Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-09-20
MILLS FOR SOUND MONEY.
He Refuses Longer to De Counted Wi
the Sixteen to One People.

MILLS FOR SOUND MONEY.
He Refuses Longer to De Counted With
the Sixteen to One People.
Senator Mills of Texas has heretofore
been classed as "a supporter of free coin
age at 16 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
of Texas, i'll which he states his position
clearly and fOrcibly. Here are some ex-
oerpts from his letter of Sept. 10;
~ 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-
erv debt contracted since Jan. l, 1879,
was contracted on the gold standard
The debtor honestly owes the value Of
| 23.2 grains of gold for every dollar
promised, and the creditor is honestly
| entitled to receive it. When IL was pro-
posed years ago to demODetize all the
coined silver of the world and suppress
the further coinage of that metal,
Joined with other friends Of silver in
! denouncing the mOnstrOus proposition,
J because it 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 90
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 it is the creditor now
who is to be the 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 90. He
would under the silver standard be able
to discharge his debt by paying one-haf
of what be promised This would be
scheme to enrich one-haf of cOmmu-
nifty by despoiling the other half. Wher-
ever there is a debtor there is credit
or, and he is entitled to the same pro-
lection as the debtor. Congress has the
power to discharge insolvent debtors by
a bankrupt law but the adoption Of the
silver standard now would discharge all
solvent debtors from one-half the obli-
CATION Of their contracts, even though
as a class they might be the weather.
part of the community.
II object to the silver standard again
because 1t is not the standard Of the
country with which we conduct our
largest commerce. Mr.. jefferson says,
ITO trade on equal terms the common
measure Of value should be as nearly as
possible on par with that Of its CORE
spending nation, whose medium is in a
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 enunciated 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 all the arti-
cles that we export Cotton and wheat
will be bought in this country by the
silver standard and sold in Europe by
the gold standard. There must be be-
tween these standards constant fluctua-
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 the American farmer
sees cotton quoted at so many cents or
pence per pound in Liverpool, he knows
that it is so much III 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 be
sold by system Of commercial gam
bling with a fuctuating standard by
which the producer must in every in
stance be defrauded.
Believing that the silver standard
would prove injurious to the people OF
the United States, and especially to
that part Of them engaged in growing
cotton, l am unwilling to take any
steps in legislation calculated to imperil
that great industry upon which the well
fare Of my constituency so greatly de-
ponds. "