The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-16
President Cleveland'sssSound Moneys
Letter.

President Cieveland's sound letter has
aroused the enthusiasm of all the wiser
and more conservative elements in the
country. As might be expected. it has
also excited the rage of the rogues and
cranks and dupes who make up the Free
Silver party. The carieature IN TINS
mornings Recorder" and the half crazy
letter OF Senator Steward are chiefly IN
teresrsng as proving how heavy is the
blow which the President has inflicted.
The silver question has two aspects,
sach representing a factor in its popula
s~trength. One is the selfish and sec
tional aspect. This exhibits the rela-
tion between the silver producing States
and the coinage question, These States.
through a strange natural misfortune,
find their natural wealth a source OF
deadly injury. In common with other
places and partly owing to improved sch
entiic methods they have been produce
ing silver in such plethoric quantities
that it has become comparatively a drug
in the markets of the world. The sup
My has monstrously exceeded the de-
mand for the metal in industry and In
arts, and finally the excess has become
so great that mining has to be almost
entirely abandoned. and mountains OF
the metal remain unsold or it has to be
sold at prices which AFFORD no profit TO
the mfne-owners, This stoppage has pro-
duced distressful conditions in the sill
yer States. and the people thereof. all
natural markets failing them. have as
sumed that the Government is bound to
provide an artificial one for their bene-
fit and keep on buying silver to some
thing like the working capacity of tine
mines, and forcing it into circulation as
coin in order to keep up the justification
for buying TT. The popular leaders of the
s~ectaons-haye agitated this proposition
with cunningly u-nscrupulous appeals to
popular prejudice. Wild theories of Wall
street conspiracy, of British control OF
our finances and ether such diseased
tmagininEs have been shouted and yawp-
ed on the floors of Congress as well. as
ON the husttRgs. and the passions of I'M
thinking people nave been aroused by
the most frantic absurdities ever inter-
5ected into our politics.
while everyone sees the absurdity OF
an-o-1s,r that fha Ea9oral Government
shall buy up the excess product Of a
section-as well demand that the surplus
cotton crop which Is. now depressing
prices OF the surplus wheat crop which
is being fed to stock should be bought
by the War Department-stil the Ques-
ton will be asked by some: Why should
the Government not buy the silver and
coin It. If in that way it can advance
the prosperity of several States n at
the same time provide the people with
a convenient circulating medium? The
ton of silver has been so great as to
almost hopelessly impair its usefulness
for coinage purposes. first through In
stability Of value. n secondly through
its depreciation to such a point that in
portable quantities It cannot be used for
any but the smallest transactions If
any relation be conserved between its
intrinsic or real value as a commodity
and its nominal or face value as a coin.
II we coined a dollar containing as
much or about as much silver as could
dollar. the coin would be very nearly
twice the size and weight of the present
coin. and as a matter of fact the pres
eht coin is SO excessively heavy and In
convenient that it cannot be used. for
any ordinary business transaction n
to All practical fntents and purposes
has been rejected by the people and
thrown out of circulation so that the
average citizen may not have in
hts possession tn a month.
But In his insistence upon his own
selfish interests. the citizen of the silver
States insists that the Government shall
keep on coming a fraudulent dollar. a
dollar which Is worth only about half
Of wha it pretends to represent INK
shall food the country with such de-
based tokens to the extent of untold
millions by the method of free coinage.
And here comes in the second aspect Of
the case. where the cranks and dupes Of
the South and one or two Of the
benighted, Western States Join In the cry
on the almost incredible plea that the
yery.debasement Of the cein-fts cheap
ness, as they say,-is the very thing TO
make it beneficial to the people a
especially to the poorer classes. In COM
parison with this attitude. the Green
back heresy of the early seventies was
wisdom from on high 1t had at least
the merit of carrying the flat money
conception to a logical fnality. II the
Government can say that fifty-seven
cents worth of silver shall pass curs
rent for one hundred cents. and If by
III ..dat.' it can maintain the purchasing
power Of the coin at double its full value.
why then there is no conceivable reason