Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-07-23
pEssIMlsTIc eoLolrEs.
4 "CheerfuIy sIoomv" View Of the FInan
cisl situation.

4 ~CheerfulIy GsIoomy" View Of the FInan-
cIsI situation.
The Nashville Banner cheerful1y
takes this gloomy view of the situa-
situations:
'One of the most evil results of free
silver coinage would be the wholesale
Reputation of debt it would cause.
The country now suffers severely from
the threat of this danger. If the
money standard of the country should
drop to the price of silver bullion
debts would be scaled one-half This
means not only the debts on account
and that floating debt which is repre-
sented by what is commonly known as
commercial paper, but the vast bonded
debts, not specifically made payable in
gold, of states and corporations which
are represented in the great CONNER
cial world by what are known as
American securities. The first presage
of financial depression in this country
comes with the return of these Ameri-
can securities from across the ocean
and a certain indication of prosperity
is liberal investment on the part of
Europeans in this class of bonds"
This is perhaps one of the most weari-
nuts in the gold-bug repertoire. Jus:
how the adoption of the free coinage
of silver would enable any man to re-
pudiate his debts has never yet been
made plain. The farmer is usually a
borrower. He needs money to get out
his crop. What sort of money does he
usually get when he borrows? Is it
gold? Not much. 1t is usually silver,
or greenbacks-one worth according
to the gold-bugs so cents on the dollar,
and the other worth nothing intrinsi-
call Now, having borrowed silver or
paper, wherein would it be a repudia-
tion of his debt to paw it in silver or
paper2
But suppose" says the Banner, "the
money standard of the country should
drop to the price of silver bullion,
debts would be scaled one-half" This
is beautiful instance of the elasticity
and fexibility of the suppose" The
Banner assumes in the first place that
under free coinage system the silver
dollar would be worth only half
of what it is worth under the
present system. Is this reasonable?
1t is not likely that when silver was
recognized as a standard money and
could be coined free, it would be worth
so cents on the dollar where now the
silver stamped as dollar will buy a
dollars worth of goods and is every
where receivable in this country on an
equality with the gold dollar? Has
free coinage in the past ever reduced
the value of metal? We will venture
to say that there has never been an in
stance of it in the whole history of
finance.
It is claimed that the present fnan-
cial system gives to so cents worth of
silver the purchasing power of dollar
because the power of the government
is behind it. The system now in vogue
does not reconize silver any more than
it does copper, yet the mere idea that
the government maintains that Blk
grains of silver is a dollar, has made
that amount of silver dollar not only
in this country but in England If
the United States should receive all
the silver sent to the Withstand by
the way the silver production is now
about the same as the gold production
of the world-and stamp upon each
37iA grains the fact that it was a
dollar, is there any reason to believe
that the edict of the government would
be less effective than the mere myth
now prevailing to the effect that the
silver dollar is redeemable in gold?
When some one answers these ques-
tions, it will be time to talk about the
reputation of debts by the free coin.
age of silver-Memphis Commercial