish ing permanent ratio of Is to 1 be- tween gold and silver by making the gold dollar smaller is not original with him. The idea is taken from that repos- itory of transformation on the money question: Coin $ Financial School " That the governor of an important state should indorse such dishonest proposi- tion is merely evidence of the incapaci- ty for reasoning which the free coinage craze produces in it's victims.
 If Governor Stone really understood the money question, on which he pre- sumes to instruct the people of Missouri, he would know that reducing the size of the gold dollar would do nothing to- ward fixing the commercial value of sil- yer at 16 to of gold. It is the 23 210 grains of pure gold which is the unit of value. The same number of grains of pure silver are worth about one thirty second as much. If the unit of value were made 20, l5 or 10 gains, the re- lation between the value of gold and silver would not be altered i'll the least. What would happen would be that every contract made payable i'll dollars would be cut down in proportion to the reduc- tion in the weight of the unit, thus rob ping by law all creditors of part of their property The real value of gold or silver in relation to other commodi ties would not change, but the term
 dollar" would mean less value than 1t does now. In other words. i decrease in the weight of the gold unit would mean a debasement of the currency similar to increasing the quantity of cheap metal used as alloy in coins.
 It cannot be too often pointed out that i'll their last analysis all cheap money schemes, and especially the free coinage of silver, involve positive dishonesty on the part of the government. Goods having been sold, capital loaned or con tracts for payment of wages made or | standard of value established by con- gress it is coolly proposed that the value of goods, capital or wages shall be cut down by decreasing the measure of val ues. Such action might be popular with some creditors and employees, who l Woulti UO aDlC u CcC1pS Il @ J<hl oR their obligations. But every principle of common honesty and justice would stamp legislation for that purpose as fraudulent and opposed to the best inter ests in the long run of debtors as we'll as creditors Civilized societies have long passed the stage when it was thought just and expedient to repudiate lawful obligations.
 Governor Stone s alternative proposi- tion to increase the amount of silver in the dollar is not open to the charge of dishonesty if he means that the coins should contain as much silver as would be worth g gold dollar. But if this plan is honest it is also absurd and would be