New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-09-21

the coinage act of 1873. Before that time the Gov
eminent had established two separate and lnde-
yendont dollars, neither one being more sacreh III
the eve ~ the Law than the other, and It SAID 10 All
debtors Nov you may measure your pecuifaIy
obligations by either of these" IL might III the
same yay have established two yards for the meas
ure of cloth and said to the dry-goods merchant;
Your yard-stick shall be made either of wood or
brass if you measure the cloth with wooden
stick. then SO inches shall be yard hut If you
measure with a brass stick, the yard snail DO ONLY
30 inches long. For nearly forty years by UNI
versol consent the gold dollar was accepted in prac-
tice as the sole standard by which values were
measured But in 1873 the Government said in
effect 1.-TWO attempts TO make our silver ana gold
dollars canal in value have failed. Tho impossible
ity of keeping these metals at n par with each
other has been fully demonstrated. not only
in this country but by the experience OF the
world. Justice and equity demand that there
shall I've one permanent standard of value by which
debts shall be measured when they are paid "A well
as when they contracted. IL Is Just as bad pnD-
lie policy to allow man to measure his debt when
Inc navs II by smaller or less valuable dollar than
that by which IL was measured when contracted. ~
10 allow a merchant TO bry cloth by one yard md
sell il by shorter OF the two measures OF
value heretofore established gold is the more stable;
it is the in universal Use IN this country IN
all coin transactions; all outstanding debts have
been contracted in gold dollars, and no injustice
will be done TO any one by establishing it as the
sole standard" So we have not even new legal
standard, but have simply selected the one of the
two old standards which was in universal use, and
abolished the other.
But the real grievance of the people who COM
plain Of the legislation of 1873, is that they have
been deprived of the legal right TO discharge their
pecuniary obligations contracted in gold on legal
tender notes by the payment of deprecated silver.
1t is true that the practical effect of all laws, which
have had for their object the establishment OF a
double standard has been to give TO the Government
and to individuals the legal right to pay their debts
in the cheaper metal, no matter how great injustice
may thus he done to the creditor. The aim of wise
legislation in all countries has been to prevent the
debtor from securing any advantage through the
cheapness of either of the metals. The double
standard system can only be defended on the
theory that gold and silver are TO be kept
ut par with each other. Alexander Ham
ilton one Of the ablest advocates of the double
standard who has ever written ugon the question in
this country understood this. and instituted very
careful investigation to ascertain just what the
legal ratio between the values Of the two metals
should be- IN order that one might not be cheaper
than the other In doing this, he followed the ex-
ample Of Sir Isaac Newton, who in 1717 conducted
a similar inquiry and made a celebrated report.
Both of these great men failed Newton oyer-valued
the gold and Hamilton over-yalued the silver The
XXIVth Congress attempted to correct Ilamilt0n's
mistake but itself made equally fatal. II over
valued the gold. A careful reading Of the reports
and debates on this subject in Congress in 1897 does
not lead TO the discovery that any defended the
proposed legislation on the ground that it would
enable debtors to discharge their obligations in a
cheaper currency than that in which they were con-
tracted.
what the advocates of the silver dollar complain
Of is that the legislation of 1873 deprived them of
the right of forcing their creditors 10 accept in july
1876. eighty dollars worth of silver as payment in
full for the hundred dollars in gold they had bor
rowed 1--we years before. z. L. W.