People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1894 — A QUESTION ANSWERED. [ARTICLE]

A QUESTION ANSWERED.

Free Coinage and Its Effect Upon the Price of Silver. In answer to a correspondent who was seeking light the Atlanta Constitution says: “Every intelligent man ought to know that when the mints are open to free coinage the governdoes not purchase the bullion for coinage purposes. The government simply receives the bullion from the owner, attests its weight and value by stamping its chosen devices on each coin, invests it with the debt-paying power of lawful money, and returns it to its owner. This is the transaction in a nutshell. The effect is this —that the open mints create an unlimited demand for silver to be coined into money, the volume of our money of redemption is steadily enlarged, the people as well as the mine owners are enabled to pay their debts on a level of justice and equity, the pressure of stagnation will be lifted from business and enterprise, the workingmen will be able to earn fair wages, and the farmers and producers of the county will be able to receive good prices for their products. Only the silversmiths or those who buy bullion for employment in the arts will have to pay a higher price for the metal, and these will recoup themselves in the increased price of silverware, which will fall exclusively on those who are able to indulge in such luxuries. As a matter of course, there may be newspaper editors who believe that the increased cost of silver bullion will come out of the pockets of the people; there are numbers of editors who do not know any better; but, as a matter of fact, the increased value of silver will go as directly into the pockets of the people as the increased price of bullion will go into the pockets of the bullion owners. It will go into their pockets in the shape of increased prices for commodities, increased trade, business and enterprise, and increased prosperity.”