| Show THE SILVER QUESTION COMING TO A FOCUS THE free silver coinage question is fast becoming a direct political issue but it does not seem to shape itself iu in the direction of old party lines during the discussions in the last congress it looked as if the democratic party were its especial champion both in thib the house and senate the democrats as a whole favored it it was by the aid of democratic senators that the free silver bill passed in the senate and it was by the opposition of republicans that it was rejected in the house As the question stands at present the west and south are abr free silver while the east is opposed to it the democratic state con bention of massachusetts only yes berday declared for honest money while the republican state convention of colorado held on the same day declared for free and unlimited coinage of silver the south dakota republican state convention hold held also on the dinst adopted a sort of straddle it favors such further increase inc in the coinage of silver as aa is consistent with a sound financial policy if this means anything it is a covert way of es espousing the goldate doctrine with these latter sound mound finance and honest money mean a limit on silver the democratic state convention held in denver on the emphatically favors free and unlimited coinage of silver and even sends greeting to ohio and iowa democrats for their stand on the issue A short time ago moreton frewen published a very able article in favor of free coinage the substance was reproduced in these columns he showed that neither european nor asiatic silver could displace american gold he handled the question fro from mado a domestic as well as an international standpoint the objections raised by senator sherman were especially dealt with and unless mr freiens Fr ewens figures and facts are shown to be distorted he be seems to have the best of the argument in the october forum there is an article by edward atkinson entitled the real meaning of the free coinage agitation mr atkinson is one of the financial authorities of the sherman school he says that much of the confusion attending the discussion of free silver coinage arises from the various definitions given to the word almoney ll money f however he el claims id m a th that at all financial philosophers will agree with him in that coined is lean an instrument by which the ex change of services or of products is ift facilitated 1 I and that one kind of money maybe may be good and another bad theu then he adopts definition of good money which reads that coin only is ia good money of which the bullion as worth as much after it is melted as it is in the form of coin 12 the basis basia of mr atkinson Is ment mentin in favor of a gold standard to is that in discriminating between good money and bad the function of government relating to coinage and to legal legaj tender shall be entirely set aside the essence of a coinage act is i simply to justify the weight of metal in each coin the credit of the coin and of the government go together and should the latter issue a base coin it would be discredited it Is i the community and not congress that determines good money from bad but it is ia here the legal tender phase of finance comes in when government issues debased currency a legal tender law is required to bolster it up mr atkinson asks may it not prove that whenever the first act of legal tender is in traced to its if origin it will be found to have been the act of a despotic ruler who at first debased the coin of the realm by taking from it part of its weight and then attempted to force the circulation of the base coin by forbidding any citizen to refuse to accept it when offered in payment of a debt or in liquidation of a contract in this view I 1 is not the attempt to make silver dollars equal to gold when they are not really so by legal tender act a fraud the whole tenor of mr atkinsons Atkin sona reasoning will be found in the part pait of his article dealing with international commerce which he says ahas has adjusted itself to the gold standard by the measure of the pound sterling 2 this shows that the gentleman is looking through british spectacles Is Is because great britain dominates the commerce of the world that the sever mover eign or pound sterling caused it to be the international standard of adjustment this fact also ac accounts counte for london being a sort of international clearing house which mr atkinson him self admits should the united states adopt the free coinage of silver and extend her commerce until she dominates that of england then international commerce would have to adjust itself to the american and gold would occupy but ar correlative place in the markets of ther the world in his article mr atkinson repeats the hackneyed cry that this free silver excitement was got up by interested mine owners who desire to sell silver r bullion to the government at 20 to 30 per c ent cent more than it to is worth this statement is both trivial and baseless the theory of free coinage is in no essential way associated with the sale of silver therefore such a charge falls to the ground and only damages the f argument |
