Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1896-04-16
FREE SILVER.
Has Been Tried and Found to
Be a Failure.
Julio W. FOSTER,
ChiIian Commissioner to the Expo
sition, Relates His Country's
Experience.
IT'S ON A GOLD BASIS NOW.
Disaster Followed Free Silver and
the People Restored the Sta
BILE Standard.
IT'S ON A GOLD BASIS NOW
Atlanta Journal.

Liz OOptO AVSSIOlSo kIIS 'io
BILE Standard.
Atlanta Journal.
The following letter from Mr..
Julio M. Foster, who was Chils
can Commissioner to the Cotton
States and International EXPOSE
ton, will be found interesting
and instructive. Mr.. Foster has
lived in Chile for many years
and has had exceptional oppor-
tunities to observe the operations
of the silver standard. Mr.. Eos
ter writes:
A residence for more than six
months in this city has Impress
ed on my mind the fact that its
march of progress is nov firmly
established on such vantage
ground thatno visible mischances
will deter it's continued pros>
perity. Owing to the indomi-
table spirit of enterprise that
prevedes all classes, its great
ness as a leading city is secure
against all doubts, and on account
of it's wonderful natural advan-
tages as a business center it has
hardly a peer
My long sojourn in Atlanta,
and the courteous attention with
which 7 have been favored. has
impressed me with a deepfelt in-
terest in the city's future, and
emboldens me to say afew words
on the only danger which ap-
pears to threaten its success, as
we'll as that of every other city
in the land, and that is the in-
conceivable pretentions of the
orist for the free coinage of
silver on a fictitious, dishonest
basis. I say ''dishonest" because
they wish to force by national
decree, as legal tender, an
amount of silver to be Of full and
equal value to a gold dollar,
with the knowledge that this
amount of silver metal can be
bought in any mart Of the world
to-day for little more than half
a dollar. It you melt down the
socalled silver dollar to it's cor
responding silver bar, this legal
tender dollar, without decreas-
ing one iota in it's weight,
will be Immediately converted to
only a small fraction over one
half dollar in value, while the
gold dollar, whether as a coin or
melted into a ingot, will always
preserve it's full value and will
be eXchangeable as such the
world over.
FIRE CANNOT cheaper GOLD.
If mans house should be burn
ed to the ground with all it's
furniture, and 100 silver dollars
that he had laid in his trunk
should be melted by the fire, he
would have lost half in intrinsic
value of his money. If IN place
Of silver dollars his coin had
been gold dollars, he would have
lost nothing in that fire. His
gold would maintain the same
price, whether stamped or I'M
stamped. How true it is that
frank IS but the Guinea's stamp,
the gold Is the gold for all
that
It is painful to observe how
designing politicians and the
selfish owners of a few rich sill
yer mines, who have engineered
themselves into congress, can so
bewilder the masses, the toilers
aud earners of money. that they
are lending themselves as will
ing tools and presumably voters,
to protect silver at whatever
cost, even at the sacrifice of the
nations honor and of the public
welfare. It would seem that the
self-obvious and disastrous res
suits that will naturally succeed
the practical experiment of a
debased currency, such as it is
proposed to iniict on this great
country, ought not to cause seri1
Gus alarm. But unfortunately
the masses in every age and
country of the globe have been
deceived by false doctrines and
theories, and oftentimes the
most absured find the most
fanatic and willfully blind sup-l
porters. Such is mankind!
CALM DISCUSSION NEEDED.
The greater, therefore, is the
for true men to discuss, |
with a spirit of calm sericusness
and justice, this aIl.absorbing
AL those who clamor and