New-York tribune., 1877-09-19

may become worth 90 cents, or even
30 cents. Long before enough more pa
per money to affect its value could DO legis-
lated into existence and put INTO circulation,
the hapless and hopeless debtor might nnh
himself obliged to pay as much as W
cents wherever he owed one dollar. This, OF
course, would be intolerable. Think OF the
condition of a man who cannot cheat ms
neighbor more than one or two cents on the
dollar The paper money has become only
another tool of the boated bondhoders ana
the Shylocks of the Gold Ring. But the poor
farmer and the oppressed son OF toll, and,
above all, the bloated debtor, must have
cheaper dollar. Any dollar not cheaper than
81 cents is unbearable tyranny.
Sweet silver smiles hope upon these victims
of paper cruelty. Worth about 81 cents, the
old silver dollar of the "dollar OF onr
Fathers.r is indeed somewhat too costly Tor
tho convenience Of debtors, but it is by cents
the best they can get, and by ceh's
better than they are bound TO pay, and likely
to be compelled to pay, if the paper dollar
continues its ungenerous behavior. Moreover
they have hopes. Silver has been worth n
great deal less, and may fall again IN price,
Some gain sure, and strong hope OF more' the
silver dollar offers, and every debtor who be-
heves in repudiating finance suddenly becomes
clamorous for hard money. The change Is not
only amusing but instructive. Perhaps it may
help to warn some worthy men, who advocate
the reconciliation Of silver, if they consider
why all these repudiators and bankrupts also
demand it.
AS we approach resumption by the steady
advance of the egal-tender toward par, II be-
comes necessary for honorable advocates OF
silver reconciliation, who adopted that view
when silver was worth more than paper, and
seemed at least a stepplng-stOne toward gold,
20 consider seriously what they are asking
we have debts by the thousand millions pay
able in legal-tenders. and every debtor ex-
pected to pay and every creditor, with right
expected to be paid, the value in the gal
fender dollar at the maturity Of such a debt
But here are honorable men proposing that
debts now legally and equitably worth 81
cents on the dollar shall be discharged, If
any knavish debtor pleases, by payment in
coin now worth 81 cents on the dollar.
One-sixteenth of the amount due-$l 900
on every currency debt of S16,OOO-aDy
debtor may steal under color Of law, if silver
dollars are coined and made full legal
tender. The obvious reply. which many hon
orable men may thoughtlessy make, is, that
the silver dollar will Immediately rise in
value. To some extent it probably would but
can any man say how much, Or say with GER
tainty that it would at all7 If not to the full
value of the legal-tender, the robbery would
be exactly the same in character, though less
in amount. Nor has any man the right to
vote himself the power to rob creditor OF
81 900 on every $4,000 due, merely because
he thinks that events may practically make it
impossible for him to get away with more
than $500.
Germany is waiting with a very large sum
in silver, anxious for a market in which to sell
it. Attempts to sell elsewhere have pushed
down the price rapidly. Though writer's differ
as to the amount which Germany has for sale,
no one questions that it is much mOle than the
entire product of our mines for year, and the
product must be sold at any price Is it clear
that the price of silver would not decline under
such circumstances if it were remonetizedf 7
Meanwhile. what shall be said of debts. amount
ing to several thousand millions more, payable
in "cOin of the United States" The market
value of such securities has now been adjusted
to the fact that they are practically payable
only in dollars of 100 cents. If they are to be
paid as fast as they mature, in dollars OF
81 cents will not the decline be instant
What will become of insurance companies by
the score, and banks by the hundred, and
savings banks by the thousand, which have
their resources largely invested in such secu-
rites, for the benefit of families, stockholders,
and depositors by the milionf Until resump-
ton has succeeded or definitely failed, or the
price of silver has advanced to n degree not
now expected by any one, all talk of coming
silver dollars and making them a legal tender
equally with gold, ought to be left to that class
of men who indulge in it because they desire
TO plunder the widows and orphans for whom
lives are insured, the stockholders of banks, and
the millions who have their savings deposited
,l.o