The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-05-22
He Was rluch Mixed,


People of country towns have formed
habit of collecting at the station on sum-
mer evenings to see the cars come in,
have a social chat, meet friends who
arrive or the trains and for general rec
reation. The station is quite good place
also for overhearing conversation without
being chargeable with eavesdropping.
On one of those occasions very recently
conversation between city manufacturer
and farmer in the neighborhood was
carried on. The manufacturing gentle
man had the most of the conversation to
himself, or all his own way, as the farmer
tacitly assented without disputing the city
mans opinions, who was lamenting the
hardttimes and low prices, dull business,
little if any better than no business at all.
Somehow he appeared to think tariff
might cure it if the right kind of a tariff
could be passed, but be appeared to be
rather indefinite as to the kind of tariff
that would be exactly right. He was in
favor of the free coinage of silver, but
thought we could not dare to open the
minis to free coinage, while all the great
nations of Europe-England, France,
Germany and the rest of thenl-kept their
minis closed to silver. The silver of all
those nations and the balance of the
world would be gathered up, silverware,
coins and everything in the shape of
silver, would be brought to the United
States if the minis were open to free coin
age. Of course the idea of the manufac-
turer was, if he had formed an idea at all
on the subject, that this foreign silver
would be sent here for coinage, for the
government would not buy an ounce of
silver if the minis were open to free coin
age, only coin the silver and pass over
the coins to the owner of the metal.
What these foreign silver impol tiers would
do with their American dollars is a con-
undrum the city man seemed not to have
thought of. They could not use Ameri-
can dollars in any country as money ex-
cept in this country. The only thing
they could possibly do in business way
would be to buy goods of American make
and pay for the goods with the dollars
they had gone to so much trouble to have
coined. The money then would be left
i'll this country and the goods taken
away. Now, this seems to be the very
thing the manufacturers are striving to
accomplish, foreigners to come here, buy
our goods and pay for them in American
dollars.
The utter bewilderment of the man is
apparent when the facts are laid bare.
There isn't a pound of silver mined in
England, France or Germany. All the
silver they use they buy in this and other
American countries. There is no stock
of bullion silver on hand worth mention
ing in these countries. The traders in
bullion, like traders in any other goods,
buy what they can dispose of to their
customers and no more. So in order to
bring any silver from European countries,
the silver tableware, and silver money
would have to be gotten together. The
silver shilling of Great Britain and the
francs and marks of France and Germany
would have to be purchased by the spec
ulators who wanted to get rich by bring
ing silver to the United States to be coined
into American dollars But the shillings
and six-pences of Great Britain and Ire
land and the silver francs and marks of
France and Germany, like our silver
dollars, halves, quarters and dimes, will
purchase in those countries as much as
gold. These coins, like our silver coins,
are the money of those countries, and if
they were taken out of the countries to
which they belong, there would be no
money to do retail business with and
dreadful state of affairs would be created.
And again, like our silver coins, they are
worth as much as gold. They will pay
for as much as gold coins, the same as
our silver money will do. If any of the
European countries were to open their
minis to free coinage of silver no one
would think of buying up our dollars,
halves, quarters and dimes and taking
them over to be coined into French, Ger
man or English money. The silver coins
would cost as much, dollar for dollar, as
gold, and if coined into foreign money
would not pass as money out of the
country that coined them.
If the reader has followed this little
sketch about silver coinage he will read
lily understand how impossible it would
be to bring silver to this country to be
coined from countries which produce
none, and that if the spectators could do
so the coin could only be used here to pay
for merchandise. And yet we behold the
spectacle of an intelligent, educated man,
owning and operating factories, so thor
oughly befogged by the clamor and soph-
istry of the gold ring papers, that he was
disqualified to reason out so plain sub
ject as the coinage of silver by the United
State, independent Of all other nations.