The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-07-29
Free Coinage And Wages.


ference to me. Not a bit of difference"
Here was an intelligent man, a bright
man, man who earns his 5000 a
year He didn't know that the es-
tablishment or free coinage would af-
feet him personally.
"What is free coinage%' | asked.
"Means that the government will
coin all the gold and silver that's taken
to the mints, free of charge"
~ suppose you noticed that provis-
ion in the Chicago platform in regard
to the ratio of IL to l."
"Oh, yes"
whats that mean?'
"Means that sixteen times as much
silver, by weight, shall so into the dol
lars rs of gold"
$50 that all a man need do is to take
certain quantity of silver to the mint,
regardless of its market value, and get
dollar for il ~
IL suppose So"
$50 if man can buy as much silver
as goes into dollar for 50 cents, he
can sell it to the Government for a
dollar"
"Why, yes; i suppose So"
"Now, do you mean to say that it
would not affect you personally if the
dollar of to-day, the nc-hundred-cent
dollar, should be superseded by tlfty-
three-cent dollar ?"
"But it won't"
"Why not?r
"Hang it all, a dollars a dollar. It's
the stamp of the Government that
makes the dollar. Isn't this silver dol
lar that I've got i'm my hand as good
as gold dollar?'
"For present use it is. It's worth
dollar to-day because practically it
bears on its face the promise of the
United States to redeem it in gold. But
if you should keep that dollar, and I'M
limited free coinage should be estab-
lished in this country, you would see
the time when you couldn't exchange
it for gold-a time when its value
would be simply the value of the silver
that's in it, just as to-day the value Of
gold dollar is the value of the gold
that's in it. You say the stamp of the
Government makes value? Really,
you don't believe that, do you ?i
Certainly; wherever The stamp
goes, the value goes. Isn't that true?'
mot bit of it. The stamp on the
gold piece is simply certificate of the
quantity of gold it contains. We are
shipping gold to Europe all the time.
Europeans take our gold coin at its
actual bullion value. If there was
more gold in a five-dollar piece it
would bring more abroad; if less, the
price would be lower.
$50 il is i'm our own country. The
gold coin is taken for what it actually
| is worth. 1t stands on its merits.
/ There is no redemption back of it. IL
is our standard of value. fla man has
/ a horse to sell, he names the priee-sO
many dollarsand expects payment in
dollars that come up to the standard.
mot so with silver. The fifty-tlIree-
cent dollar you have in your hand
stands precisely in the position of the
paper dollar. 1t is practically only
promise to pay gold. 1t would cir
culate as freely if there was but ten
cents worth of silver in it. Ii is taken
now in trades of all kinds without
question because nobody doubts the
ability of the government to redeem it
in gold.
Establish free coinage and the sill
yer dollar will have nothing behind it.
II must go for what it actually is worth.
There would be no redemption. In the
first place, it is not proposed to back it
with a Government promise of re-
demption; in the second place, the
Government could not keep such a
promise good if it should make it.
Free coinage means the substitution
of the silver dollar for the gold dollar
as the standard of value
Cant you see now how it would af-
feet you personally ." demanded of
my friend.
"rd get my salary in silver" he an
swered frankly, mot necessarily silver
coin, but in dollars redeemable in sill
yer. Is that what you mean? ,"
That's part of it. You don't enter
tain any expectation, do you, that your
salary would be raised as the value of
the money standard should fall?"
DOL? OF course don't. I've seen
too much of the world to expect the
like of that. Men who work for
wages, big or little, would keep on
working at the same wages. Pve no
doubt of that"
"How about your expenses? Take
rent, for example. You pay SSj a
month now for your fiat, you say.
Will your landlord continue to rent
that flat for S35 when dollars shall be
worth 80, go, 40, cents? What do you
think about it?'
.I wouldn't, if was he"
"How about clothing, food, aud the
other necessaries of life? Would your
salary go rs far after the scaling down
by free coinage as it does now? You
paid about $50 for that suit, Ijudge-
$50 in gold. You don't suppose thirty
fifty-cent dollars would by such suit
of clothes, do you?
another thing. Is your life insur-
ed:r
"Yes, for S6OOO."
"Comfort to you TO think that if you
should die your wife would get that
$1,000? You needn't say yes. know
Now, how would you feel If this scOOt
should be scaled down to about 80 per
cent %
"That would be devilish."
That's what free coinage proposes.
1t proposes, too, that every dollar yot
and your wife, by dint of economy,
self-denial and hard work, have put
into the savings bank shall be cut in
two about in the middle.
"Now my advice to you," said /, il
conclusion, sis to study into this ques
, ton little. Let Wall street go tO
t thunder. Wall street will take care oi
, itself in any circumstances. Look out
for yourself. maintain that a MAJ