Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-02-07
Insisting Upon Enforcing Laws.

The action of the House Committee on /
Coinage, Weights and Measures, on Mon |
dav. determined upon on Saturday, imme- |
diately aroused sundry papers North ana |
East 10 indignant remonstrahce. IL Is
bad enough, in the opinion OF these jour- |
mails 10 continue the coinage of the silver |
dollar. but it is a monstrous outrage to
use anv Of the money thus issued in the
pavment Of any of the obligations Of the
government. To do So would be, they say, |
to pay part at least of the national debt /
in deprecated silver, in coin not worth its
face, and reduce US to the level Of Turkey
or Egypt.
If the action of the committee in re-
commencing that the national debt be paid |
off in silver dollars worth eighty-three
cents, be taken as an indication, sound
financial principles have not made great
progress since the public ear was familiar
with the cry for redeeming the govern
eminent bonds in greenbacks," says the
Philadelphia Record. "a more prepOs-
ferrous or wicked proposition has not been
made since the Democratic party demand
ed the payment of the bonds in green
backs" declares the New York Times.
Now this sort Of statement, with what
ever argument is used to sustain it, is
no novelty to the general reader, but that
the time for it has passed, and its applica-
bility no longer exists, must be admitted
upon even slight reflection. The Times
practically does so when, speaking of the
purposes of the silver men, it says: ''They
insist that the law declaring silver dollars
full legal tender shall be taken literally
and enforced by the government" Ac-
cOTding, then, to the statement of this
paper, 50 bitterly opposed to silver as
a coin of full legal tender, the
offending of the silver men
is simply that the government shall en-
force literally one of its own laws. This
is exactly. the state of the case. The sill
yer dollar of 412H grains is a United
| States dollar for all purposes, and it is
misapplicatiOn of language to say that it
I contains, by comparison with any other
/ dollar, less than one hundred cents.
/ When the gold dollar was the only STAN
| dard of value, it was literally true that
| the demOnetiZed silver dollar was worth
80 cents, or some such sum, but it is not
/ so now.
| Every argument was used over and over
| again during the tendency in Congress of
/ the Bland bill. Yet both houses not only
1 passed it in the first instance, but when
/ compelled by Hayes veto to reconsider,
| repassed it by more than the necessary
twO-thirds of those voting.
! Here was the grievance of which our
/ contemporaries complain, and although
/ they begged, implOred and threatened,
they were badly defeated. But all their
/ friends. from then until now, have
enjoyed the advantage of having
men in the White House who
! were opposed to the use of
| silver save as a subsidiary coin, so that
/ instead of an honest enforcement of the
/ silver bill so emphatically Endorsed by
| Congress. the executive department of
/ the government has done everything pos
/ sible to make it Intellectual and with con-
! siderable success. 1t is partly because of
/ this well known and constantly practiced
/ hostility that the silver men, to
again repeat the words of the
/ Times, ''insist that the law
declaring silver dollars a full legal
tender shall be taken literally and en-
/ forced by the government" Ought they
not to so insist: Why should there be
any necessity for action on their part?
I What reason can the administration give
/ for not enforcing a law, especially a stat
/ ute passed with so much difficulty over
such determined opposition and after
| a full and free discussion?
/ Our Northern single standard cOntem-
! pOraries would do well to remember that
hard words butter no parsnips and that
nothing can be gained by abusing those
/ who do not agree with them on the silver
/ question; and furthermore, that those
who simply insist upon the enforcement
Of a law occupy a much more advantage
Gus position than others who, after failing
/ to defeat it, continue tn do all in their
/ power to mako it a dead letter.