The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-05-22

De conveniently settled III gOlu. Hul
as matters now stand. the money Of
the poor in this country is the same
as the money of the rich-gOid. In
order to enable those who cannot af.
ford pieces of gold large enough to be
conveniently handled to have all the
advantages of good money, our gov
eminent has put a gold Endorsement
upon every coin of other metals per-
mitted to circulate, from the bronze
cent TO the so-cailed "dollarn itself.
If L offer my note when my credit is
not good, no one will discount it; If
procure the Endorsement of one whose
credit is good. it will be discounted at
once. 1t would be the Endorsement,
however, and not the note, which
would have passed current.
For a generation our half-dOllars,
quarter-dOllars. etc, have nominally
passed current. Actually, however. it
is the gold Endorsement of the govern
ment that has been accepted. A sill
yer dollar, to-day consists of fifty
three cents worth of silver. With the
gold Endorsement of a solvent govern
ment, it passes for dollar. That is,
the gold Endorsement passes for the
remaining fOrty-seven cents that are
not in the coin.
Now, what are the terms of the
silver question? We now have the
free, unlimited and independent COIN
age of gold, at the rate of 1922 grains
of pure gold to the dollar. We are
now confronted with the proposition
to liberate silver, and by law to de-
clare it Independent standard money;
by law to declare that all the holders
of silver bullion throughout the
world, without Limitation as to
amount, shall have the right to bring
1t to the American minis and have it
coined at the rate of 3714 grains of
pure silver to the dollar, which would
be the establishment of a ratio of Is
to |. What would be the result?
Measured in terms of gold, 3T14 grains
of pure silver are worth 53 cents to-
day. Measured in terms of silver,
1922 grains of gold are worth Sl.S8.
In other words, you can exchange
1922 grains of pure gold for enough
silver to coin 81 .SS, at the ratio of Is
to /. Whereas, with 3714 grains Of
silver you can purchase only a suffi-
cient amount of gold to coin SO cents,
and had 81 900 in gold coin he could
exchange it for sufficient amount OF
silves bullion to coin 81 $50 in silver.
pay his debt with $1,000 of the
amount, and have $3.50 as profit on
the transaction. Who believes that
gold and silver would remain in con-
current circulation under such con-
ditions as these? The present price
of silver the world over is such that
it takes 81 grains, ounces or pounds
to buy one grain, ounce or pound of
gold; that is, the ratio is at 81 to l.
But our free silver friends maintain
that by the United States opening
her minis to the free and independent
coinage of silver at the ratio of Is to l,
silver will be raised from its present
price, where it takes 81 grains of sill
yer to buy one grain of gold, to where
Is grains of silver will buy enc grain
Of gold. We maintain that this ratio
of Is to will result in drawing every
gold dollar out of circulation and
place the United States, like Mexico,
some of the small South American
countries, China and Japan, upon a
silver basis.
In support of the foregoing asser-
ton we point to the fact that there is
not one country in all the world where
civilization and christianity are adj
vancing, where schools and colleges
flourish, where the arts and sciences
are being developed, and where la
boring men earn sufficient to main
tain themselves in comfort and indie
pendence, that is not on gold stand
ard basis.