Show DEMOCRACY AND POPULISM Some of the eastern Democratic papers pa-pers have taken up the Republican cry that the doctrine of free and unlimited un-limited silver coinage is Populism Democrats are asked to consider the question whether they are really Democrats Dem-ocrats or Populists that is whether they are wise men or fools That is not very complimentary to either the Democrats or the Populists Nobody should be affected in the smallest degree by a threat to call him something which may be looked i upon as a term of reproach If there is anything in Populism that is right and true no Democrat should be afraid of accepting it or ashamed of being so far connected with a people or a party that advocates it But is the advocacy of the free coinage coin-age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 to be classed as Populism If so where was Populism from 1792 to 1S73 SliVer Sli-ver and gold were freely coined during dur-ing that period Or at any rate the law provided for their coinage one metal on equal terms with the other and during the latter portion of it at the ratio of 16 to 1 Was that Populism Pop-ulism If so Populism is all right But Populism although it has recently re-cently made the silver question its most prominent feature demands fiat money also That is to say it holds in another form the same heresy as that promulgated by the greenback party If the government can issue paper as money without any money metal behind it with which to redeem that paper there is no need for either silver or gold coinage The printing press may be set to work to manufacture manufac-ture money and the labor to develope the mining interest for the production of the precious metals may cease except ex-cept as those metals are wanted for use In the arts The Democrats who want the restoration res-toration of silver as the money of the United States do not believe in fiat money To class silver coinage with that financial heresy is unfair and misleading It would be just as true to call the coinage of gold the issue of fiat money In one sense all coin I is fiat money It is made to > be money mon-ey by legislation That is the fiat of the law There is no national money without it But that is not what is meant by the term Fiat money means something used for money which has no value in itself and which depends entirely on the fiat of the government for its recognition as currency Such money has no stability It has no permanent value Paper money depends upon that in which it is redeemable for its worth in trade So long as a paper note is redeemable in real money gold or silver coin which ds legal tender ten-der it will pass current lit rests entirely en-tirely on that redemption Silver has been a money metal standing upon its own merits as fit for coin side by side with gold forages for-ages A silver dollar is > a dollar today to-day In spite of what has been done to ithe metal as bullion There is no such thing in the land as a depreciated depreci-ated dollar a fiftycent dollar a debased dollar Every dollar is good for its face as money So far the fiat of the government affects it I because it ds interchangeable with gold Open the mints to the free coinage of silver as previous to 1873 and In avery a-very short time silver would return to its old value In the market as metal Close the mints to the coinage I coin-age of gold and in a very short time its value as metal would depreciate in the market The two metals arc suitable for money above all other metals known There is not enough of either or both to make too much money for the uses of mankind As the production increases the needs of the world for money increase There is no danger of too much The trouble Is usuallv that there fs i n too little or that it is hoarded for speculative purposes The free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold will keep up the balance of their value in the market as bullion and their parity as money There will toe no more fiat in one than in the other There is no more Populism in silver coinage than in gold coinage Democrats Demo-crats who want free and unlimited silver coinage also want free and unlimited i un-limited gold coinage They do not want irredeemable paper money They favor the issue of notes redeemable in coin because that would be a matter of convenience and the redeemable quality of the paper would place It on a parity with coin It would be all fiat money in the right sense but none of it in the Populist sense Democrats need not fear to be classed class-ed as Populists because the Populists have adopted the free coinage doc tnine And wo fair paper In the country will seek to confuse the pubic pub-ic mind by such misrepresentation However we need not look to the goldite papers for either fairness or honest argument |