The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-09-21
NO l. A LEGISLATION.
Equal Rights For All, Special Privileges
to None.

In a speech delivered before a free
silver convention al Griffin, Ga, Sena-
tor Morgan of Alabama rehashed the
stale theories of the silver standard ad-
v~ocates, and closed his exposition of the
free coinage gospel with the declaration
that the silverites demanded equal
rights for all, special privileges to
none" This doctrine of equality before
the law is n which appeals to every
fair minded American, and it is the he
lief that silver is denied privilega
granted to gold which has led many =
support the agitation for free COMA" -
16 10 l. But there is no ground for s.
claim. On the contrary the proposir:oI
that the government should coin int
money at a fixed ratio all the silver OF
this or other countries which might be
brought to the mints is a direct violation
Of the principles of equal rights.
All that the government does for gold
is to stamp it with a certificate of its
weight and fneness. The legal tender
quality of gold coin adds nothing TO its
commercial value. If the government
We're TO stop the coinage of gold tomor-
row, the value Of that metal would re-
main the same. And the adoption of
gold as the standard of values has not
increased the value Of the products of
the gold miner. The same could be said
of silver were it merely proposed to coin
that metal at its true commercial value.
The most extreme "goldbug'' of the sill
verite's imagination would not object to
free coinage of silver dollars if each
coin contained a full dollars worth Of
silver. The objection to such action on
the part of the government is that it
would involve a great and useless ex-
pense for mintage, as the commercial
value Of silver continually changes, and
it would be necessary to make new coins
whenever silver became cheaper or dear
er. But the demand of the free silver
advocates is not for the coinage of both
metals at their commercial value, but
for the unlimited coinage Of silver, worth
only so cents, into coins which will
be legal tender in payment for goods OF
Of debts equal TO gold coins, worth twice
as much. In other words. they seek to
compel the government to give II class,
the producers of silver, the right to have
the value Of their products doubled by
setting a fictitious value on it. This is
what free coinage at 1G 70 l really
means, and if adopted it would make
the silver miners a privileged class at
the expense Of the whole people.
That this IS true is recognized by all
the leading Populists, who have de
mandcd that the government should go
farther and give the owners Of staple
farm products the right 70 have their
crops stored in government warehouses
and to receive money based on them.
In this the Populists are consistent with
their paternalistic views. but very in
consistent with the JeffersOnian doctrine
Of equal rights. The true remedy for
any violation Of this great principle is
not the granting Of special privileges to
the farmers as well as TO silver miners,
but the repeal of all class legislation
and steadfast opposition to all financial
schemes involving government aid TO
any special interest.