Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-02-15
SOMETHING OF Decentralization
AND THE DUAL STANDARD.

lie men and private individuals who are VIC
!nntly opposed to the measures now before
Congress looking to the passageof such laws as
~ill as the saying goes, ''restore to the coun-
" the silver dollar of our fathers. The ar
gument, if argument it may be termed en-
rloycd by these gentlemen is that the effect
Of passing the so-caled Silver Bill will be III
the nature of a reputation of the terms of tho
Nations promise to redeem It's bonds in gold,
and the consequent destruction of the credit
If the country. Also there is much loose talk
of flooding the country with deprecated cur
rencv, etc, etc. Now, as always, It is best to
ascertain in the outset, as nearly as possible
Just what We are talking about. Now then,
FIRST What Is meant by the 'Demoneti-
z41ion Of silver!
SECOND. What are the laws relating to the
payment Of our outstanding bonds?
With regard to this first question it is to be
said in brief, simply, that the act of Congress
whereby 'rhe dollar Of our fathers Is sup
posed to be dispensed with originated in the
House of Representatives as long ago as April
1872 In the first instance Mir Kelly pig
Iron) introduced a bill for the codihcation of
the laws relating to coinage, the Mint, and
the Government Assay Offices This bill gave
way to a substitute offered by 1Ir. Hooper of
Massachusetts,, relating to the same subject.
Upon the introduction of his substitute bill,
Mr. Hooper explained its provisions, one of
which was that it reduced the weight of the
silver dollar to 384 grains on account of the
fact that the old dollar was worth some three
cents more than the gold dollar. The discus
sion, as the reports amply and conclusively
show, was on the expediency of reducing the
veight.of the dollar, but nobody proposed to
90 away with it. Not even the closest scru-
tiny can detect any avowed effort, intent, or
purpose to ''demonetize the silver dollar
What was done however, instead of reducing
The dollar Of our father" to 3S4 grains, was
=, so amend the Mint laws as to provide that |
1.-THE silver coins of the United States shall be |
a trade dollar, Il half-dollar or fifty cent piece,
= duarter-dollar or twenty-five cent piece and
A dime, or ten cent piece. The weight of |
these is also defined In Section II Of this
Act it is provided that ono coin, either of
gold, silver, or minor coinage, shall hereafter
be issued from the Mint other than those of
the denominations, standards and weights !
herein set forth This is. i'll brief, the sub
stance Of what was done. . The dollar of our
fathers was in 10 sense affected by this mod
fcation Of the Mint laws; and it exists to-day
Just as much as it existed prior to the passage
Of that Act The difficulty is that it exists i'll
very small quantities and that it is SO much
needed in the business of the country that it
il proposed to provide for fresh issue of it
in adequate amounts Abiding to this ques-
ton, the Boston Globe, Democratic and sill
yer advocate), says: "Where the silver dollar
dropped out and disappeared we defy any one
to discover from the record of Congressional
proceedings, We do not find the question of
emitting it once alluded to III the debates or
in any proposition to amend Such is the re-
suit of very careful examination of the pages
Of the Congressional Globe, during the second
and third sessions of the Forty second Con
gress.
Now with regard to the bonds and the laws
providing for their payment There are fiji
teen hundred millions of these bonds, of the
denominations of five per cent, four and half
per cents and four per cents, The $40 bonds
Of 1862 were payable in " lawful money"
that is, grcenbacks; the bonds of 1868 were
made payable in "coin;" and the Revised
Statutes of 1874 declare that they may be
paid i'll either gold or silver coin. An intelli-
cent gentleman of Montreal, Canada Mr..
William Brown, dealing with this question in
a most mastery manner says:
Amongst our neighbors, and especially (
the foreign bondhoiders, the question d
OF the demonstration of silver has got mixed c
mp with the manner Of ultimately paying the I
bonded debt. There is no connection between t
the two They are different things. Their c
terms are for payment at certain periods of |
determined weights of gold or silver coin of t
standard fineness. Neither the United States $
nor its bonihOlders could enter on the region '
Of future or prospective values as to how much +
gold would he worth in silver silver in gold, G
OF both worth in commodities ten twenty or c
thirty years hence. Questions of value had v
nothing to do with the contract. Nobody has Il
denied that gold dollars and silver dollars were "
the legal tender and standard coins when the d
bonds were issued, The payment of the bonds p
in either metal was placed utterly beyond haz- c
ard, and the United States will, | suppose, do a
what / am sure every merchant and banker i'll #
this city would do III similar circumstances, 81