The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-06-19
The Silver Timer and the Iron Timer.

tation to blind and deceive the people
and prejudice them against the silver
miner And they have succeeded in be-
Jogging very many fairly intelligent peo-
pie into believing that the remonetiza-
ton of silver, opening the minis to free
coinage, would benefit no one else but
the silver mine owner and it would be an
actual injustice that the price of his silver
should be doubled by an act of the gov
eminent. The natural selfish and envious
nature ofmen has enabled these sophists
to impose upon the public to a consider
able extent, and prejudice many people
against righting the fraud and conspiracy
of decentralization.
The comparison between the silver
miner and iron, or in short any other
miner, is the object of this article to
present. We will suppose that the minis
of the United States were again opened
to free coinage as they were for eighty
years, during which time no such false,
not to say foolish, charges against silver
miners were ever heard or even thought
of. The miner ships his silver bullion, or
refined ore to the mint and it is coined
into silver dollars. The government does
not purchase the metal from him, only
coins it into legal tender money. The
miner takes his dollars home. The silver
is his own property. He has not sold it.
He has paid for the cost of mining and all
incidental expenses connected with the
business. The question now arises, what
does he do with this money? He pays it
to his employees for working the mine and
doing other labor and for the purchase of
various articles of merchandise for his
consumption. The silver which came
from the mine is now disbursed in the
form of money, and has not only perform
ed the same office which it would have
done had the silver been sold in the lump
to some bullion dealer, but has in addi-
ton added that amount of new money to
the volume of currency in circulation,
thereby benefting everybody as all in
crease of legal tender or primary money
benefits the people and business of any
country.
Now let us turn to the iron miner and
see if we can find any difference between
his business and that of the silver miner
as to their influence on the public and
business. The iron miner sells his refined
ore to the manufacturers of machinery and
various articles made of iron for peronal
use. The iron is put to immediate per-
sonal use. 1t goes no further. The iron
miner is paid for his metal out of the
money already in circulation. No uues-
ton is asked, no complaints are heard
about how much profit he has derived
from the sale of his metal He uses the
money he receives for the ore which
came out of his mine for paying en-
ployes, purchasing machinery and other
merchandise to supply his personal de-
tnands, exactly the same as the silver
miner used the money which the mint
made out of the latter's bullion Here
we find the two miners on exactly the
same plane as regards the public, with this
difference in favor of the silver miner.
The latter has not sold his ore or metal
for money to use in his business but it has
been converted into new money which he
uses. That new money has been of no
more advantage to the owner ofthe silver
bullion than if he had sold the metal as
| Il hut sc
new money to the quantity before i'll cir
culation has been a general benefit to the
business of the entire community. The
matter of supposed extra profit to the
silver miner does not concern the public
even so much as rise in the price ofiron,
because the public who use the iron have
to pay the extra cost whatever the rise
may be, but nobody complains that the
iron miner is imposing on them. In the
case of the silver miner no person pays
him the extra profit or rise in the price of
his metal The dollars made out of it
cost the users of the money no more than
the dollars i'll circulation before the silver
was mined out of which the new dollars
were made.
The act of the silver miner putting new
money into circulation and increasing the
volume of the circulating medium, does
affect the goldring monopoly by reducing
the purchasing power of the gold and
interest, while it on the other hand i'll
creases the price of the farmers and
manufacturers products, enabling them
to give more employment to labor and
buy more goods from the merchant and
in this manner all are benefited along the
industrial line. For men of this class to
complain that the reconciliation of silver
would benefit the mine owner and no one
else, is exposing a degree of ignorance
which they ought to be heartily ashamed
of The RECOMMENDATION of silver would
benefit all but the goldbug, interest,
usury-drawing class, and this is where
the real oppositson to the free coinage of
silver comes from. No intelligent, we'll
informed person is in opposition to it
who is not of that class. If such one is
found it is clear case of pure ignorance.
There are more English tories in
this country to-day, ten to one,