The San Francisco call., 1896-10-22
Letters From the People.
SILVER COINAGE.

HIy the Present system of Cofni'sg ST.
GER Is Better Than Free Coinage.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 81, 1896.
To the Editor Of The Call-Will you kindly
give place to the following as offering an
argument not yet advanced by any of the
sound-money men, so far as have seen.
We can speak to no issue in this campaign
except on the "silver" question, fer Bryan Will
not discuss protection, and that is not really
the issue, for it will not be discussed by the
Bryan partisans.
Bryan is to bring relief to the idle, the hun
CRY and the naked, by the free and unlimited
coinage of silver. But we cannot coin silver
without limit The highest estimate of the
capacity of all the United States mints com
bined is fifty millions per annum. ConserVa-
tive men place the limit from forty to forty
five millions. In order to make Bryan's prom.
ise good we must increase, at least double our
mints, and it takes long, weary time to pass
acts of Congress to erect even single mint
With the capacity we have now we could
not coin more than forty-fve millions per
year.
q small paragraph OF less than dozen lines,
to which no especial attention was called, and
the significance of which no one seemed to
appreciate, but II had meaning Tor the
thoughtful and that was report OF the coin.
age OF the mints of the United States for the
month OF September, just passed. This showed
United States mints coined 2,700,0 600 standard
silver doLars-$837, ,428 of which went TO the
Government as profit, which OF course belongs
to the people.
1 have lost my clipping for August, but the
figures were in round numbers $500, 600,
with profit to the Government OF upwards OF
$500, 600.
Now, tnat is at the rate of 33,OOO,000 of sill
vel dollars per annum which We are now coiu.
ing during Democratic ''goldbug" admins
tration. 1nis is almost as much silver coined
as Mr.. Bryan and his friends propose and
promise 10 perform for the suffering mem Ders
of this Republic.
Now, the Government, receiving the seig-
nIoriage is boCnd to stand behind these silver
doIiars and hold them IL alta parity with gold;
but Bryan proposes 10 coin all the silver pos
slble (not possibly much more than is now
beng coined) Tree, wiinout any cnarge. But
| what is the result First, the Government
will not hold it at or with parity with gold,
| and second, Who viii be benefited by the Tree
| coinage Whv Stewart, Teller, NewIends, and
| that CLASS OF SILVER capitalists. Not the poor
| man, nor the laborer, tor, besides not being
| able to get any OF 1t, he has TO bear the eX-
pense of coming it, for he is part OF the Gov
| srnment.
Then, if the coin should not be deprecated,
as the Bryan men promise II will not be, will
follow what all the Bryan orators and Bryan
himself so loudly deplores-another crowd of
capitalists, and, where there is one capitalist
made, according to Bryan, there are thou
sand men maze DauperS.
To sum it up, l would rather have the Gov
ernment go on coming at the rate they have
been and are now colning-almost to the full
capacity of the mints, which is Kept up to
a parity with gold-lhan TO have promise
TO coin unlimited (Which means but little
more than IS now coined) and free, which
means that we snail, all OF us, put our hands
in our pockets and pay the expense OF coming
money Tor the benefit of the silver bullion
holders and mine-owners Very respectfully,
LEONARD S. CLARKE