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Show "dollar" is expressed the dollar provided pro-vided by that agreement shall he the dollar made of gold; that all contracts or agreements for the payment of money in express terms of silver shall be paid in silver dollars or equivalent thereof, that the purchase of silver for coinage into dollars at the cost of the government should cease. 8t. wart ou Hold Mouoru.tallam. A letter was also read from Senator Stewart. In it he said that enterprise must languish, business be curtailed and progress and development stayed by adherence to the gold monoinctal-is'm. monoinctal-is'm. Hut such was the policy dictated to our government by the money changers. Silver had been demonetized and there bad been no material increase in the volume of gold coin in the commercial com-mercial world. The output of gold had been absorbed for non-monetary purposes. pur-poses. Population, business and credit had expanded enormously, while gold for ultimate redemption had remained stationary or declined. An oligarchy of gold mono-metallists cither owned or controlled by the bonds they held every dollar of gold coined in existence. He advocated that the people break the corner by a restoration of silver to its proper place as money, and thus free themselves from the conditions imposed upon them. All the financial laws enacted by congress for the last twenty-live twenty-live years had been direct subsidies to the money powers. How long, ho asked, would the producers of tho wealth per in it such legislation It wis limn for the producing classes, especially especial-ly those of the west and south, to assert their rights. Under demonetization of silver mortgages have grown heavier and prices of farm products lowered. He advocated then the free cc'tiage nf silver and making it legal tender, and said the coined silver of Kuropu was legal tender on par with gold, at a premium pre-mium of about 3 per cent above our standard dollars. The suggestion that under free coinage the silver coin of any country would tind a market in the United Slates, and suffer a discount from iii per cent in Kuropran silver to 7 per cent on Indian silver, was absurd. Other measures might be necessary to supply the circulating medium, but free coinage was the first and most important import-ant step in the emancipation of the masses from domination by the money kings. THE WESTAND SOUTH. Much Attention Given to the Question of the Currency by the Western Commercial Oongresa, ATKINSON ON FEEE COINAGE. His Views are Not Those of tha West A Letter on tha Same Subject by Stewart Stew-art Comes Nearer the Mark. Kansas Crrr, April 16. It was 10 o'cloek before the western states congress con-gress assembled t Ilia morning. James Pcabody of Chicago read a paper on railroad pools. He said it was not so much the low rates that shippers want, but stable rates. As tending to obtain stable rates, the speaker indorsed the interstate commerce commission. General Blair, of Kansas, read a paper pa-per ou transportation as affecting commerce com-merce aud linauce. He said the government gov-ernment ought to provide as much money as was necessary to carry on the country's business, and then leave tho question of finance alono. In like manner the government ought also to keep its hauds off commerce and transportation trans-portation and lot them be governed by natural laws. A telegram from tho president and executive committee of the chamber of commerce of tho state of New York was read. It asked permission to call the attention of the congress to the late action in' the chamber regarding the improvement of the Mississippi river and the particularly grave importance of protecting the adjacent territory from the ravages occasioned by the periodical periodi-cal overflows of the river. William E. Scwoppe, president of the Wholesale Grocers' association associa-tion of St. Louis, speaking on transportation. Ho thought tho federal (tovernment should control the traffic of railroads just as it now controls interstate traffic. Ho wants a bill passed that would give the present commission power to enforce its de' ciees. H. Martin William, of Missouri believed the government oiik'ht to supervise the railways and railway fclnrges. A recess was taken until si ' o'clock. John Cornforth of Denver spoke of tho benefits of railroads. Speeches hud been made before the eougre.s by men who condemned railroads. These same men had come wesi and bought government land at tl.25 per acre nnd were now offering it for sale for 8U0 and $.'()( per acre, and giving as an excuse for the high price that the railroad rail-road passed through the land. Kail-ways Kail-ways led the advance of civilization and industry, and in tho western countries coun-tries they should be built numerously. C. S. "Dietrich, of Hastings, Neb., rend a puper on transportation in support sup-port of a resolution introduced by him, ! which provided , that the inter-stata commerce commission should have super.i-doi! aud limited control of rail-roailsy rail-roailsy State Senator Swit.'.er of Nebraska advised tho congress to consider the mutter of transportation thoroughly aud attempt to propose a remedy. Kdwnrd Atklononon Finance. A paper on the financial question by Edward Atkinson, the well known Boston Bos-ton political economist, was read. In it he says: "What we need iu order to assure stability in oiir monetary system, maintain main-tain the unit of value on the gold basis and to give elasticity to the circulating medium are three acts, as foilows: First, providing for the free coinage of dollars of gold or silver in just tho measure that the bullion of either kind fciiall be brought to the mints to bo con-Verted con-Verted into coin, provided such act is accompanied by another. Second, lo repeal all acts of legal tender, by force of which farmers, mechanics, laborers or creditors may be compelled to accept payment in silver or gold, at the option of the debtor, Third, repeal of the acts relating to banking which prevents the issue of notes payable in coin ou demand, de-mand, ot such times aud in such proportions pro-portions as the business of the country may require." Mr. Atkinson says that any doubt of the oualitv of monev impairs credit. The free coinage of silver dollars without with-out a corresponding change in tho acts of legal tender would be tampering with the unit of value, and would be the cause of great discredit. Tho proposal to open the mints of tho United States to the free coinage of silver dollars, of full legal tender under our present statute, stat-ute, is but a proposal to collect a forced loan from the property, product, wages and earnings of the people of this country for the benefit and support of the petty industry of mining and .melting .melt-ing silver ore, the product of which the annual value is less than half of the hen's eggs which we get every year from our barn yards. The price in our market of cotton, corn, wheat, meat and dairy products aro established establish-ed by the prices that the excess or surplus sur-plus will bring by export. That price will be fixed in terms of gold. We cannot alter it if we would and would not do it if wo could. ery man engaged en-gaged in large transactions is awaro of the loss and discredit, or commercial suicide which would come from such a parting from the ways of commerce and exchange. An attempt to establish any other standard thau the gold standard in tho United States should bo by way of an international agreement. Suppose the seller of pork, cotton, etc., needs gold dollars and has a right to expect them; he claims them Iml the buyer offers to pay him in silver dollars, under the legal tender act, which forces the seller to take unch dollars, even if by free coinage without amendments of the act of legal tender they bad become worth only M) cents each! What terms shall we apply to such acts of legal tender, which can only be justified for the purpose pur-pose of collecting a forced loan? They are acts of war. That there is no danger in coining as many dollars of siiver or gold as the people may want who may bring their bullion to the mint lo be coined, is true. The only danger is an abuse of the trust under the act of legal tender. Let the law prescribe the respective re-spective uses to which the gold dollar nnd silver dollar shall be put in the Same way; then, and then only, will free coitvige bo safe. Mr. Atkinson submits with the paper resolutions providing that the mints be opened to tho free coinage of dollars or multiples of dollars of silver or gold; that the legal tender act be so amended as to provide that in all contracts or ar-rangemects ar-rangemects in which tha single word ! |