Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1896-07-31
FERDINAND WILLIAMS IN IA VOR
or FREE Sill YER.

Ferdinand Williams, Of Cumberland, who
was defeated for Congress two years ago by
Mr.. Wellington, is perfectly in accord with
the Chicago platform and is out in state
ment advocating the free coinage of silver.
Mr.. Williams, it Is thought, will accept the
congressional nomination this fall if ten
dered him. He has always said he believes
it mans duty to obey his party's call. On
the question OF free coinage Mr.. Williams
says:
81 have, OF course, heard great deal Of
talk and argument on the silver question,
both for and against that metal. The OBJ
lection most strongly urged against it is that
there is only So cents worth of bullion in
the 412-grain dollar, and that law making
such dollar legal tender TO pay 100 cents is
| against honesty and good morals. If the
dollar when coined was worth only SO cents
this contention against silver would be con.
elusive, but such is not the fact. We have
now 600,000,000 of silver dollars, with only
| So cents worth of bullion in each of them,
and yet each dollar is worth 100 cents just
as much as gold dollar. 1t is said that the
policy of the government is to maintain q
parity between all the several kinds of
money. This may be its policy, and it is 80
declared by the act of 1893, but there is no
law anywhere on the statute. books to up
hold this policy. 1t stands as a cold fact that
the 600,000,000 of silver dollars hold their
own with gold and treasury notes unaided
by law. Silver dollars and silver certificates
are not convertible into gold, and yet they
are thus far of equal value with gold, and
this is so in face of the fact that the bullion
in each of them is only worth So cents If
rya hou a fran mi tho uolno of al Iuar htfl
lion will increase and 412 grains will be
worth more than SO cents. 1t is fair to as
sumo that if inconvertible silver dollars,
with 81 cents of bullion in each of them, can
be, as they are, kept on parity with gold,
that parity will not be impaired by increas-
ing the value of the bullion in the silver dol
lar. We are practically on silver basis
now; to day it is the currency of the people;
they see no other kind of money, the banks
appear to be paying silver certificates almost
exclusively. The immense increase in silver
production does not account for the 10 W rel
alive value OF silver. We know that result
did not follow in large degree the great
output of silver from the mines of Mexico
and South America under Spanish rule;
neither did the relative value of gold suffer
much when the worlds stock Of it was 80
vastly increased from the mines of California
and Australia; neither ought it to be for
gotten that while the silver stock has been
increasing of late years the gold supply has
been doing the same thing.
awe must, therefore, look elsewhere for
an efficient cause of the shrinkage in rela-
tive value of silver, and that cause is not
hard TO find. The act of 1878 demonetizing
silver did the work. Its effect was imme
diately apparent. Forthwith silver suffered
in relative value more than it had in cen
turtles. 1t rallied on the passage of the Sher-
man bill and took its final downward plunge
when that law was repealed, and now in
the prospect of free coinage begins to go
upward again. Silver appears to do well
as money metal, whether its bullion value
is high or low The English shilling has
about 10 cents worth of bullion in it, but it
passes the world over for "a cents, and SO
does the other English silver coin. Our
own dollars, halves and quarters pass cur
rent at their face value, though their bullion
value is scarcely half the coin value.
at the free coinage of silver prevails, |
look for immediate good results, increased
prices for all agricultural products, the slim
ulation of industries, increase of wages, &C.
tivities in all directions. 1t is true such re-
suits would also follows great issue of
paper money, but disaster follows the issue
of such currency because when the people
find that it is irredeemable and never paid
they lose confidence and refuse to trade in
it, but such consequences would not follow
silver coinage. The silver dollar stands for
no broken promise because no promise &C.
companies it. 1t is itself like the gold dol
lar, the substance of things hoped for by the
holder OF paper money. 1t is not promise
to pay money, but is itself money. History
teaches us that all the evils that follow the
issue OF paper money arise when the people
find out the promises are going to be broken.
So it was as to the French assignats, the
continental money and Confederate money,
and so it would have been with the treasury
notes if they had not been in the end made
redeemabe on demand, but in the very
nature of things no such evil can follow the
issue of legal-tender silver dollars. l think
we ought to secure the certain good which
will surely follow the free coinage of silver,
without undue fear of the very uncertain
evils which may ultimately follow"