Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-10-03
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 classed as a supporter Of free coin
age at 1G to /. If he ever believed in this
doctrine, he has been convinced by study
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
clearly and forcibly Here are some ex-
cerpts from his letter of Sept. TO-
II object to the silver standard being
adopted in lieu Of the existing standard
because it will defraud all creditors out
Of one half the value of their debts. Ev-
cry debt contracted since Jan. /, 1870,
was contracted on the gold standard.
The debtor honestly owes the value of
1929 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,
joined with other friends of silver i'll
denouncing the monstrous proposition,
because it was an attempt to double the
debts of tho world, and to bring all
debts i'll this country contracted ON u pa
per standard, much of it ut less than so
cents ON the dollar, to par with gold. Is
not the proposition now to substitute tho
silver dollar on the silver standard for
that gold dollar the same that we all
condemned, except it is the creditor now
who is to be tho victim instead Of the
debtor then?
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 80. He
would under tho silver standard be able
to discharge his debt by paying one-half
of what he promised. This would be
scheme to enrich ono-half of commu-
nifty by dcSpoiling the other half Whcr-
over there is II debtor there is a credit
or, and he is entitled to the Same pro-
lection rs t otohtor Congress has the
power To discharge inSOlvcnt debtors by
Il bankrupt law, hut the adoption Of the
silver standard now would discharge all
solvent debtors FROM one half the obi
CATION of their contracts, even though
rs class they might be the Weather
part of the community
u object to the silver standard again
because 1t il not the standard of the
country with which we conduct our
largest cuu.mclcc. Nh Jefferson says,
TO trade OH equal terms the common
measure of value should he as nearly az
possible on PAR with that Of its CORE
spending nation, whose medium is i'll a
sound ttatc. The reason for it is, as he
says, 'hcrg of universal value, it Will
keep itself ON u general level, flowing
out from whcr0 ii is too high into parts
where it is lower. Gold is The common
measure Of value Of the people with
whom we carry on nlne-tCmthS of our
foreign trade. and, according 70 the
principles enumerated by him, gold
should lo our standard, rs 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 waa the standard. If we
supplant gold with silver, then we have
two standards Of value for all the arti-
clcs that we export Cotton and wheat
will be bought i'll this country by the
silver standard and sold III Europe by
the gold standard There must he 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 ut homo and
abroad will be fixed by the gold stand,
ard, but every pound of 1t will be sold
by American farmers by the silver
standard When the American farmer
secs cotton quoted at So many cents or
pence per pound iii Liverpool, he knows
that IT is So much III gold, but he does
not know how much the silver will
he worth with which he viii 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 viii be
sold by q system Of commercial gam
bling with tlucuatlug standard by
which tho producer must III every in
stance 10 dctraudcd
Believing that the silver standard
would prove injurious to the people Of
the United States, and especially to
that part Of tAem engaged In growing
cotton | aln unwilling 70 take any
steps Ill legislation calculated 10 imperil
that great industry upon which the wei
fare Of my constituency 70 greatly de-
pcuds