The daily gazette., 1880-09-17
SECOND EDITION.
For the Gazette.
SILVER AS MONEY.


supposed that after the emphatic vote OF
the American Congress remonetizing
silver, carried by the Presidents veto that
the Shylock would have let the matter
rest. Not so, however, there has recent
ly been held at Saratoga, q convention
Of banking men who live by loaning
money, at which a number of papers
were read declaring the use of silver as
money to be an evil.
We are accustomed to see combine
tions of labor, but here is combination
Of capital. The American people will
not suppose that an assembly of bankers
met purely for the public good. They
will suspect that some personal interest
lay at the bottom of it.
freely admit that 1t would be the in
terest Of these banking men to demone-
tize silver.
For If you stop the use of silver as
money you make money scarce and gold
will rise in price to twice its former val
ue, and these bankers will get six or ten
per cent. for the use of their money, and
will be able to buy stocks and farms with
half the money they cost their owners.
But 1t is not my interest, nor the in
terest Of the million. Our interest Is
that money shall be cheap, so as to get
as much as possible for our labor.
The monetization of silver has enabled
the Government to refund the public
debt al four per cent. instead of six, and
will eventually bring 1t down to three.
or this the bankers are aware and there
is one place the shoe pinches. Another
matter which the American people will
not lose sight of, is that the public debt
(and this applied equally to all debts)
was made payable in gold OF silver or
both. That was the bargain and they
will not be so foolish as to double their
burden by cancelling the silver. Yet
these men would cody and deliberately,
practically double the interest and dou-
BILE the debt by demonetizing silver.
They denounce the American dollar of
4l23 grs. But mark that was the dollar
that people agreed to pay their debt In,
and they will not allow single grain to
be added to its weight so as to increase
their burden.
The fraud is the other way. The
man that wants more than his bargain
calls for is not honest. There Is COM
plaint made by the opponents of silver
t0at the government is compelled to coin
two millions into dollars every month.
Well, admit that this is wrong, but
whose measure was this? 1t was the
proposition of the gold men themselves
to prevent the free coinage OF silver. 1t
is underI aking to say bow much money
the people shall use in given time.
This is not proper for government to
do. The coinage OF silver should be on
the same terms as that of gold. The
matter would soon then regulate itself.
What is called the seignorage or the ad-
dition Of alloy is usually sufficient to
pay for coinage. Coinage never was
absolutely free.
The moment that silver is coined on
the same terms as gold, the dollar of
4123 grs. silver, will be worth as much
as the gold dollar.
If the coinage were free the people
would elect to have their silver made in
to dollars, halves or quarters. Now
there are two many dollars in proper
ton to the smaller denomination. The
advocates of . single gold standard say
that the two dollars cannot be kept of
the same value. That is true. They
never were, never can be, nor IS 1t nee
essary that they should be of exactly the
SoIuo NdluOs NO oEIlClc VI COuIQ6rC6
remains long at one value, and that Is
the same reason we should have two
metals for money instead of one, be-
cause il one should become scarce the
other prevents its rise In price. The
bankers predicted that if silver were re-
monetized, 1t would cause the gold to
flow out of the country. But has this
been the cases On the contrary, since
the monetization Of silver,gold has COM
meneed to flow into this country and
continued to come and prosperity is like
rising tide. If they were mistaken
then, there is no use listening to their
predistions now.
The decentralization of silver is an at
tempt to substitute the wisdom of man
for the wisdom of God. Gold and sill
yer were made with such quality as rem
dered them suitable for use as money.
They werei made Of a certain relative
scarcity and skillfully placed in the rock
so that only certain amount can be OBJ
tanned in given time. The regulations
of providence cannot be safely interfered
with. You might as well say that be-
cause nitrogen is not essential to respi- |
ration, therefore we should breathe |
nothing but oxygen.
venture to say more, that the Amer |
lean people cannot retain their liberty |
in the face Of the decentralization OF |