Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-10-02
MILLS FOR SOUND MONEY.
He Refuses Longer to Be Counted With
 the Sixteen to One People.

 He Refuses Longer to Be Counted With
 the Sixteen to One People.
 Senator Mills of Texas has heretofore been chased as a supporter of free coin. age at 16 to 1. If he ever believed in this doctrine, he has been convinced bystudv and thought of its folly and dangers. That there may be no misunderstanding he has just written letter to the chair man of the Democratic state committee of Texas, in which he states his position clearly and forcibly. Here are some ex- cerpts from his letter of Sept. 10:
 'I l object to the silver standard being adopted in lieu of the existing standard because 1t will defraud all creditors out of one-haf the value of their debts. Ev- cry debt contracted since Jan. 1, 1879, was contracted on the gold standard. The debtor honestly owes the value of B. 9 grains of gold for every dollar promised, and the creditor is honestly entitled to receive it. When it was pro- posed years ago to demonetize all the coined silver of the world and suppress the further coinage of that metal, I joined with other friends of silver in denouncing the monstrous proposition, because 1t was an attempt to double the debts of the world, and to bring all debts i'll this country contracted on pa per standard, much of it at less than 50 cents on the dollar, to par with gold. Is not the proposition now to substitute the silver dollar on the silver standard for that gold dollar the same that we all condemned, except 1t is the creditor now who is to be the victim instead of the debtor then2
 No persons would receive the least benefit from the change of standard to silver except the man who owes 100 cents and wishes to pay it with 50. He would under the silver standard be able to discharge his debt by paying one-haf of what he promised. This would be scheme to enrich one-haf of commu- nity by despoiling the other half. Wher- ever there is debtor there is credit or, and he is entitled to the same pro- tection as the debtor. Congress has the power to discharge insolvent debtors by bankrupt law, but the adoption of the silver standard now would discharge all solvent debtors from one-half the obli- gation of their contracts, even though as class they might be the wealthier part of the community.
 T object to the silver standard again because it is not the standard of the country with which we conduct our largest commerce MT. Jefferson says, ITO trade on equal terms the common measure of value should be as nearly as possible on par with that of it's corre- spending nation, whose medium is in sound state. The reason for it is, as he says, being of universal value, it will keep itself on general level, flowing out from where it Is too high into parts where it is lower Gold is the common measure of value of the people with whom we carry on nine-tenths of our foreign trade, and, according to the principles enuuciated by him, gold should be our standard, as it has been since the days of Jackson, Van Buren, Polk, Pierce and Buchanan, except dur ing the war period from 1861 to 1879, when paper was the standard. If we supplant gold with silver, then we have two standards of value for alhthe artl- cles that we export Cotton and wheat will be bought in this country by the silver standard and sold ill Europe by the gold standard. There must be be- tween these standards constant fiuctua- tions. Two-thirds of all our cotton must be exported and sold by gold value. The price of the whole crop at home and abroad will be fixed by the gold stand ard, but every pound of it will be sold by American farmers by the silver standard When Ghe American farmer sees cotton quoted at so many cents or pence per pound i'll Liverpool, he knows that it is so much II gold, but he does not know how much the silver will be worth with which he will be paid for his cotton Instead of legitimate business exchange, where every one knows with what value he parts and what he receives, our products will De sold by system of commercial gam bling with huctuating standard by which the producer must Ill every ln- stance be defrauded.
 Believing that the silver standard would prove injurious to the people or the United States, and especially to that part of them engaged in growing cotton, I am unwilling to take any steps in legislation calculated to imperll that great industry upon which the well fare of my constituency so greatly de- ponds