SILVER SIMMS
SILVER AND BIMETALLISM. Some of the anti-
free-silver men, the extreme gold men, are as
unreasonable in their fanaticism as any representatives
of the Rocky Mountain mine-owners. These men
violently oppose any scheme looking toward
international bimetallism, and, indeed, at times seem to
object to it almost as much as to free silver. Such
conduct is mere foolishness. The financial question is
far too complicated to permit any persons to refuse to
discuss any method which offers a reasonable hope of
bettering the situation.
The question of the free coinage of silver is not
complicated at all. Very many honest men honestly
advocate free coinage; nevertheless, in its essence, the
measure is one of partial repudiation, and is to be
opposed because it would shake the country's credit,
and would damage that reputation for honest dealing
which should be as dear to a nation as to a private
individual. But the question of bimetallism stands on an
entirely different footing. Very many men of high
repute as statesmen and as students of finance, both at
home and abroad, believe that great good would come
from an international agreement which would permit
the use of both metals in the currency of the world. No
one is prepared to say that such an agreement would do
harm. There is grave doubt as to whether the agreement
can be reached; but the end is of such importance as to
justify an effort to attain it. The people who oppose the
move are, as a rule, men whom the insane folly of the
ultra-free-silver men has worked into a panic of folly
only less acute. (Century, November 1895.) Mem. Ed.
XVI, 343-344; Nat. Ed. XIV, 244-245.
SILVER ISSUE, THE. Many entirely honest and
intelligent men have been misled by the silver talk, and
have for the moment joined the ranks of the ignorant,
the vicious and wrong-headed. These men of character
and capacity are blinded by their own misfortunes, or
their own needs, or else they have never fairly looked
into the matter for themselves, being, like most men,
whether in "gold" or "silver" communities, content to
follow the opinion of those they are accustomed to
trust. After full and fair inquiry these men, I am sure,
whether they live in Maine, in Tennessee, or in Oregon,
will come out on the side of honest money. The
shiftless and vicious and the honest but hopelessly
ignorant and puzzle-headed voters cannot be reached;
but the average farmer, the average business man, the
average workman—in short, the average American—
will always stand up for honesty and decency when he
can once satisfy himself as to the side on which they are
to be found. (Review of Reviews, September 1896.)
Mem. Ed. XVI, 371; Nat. Ed. XIII, 156.
____________. The demand for free silver is largely
not an expression of opinion, but is rather a demand for
something which it is believed will punish the people
who have the most thrift and the most intelligence. Yet
history teaches us nothing more plainly than that if the
hard-working and the thrifty be punished the ultimate
loss falls most heavily on the poorer classes. Cheap
money is in the end the dearest money for the working
man. (Before Commercial Travellers' Sound-Money
League, New York City, September 11, 1896.) Mem.
Ed. XVI, 391; Nat. Ed. XIV, 257.
____________. With the majority of the men who want
cheap money the silver dollar is desired, not because of
any abstruse theories about the benefits of bimetallism,
but because it is the first step toward that money. . . .
These men champion a silver dollar because it is
cheaper than the gold dollar, just as they would
champion a copper dollar rather than one of silver if
copper would be made an issue at the moment. What
they really want is irredeemable paper money. In other
words these curious beings, who sometimes possess
good hearts and sometimes not, but who always possess
foggy brains, think that the money is of value precisely
in the ratio of its being valueless. Gold and its
equivalents possessing the greatest value, and forming,
therefore, the currency of all the prosperous civilized
communities, seem to them undesirable. They want
money that is cheap; that is not so valuable. They like a
silver dollar, as compared to a gold dollar, because it is
worth only half as much; but they like a paper dollar
even more because it is not worth anything. They seem
to have a curious inverted idea that the minute we can
get money that is not worth anything it will turn out to
be able to purchase everything. (Before American
Republican College League, Chicago, October 15,
1896.) Mem. Ed. XVI, 299-400; Nat. Ed. XIV, 263.
SILVER. See also CLEVELAND, GROVER; CURRENCY;
ELECTION OF 1896; GOLD STANDARD; POPULISM.
SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE. Simms was much
the most considerable of the Southern school of writers
in the years before the war—for Poe belongs to no
school and no section—and he was the most prolific
novelist, essayist, and (Heaven save the mark!) poet this
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