The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-07-16
The Silver Questio n.
What Kansas Paper says on the Subject.

Free and unlimited coinage of silver al
a ratio of sixteen to one, is demand that
the minis be thrown open for the free. anG
unlimited coinage of silver, and that the
government maintain the silver dollars so
coined at the present ratio of sixteen to
one.
The silver in a dollar is actually worth
about fifty-three cent; demand that the
government keep the value of silver dol
| lars at one hundred cents, in spite of free
and unlimited coinage, is simply an alb
surdity; it is a foolish demand. The
value of a bushel of corn is about twenty
five cents. The free silver cry is exactly
the same thing as would be cry from
Kansas that the government increase the
value of bushel of corn from twenty
five to fifty cents.
In case we should have an unlimited
coinage of silver, silver dollar would
| Immediately decline in value to fifty
| three cents. We would have more money,
but it would he worth less. Where would
there be any advantage?
This is all there is to the silver ques-
ton. You may talk and write about it
forever, but it finally reduces itself to
| these two propositions:
l. Free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer will result in reducing the price of
the silver dollar to it's actual bullion
value.
?. Free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer, at ratio of sixteen to one, is foolish,
| and absolutely impossible.
Experience in the past is the best
guide. This shows that we cannot in
crease our prosperity by declaring by
statute that silver, Or corn, or labor, shall
double in value. The old law Of supply
and demand must be met, in silver as
we'll as in everything else.
Too many Republicans are taking the
position that free silver is good measure,
but that they must stand on the party
platform. Free silver is foolish de-
mand; this is the position Republicans
should take, and they can prove it. John
). ingalls, is making mistake in talking
free silver, and the Troy Chief of this
week calls attention very forcibly to the
fact.
Free silver is step toward returning to
barbarlsm; We might as we'll talk about
giving up typewriters and steel pens and
return to goose quilts, as to talk about
| free silver. Free silver has been tried and
abandoned; not a single enlightened ma
ton on the face of the earth is to- day a
| free silver nation. Free silver would be a
olcP udChWdiC, IL WOulC Ue ike giving up
our magnificent railways and steamships
and returning to canoes and stage coaches.
| The gold Standard means patriotism,
progress and honesty. Free silver means
reputation. The men who are clamor-
| ing for free silver want to repudiate the
public debt. and they want to pay their
own debts at fifty cents on the dollar.
The Democrats have taken up the free
silver cry to attract votes, but the Amer
lean people will recover their good sense,
and their desire to be honest, and Demo-
Gratis will be laughed at, and be more dis
reputable than ever, because of their
willingness to accept any popular cry to
get into office.
Honest money men are often reproach-
fully referred to as ''gold bugs, as though
they were thieves The honest money
men are the men who believe in paying
their debts, in industry, in patriotism, in
progress, in keeping the United States in
the front rank of nations.
The Globe is not a party organ, but it
believes in men paying their debts; it be-
lieves in progress, in patriotism, and
common sense, and the Republican party
stands for all these in 1896. Atchison,
| Kansas, Daily Globe.