Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-07-08
FREE SILVER FOLLY.
Postmaster General Wilson Explains What
 Free Coinage Means to Farmers and


 Free Coinage Means to Farmers and Others.
 h recent letter to Dr. M. ". Gam ble of Meorofield, ". Va, Postmaster General William h. Wilson makes the following clear statement of the real meaning and effects of free coinage:
 Free coinage of silver at l6 to means that any private owner of silver bullion may bring 1t to the hints and have it coined without charge into dol lars of the present weight and fineness, which, of course, would thereafter be worth as much as and no more than the bullion of which they were coined, which is now about 50 cents to the dol lar. No gold would then be coined, be- cause with tie bullion necessary to coin gold dollar could be purchased enough silver bullion to coin two silver dollars. No one would use gold dollars to pay debts which he could pay with less val uable silver dollars The first effect of free silver would be to drive out of cir culation the $625, 000, 000 of gold and to sink all silver and paper money to the standard of the silver dollar
 There is no country iii the world that could mako this sGdden change in its money standard without plunging headleng into an indefinite period of panic, bankruptcy and distress, with disastrous check te it's development and long idleness to its industries. The hope held out 10 debtors that they would be able to pay in cheaper dollars would
 
 at once pressed for their debts, and in such Reorganization of trade and of all business they could not get the cheap CT dollars, and the idea that free silver would give us larger currency would not be realized, if ever, in the lifetime of the present generation.
 1.-The farmer is urged to support free silver on the ground that his products have gone down with the gold standard and would rise with the silver standard They would not rise as fast or as much as the things he has to bay. and he ought to see that, while wheat and some other things have gone down Of recent years, 1t is because of the immensely increased production and the speed and cheapness with which all parts of the world can carry their wheat by steam car and steamship to the markets which fix it's price.
 But farm. produces, on the average, have not fallen near SO much as the things which the farmer has to buy, and labor has steadily increased ill wages in all the years of the gold standard, thus giving the laborlng man, with fewer hours of york, larger control over the necessarios and comforts of life.
 .'Out of all the catastrophes of such q change ID Iuen would emerge unharmed except those who own gold or who own silver bullion or mines, and when we had once gotten to q silver basis and be- gun 10 build up again the credit system upon it--that marvellous system which has made possible our modern develop ment and which represents many times in currency circulation and power the money basis en which it rests-we should have q cumbersome, heavy, in- ferior metal money, like the few unpro- gressive countries of the world, and sur render to our great commercial rivals the best metal and the best mechanism for trade and conlmerec.
 If congress tomorrow had the power and should enact 8 law compelling all the railroads of the country immediately to change from bread gange to narrow gauge, it would not more disorganize the transportation business of the coun- fry and more cripple its efficiency there after, as compared with other nations 4ha1, fa,. 4,S fo 1oaSS at once from q cold to q silver standard.