The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-08
If WE HAD FREE COINAGE.
from the Times-Herald.

from tIt
Suppose 1t became Il reasonable certainty
that the United States would adopt me
policy of free coinage of silver at 16 to !.
From that moment hundreds, perhaps
thousands. of men would rush into the
silver market to buy silver, expecting that
they could turn it into silver dollars that
would be worth 129 cents per ounce. uh-
der such a demand silver would advance
ra pidly in price until it reached very near
ly, perhaps its full coming value. For
few months, perhaps for longer tine'
we would have an era OF speculation such
as has not been witnessed in many years.
The gold speculation Of the war Would
be repeated on larger scale, for this
speculation would not be confined to the
United States alone. but would occur
wherever there was silver to buy or sell.
Families would melt down their silver
ware and turn 1t into bullion. while sil-
yer mining would be stimulated as never
before. Fortunes would be won and lose
in a single day, for under the varying ru-
mors constantly set afoat at such PEE
riods the fluctuations would be wide. Our
gold speculation era is not so far back IN
the past as to be forgotten. and the daily
and weekly fluctuations of that time drove
men wild with the alternating emotions
of hope and despair.
Such in all probability would be the re-
suit of free coinage, and this is IN 1act
what the free silver men allege. AThey say
that this extra demand will y iRe
price of their favOrite meta
ing by human experience til
This would all he for the ic,neige an
benefit of the mine owners, the owners
of silver and the lucky SPECTATORS.
Where now would the people, those who
are not spectators. but are workers ana
producers, come in? What advantage
would they have? The silver dollar would
become ntrinsically more valuable from
day to day. and instead of being worth
but SO cents. as it is now, it might become
worth 100 cents. 1t would fuctuate, how
ever. Just as the market price for slver
fuctuated. and sometimes be worth more
and sometimes less. As money-as q
measure of value-it would be the worst
possible. 1t would resemble yard-stick
that one day would be twenty-five inches
long. another day thirty inches long, the
next thirty-six inches long and the next
back to thirty again. No person could buy
and no merchant could sell goods with
such n measure as that. Meantime gold
would disappear from the currency alto
gether, for no man would pay out gold
either for debt or commodities when he
could use silver of less value or OF nue.
tllating value. Even the silver men admit
this when they declare that they want
free silver coinage for the very purpose Of
obtaining money in which to pay debts.
But whether they admit 1t or not. IL 10
the. unyarying law of finance that an in
ferior money drives out the superior.
Our own monetary history furnishes all
the examples of this truth that We need.
But this would not be all. BY and by the
demand and the use for silver would de-
crease and its price would decrease. grad
,lally sinking back to its real commercial
ratio with gold. We would then have, as
Mexico has deprecated money, and
our silver dollar would not be worth quite
as much as the Mexican dollar. Mean
time we would be obliged to carry on our
commerce with the rest of the world on
the gold basis just as we did during the
war subjecting ourselves to all the an
noyances. perplexities and expense of an
adverse foreign exchange.
Il II II
Is II worth while to go through so much
to get so little? Are the people who cam
not proft by changing our money stand
ard willing to subject themselves to all
these disadvantages for the purpose only
Of putting extravagant profits into the
pockets of the mine owners?