Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1897-10-25
1ARAsAlNe OLD STRAW.
silver Question Up Again I'm ohio,
Town and Kentucky.


Town 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 ull The silverites are reviving
this issue in 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 we'll 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
moncy-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 medi-
um 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 q
legal tender dollar. and that one-siX-
teenth of that weight of gold is also a
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 u law this country would lose
about $500,o00,0O0 of gold from the
channels of trade. 1t would take sew
cral years, running the mints at their
fullest capacity, TO coin enough silver
to make up for this loss of gold money
In the meantime there would be all the
evils of a heavy contraction of the cur
rency. Mortgages and other debts
would be forced to payment. and the
farmers would find in the general tight
ness of the money market the demand
for their products would decrease and
prices fall off.
There will be n 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
us 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 cheaper kind
of money than gold standard money.
This they expect to secure by forcing
this country down to n silver basis. so
we shall be not bimetallic nation, but
n monometallic nation. using silver as
our only metallic money. This is the
condition of Mexico to-day, and it is
held up to us by the silver men as the
ideal situation.-Sound Money.
e