San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-07
THRAsHlNe OLD STRAW.
Silver Question Up Again In Ohio. Iowa
and kentucky.

/
| and Kentucky.
The farmers of Ohio, Iowa and Ken
lucky will be called upon this fall to
vote again upon the silver question, the
same old question which they voted on
last fall, and which they no doubt
thought at that time they were settling
once for all. The silverites are reviving
this issue i'll the hope of gaining for
their party an impetus this year which
will enable it to carry the congressional
elections in 1898 and to secure the presi-
dency in 1900. There is nothing new in
the question as it is now presented. 1t
was fully discussed last year, but all
the old arguments will be brought to
the front once more.
1t will be well for the farming class
and the other voters of these states to
study the question afresh and ask the
politicians what good the free coinage
of silver can do us or our interests
They will be told first that times are
still hard in the country and that the
cause of them is the want of sufficient
money-that more money is what is
needed for general prosperity.
But the education of the last cam
paign ought to have made every man of
them understand clearly that the coin
age of more legal tender silver dollars
will not increase the circulating medium
of the country, for the reason that the
history of the world shows clearly that
whenever nation has attempted to
make use of two kinds of money, differ
ing in intrinsic or commercial value,
the result has always been that the bet
ter kind of money disappeared from cir
culation, leaving the poorer kind to oc
cupy the field. If it is provided by law
that 412.5 grains of silver shall be
coined free without limit and form a
legal tender dollar, and that one-six-
teenth of that weight of gold is also
legal tender dollar, then if the specified
amount of silver is worth less than the
specified amount of gold. in the meas
urement of gold, all gold money at
once disappears from circulation.
Immediately after the passage of such
a law this country would lose about
$500, 600, 900 of gold from the channels
Of trade. 1t would take several years,
running the minis at their fullest capac-
ity, tn coin enough silver to make up
for this loss of gold money. In the
meantime there would be all the evils
of heavy contraction of the currency
Mortgages and other debts would be
forced to payment, and the farmers
would find in the general tightness of
the money market the demand for their
products would decrease and prices fall
off.
There will be great deal of the old
talk about the blessings of bimetallism
this year. Now, the fact is that the
United States is already the greatest
bimetallic country in the world except
France. That is to say, while maintain
ing the gold standard of values, we use
as money in this country more silver
than is used in any other civilized coun-
try in the world except France.
The silver men do not want bimetal-
lism. Their scheme does not look to
that end. They demand a cheaper kind
of money than gold standard money.
This they expect to secure by forcing
this country down to silver basis, so
we shall be not a bimetallic nation, but
a monometallio nation, using silver as
our only metallic money. This is tho
condition Of Mexico today, and it is
held up to US by the silver men as the
ideal situation. Sound Money.