Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-22

there will arise a necessity Of paying in
specie part of what we owe abroad. Moth
ing saved us from such necessity last
month but the very low imports. II specie
should be required to pay foreign debts, We
have silver by the millions, but such has
been the ignorance Of our laW-givers that
they have denied the country the privilege
of paying its debts in the coins it has made
80 plentiful, and when specie has to be paid
abroad this legislation will forbid our send
ing away the silver we have so much OF, and
compel US to pay away the gold we desire to
keep. The legislation that prohibits our
paying away silver is that which has COM
PEELED the acceptance Of it at sixteen cents
more than it will bring in the worlds mar
kets. The foreigner will require gold that
is worth 100 cents on the dollar, and will re-
fuse silver coin that is worth only eighty-four
cents on the dollar. The Law will make US
in this country accept the eighty-six cent?
az if it were 100 cents, but ii cannot
compel the foreigner to do the same. The
consequence is that when this country has to
pay In specie balance against it abroad, it
must pay in gold, and cannot pay in silver.
The danger this constitutes every business
man must perceive, and every exchange and
board of trade in the country ought TO call
upon Congress at its next session TO stop at
once the minting Of silver dollars. When
gold, as the only metal that will pay foreign
balances, goes to a premium, and silver,
tried by the test of foreign valuation, is
found 10 be Of n lower valuation than it was
Issued for, the silver dollar will bay only
eigbty-fo cents worth Of good. In the
operations of trade business men will coz
trive to get rid OF their dollars without great
lose, but the whole burden of the sixteen
cents loss upon each one of them will come
upon the workingmen. The coins will be
purchased by employers at eighty-four cents
trade dollars are bought up for that purpose
in New York to-day, and as Mexican dollars
were imported few years ago and paid
away in wages. When the workman
goes TO the store with his coin that is called
dollar, be will find that what will cost him
- IL polA III kOlO VIII Core ~ ~ IA pan Al
silver. And, singular 10 say, the great MACS
Of the working people will not know how
they are cheated in the matter. The silver
coins they receive will be called dollars So
before, but it will be said that gold is gone
up 10 premium so that it will buy more on
the dollar than it formerly did. The gold
has really gone neither up nor down, the
silver coin will buy sixteen cents worth less
than il formerly did, but by calling the loss
on silver a gain on gold, the workingmen,
who know nothing Of finance, are the roughly
blinded. They complain that everything ia
gone mp in price, that their wages will not
support their families as before, while the
fact il that goods have not risen 10 value,
but the coin offered for them will buy only
eighty-four cents where it had been made TO
buy 100 cents. In short, the workingman's
wsges have been reduced sixteen per cent. in
a way unknown to his mind, but plainly
visible in the reduction OF his comforts
Here is a danger the workipguen do not dis
cuss in their conventions or provide against,
yet they will have to endure its consequences.