The New York herald., 1877-07-02
David A. Wells ON the silver oass-

simultaneously with the Cincinnati CONNER
cial, to whose editor it is addressed, an able
discussion of the silver question by Mr..
Wells The strong movement in the West
for remonetizing silver, of which Mr.. Hal
stead is o leading champion, makes the
question of great interest, and no writer In
this country has SO happy faculty for deal
ing with such subjects in an intelligible and
popular manner as Mr.. Wells. In this let
ter on the silver question he has outdone
even himself in the clearness OF his state
ments and the aptness OF his illustrations
though not, perhaps, in the cogency OF his
reasoning. Yet IN point OF argument
it is blow we'll struck on what is
substantially the right side. The silver ad-
yocates Of the West are such fanatics that
they never know where to stop. 1t would
be infinitely safer for the government to
adopt the views of Mr.. Wells than to act on
theirs. We do not doubt that there would
be some considerable advantages in the par
tial remone etization of silver, but they can
not be weighed in any judicious mind
against the effect on the public credit OF
making the national bonds payable in silver
coin. The silver fanatics are determined to
accept nothing short Of full equality be-
tween coins Of both metals as
medium OF payment for all purposes,
including the interest and principal
of the government bonds No benefit
<l,oxx ri nfo o6 n
silver would be any compensation tor such
blow to the public credit. If the apostles
of silver were less exorbitant in their de-
mands we should incline to 60 with them
nearly as far, perhaps, as the administra-
tion is willing to 60, which, as We UNDER
stand it, is to make silver legal tender to
the same extent that the greenbacks now
are, but exempting all obligations for which
greenbacks have never been medium OF
payment. But as the silver men will not
consent to stop here all sound thinkers on
the currency question will have to fight
them, and it may not be expedient to make
partial concessions which encourage these
aggressive fanatics to be more bold and
exacting.
The reference to Chinese money with
which Mr.. Wells sets out in his discussion
is very felicitous as an illustration; but
illustration is not argument. The only
money! the Chinese is q combination less
valuable than our copper, which is adapted
to community where wages and prices are
SO low that an hours labor, or the COM
modities which an hours labor will pur-
chase, would require silver coin "no
larger than the surface Of a small split
pea" and gold coin that could be handled
only by delicate fingers. With this apt
illustration as o starting point Mr.. Wells
proceeds to bear down hard on the
clumsiness of sthe dollar of our fathers"
It was well adapted to the rate of
wages of our fathers, which did not exceed
fifty cents day, when months wages in
silver could be carried without inconven-
ience if divided between the two pockets Of
pair of trousers. But wages and contiod-
tiles have so risen in value since the days
of our fathers that silver money is too
bulky and heavy for the convenience Of
their sons. Mr.. Wells says we have become
great travelling people, and that man
seldom starts on journey with less than
one hundred dollars in his pocket. But
one hundred dollars in silver weighs five
and half pounds-a burden that nobody
would wish to bear on his person. "For
every thousand dollars that man is paid
in silver" says Mr.. Wells, "a wheelbarrow
would become necessary if he wished
to remove it. The wheelbarrow, in fact,
will become the essential, and possibly the
fashionable, portemonnaie for all who pro-
pose to engage in any considerable moneyed
transactions, if the dollar Of our fathers is to
be made the principal circulating medium"
This is piquant and amusing, but we fear
that it has little other merit. Mr.. Wells
zeal against silver has led him to overlook
the main distinction between the monetary
methods of sour fathers" and those Of their
sons. If the sons like the fathers, made all
their payments from money carried about in
their pockets, this satirical illustration would
have real force rs an argument A gentle
man making trip of twenty days
with his family and having to run
the gauntlet of such hotels as the
Windsor in this city, the Ocean at Newport
and the Grand Union at Saratoga, would
need something more capacious than even q
.'wheelbarrow" as a portemonnaie if he had
to pay out actual silver for his travelling
expenses. But even with gold for our cir
culating medium our summer tourist would
leave his money in his bank at home and
pay his hotel bills by checks drawn against
it. 1t is true enough, as Mr.. Wells main
tans, that we have outgrown the money ar-
raneements OF our fathers but the most
important difference is not in the higher
wages and prices which naturally lead to
coinage in more precious metal, but in the
habit of carrying little money on the per-