The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-02-08
The Senate Passes q Silver Bill.

l
the United States Senate passed bill
providing for the free coinage Of silver
the vote being AZ for and IS against
The Picayune in an editorial on the
passage of the bill, says:
Tho bill will have to pass the House
and secure the signature of the Presi.
dent before it can become law, and,
| since it is not at all likely that the
House will adopt it, and it may be
considered certain that the Presiden,
would veto it. there is no possibility oil
its fiual enactment. But even. should
the House concur with the Senate, the
Presidential veto will kill the measure,
because not even the Senate could mus
ter a two-thirds majority. Therefore
there will be no free coinage OF silver
during President CIeveland's admins
tration, nor is it likely that there will
be any change of conditions during
the existence of the Fifty-fourth Con-
gress.
The simple fact is, nobody is clamor-
ing for the free coinage of the white
metal, except the politicians and those
whom they have misled. The politi-
clans. ever ready and always hoping
to retain or get power by creating a
popular agitation, saw an opportunity.
exaggerated by the financial and in
dustrial distresses following the money
panic of 1898, to make the silver ques-
ton the basis of movement; but the
free and full discussions of the subject
that have been had throughout the
country in the past two years have
gone very far towards educating the
people on the subject of the finances,
and SO beneficial has been the effect
that the silver wave has very largely
subsidized.
1t Is not to be supposed that the poll
ticlans who are so actively propagating
silverism are ignorant of what they are
doing. or of the consequences of what
they are trying to do in case they could
consummate their design. They know
perfectly we'll that the free coinage of
silver at the rate of 16 to l, when the
actual ratio is 80 70 l., would cause the
Government to guarantee to the silver
miners and holders of silver, just as
long as it could. one hundred cents for
every fifty CENTS worth of silver; but
the time would soon come when the
power to make good this guarantee
would fail.
The guarantee is simply the main
tenance of the parity of the white and
yellow metals. To-day there is real
bimetallism in the country. because
gold and silver circulate side by side,
and each silver dollar is maintained at
an equality with a gold dollar. and
there are to-day in circulation just
about as many silver as gold dollars.
The silver dollar is taken in domestic
business, not in foreign trade, just the
same as if it were gold, and this is true
bimetallism.
But if there were put in circulation
so many silver dollars as that the pari-
ty of the two metals could not be MAIN
tanned in the face Of an almost unani-
mons foreign opposition, the silver
dollar would quickly drop to its real
value in metal, and gold would be held
at corresponding premium.
The at would be that the United
State could no longer borrow gold on
coin bonds at any rate of interest. and,
if the credit of the country is to be
maintained, the Government would be
forced to get gold by levying a gold
tax, or by requing the customs dues to
be paid in that metal. as was done
during the war. But what the politi.
ticians want to do is to destroy the
credit of the country. and force its
creditors to take pay in deprecated
silver, or take nothing. This is the
deliberate intention of the leaders of
the silver movement.
Well, who would be benefited by itp
Somebody must make money out of
the project, or there would be no OBJ
ject in carrying it out. The theory
of the schemers is that the farmers are
the people who would be benefited.
They would be able to pay their labor
ers in 50-cent dollars, and they would
sell their cotton and their surplus
wheat to foreign buyers for gold.
1t has been said that it costs 8 cents
pound to make cotton. Very we'll,
if the cost of production can be paid in
silver, of which 5 cents is equal only to
Q l-2 cents in gold. it is plain that the
cotton farmers could make big profit
paying a cost of deprecated cents in
silver and selling for full cents in
gold. 1t would be equal to paying 5
cents silver for the making and selling
for 10 cents silver. The farmers would
thus make big profit; but it would be
at the expense of the laborers. The
working people would have to suffer in
order that the cotton planters might
get rich. The same rule would apply
to the grain farmers who export corn
and wheat.
Alas! what foolish and disappoint-
ing scheme this would be! To make it
success, it would be necessary to
assume that the foreign buyers of cot
ton and grain are set of ridiculous
ounces and stupid asses. But they are
not. They must be credited with some
enterprise and shrewdness. They
would certainly be shrewd enough To
buy, with their gold, silver dollars at
the rate of two for one. and they would
with These silver dollars pay tor the
cotton at the silver market price. That
= Ill "a g.