The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-08-27

when in 10U-cent dollars" when You SAID
the pension world be paid in 50-cent dol
lars yeu surely did not mean it. have
too much respect for you to believe yon
meant it. You were simply Joking for
votes" In other parts of your paper you
have repeatedly spoken of 50-cent dollars rs
existing pow, and you have been tree to
comment on the silver producer getting l00-
cent dollars made out of 80 cents werth OF
silver bullion, q most senseless idea tor you
to hold or harbor Where is your 50cent
dollar for pensioner, If it is a 10O-cent dollar
In the hands of the silver producer?
The silver dollar under free coinage will
not be lessened in value, but the demand
for silver bullion at the minis for coinage
will increase it. The law of supply and de-
mand viii rule in this case. and the demand
Of the minis being unlimited for silver to
coin at the ratio of 16 to j. all uncoined
silver will rate per ounce as high as new
silver money. Then, where is your 5u-
cent dollar? The United States will take
it for 100-cents So will you. and you
would not refuse five or ten Of them a! par
from delinquent advertiser Now, would
you? Mind, your readers are not SO green
as some of your editorials would seem TO IN
dictate, and it is not creditable TO you to mis-
lead or try to do so.
You are doing valiant service for the bond
holder the money lord, the opulent rich
classes Of the land under pretense OF helping
the pensioner; and while you affect to stand
by the pensioner. You simply hold HIM up
while the extending highwayman goes
through his impoverished pockets. But
your paper is not alone in this infamous
business
You hold up class of persons-the old
vets-on the subject of pensions, while your
usurious friends DO them up to the tune o. ~
per cent How much would the Kansas
pensioner gain or lose under free coinage
when the mortgage is considered? Have
little mercy on our deit-ridden comrades
ont West, and even here in the old keystone.
Not even with your helm can England rule
us or orr finanees.-J. III. STEVENSON, CO.
X, 100lh Pa, l3 Garfield avenue Allegheny,
Pa.
Comrade Stevenson starts out to
reason, and gets along fairly we'll for a
time, but it Is so much easier to call
names, and make silly, senseless charges
that he cannot resist the temptation, and
flies off into the customary Populistic
rant.
First, as to the reasonable part OF his
letter If Free Coinage will not make
the dollar cheaper, why does he want
it? He confesses that he wants and
hopes for cheaper dollar, for the bene-
fit of the "debt- ridden comrades out
West" IF the dollar is made cheaper,
then the pensions paid in it are effectu-
ally reduced. Any man can see that.
It may be, but it is hardly likely, that
for a brief time after Free Coinage gees
into effect the owners Of bullion may be
able to get in the neighborhood of 81
fer the amount of silver that is in dol
lar. But the fall will be very rapid.
We saw this illustrated in 1877. The
Silver men were then quite as confident
as now that if the Government would
only resume the coinage of the silver
dollar the price would speedily run
back to par At that time the silver in
dollar was worth SO cents-only' per
cent. diseount-and their claims looked
reasonable. The Government went to
work and coined over 400,000000 of
the silver dollars, enough, Heaven
knows, to satisfy any reasonable man,
but the price went down until in 1894
the silver In a dollar was worth only
40 cents. The law of demand and
supply" is precisely what wrecked the
price of silver. When American enter
prise, science, and skill concentrated
themselves upon supplying the demand
for silver, and turned out 500 times as
much in year as had been the average
annual production of the country, they
overdid themselves, as is often the case,
and " foundered the market. No
industry could stand, the production
being increased 1,500-fold inside of 80
wears without a wreck in prices. II
there were 1900 times as many babies
born as there were in 1865 there would
not be standing room in the country fol
the people
To put the whole thing in nutshell
If the dollar is not to be made cheaper
and of less purchasing and debt-paying
power, there is no point or reason for the
Populist campaign. If it is made
cheaper, and of less purchasing And
debt-paying power, it will be a swindle
on every wage-earner money-saver, pen
sioner, and others whose income il
fixed.
| As for the last part of his letter, il
would be insulting were it not the par
rot-like stuff that every Populist rattle