The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-05-23
MIR. GEO. L. wALTON's FINANCIAL
SCHEME

r. ".
discovered a way to avoid the war Win
England. which his favorite author
..Coin's School for Scandal'-ah, beg par
don we mean COINS Financial Fool -
wrong ogain-"Coin's Financial School"
now we have it, is anxious to force on
England to wipe out that little island
Mr.. Walton thinks we could force
England TO agree to free coinage by
mercantile transaction. suppose, we
ouote from a letter of Mr.. WaltOn's to the
GaI-Dal News, Suppose we should adopt
free coinage of gold and silver at l6 10
/. and then agree 10 make Mexican dol
lar of the present weight and tineness a
legal tender for all debts public and pri-
yate which would place the Mexican dol
lar in Mexico on a par with the American
dollar; then suppose an English mer-
chant should offer to sell Mexican mer-
chant $4,000 worth of goods and will ac-
cept Mexican silver at 80 per cent dis
count as is the case now, and at the same
time an American merchant would say to-
the Mexican merchant, 4 will sell you the
same bill Of goods at the same price, and
[ will accept your silver at par whoI
would sell the gOOdsT' Mr.. Walton in
quircs. Why, of course if the Americana
merchant sold goods at half the price of
an English merchant, the American mer-
chant would sell the goods.
But Mr.. Walton stopped Surprising a
To a
that kind through he would have to sup
pose" the American merchant was a born
fool or had gone daft on silver, and he
would have further to suppose that Amer
lean merchants could afford to sell for
half the price of English merchants, to
break down the English trade or force
British merchants to come down to our
sale prices. If Travis county merchant
should make Il transaction of this kind
Mr.. Walton proposes the court of Travis
county, of its own motion, would appoint
a guardian for him on the ground that
he was incompetent to attend to his bust
ness or handle his own money.
But that is not all; there is yet more
danger in Mr. Walton's Suppose" than
yet developed. Be it known that Mr.. Wal
ton is one of our most intelligent citizens
and that he is publicly announced Pop
uist, having run upon a Populist ticket
for Judge of the county court We men
ton these facts in connection with what
follows to show that the silver coinage
has robbed some of the best men of their
wits and so blinded them with prejudice
that their Judgment lis befogged. Re-
Mr.. Walton proposes to make the
present 50-ccnt Mexican dollar a legal
tender dollar in this country, and he adds:
'gThis would apply to China, Japan, In
dia, South and Central America and he
also says: "In that case would not the
American get all the trade in all these
Great Jehosiphat, Mr.. Wal
ton! is it not enough for us to permit all
these countries to dump their silver coin
and bullion upon us and have it coined
ated currency of all these nations a legal
tender in an effort to rival England in
sales of goods to them? Would anybody
but Populist ever have even supposed"
such an absurdity. If we were to attempt
to do this it would ruin us in less than 80
days, and we could not touch England's
commerce with any such underselling in
all the markets of the world.
Mr.. Walton's prOpositions-we beg par
don-his suggestions, are based upon the
further suppositiOn that American mer
chants will sell at half the value of the
goods and the further superstition that
can break it down by underselling one
half, thing no sensible merchants would |
ever do. When sensible men suggest such
things is it not time to feed alarmed lest
the country be in danger of being de-
sroycd by the reckless folly of it's own
people?
But we have an abiding confidence in
the good sense and sound conservatism of
the masses of the people of this country |
and the very extravaganza of such men
as Mr.. Walton and Mr.. Harvey, or, as
more Familiarity dubbed, Coin" will
open their eyes to the volcano upon
which we are standing. If, however,
Coin will keep on writing books and Mr..
Walton will keep on writing letters with
the same line of ''suppositions" We will
feel treasured as to the condition of the
country. The people will see to what
gross folly and danger the Populists
would lead us, and come back into the
good Old conservative sound money Dem
ocracy that has always at such time
brought the country back to its senses,
as in Knownothing times, and other dan
gGrous epochs in its history.
The wedding between December and
May is about to be dissolved. In other