Morning journal and courier., 1885-09-18
COMMUNICATIONS.


 | To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 There are many newspapers fair enough ! on some subjects, but lathering and swashy l enough upon our silver dollar. It has two | kinds of enemies-there are the pretenders | who aim to deceive by false pretences, and there are others who call the silver dollar a 1 cheat, who think they are right and think they know tkey are. Yet they cannot know it, because they are not right. The outcry of the first named about a dishonest dollar | is like the brawling thief who is crying stop 1 thief Take from the New York Herald the following sample of editorial swash "Gold, J I it says, "has always been in all civilized countries the one trustworthy standard of value." Now, is not Austria l civilized country? And was not our own United States of America civil ized country before the year 1S73s For until that date we had this same silver dollar the legal tender coin. good and lawful naeney for the payment of all debts. It was the same silver dollar of our lawful dollar coin of to-
 day declared to be 50 by our Congress 100 years ago and always recognized as the stan
 dard dollar. by the American people. It is the very dollar which our government bonds
 were payable in. And what was the inf1u-
 ence which crept into Congress, and then and
 there 1S73) persuaded the repeal of the an
 cient law which had so long established that
 coin? Was it the poor mans infu-
 ences Or was it that of spectators,
 capitalists, agencies in the interest of
 government bond holders2 Or was
 it because the silver was too heavy!
 Or was it because they had seen the gold so
 much wanted abroad that exchange on Flu
 rope had risen enormously and they knew
 that our national bonded indebtedness was gold at the option of our government? And
 may it not be possible that another enor- nous advance in the price of gold is an i'm
 portant element in the hue and cry against
 the silver dollar? But there not other
 people, and not few, who are not rich in
 bonds, who have some reason to inquire
 what might possibly be the effect on them
 selves of again demonetizing that same sil
 yer dollar? Every one of which dollars is law
 fully and intrinsically qualified to help
 ill the payment of the thousands of millions
 of our public indebtedness. Certainly other
 people besides the wealthy have some right
 to think and to say somewhat upon such
 matters. They know that great many hun
 dreds of millions of government bonds are
 outstanding and on interest and exempt from
 taxation. Yes, we agree that they are good
 property and the holders are entitled to
 them And it was right and good to exempt
 them from taxation. But it is not good nor
 for the public welfare that they should re-
 main unpaid for all time. And on the other
 hand, it is not quite honest in the bondhold-
 CTS to get up, nor to Jon
 demonetize and outlaw the very national
 coin in which those bonds were and are just
 ly payable Nobody yet complains of the exemption of the bonds from taxation,
 though they can see plainly enough it makes
 great difference to have so many hundreds of millions paying no taxes-a difference of
 s large increase in the amount of taxation
 upon all other property which is taxed at all. This, of course, is not complained of,
 all things considered. But it is, as all will
 agree, very desirable that the government
 should pay as soon as convenient all their
 outstanding bonds which are exempt from taxation. Their payment would largely re- lieve the burden of taxation which now
 bears so unequally upon the comfortable and the poor and the not rich. And 1t we are not nation of underwitted fools we shall not join in the cry that the silver dollar
 must go, unless WE mean that it must go to pay debts which were contracted certainly for nothing better than these very dollars. It is not a depreciated currency; it is exactly what said bonds were payable in. When some sinister influence demonetized that coin the act reduced some the price of the mate rial But when the people were fairly cog nizant of the trick they demanded it's re- monetization The material, whatever it may be or can be, of which money is lawful ly made, will be liable to some fluctuations in the markets of the world. When gold rises little or much, as it sometimes does, would bond holders when paid in that coin receive also the rise in the material? Of course not, nor would it be expected. They would abide by the meaning of the bond, and it is the same in both cases.
 It is the government and the law and it's stamp which make it money and currency for taxes and government dues as we'll as fol indebtedness between man and man. Still our silver dollar has an intrinsic value which the greenback has not though both are fortified by the government, and the governments sign and seal upon the metal qualities it as money. Gun ming money-making men over anxious to set their dish might side up Gas they call it) vez themselves with all possible pretences be- cause the silver dollar stands in their way. o, 'tis so heavy! Yet gold is heavier. And gold, too, it's material, is going to be cheap er And then what? If creeping things enough should somehow creep into Congress gold would also be outlawed provided it should appear to be largely for the interest of the money nabobs to have it so2 and if they could enlist as many of the fool bobs as might be needed really maintains itself bravely in the midst of all the cunning Yiles and pretended con- tempt; intrinsically even now worth between l 80 and 90 per cent. in gold and fully 1OC cents to it's every dollar in the purchase of all the necessities of life. So that it is not so much true that the silver has fallen as l that the gold has risen. The money is there l in both the coins of silver and gold.
 OBSERVER.