8
THE BATTALION.
ARGUMENT AGAINST FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE
OF SILVER.
BY J. D. CARTER.
[The following is the argument of J. D. Carter, champion of the
negative side, in a public debate at the A. & M. College, June 12,1899.
Question: Resolved, Tnat the United States should immediately
enter upon the policy of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at
the ratio of 16 to 1. The decision was in favor of the negative.]
Motie}^ is a medium of exchange.
Standard is the basis on which the money of a countrj'-
is placed.
Gold and silver have been used as medium of exchang-e
from the earliest time, and either or both have generally
been used as a standard. In early times g'old and silver
were used as a money, not in coin, but in bullion. There
fore, there was no fixed ratio between the two metals.
Then a farmer would sell his corn, wheat or wool for an
amount of g’old or silver bullion that was regmlated not
only by the supply and demand of the corn, wheat or wool,
but also of the gold and silver. But on account of the
rich cheating the poor and more ignorant classes, either by
weights or by alloying the two metals, the nations of the
world commenced the coinage of money by placing their
stamps on a piece of metal certifying that it contained a
certain amount of gold or silver, to protect the poor, and
not to give value to either of the two metals.
We find that when a nation has one metal for a stand
ard, the value of a piece of monev (say for convenience, a
dollar) was regulated by the intrinsic value of the metal it