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Show FREE COINAGE. The Atlanta Constitution fur-, fur-, nishes the following ;on the subject of free coinage uf silver: The free and unlimitee coinage of silver means that any' owner of too J worth of silver bullion shall have the privilege ot taking it to any government mint, and having it coined into, or exchanged for standard dollars ot the United Stales, or their equivalent in legal teuder currency at the rate of $ 1.29 per ounce. This would settle a great many things. The legal tender oi mint value of silver would be its market price, aad the government would no longer be in the market as purchaser The inevitable effect of free coinage would be to estore to silver bullion in this country the potential money value which it possessed prior to 1873. Those who oppose free coinage point to the difference which now exists between the price of silver and the price of gold. It is that very difference which enables the wheat and cotton of India to beat down the price of those products in America. With 70 cents worth of American silver the British business man can purchase a dollar's worth of Indian cotton. This settles the price of the staple, and the Southern South-ern farmers have to accept 7.1 cents for a dollar's worth of cotton. But the Indian producer can exchajge his silver for coins worth a dollar tor the reason that India has fiee coinage, while the American producer is left in the ditch on account ot the single gold standard, add the British pocket has 30 cents profit. It is claimed that if this country were to re-open the mints to silver we would be deluged with European silver. There are several satislatory replies to this In the first place there is no silver in Europe of any account except the legal le-gal tender silver which is in daily use and this could not bo shipped to this country and recoined except a a tremendous tre-mendous loss. In the second place, if it should be sent here it would be coined into standard dollars, which enter into circulation, or to stored in the banks, or be employed in building up our industries. There never can be a plethora of gold and silver currency in a country such as nurs. In the tbiid place, India, Mexico and other countries have free coinage and they are not deluged by European silver When the monemetalists explain why this is so, it will he time eonugh to discuss their airy predictions with some degree of seriousness. |