Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-04-11
Public Opinion on Iowa Subjects
as Reflected in the Iowa
Newspapers.
The News Of Iowa From Hun.
dreds Of Different Towns
and Communities.
FREE COINAGE IN PHILIPPINES.

and Communities.
| FREE COINAGE IN PHILIPPINES.
| [Des NIoines Leader.]
| The Cedar Rapids Republican, under
the caption, NO Free Silver in the
Philippines" defends the senate Phil
| ippine bill, and says it is not free
| coinage measure. The Republican
should guess again. Except for nomi-
nal minting charge of l per cent to
cover the expense of coinage the
owner Of silver bullion, from any part
! OF the world. can take his metal to the
| Philippine mint and have the same
coined into dollars of 416 grains, which
are to be legal tender thruout the arch
| ipelago. II this is not free silver, then
| that doctrine has not been understood.
| If it Is not, then Mexico does not have
a free silver system.
Instead of making futile attempts to
show that the proposed Philippine COIN
as,e is not for free coinage and silver
standard, energy should be concentrat-
ed on showing that such a system is
good for the Philippines, because it is
in line with their desire. The silver
standard today exists in the Philippine
| islands and has existed for many years.
sBsuiness is adjusted to its terms, and it
| is perhaps unwlse to make a change.
Until the time that Germany demone-
tiled silver after the -Prussian
war, there was practical parity between
gold and silver at the weight ratio of
151h to /. Then occurred what the sill
yer men call the rise in the value of
gold, or what the gold men call the fall
in the value of silver, which resulted in
gold becoming, grain for grain, worth
first 20, then 25, and finally 81 times as
much as silver At the beginning of
this period of increasing disparity an
1Solotion was presented to the nations of
adopting the gold standard or the silver
standard. No nation could choose
both, or bimetallism. The principal
commercial nations chose gold, while
other nations chose silver. The way
the latter was accomplished was to
continue unrepealed the laws which
granted free coinage to silver at the old
mint valuation. Our country, as is vel!
known, in 1873, repealed the old law for
the unlimited coinage of silver, and the
gold standard became the only actua!
ore, and what silver coinage there has
been since has been on dependent
basis. But Mexico did not repeal her
law for the free coinage Of silver at the
old ratio. and went to the declining sill
yer standard. Now 1t happens that in
China and the east the Mexican silver
dollar is the coin of accepted custom.
Business transactions are done in ac-
cord with 1T, and altho gold is used 1t
is a varying premium. The Mexican
silver dollar is the level of the CONNER
cial sea and from it's height is meas
ured. Manila and the Philippines, like
the remainder of the east, have used
| the Mexican silver dollar as the STAN
| dard.
Roughly speaking, the bullion value
OF silver dollar is one-half that of a
gold dollar. The American gold dollar,
or the American silver dollar, which is
practically redeemable in gold. is thus
worth double what Mexican silver
dollar is, or what the new Philippine
dollar will be. With respect to coin
age in the Philippines, two courses
are open to us: We can establish
legal par of exchange between gold
and silver in the Philippines. at the
commercial ratio of 80 to 1, and agree
to redeem silver in gold at this desig-
mated ratio, or we can do what the
senate bill proposes-grant unlimited
coinage with an irredeemable silver
dollar of a certain weight as the unit
The former policy is the one which has
recently been adopted by Japan and
has the effect Of establishing a gold
standard IL the price of silver falls. The
advantage claimed for this system is
that 1t harmonizes a monetary system
with the principal commercial nations
of the world and provides against fluc-
tuations in the value of silver The adj
vantage claimed for the other system
is that it is more in accord with exist
irlg business conditions.
The proposed Philippine coinage leg
islation, emanating from men every
one of whom is tn advocate of the gold
standard for this country, illustrates
the view that has been so often urged
by the Leader with respect to the
money question-that there is nothing
sacred about either gold or silver as
money metals, and that one or both
MAY be used or both discarded as a
sense of the expedient may dictate In
1896 the Leaders objection to silver
standard was that the form in which
it was proposed implied violent
change. If in 1873 there had been no
repeal of the silver free coinage law,
ard in the years afterward this coun-
try had become a silver standard one
as, Mexico, then there would have been
n good deal to say against establishing
the gold standard.