What Free Coinage Of Silver Means

Editor Argüe: Dear Sir: Almost every farmer I meet wants to know what the free coinage of silver means. Now, through the Argus, with your consent, I propose to tell them. The free coinage of silver means that our people will return back to the unit or standard valué adopted by our fathers in 1792, and continued'for 81 years, up to 1873. During that time we fought one foreign and one domestic war, and prospered as no other nation ever did in that length oftime. Then in 1873 the shylocks, the men that held the evidence of indebtedness against our people, found that if this prosperity continued that in a very few years our farmers would all be able to pay their debts and have a competency left to them in their oíd age and then shylock's occupation would be gone. So the money changers got together to devise ways and means how to perpetually enslave the wealth producers with tne curse of debt and usury. They found in order to stop this prosperity and make the wealth pass into the hands of the few, they must change the unit or standard of valué from a cheap one to a dear one. So with the help of John Sherman and others of his kind they demonitized silver. That is change from a silver unit or dollar of 412 grains of Standard silver to a gold unit of 25 8-10 grains to a dollar. That is by legislation increase the purchEsing power of the dollar about one third. Now, Brother Farmers, when we say they increased the purchasing power of the dollar one third, it means that they lowered the price of your producís and mine that amount. That is to say, the commodity value of the gold dollar being about one-third greater than the commodity value of the silver dollar you must give a third more of your products for the gold dollar than you would for the silver dollar, provided the silver dollar had remained our unit or standard of value. It not only increased our mortgage indebtedness one-third, but it increased our taxes one-third by lowering the price of our products that amount. Ever since silver was demonitized in 1873, our unit or dollar has circulated on the world's commodity value of 25 8-10 grains of gold. It does not make any difference when we receive our pay for our products in copper, nickels, silver or paper; it all being redeemed in gold, it has the same purchasing power as a gold dollar. As Secretary Foster expresses it, all of our money is now on a par with gold. Now, Brother Farmers, I give you an unvarying rule; that you can always teil what the price of your products would be in silver with free coinage, after getting the price in gold, please remember that the free coinage of silver does not add to nor take away a farthing from the world's commodity value of the silver in a silver dollar. Also remember that with free coinage it circulates on the commodity value of silver in the dollar. To illustrate, say wheat now is worth one dollar a bushei, that means 25 8-10 grains of gold or its equivalent. Now ask the wheat buyer what is the commodity value of the silver in a silver dollar, (our daily newspapers quote the price of silver bullion so he can teil you its valué within a fraction). (All metal, whether gold, silver, copper or iron, it being a commodity, itvaríes in price according to supply and demand.) Suppose he tells you that it is worth 7-10 of a gold dollar or 70 cents. Now under free coinage of silver, you get the silver dollar and 3-10 more in silver to make it up to the valué of the gold dollar. Now, I think you can plainly see that on a gold basis your wheat is worth a dollar; with free coinage of silver it is worth one dollar and thirty cents a bushel. I think you all now will see that for the past eighteen years we have been compelled to sell our producís fron % to yi less than we would have received if our Standard of value had not been changed. That is the reason we are all so badly in debt and have no money for fun. Now, Brother Farmers, if it should prove true that we are so party hidebound that we will not unite and force our lawmakers to give us the free coinage of silver, then there is no use of trying for any other reform, as this silver question is the first round in the reform ladder. Shall we take all the lopperd milk and give the goldbugs all the cream? I say no. By the eternal, we will have this reform or we will unite and elect a new lot of lawmakers that will grant us this grand insr. SciO, Sept. 5, 1891.