Smyrna times., 1896-10-28
A DEFENCE OF THE
SILVER QUESTION.
Correspondence TO the Times.

! Correspondence TO the Times.
The TINES is an independent paper
AS it has devoted much space to the
gold side of the money controversy, ]
feel sure it will allow sufficient space
to present briefly the faith of the Other
side.
The first law of finance is that the
purchasing power of the dollar depend,
upon the number of dollars in actua
circulation. This is not a law laid
down by people afflicted with the "sil.
yer craze, " but an econamic fact pro.
pounded by Adam Smith and other
thinkers long before the silver question
was ever dreamed of. It has been
sanctioned by all the eminent politi-
cal economists of every school. 1t is,
IN fact, nothing but the application to
money of the we'll understood law OF
supply and demand.
In your recent reproduction of an
article from the Baltimore Sun. Dur.
porting to explode the silver fallacv,
l find this law recognized in these
words; 'Mr. Bryan is right and rea-
sonable i'll predicting that prices Cun-
der the free coinage of silver would
rise - not wages, remember, but
prices" " BOsh! why this exception to
wages? Are not wages the price of
labor? Will some one kindly tell us
why free silver should raise the price
OF everything else and not raise the
price of labor? At any rate the writer
acknowledges that free silver would
raise prices. He then goes on to show
that it would make no particular diff
ference to any one if fifty cents were
made the legal measure of a dollars
worth. eff we should make the foot
measure six inches, says he, room
that is now called twenty feet wide
would have to be called forty feet
wide, but there would be no more
space in it than before"
Well, then, if free coinage is really
so meaningless and harmless, whv
does not Wall street stop its walls of
anguish and let us have it Just to
please us? But let us take another
view. The rate that the Pennsylvania
railroad can charge for transporting
me is fixed by law at three cents per
mile. If, then, so cents were made
the legal measure of dollars worth.
the dollar that the company would
take for carrying me thirty three miles
would become so cents worth, would
1t not? 1t would then make some diff
ference to the ''Pennsy" as well as
myself if 80 cents were made the legal
measure of a dollar. All fixed in
comes, such as railroad charges, inter
est, official salaries, ETC., are impaired
by making the dollar "cheap" and en-
HANGED by making the dollar ''dear. "
You say it would be unjust to the
railroad company (for instance) to i'm
pair the value of their fees.
Speaking abstractly, we frankly
agree with you in that But if YOU
can see this injustice to the railroad
company, you must admit on the other
hand that to arbitrarily enhance the
value of their fees is an injustice to
the public. Just here is where the
physicians disagree. DR.. Golddollar
can't see why these fixed fees should
not continue to enlarge forever and
ever. DIR. Silver considers the enlarge
ment already quite abnormal, and has
prescription to reduce the bump.
1t is proper to observe that DIR.
Golddollar has had sole charge of the
patient for 90 years, and the condition
is conceded to be unsatisfactory.
He has given the nation contraction of
currency in AlOpathic doses for 90
long years. We charge that this is
malpractice and that the time has come
for change of treatment.
The lend-lords and rate-lords charge
that we are trying to initiate the cur
rency to escape payment in full of their
Just claims. We say that these lords
have, by the manipulation of the cur
rency, unjustly doubled their claims
against their debtors, and paralized
productive industry. And while we
admit that abstract initiation is unfair
to the creditor class, we propose to re-
turn to the safe and conservative paths
OF bi-metalism to the end that the rob-
berry of the debtor class may cease and
simple justice may return to our land.
1t must not be forgotten that BIZ
metalism is history, while mono-met
alism is the novelty.
From the time of Abraham to Victoria
OF England, both gold and silver were
held as money metals and freely used.
For 81 years our glorious country gave
an honOred place to silver and under
the gold and silver double standard we
fourished and grew strong.
This brings us to the question. WHY
was silver demonetized in '73 after 81
years usefulness as a money metal and
profit as an export? We are told to-
day that it would be dishonest to make
a dollar out of SO cents worth of ma
terlal, but at the moment of its demon
etization silver was at a premium of |
percent over gold. Is it also dishon-
est to make dollar out of 81. .O3 worth |
OF materialP "Oh" says one, ''it was
because our silver largely went over to
Europe" +" In the very next breath the
same fellow will object to demonetiza- |
ton because he thinks that Europe and
every other land are loaded up with
which they are anxious to throw at usl
Again gold has deserted us at that
time, why should not gold also
have been demonetized? We have a
better answer to this question. Con-
gress had recently passed the resump-
ton of specie payments act, which
made the debts of the government due
to capitalists who had loaned deprecia-
ted paper money to the government.
payable in gold and silver. These
creditors were not even satisfied with
this liberal arrangement (not to give it
n WOrea navoaN On o,,o 1.rr =