Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-11-01
DON NJ. DICKINSON ONCE
FAVORED FREE SILVER.


acknowledgement during President
Cleveland's first administration, and
would-be-follower of the golden calf,
recently wrote a letter denouncing
Mr. Bryan and his alleged free silver
opinions in language more forcible
than chaste.
And now it appears that Mr.. Dick
inson is something of a free coinage
man himself Here is letter written
by the redoubtable Don in February.
1892:
LAW OFFICES OE DICKINSON, THURBER
s STEVENSON.
Don Nj. Dickinson,
Henry T. Thurber,
Elliott G. Stevenson.
PERSONAL.
Detroit, Mich, Feb. 16.
Hon. j. Logan Chapman, NJ. c.. ii.
r., Washington, d. c.:
NV Dear Judge-Your favor of the
9Th inst, kindly asking my advice as
to your vote on the free coinage bill,
is received.
have given the history of money
considerable attention, and this mat
ter of silver coinage very careful
study. l do not share the apprehen-
sions of disaster from free coinage,
which we hear so frequently ex-
pressed. The prophecies of calamity
are now no more dire than those
made when the Bland bill was pend
ing in rs, or when there has been
any measure before congress looking
to the increase of our currency by
silver coinage since that time. The
purchasing power of silver currency
was not deprecated by any of these
measures.
do not anticipate that a measure
which will limit the supply of con-
stitutional currency, by the natural
law of demand, rather than by the
artitice of an act of congress, will per-
manently depreciate its purchasing
power. The manufactured sentiment
against it the widespread and simu-
lated fear of the timid-may produce
such temporary effect. But it will
be brief.
Favors Free Coinage.
The same mau who cries out that
silver man is repudiator and that
the currency will be debased by free
coinage will tell you in the next
breath that our 5000, 900, GOO of gold
will be driven abroad, and that the
silver of the world will pour into this
country. Well, if it pours it will
pour largely out of England, Germany
and France, and our gold will be driv-
en- to those three countries. Flooded
with gold, how long will it be before
those commercial countries want to
demonetize gold as Germany and Aus
tria did in 1857? The effect is more
likely to equalize the American silver
dollar with the standard gold dollar
of the whole commercial world. The
commercial intimacy between Europe
and this country is now so close. and
our influence so great, consideration
for US so absolutely essential to pre-
serve the financial equilib rium of the
world, that any action we may take
like this need not beg for recognition;
it will command it. The commerce
of the world demands a common cir
culating medium, and it will care lit
tie whether that medium be gold or
silver, so long as q common standard
can be reached and the volume is
sufficient to transact the worlds bust
ness. If silver should be the cur
rency, scarcity will put that currency
at premium anywhere. or enhance
its purchasing power, which means
the same thing.
Never Too Late to Mend.
But If the bugaboo-makers are right,
and all the silver pours into America,
and all our gold pours into Europe,
you will find that the scarcer silver
oh rr-sn an hn Il
sired.
But suppose a return to the consti-
tutional currency of the country
should be followed by decrease in
the purchasing power of that curren-
cv-concede that it will-what then?
Is it ever too late to remedy a wrong
suffered from the commission of
great crime? Must robbery be legal
lied and its results be secured by law
because someone out of million who
has been robbed is an innocent pur-
chaser of the stolen goods for value?
The creditors of the nation got it's