San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-10-05
rnE PRESIDENTIAL cAMrA1GN.

brakeman.
Brakeman-What is meant by the
free and unlimited coinage of silver
at the ratio Of 16 to !?
Conductor-It means that any person
in this or any other country, who is
the owner Of silver, in any form, may
bring il to the United States minis
and have every 371H grains of II coin.
ed into a silver dollar similar to those
now in circulation, and have the dol
lars delivered to them free of cost.
Each one of those dollars would be
sixteen times the weight of a gold dol
lar which lisa ratio of 16 to /.
Brakeman-Well, if they would be
similar to our present silver dollars,
what is the objection to them?
COnductor-Th objection is that
371A grains of pure silver, which COM
pose our present silver dollar, are only
worth about 90 cents. Why should
our government, at great expense, even
for its own citizens, much less foreign
ers, make and deliver to them dollars,
each one of which only costs SO cents.
Brakeman-Is there any other objec-
ton?
| COnductOr-Yes.. The silver in our
present dollar being worth only about
| 20 cents, the remainder of its value
| is made up of the obligation of the
| government to maintain it at a par
with gold. As this volume of the sill
yer money is limited the government
is able to maintain the obligation, just
as it is able to keep it's limited volume
of paper money at par, but If every
printing press was set to work print
ing an unlimited supply of paper mon
ev the government obligation would
he soon be broken down, and so 1t
would be with the free and unlimited
coinage of silver. The result would
he that AZ cents of government oDll-
CATION would vanish, leaving 1t worth
only about SO cents, the value OF the
silver it contained.
Rrakeman-How would rallrOadcoln-
panies be affected by the unnmiteu
coinage of silver at the ratio OF 10 10
/? ,;oS
onductOr-Railroad companies
,.o,Id be affected more disastrousiy
than any other business ino com
the country, because all ralloa' ;.Und
nonies are indebted Tor Donus .,soir
for money to build and EQUIP .h -
Gods. the principal ana ln.el ets. orc
these bonds, under their coh'laC onf If
noyable in gold, and in the t 49, roId
Unlimited coinage of silver Ihe iS7inb
unn have to be bought at Il msn
ron,irm thus increasing the opiiS"
i;nnS of the company. Besides, tne
',n;iroods would have to pay an ~
go sod nrice for all purchases Oh rams,
obninments, and other supphes' anu
ttlis would enormously increase lheli
operating expenses. + railroads
Rrakeman-But would not rdliLo"uS
also earn more money ana DE apie "
increase the wages of their emplo!es
correspondingly? 80.
Conductor-No, they would hot;
Freight and passenger rates are nNeu
Inv law. and the tendency of leglsla-
tion is TO reduce rather than increase
tbe rates. Moreover, under the free |
and unlimited coinage Of silver the re-
sult would be that nothing but silver |
would come into the companys treas
ury. Everybody who bought tlck-
ct or paid a freight bill would do SO IN
silver. No one would pay in gold,
each dollar of which would buy a hun
dred cents worth of commodities,
when he could pay in silver that would
only buy So cents worth. With the |
railroads obligation and expenses
greatly increased, and no correspond
ing increase in revenue, they would be |
in no condition TO raise wages, but |
would be more likely to cut them |
down. ...-s. &C.. ....
Brakeman-Is there any other way |
the employees would be affected by the |
unlimited coinage of silver?
Conductor-Yes, the cost of our liv- |
ing would be greatly increased. Rents,
clothing, etc, in fact all the necessa-
ries of life, would be nearly doubled |
because of the depreciation of silver |
money.
Brakeman-Why do you think so?
CONDUCTOR judge the future by
the past. Take, for example, the period
of imitation of the currency caused by
the war, from 1860 to 1866, when the
greenback currency was freely issued.
1t caused an increase in the average
price of III per cent, or more than
double all the wage-earner had 10
buy, while, during the same time, wa
ges only increased 43 per cent. IN
der an imitation of the currency, by the
unlimited coinage of silver, the same
thing would happen again, and tins
time without an increase in railroad
employees wages, because the railroads
could not increase their rates, as al
ready stated, while during the war pc
Rod there was less competition and
rates were not fixed by law, and they
enjoyed higher ates for traffic, and
were, consequently, enabled to pay
their employees higher rates of wages;
while with the prospective reduction
in wages, and when you consider the
money we would be paid in, on ac-
count of its depreciation, would buy
much less than it does now, you see
how seriously we would be affected by
the free coinage of silver.
Brakeman-Well what had we pet
ter do in this presidential campaign!
Conductor-In self-defense every ran,
road employee should support ana
work for the election of Mckinley and
Hobart, the sound money candidates
and the opponents of unlimited silver
-...o.o Tbair electiOn means the