The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-02
The smi,h-crI.n Debate.

/ read the Smith-Crisp debate at Augusta
/ without being struck with the confidence
/ and faith in the correctness Of his posi-
( ton which prevades Mr.. Smiths speech.
I and the doubt and uncertainty which pre-
vades that Of Mr.. Crisp. Mr. Smith show
cd that the country has been on a gold ba-
sis for half a century or more. and that it
has developed more rapidly since 1873.
when the mints were closed TO free silver
coinage. than during any similar period
in its history. He also pointed out that
pretty nearly all the silver money we
have has been coined since 1873. and that
since the present administration came in
to power more silver dollars have been
coined than had been coined from the
foundation Of the republic up to 1873. He
also showed that it is the policy Of the
administration and those who favor the
gold standard to coin and put into circu-
lation all the silver that can be kept on
a parity with gold, and that silver is as
much the money OF final redemption now
as gold IS.
What is Mr.. Crisp's contention? It is
that free silver coinage would cause
prices to advance. But in what way
would it cause them TO advance? That is
a question which Mr.. Crisp does not at
tempt to answer. and yet it is the very
question that the people are most anxious
to have answered. Does he mean that if
our mints were opened to the free and
unlimited coinage of silver the silver dol
lar would purchase only half of what
a silver dollar now purchases, as is the
case in Mexico and every other silver
country? No. he does not mean that ev-
identity, because he talks of the ability
of the United States to keep the silver
dollar on a parity with the gold dollar
under free silver coinage. But what
facts, drawn from experience. does he
present that under free silver coinage the
parity of the silver and the gold dollar
could be mentioned? Does he present a
single one2 He does not. He simply argues
that the credit of the government is sufii-
cient to maintain the parity of the two
kinds of metal money. If there is any
force in that statement why is it that the
credit Of the government was not suffi-
cient to maintain the parity of the money
metals in 1873, when the difference between
them was only three cents on the dollar
in favor of silver, and why was II not sui
fcient to maintain the nations paper
money on a parity with gold during the
civil war? Has any government ever been
able TO maintain the parity of the money
metals when their commercial ratio differ
ed materially from their coinage ratio? If
so, will Mr. Crisp be good enough to name
the government.
II this government could not maintain
the parity of gold and silver in 1873 at the
ratio of 16 to l, when the difference be-
tween the gold and silver dollar was only
cents, how is it possible for it to do it
now when the difference is fifty cents?
Mr.. Crisp talks as if he thought this
country under free silver coinage
would have to keep only the sill
yer coin of this country on a parity
with gold He should know better. 1t
would have to raise all the silver coin of
the world to a parity with gold and keep
it there. however much might be coined.
| Could this government do that? The
question carries its own answer.
Then if this country couldn't keep the
money metals on a parity if it should open
its mints to the free coinage of silver,
what would be the result of free silver
coinage? 1t would be silver monometal-
lism. would it not?-a degraded currency
and that, Mr.. Crisp thinks, if we under
stand him right. would be a great evil.
But that is just what the silverites want,
as is apparent from their frequent refer
| ences to conditions in Mexico and to the
higher prices which they say would pre-
vail 1t is a noticeable fact that those
silverites who say they don't want silver
monometallism present as an argument
for free silver coinage a condition that
is possible only under silver monometal-
ism, namely, higher prices, which means
a currency having much less purchasing
power than the currency we now have. In
other words, higher prices are to be
brought about as they were in the con-
| federacy during the war, by the deprecia-
ton of the currency. Mr.. Crisp's argu-
ments are far from satisfactory.