The Indiana State sentinel., 1886-01-13

April and July In each year The principal and
interest are exempt from the payment OF all taxes
or duties of the United States, as well as from
TAXATION in any form By or under State, munici-
pal or local authority"
In the face of these facts it is simply alb
surd for anybody to assert that they are
payable IN gold alone or that the taxpayers
OF the country are under any obligations
express or implied, either to demonetize or
stop the coinage of the silver dollar which
is OF the standard value required by the act
of July IA, 1870, or to increase its weight
thirty forty, or any other number of grains,
because England, to whom we have igno-
miniously surrendered the carrying trade of
this country and the world, with her 200,-
100000 of serfs in India and elsewhere, and
Germany, after extorting $1,000 900 600 of
gold from France, have combined in the in
terest of their money-changers to depreciate
silver or put up the market price of gold 20
per cent.
If the gold mines of California and Austria
liza had continued to produce abundantly,
and the Comstock lode and the Leadyille
mines had not produced silver, so that the
market value of the two metals as bullion in
London had been reversed, the argument
could be made quite as plausible that the
silver dollar was the constitutional unit of
value in 1870, which the bondholders have a
right to demand.
There is not an outstanding obligation of
the United States, nor of any State, munich
pality, corporation, or individual which can
not be legally and honorably discharged by
the payment OF the present standard silver
dollar. What right has Congress to deprive
the debtor of that right by adding more sill
yer to the coin than he agreed to pay, or by
stopping its coinage so that he can not OBJ
tain 1t? 1t is as palpable violation of a
contract to increase the obligation of the
debtor as it is to impair or reduce the stand
ord value nf the qOin Whiph tho creditor Srir,
ulated in his contract should be paid to him.
When Congress has once coined money
ard regulated the value thereof, and con-
tracts are based upon it, the right to pay ac-
cording to its terms can not rightfully or
justly be taken from the people, and Senators
aud Representatives who deprive them of
that right will have unpleasant explanations
to make to the men whose burdens are in
creased by their vote. 1t is simply an at
tempt to repeat the legislation of 1862 and
the same pretenses are made now that were
made then. An honest dollar for the labor
ing man was then as now, held up as the
patriotic object of those who repudiated the
greenback, as higher wages to labor is
claimed TO be the prime object of all the
patriotic combinations of monOpolists and
machine owners, who tax Us all forty-six per
cent. under the present protective tariff, and
yet hire the cheapest pauper labor they can
import. 1t is the wolf guarding the lamb,
TIE SDlueT Tile IN, anu JIe udWk Tue SDdTTOW.
proposed to test this question in the light
of the facts furnished us by our Treasury Of
ficials. We are, of course as good judges of
the value of the facts they furnish and as
competent to draw correct conclusions from
them as thev are. The last report from the
Treasury Bureau of Statistics relative to our
foreign commerce for the fiscal year 1885,
proves that there is no such condition either
in our trade or exports of metals, whether
OF coin or bullion, as to render ii necessary
to strike down our silver coinage. 1t shows
(page ~ that our total exports for 1885 were
$726, ,6S2 946, and for 1884, S724, ,S64 S52, while
our total imports for 1885 were S577, ,527 ,329,
and for 1884, S667 ,697 ,693.
1t will thus be seen that while the value of
our exports in 1885 exceeded those in 1884,
our imports were more than 90000, 900 less.
The same report shows that for 1885 our ex-
ports of gold were s., Az ,S92. and for 1884
S41, ,0S1, ,957, or over S32. 000, 900 less for the
last fiscal year than for the year before. Our
exports of silver for 1885 were $33, 750, ,633,
and for 1884 S26 051 ,426, or nearly s., ,00000
more last year than the year before. while
our imports of gold last year exceeded those
of the year before nearly 81, 600, 900. These
facts falsify the clamor that gold is fleeing
from our country, and proves that all the
tpretended) evils of a single deprecated sill
yer standard are myths.
Nor is ii true that our silver coin has de-
preciated since July, 1870, when tested by
any other standard than the market value of
bullion in London.
The report above referred to (pages and 81
gives the New York or export prices in cur
rency of the commodities which constituted
over SO per cent. of our exports, nearly all
agricultural products in 1870 and 1885, from
which it will be seen that the silver dollar,
which it has become fashionable to malign
and denounce in aristocratic circles, will now
purchase from 25 to 80 per cent. more of all
that the toIling millions of this country
labor TO produce. and of all that men need
money TO obtain, than it would IN July,
1870. To avoid all dispute as. to these facts
quote the language of the report as follows:
The following table shows the annual aver
age export price in currency of the articles
OF domestic product named, and for the year
indicated: