The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-11-22
From The Philadelphia Times.
Who Are To Profit BY IL.

into legal-tender dollars of 4125 grains.
We beg Congress and the country to
take pause and consider, what reward
there can be for the consummation of
this debasement of our money and the
corresponding debasement of the
credit and faith of the government.
Silver was last quoted in London,
the money centre of the world, at 54J
pence per ounce, or $l,074 per ounce
of American standard silver, making
a dollar of 4l22 grainsa saworth just 92
lS-100 cents. Under the bill now
pending in the Senate, if enacted into
a law, the proposed dollar Of 412l
grains would be coined at the mint at
the rate of 1l6 Ali cents per ounce.
The price of all silver bullion would be
at once raised, by an act of Congress,
from 1913 cents to lie ILL cents, an
increase of s 1922 or within the small
est fraction of 8 cents per ounce. A
ton of 1900 avoirdupois pounds of
American silver is now worth S3l,-
1925, which it is proposed by the
House bill to increase in nominal and
legal tender value to $33 1866, ,55 in what
is popularity called "the dollar of our
fathers" The profit on silver bullion
to be realized by somebody by this
legislation would be 2,5S7. 80 per ton,
or about st per cent. The annual
yield of silver in the State of Nevada,
as stated in the report of Mr.. Jones, is
| about $50, 900, 900, or nearly 1000 tons,
on which the net profit to the owners
of the bullion would be, in round
numbers S2,5O0,000 per annum, should
this act become a law.
1t must be remembered that the sill
yer bullion is held by very small cir
Gle of bullion kings, and of these, Sen
ators Jones and Sharon of Nevada,
and the well-known bullion firm of
Flood u O'Brien are the chiefs.
They either own outright or
directly control the entire accumula-
ted silver bulli on of the Pacific coast,
which is the whole bullion of the
country, and they are the parties to
be profited by this most appalling
measure. If the bill shall become Il
| law, the bullion combination of less
| than half score of spectators have
| but to deliver their hundreds or thou.
| sands of tons of silver to the mint,
and receive it back in legal-tender
| dollars, free of cost, worth 50, 5S7 80
per ton more than it is worth to-day
in the market of the world. Did ever
before so monstrous fraud upon pub
lie and private credit, and so glaring
| and so shameless q speculation of in
dividuals, ask for the sanction of the
national government
We repeat the pertinent question
who are to profit by this most deadly
assault upon the faith of the nation +?
| Not the government, for it must coin
the bullion of spectators without
charge, and then accept their debased
coin at a loss of st per cent. in payment
of debts due the public ire sury. Not
the industry of the country, for it
must accept as a dollar that which
will buy only so cents worth of the
necessaries of life. Not the merchant
man ufacturer and business man, for it
must disjoint the mediums of eX-
change and breed veXatious confusion
in the daily transactions of trade. In
short, it can pay none but the owners
of silver bullion, who have taken ad-
vantage of a widespread desire for an
honest silver dollar, to foist a bastard
dollar upon the people at an enormous
profit to bullion spectators, which
the people must pay. And if the evil
ended with the speculation of millions
per annum by few bullion kings, it
might be tolerable; but the measure
of the wrong to the whole country and
to every class of its citizens, cannot be
calculated. Just when our national
credit has been so firmly established
| that four per cent. bond has COM
| mandcd favor both at home and
abroad, and when the seeds of repudia-
ton which germinated in the sore
trials of the Republic after q most
exhaustive war, had perished from
our responsible political deliverances,
this new scheme of twin bastard
money and tainted credit, libels the
integrity of our free government: and
threatens to cheat our own people as
the price of clouding the faith of the
country.
If the people want the silver dollar,
let them have it. Let those who re-
we're it's traditions and who prefer its
convenience enjoy it to their utmost
bent. If they call for fifty millions or
a hundred millions, or millions more,
it can be furnished them with safety
by simply making an honest dollar for
them. If made of the intrinsic value
of dollar so that it will command a
dollars worth of the necessaries of life
for the laborer, or of the commodities
| which are offered for barter in the
| marts of trade, it can be honestly
paid to creditors by individuals and
the nation. If it shall be made less
than an honest dollar it will be lega-
| lized fraud upon the people and an in
| effaceable stain upon the escutcheon
of the Republic that the civilized
| world must resent with terrible earn
| estness.
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