The Portland daily press., 1886-01-04
THE ARGUS AND SILVER.

Senator Frye is nothing il not sensational. In
his Boston after dinner speech he declared the
cause it win only sell for old silver at discount
of 20 or 25 cents off. What will defaced or can
celled legal tender treasury note sell for? Only
still more 'lie'? Yet Senator Frye supported
the greenback (whie that was his party's polcy)
even supported the Supreme Court decision that
made the deprecated note legal tender tor the
payment of debts contracted in sound currency
before the paper legal tenders were issued. SEN
ator Frye is mistaken. The silver dollar is lie.
1t is just what it purports to be- authorized by the
constitution and everywhere in the United States
lawful for the payment of debts and clothed with
apurchasing power equivalent to the gold dollar.
If 1t is lie 1t is legitimate lie. which pays the
laborer in gold-idolzing England in bi-metallic
France and in the United States Half of the
American people don't see gold coin once year.
Is it worth while to decry the money metal of the
masses of people the world over? Is 1t statesman
like? Is il patriotic Portland Argus.
Senator Frye did not decry the ''metal of
the world over" What he did decry was a
circular price of silver with the Goddess of
Liberty on one side and bird on the 9TH
er, stamped one dollar, whose intrinsic value
everybody knows is only so cents. He called
this "a coined lie" and he stigmatized it cor
rectly. Why, asks the Argus, is not the
greenback which, when cancelled and de-
faced, will not sell for but fraction of a
cent still more lie? The Argus knows per-
fectly well why. The greenback does not
purport to be dollar. 1t purport5 to be
simply a promise to pay dollar. The Argus
some years ago did its best to make it a lie
by booming the greenback party which
advocated the issue of these notes in unlimit-
ed quantities, but happily its efforts were
unayailing The greenback is no lie. 1t is
just what it purports to be and the holder Of
it can get gold dollar for it whenever he
presents it at the treasury. The Bland dol
lar on the contrary purports to be something
which it is not. The Argus says sit is clothed
with purchasing power equivalent to the
gold dollar" Therein consists its falsehood
The government buys eighty cents worth of
silver bullion and stamps upon it one dollar
and enacts that its purchasing power shall
be twenty hundredths larger than that of
of the money paid for it. Suppose the Gov
ernment should stamp upon piece of sill
yer the size and weight of the ten cent piece
the words zone dollar" and make it legal
tender for all debts, in other words clothe it
with the purchasing power of gold dollar,
would the Argus consider that piece of silver
Just what it purported to be? If it would
G1on III HAS UtCUUlS cUuNtTL 10
the theories of the fiat money men
who profess to believe that it is the
stamp that makes the value, and that piece
of paper which the government has stamped
one dollar is worth just as much as piece Of
gold. which has intrinsic value. If intrinsic
value is not an essential constituent of a
sound currency, then the government should
close up its mints and substitute printing
presses in the interest of economy. That is
a change the fiat money men advocate, and it
is logical outcome of their belief.
The Argus's President evidently does not
share its views in regard to the silver dollar.
He evidently recognizes the fact that it is not
what it purports to be. In his message he
says:
When the time comes that gold has been with
drawn from circulation then will be apparent the
difference between the real value of the silver
dollar and dollar in gold and the two coins will
part company Gold, still the standard of value
and necessary in our dealings with other coun-
tries, will be at a premium over silver Banks
which have substituted gold for the deposits of
their customers may pay them with silver bought
with such gold, thus making a handsome proft
Rich spectators will sell their boarded gold to
their neghbors who need it to liquidate their
foreign debts at ruin0us premium on silver
and the laboring men and women OF the land
most defenceless of all-wll find that the dollar
received for the wages OF their toll has sadly sunk
in its purchasing power. 1t may be said that the
latter result will be but temporary, and that u-
timatey the price of labor will be adjusted to the
change, but even ii this takes place the wage
worker cannot possibly gain but must inevitably
lose, since the price he is compelled to pay for
his living will not only be measured III coin
heavily deprecated and fluctuating and uncertain
in its value, but this uncertainty in value of the
purchasing medium will be made the preteXt for
actual depreciation. The words uttered in 1884
bv Daniel Webster in the Senate of the United
States are true today: "The very man of all 9TH
rencv and who suffers most by mischievous legis-
iation in money matters, is the man nal who earns his
pmisbed advocate of bl-metasm, discussing our
Silver coinage, has lately written: mo American
citizens hand has yet felt the sensation
of cheapness either in receiving or ex.
pending the silver act dollars" and those
who live by labor or legitimate trade never