The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-04-03

rassment. which sooner or later become 80
flagrnnt as to necessitate legislative re-
form. Thus nothing is gained by such
miserable contrivauces, which In the end
always have to be abandoned. They are
wretched makeshIfts unworthy OF intelli-
gent lcgi .lators, because they sac iiice truth
and honesty to II mean and sordid hope oil
gi II which is never realized.
Let us take n plain case TO test this
matter Suppose Congress declares piece
OF silver to he legal tender for dollar
which ~ worth just half adollar in the Lou
don market. Mr. A. +. STEWART imports
his goods and sells them for those double
priced lcgal-tender silver dollars. OF course
he must sell them ut figures which
Will enable him to sustain his losses on the
currency in which he Is paid. In other
words. he must charge in the silver money
which Congress by law orders him to take,
double the price which he charges the mau
who comes along and pays in gold. An
act Of Congress establishing an arbitrary
value of silver above its real value II de
signed to force II into circulation at the
artificial price, and can have no other de-
sign. Now, what we wish to ask Is, whe-
Their IN the case we have supposed, tins
result l. obtained in the slightest possible
degrce7 Aud doesn't the illustration cover
every supposable case and transaction in
which dcbased silver coinage, Whatever
the degree of debasemeut. is made ust Of
between mnnand man And doesn't il show
that legislation attempting such an object
Is aud must he, from the nature of the
clsc u complete and ignomiuious fail
ure, stamping everybody who votes Tor II
us ignorant and Incompetent
Ii il impossible to have two separate
standa DIS of value without creating con-
fusion, unless they are equivalent aud
convertible the one into the 9th, r.
To escape this confusion they must benr
in the markets OF the world fixed and
Just proportion. This Is the actual aim of
all honest coinagcs. But the demonetiza-
ton of silver IN various quarters in con-
sequence of recent discoveries, mas now
created n sudden and violent bancc
in the hitherto existing relationship ct
the two metals. What we urge Is, that
this is most nopportune period for this
country to voluntarily mix itself up with
the dis urbance and debasement of the
silver coinage. We are out of IL by
IL happy accident. ana we ought to
keep out. We shall only increase our
disorders by adding new element To our
present deprecated circulation, and one
of even more uncertain and changing
value than our greenbacks and fractional
currency. We have got gold, which
is our only standard and par for every
thing, notwithstanding our brave and
persistent efforts by long years of legs
lation TO dlslodge it from ITS position;
we have got the greeuback and the
fractional. which are worth 81 cents on
the dollar; and now we are proposing
TO get another curr ncy of silver worth
s, or 81 cents on the dollar, aud falling
every day.
1t would seem rs though the old song
was true, that satan finds some mischief
still for IDLE hands to do, when our Law
makers. instead of applying their facul-
ties to getting us out of the existing mud
die in our finances, only make use of
them to plunge Us into new one.
We say let us wait till silver settles to II
rate that is likely TO be stable, aud then
issue n coinage based thereon, before we
proceed in the business of redeemIng or
Withdrawing our fractional circulation.
But this is common sense. and we can
hardly expect Congress to follow the rec
OfnmpuIatlOu