The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-09-28
SEATTLE, MONDAY. SEPT. as.


Among the various Inconsistencies Of
the Popuiistic advocates OF free coinage.
there Il a striking one which In constantly
cropping up. On the one hand. IL ID
claimed by Mr. Bryan and. parrot-iike.
reiterated By his followers, who look up~
on him an the embodiment Of financial
wisdom. that with free coinage OF silver
the price OF the bullion will necessarily
advance to 81 70 an ounce in gold. or the
coinage valuation After giving utter
anoe to this baseless prediction, they i'm
mediately turn around and demand the
passage Of Law which will eurtaiI the
right OF private contract and forbid the
insertion OK = gsid clause In any contract
Tor the payment Of money.
The gold clause has had place In AL
contracts drawn GA the Pacific coast
since Issa IL became enzrafted on our
business usages during the period OF de-
preciated currency. and has. since the re-
sumption OF specie payments and down to
the commencement of the present silver
agitation. been a meaningless form. only
retained out OF business conservatism.
For the last sixteen or seventeen years.
notwithstanding the gold clause, no
creditor has cared particularly what class
Of monsy his debt has been paid him in.
II q large amount. he might object TO
receiving standard dollars on account OF
their bulk. but he would accept without
= question = payment In any form OF
paper money. including silver certificates.
The kind or money has never entered into
calculations. because all were of equal
value. and IN all practical business opera
tons were interchangeable.
New. IL the free coinage OF silver would
bring silver bullion AZ oncs to ti.9 an
ounce. this condition OF affairs would com
tinus, or. rather, there would be rather
less instead Of more prejudice against sill
yer money than exists today. With silver
bullion At tn coinage valuation. the silver
dollar would be worth. In bullion value
alone. Its face anywhere In the world.
and not be dependent as now upon the
pledge Of tho government 10 keep II at
par for ~ cents OF It's value. The gold
clause would thus work no more injury
than Il does today. II all money were.
under free coinage. OF exactly equal
value. aud thus interchangeable with gold.
II II thus apparent that when the Popu-
tract and demand force laws TO compel
people 10 accept the dollar TO DO coined
under a free coinage system in payment
OF all debts. aud TO prevent contracts be-
Ing made payable In any specific kind of
money. they must be influenced by be-
lief that some kinds of money viii be
considered more valuable than others
when free coinage IN an accomplished
fact. They claim TO believe that the sill
yer dollar under free coinage viii not
mand. which they make consequently with
that for free coinage. they admit that II
viii be deprecated. and they wish to
force every enc to take it al par. whether
IL deprcciatex or nos.
al Ia the old history Of sill dehasement
of the coinage. Coiuoidcnt with each
one. III the long roll Of historical
Instances. came the force law TO COM
ped people to accept the DECEASED eotn for
what the iawmaking power said it was.
not what IL was Ia TACT The other his.
tericai parallel Will speedily follow, II A
free coinage system should ever 60 into
effect. that all the fierce laws which can
be framed will never keep aehased eoin
n, par with a sound enc