The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-25
Misleading the PeonIe.

One reason that the silver craze is dy-
Z ing out is that the silverite leaders are
either not sincere or else they do not un-
de-stand the silver question. Some Of these
| leaders teach one thing and some another
The fact that they don't agree excites the
j suspicion Of the people.
/ In his speech on the silver bill in the
I House the other day Representative Crisp
commended that II this country should open
/ its minis 10 the free and unlimited coinage
I Of silver at the ratio of 16 10 / the CONNER
cial value of silver would at once rise
until it was equal to its coinage value. and
that gold and silver money would circulate
on a parity. He gave no satisfactory rea-
son why the result Of free silver coinage
would be as he asserted. As pointed out
by Representative Turner he had no sat
isfactory reason 10 give.
But. II the effect Of free silver coinage
would be as Mr.. Crisp stated. there would
be no advance in prices. because silver in
this country now circulates on a parity
with gold. and the only change would be
the advance in the commercial value of
silver.
The other day. in commenting on Mr.
Turner's speech on the silver bill. the At
lanta Constitution endeavored to create
the impression that bale of cotton or a
bushel of wheat would command twice as
much as il does now II the coinage of
silver were made free. How could that be-
if, as Mr.. Crisp says. free silver coinage
would make the commercial value of sill
Yer equal to its coinage value? We can
understand how there might be an in
crease in prices if prices were quoted in a
deprecated currency. If we understand
rightly, Mr.. Crisp says under free silver
coinage silver dollar would have the
same purchasing power and debt pay
my power that gold dollar
has, while the Constitution contends it
would have only half of that power
Which of them is right? Until they get
together and explain how can they expect
the people to have confidence in what
they say?
But Representative Bailey Of Texas,
whom the Constitution regards as great
statesman, and whom it quotes with ap-
prevail, doesn't agree with Mr.. Crisp. Mr..
Bailey says that blmettalism means that
the minis shall be open to the coinage of
both gold and silver. and that it makes no
difference whether the two metals
circulate concurrently or not-that
stability in the value of money
is what IS sought by BIZ
metallism. Here we have an admission
by an apostle of silver that silver. under
free silver coinage. would not circulate
on a parity with gold. In other words.
silver dollar would have only half the pur-
chasing aud debt paying power of gold
dollar-that is, free silver coinage would
give us a deprecated currency.
But Mr. Bailey says free silver coinage
would give us a stable currency. How does
he make that out? Has Mexico a stable
currency? Has any free sill
yer coinage country stable
currency? on the contrary, is not
free silver coinage productive of a most
unstable currency? In each and every
one of the free silver coinage countries the
currency is measured by gold. and the
value of the money is regulated by the
price Of silver. The purchasing power of
silver money is regulated by the market
for silver. and that would be the condi-
ton of affairs in this country under the
free coinage Of silver. The more one thinks
Of this silver question the greater the
wonder is that any one has been fooled
by free silver coinage talk.