Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-10-15
Further Huinous Effecs OF Free silver
rotuace. fNts

The meeting OF the National Associs-
tion OF Life Underwriters, recently held
in Washington, furnished another
striking and practical illustration of
the evils that would follow in the train
Of free silver coinage, In paper on
1.-THE Effects of Possible Free Silver
| Legislation on Life Insurance Con
tracts, !" William L. StRndon Of New
\ York said;
Under the conditions which prevail
to-day, about 1915, 00o, 600 of annual
income is sufficient to provide for the
regular life insurance companies
jobligations of about So, 700, 600. 600. II
4 the value OF each dollar paid to the
companies is to be scaled down TO an
effective purchasing power of about 81
cents, then in order to maintain their
obligations at their present value in
effective purchasing power the com
panies would need TO increase their an
nual income from 1915, 600, 600 to about
$3.50, GOO, ZOO. Unable TO do this by
reason Of the nature of their contracts
their obligations of about 50, 700, 600 600
will fall in effective purchasing power
to about 50, 800, 900. 600. The man who
wants $50, 600 OF life insurance and OK
poets to pay for it in coin that is vir-
tuaily subject to 4S per cent deprecia-
tion will find that he cannot buy s25, 600
of the effective kind, but only sl3. 600
i 1t has been sought to be shown that
we shall be partially repudiating our
obligations. We shall do MO such thing.
We shall pay in the current "coin of
the realm as many dollars as our con
tracts provide for--dollars of 100 cents
each--but, under the threatened now
order of things, each Of those 100 cents
would be OF an effective purchasing
power of only about one-h half.
We frequently hear il said that the
free and unlimited coinage of silver must
inevitably impair life insurance con-
tracts. Nothing OF the kind. Life in
surance contracts can and will be car
ried out to the strict letter. II is after
the claims are paid, and after the life
insurance company's functions are
strictly performed, that the trouble
will come in.
When the money reaches the hands
of his widow the prices of both necessi-
ties and luxuries will have so greatly
enhanced that the income resulting
from his prudence and forethought will
provide the wife and children with
only ABOUT one.half of what he in
tended to provide for them. The
, change will not in any sense impair the
functions of the life insurance com.
panies themselves, except as to dividend
benefits and the basis of premium pay
ments.
Its action will be to impair the
present existing relation between assets
aud liabilities and effect derange.
ment of these important factors, which
it will be very hard subsequently to
re.establish.
AS is the case with loan associations
and savings banks, this is matter that
directly affects the home. Life insur-
! ance is almost invariably effected for
the benefit of the family, and here is
the deliberate statement of a practical
man in the business, that under free
) silver coinage the heneficiaries Of a
: life policy would get only about half OF
8 what the insured intended they should
' receive.
3 Surely, all who are interested in
! life insurance should cast their in
fluence and their votes against policy
that threatens such material injury ia
their family concerns.
: Here is a nut for the free silver adj.
a vocateH to crack-if they can. 1t is
from the Philadelphia Ledger:
The first issue of bland dollars lin
1879 was readily absorbed by the
: public, hut as soon as curiosity to sec
b the new coins was satisfied il was
found that, owing to their bulkiness
and great weight, they would not circu
late freely. The Treasury Department
~ made extraordinary efforts TO overcome
!, this objection of the people, and the
u government even offered to ''pay the
s freight" on the coins in bulk to any
l. part of the country, special appropria
Il tion being made therefor, but this was
e Intellectual. .
1t was not until the plan was finally
adopted of storing the coins ia thu
u governments vaults and issuing silver
i notes in lieu thereof that the silver
it dollars we're freely circulated by proxy.
NJ The silver notes pass from hand tt
i, hand as readily as greenbacks in fact
! the majority of people regard them at
: identical.
!: How different would il be in case O.
u free coinage of silver!
No longer would the United Statet
government open its vaults fnow full t,
ovcrHowingI for free storage of thu
. heavy dollars, but the coins wuulC
a necessarily be promptly carted ava,
10 from the minis by the depositor O
3. the bullion.
IN No longer would the government
~ undertake to maintain parity of valu,
between the silver and the gold dollar
- and no longer would it obligingly issul
y crisp silver notes Interchangeable in
IT directly for goldl to represent tn,
le new silver dollars, which would have
no real purchasing value beyond tn,
~. market price of the silver contained
- therein, although declared lega
~ tender
y In that event, the silverites woult
~ abandon their free coinage basis aac
rs insist that the government buy slve
u bullion at Sl29 per ounce and issu
y paper notes against it to PRACTICAL,
unlimited amount. This would b.
70 imitation, with vengeance. But il
], there any material difference between
u imitation and fres silver coinage as pro
u posed by the Bryan Populists?
Hon. W. U. Hensel of Lancaster, Pa.
AZ former attorney general Of that Stat
le and Democrat VIII ose eloquent yoic
d has frequently been heard in Delaware
]. in a1ynnacv 80 SQUAD nap,o,r,t;n -; -