The Press., 1896-09-03
STANDARD MONEY VS. FIAT
 MONEY.

We cannot have two standards or units of one measure of difere1ot lengths. A standard yard cannot be nineteen inches and thirty-six inches at the same time, but every yard-stick must be equal to the same length thirty-six inches.
 So a st0nd0rd dollar cannot Joe fifty three cents and one hundred cents at the same time.
 It is for this 1eason-that every dollar may be equal to every other dollar-that the Unites States government is pledged to maintain the parity, or equality as cur rency, of gold and silver dollars; gold dollar being the unit of measure, or value.
 "The whole argument for free coinage of silver at 16 to 1, rests primarily on the assertion that the passage of free coinage law would necessarily bring silver to parity with gold at that ratio, and yet that assertion has never been proved" The burden of proof rests upon the side which aff1rms or asserts, and until the af- firmative is proved, there is no obligation to prove the negative, for if the premises are unsound, the conclusions cannot be sound.
 "That free coinage would not bring the two metals to 8 pality at the ratio fixed by law, as matter of fact has been prov ed over and over again, both by the evil dence of history and of logic. The asser- tion that it would bring parity, which as- sertion is not only improved, but unprov- able, and which is refuted by all past ex- periences, being taken out of the way, there is absolutely nothing left of the argument for silver. "-Ed. ". y. Witness.
 There are actually two propositions free coinage, and ratio. The free silver" party will not accept free coinage at any ratio higher than 16 to 1. As Tillman put it, "16 to 1, or bust" This is the old de- fusion, that governments can creGte values by statute, or naGite two things equal which are not, in the nature of things, equal-the theory of ''tfat money" The greenback party disappears, as there is now no reason for it's existence. If the government can create a value of one hundred cents out of piece of bank-note paper, much more can it create one hun dred cents out of fffty-three cents of silver.
 One would suppose that the financial ruin in which ended John Laws fiat mon- ey experiment in France, the old Conti- mental currency (proverbially mot worth continental") the Confederate currency, etc., would be sufficient warning as to the final outcome of fiat money-always and invariably ruinous.
 In our immediate past, our government was required to purchase and coin from $2,0O0, ,00O to $4,OOO,O0O (two millions to four millions) worth of silver bullion each month, at ratio of 16 to 1, a violent tho compulsory approach toward free coinage supply, and with what result? A con- stant decline in the market price of silver, nearly to the present price, or at the re- peal of the Sherman purchasing act, about seventy cents per ounce, Nov. 1893, or a commercial ratio with gold of about 30 to 1 ; and, as to the connection between this lavish coinage and business, the long and severe depression of business stimulated action on the repeal. There has been att tempts to arouse sympathy for silver on the ground that it has been unfairly treat ed by the government; discriminated against. Very likely it was unfairly treat ed, unfairly favored, under the silver pur- chase acts, for why should the government be required to pay out coin for uncoined bullion which declined on it's hands? And what disinterested patriotism, or rather, amazing "cheek" was manifested by hold CTS of silver in calling for nearly the whole amount to be paid in gold, or it's equiva- lent, receiving only something over two millions in silver in the last eleven months plus, against some forty-seven millions purchased of them.
 Turn those "gold-bug" rascals out and let us rascals in.
 A changing market is the speculators' opportunity. A selling speculator labors to raise prices. If silver should rise the speculator would be "in it'' by merely