The Ottawa free trader., 1877-06-23

Papers of all political parties, particular
in the west, are just now engaged Justify !
singing
A good thing that we had is
The Dollars" OF our Daddies."
And now from Hill and prairie,
From ranch, and wood and dairy,
From Texas to Nebraska,
r From Maine to the far Alaska,
Hear all the people holler,
give back our Daddes' Dollar"
y The surface questions IN regard to the siI
yer dollar are simple enough and ofvery cas-.
comprehension by the commonest intellect
!; Almost from the foundation OF our govern
ment the word dollar" meant legally a Ger
tain amount Of silver, and was a legal tende
to any amount. Some twenty or more year
ago the weight Of the legal dollar was fixed a
4l215 grains Of silver, and the |. ). mint
were directed to coin dollars at that rate
Silver coins in less denominations than on,
dollar were Il trife lighter and were not lie
gal tender ia all amounts. In 1873 congress
passed a law, not taking from the silver dol
lar its legal tender character, but prohibiting
its further coinage, and directing the coinage
| of silver in pieces of lower denominations
only, and at the rate OF $50 grains or iherea
bouts, TO the dollar, and making this coin a
lars. Now what the country, and particular.
'ly the west, is clamorlng for, Is the repeal of
the law of 1873 prohibiting the further coin
apa Of the silver dollar, No new law is need
ed to make it legal tender It is such now,
if we only had it, and therefore the clamor is
Ito have the mints put to work turning out
the dollars by the million so as to make "hard
money" cheap and plenty.
Whether it will do that or not wc shall not
now stop to argue only one thing is certain,
the entire debt of the United States except
possibly Sherman's new four per cent. bonds
is clearly payable in silver dollars if the gov.
ernment authorizes their reColnage, for the
laws under which all our bonds were issued
expressly make them payable in the legal ten
der "coin' whether golu or silver, of the
United States, and the silver dollar is now as
1t always was legal tender "coin of the Unit.
ed States"
Another result will be that all debts now
payable in gold or greenhacks will be paya-
bic In the silver dollar, and as that, at this
time, is worth about ten per cent. less than
backs, creditors Of all kinds will make money
by the abundant recoinage OF the silver dol
lar-pr0cSded that the dollar, coming thus in
general and large demand for paying debts,
bonds, &c, don't suddenly and perversely ap.
preciate in value so as to be worth as much
and even more than greenbacks, if not ap.
proach gold in value.
Another hought-wonld the redemption OF
our government bonds In the silver dollar be
an injustice or even a hardship to the bond
hOlderr AT the time the bonds were issued
the silver dollar was at par with the gold dol. |
lar. Since then one of two things has happen.
ed, or partly happened. That is, either gold
has gone up, or silver down, or the change
has been partial on both sides. Silver has
fallen IN consequence of having been demo-
netlzed by Germany, and gold has gone up on
account the demand created tor it to replace |
he silver Germany drove out Have the bond |
holders right therefore to demand that we
pay them IN gold that Is worth more than it
was when they bought our bonds, or to com.
PLAIN if we pay them IN silver, as we agreed
%, although 1t has slightly fallen IN value?
AS to the western notion that "monetizing
silver" as it is called, will make money plen.
ier, that is an "insane deluslon" If this
country makes gold the only lega, tender, it
will have all the gold it can pay for or profit.
sbly make use Of II it makes silver "a legal
ender, II will drive out gold and we shall
iave all the silver we can pay for or profta
)iy Use. That is all. 1t is no question of
or scarcity of money. 1t is sim.
ply question of convenience. Had we rath.
n handle the awkward, bulky silver in large
quantities than the neater and more convent
mt golds Beyond the temporary shave in
Iolvcd in enabling debtors to pay IN cheap:
II money than they expected to pay in when
hey went into debt, this convenience" Is the
'nly question involved