THE SILVER ISSUE 161 



campaign document, although hundreds of similar 

 pamphlets and books had an enormous circulation. 

 The pithy and plausible arguments of "Coin" and 

 his ready answers to questions supposedly put by 

 prominent editors, bankers, and university profes- 

 sors, as well as by J. R. Sovereign, master workman 

 of the Knights of Labor, tickled the fancy of thou- 

 sands of farmers who saw their own plight depicted 

 in the crude but telling woodcuts which sprinkled 

 the pages of the book. In his mythical school " the 

 smooth little financier" converted to silver many 

 who had been arguing for gold ; but what is more 

 to the point he also convinced hundreds of vot- 

 ers that gold was the weapon with which the bank- 

 ers of England and America had slain silver in order 

 to maintain high interest rates while reducing 

 prices, and that it was the tool with which they 

 were everywhere welding the shackles upon labor. 

 " Coin" harped upon a string to which, down to the 

 time of the Spanish War, most Americans were ever 

 responsive the conflict of interests between Eng- 

 land and the United States. "If it is claimed, " he 

 said, " we must adopt for our money the metal Eng- 

 land selects, and can have no independent choice in 

 the matter, let us make the test and find out if it is 

 true. " He pointed to the nations of the earth where 



