The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-07-30
FREE COINAGE DOES NOT MEAN
FREE DISTRIBUTION
OF SILVER.
The changes have been rung on sire

The changes have been rung on "frce
silver" to such an extent that
we are informed that Il number
of men believe that the purpose is to
distribute silver coins free to the people
of the United States. We are also in
formed that politicians are encouraging
this belief in order TO win recruits to
free silver coinage. The only thing
free" about ii does not benefit any
human being except the owner of silver
bullion.
The free silveritcs propose to pass
an act of congress authorizing the mints
of the United States, at the expense Of
the tax payers, to coin the silver brought
TO the mints from Asia. Africa and
North and South America and all silver
producing countries. If that was all the
free silver coinage intended, the only
effect would be to raise taxes just in
proportion to the cost of coinage of all
this foreign silver commodity, but they
propose to do more; they propose not
only TO coin 1t free, but to pass a law
making it Il legal tender for debt, in
creasng its value to the mine owner Just
to the extent of its ability to pay debts
That is not all. They further propose
in their platform to forbid, under some
penalty, perhaps the loss of the amount
contracted for, any contract to be made
for the payment of debt in anything
else but silver.
If copper were offered all these aids
proposed TO give silver, it would appre-
ciate in value just as much, and it has
just as much right to these aids as sill
yer. The silver platforms declare that
no distinction shall he made in the
metals, and, in the same breath, the dis
tmction is made in behalf of silver. for
tifying that metal with the most drastic
compulsory laws. Gold needs no such
aids. il sustains itself by its intrinsic
value. Does it not seem that they have
very little confidence in silver when thcv
fort it up with every aid in the power
OF the laws to the extent of Innovations
ON the cardinal principles of Il republican
form OF government; towit, an intcrfcr-
ence with the freedom of contract? If,
as they claim, the free coinage of silver
at our mints will double its value. what
IS the use of all these aids and props TO
enable ii to stand on It's feet? Nobody
or no set of politicians are opposed to the
circulation of silver, but they want if to
circulate as it does now, according To
the plan adopted by Mr. jefferson. towit.
mt its commercial value.
When they tell you that silver was the
dollar of our daddies" they tell you the
truth but only half of the truth 1t was
the dollar of our daddics but at its com
mercial value and not the value TO which
1t is attempted to be boosted by compul
sorry laws, inimical to the fundamental
principles of the democratic party and the
basic principle of our organic law. and
That is that one man could enter into any
contract he pleased with another. if if
was not against public morality. They
would force creditor, wage Garner, a
bank depostor or Il widow with an in
surance policy to take just so much less
rs the difference between gold and silver
III their relative market value: that looks
Ike the violation of contract, and
neither moral nor honest on the part of
the bank or the employee or the insurance
company.
But let those who believe that the free
sllverltes propose n distribution of silver
disabuse their minds of any such thing.
1t is very much like another exploded
1aliacy entertained for Il long while by
the negroes, forty acres and Il mule"