Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-06-22
FREE SILVER FOLLY.

Postmaster Wilson Explains What Free
Coinage Means to Farmers
In a recent letter to DR.. w. NJ. Gam
Bile, of Moorefield, w. Va, Postmaster
General William L. Wilson makes the
following clear statement of the real
meaning and effects of free coinage:
''Free coinage of silver at sixteen to
one means that any private owner of
silver bullion may bring it to the !mints
and have it coined without charge into
dollars of the present weight and fine
ness, which, of course, would there
after be worth as much as and no more
than the bullion of which they were
coined, which is now about so cents
on the dollar. No gold would then be
coined, because with the bullion neces-
sary to coin gold dollar could be pur-
chased enough silver bullion to coin
two silver dollars. No one would use
gold dollars to pay debts which he could
pay with less valuable silver dollars.
The first effect of free silver would
be to drive out of circulation the $685.
100000 of gold and to sink all silver
and paper money to the standard of
the silver dollar. II
'"There is no country in the world
that could make this sudden change in
its money standard without plunging
headlong into an indefinite period of
panic, bankruptcy and distress, with
disastrous check to its development
and long idleness to its industries. The
hope held out to debtors that they
would be able to pay in cheaper dollars
would never be realized, because they
would be at once pressed for their debts,
and in such disorgani2ation of trade
and of all business they could not get
the cheapened dollars, and the idea that
free silver would give us larger cur
rency would not be realized, if ever,
=, the lifetime of the present genera
ton. SgSsStrr -fs4llaJ.r -.---~,-
' "The farmer is urged t. support free
silver on the ground that his products
have gone down with the gold stand
ard and would rise with the silver stand
ard. They would not rise as fast or
as much as the things he has to buy,
and he ought to see that, while wheat
and some other things have gone down
of recent years, it is because of the i'm
mensely increased production and the
speed and cheapness with which all
parts of the world can carry their
wheat by steam car and steamship to
the markets WHICH fix its price.
But farm produces, on the average,
have not fallen near so much as the
things which the farmer has to buy,
and labor has steadily increased in
wages in all the years Of the gold stand
ard, thus giving the laboring man, with
fewer hours of work, lager control
..,qgsr, the necessaries and comforts OF
life. i1- - - u aA''' s1zfs~N'
'"Out of all the catastrophes of such
: a change no men would emerge un-
. harmed except those who own gold
or who own silver bullion or mines
and when we had once gotten to sill.
yer basis and begun TO build up again
the credit, system upon it--that mar.
,Xssloqns System which has made possible
our modern development and which
represents many times in currency cir
culation and power the money basis
on which it rests-we should have {
cumbersome, heavy, inferior meta
money, like the few unprogressivt
countries of the world, and surrende
to our great commercial rivals tn
best metal and the best mechanism TO
trade and commerce.
IF congress tomorrow had the powe
and should enact a law compelling al
the railroads of the country immediate
ly to change from broad gauge to mar
row guage, it would not more disor
ganize the transportation business o
the country and more cripple its ef
ficiency thereafter, as compared will
other nations, than for us TO pass a
once from a gold to silver stand
ard"