Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-11-20
REPLY TOVALETTE.

REPLY TovALETTE.
As Vallette had slight but mistaken
foundation for his standard of value
remarks reply to his comments. First
THAT I made mistake in speaking OF |
1t; THAT it could not be found IN the
constitution" Neither Is it IN the Bible. |
He might as we'll recommend that. for
my reading and call me an infidel, as
ignorant. [ use many expressions not
found in either. Second, he says he
CD wishes to impress that gold and silver
are standards of value because they haye
intrinsic value" -.
Twas speaking of the evils of al un-
limited issue of greenbacks and said.
"a further evil effect would be the
disturbance of the standard of values
(not value). "a fluctuating standard
always works to the advantage of the
man of wealth. etc. The expression
was used as equivalent to medium OF ex-
change, l. e., the standard which measures
value from seller to buyer As gold and
silver were not mentioned in the whole
| article (Aug. 21) and as I call green
backs standard and huctuat-
| ing one, 1t Is evident that l was
not speaking of standard of value or
|
but referred to tamperlng with the
medium of exchange whatever it was.
Neither have l claimed that gold and
silver only were money-tha, the govern
ment could not issue money or that any
one else could. You have no right from
my article to judge me other Than
Knight of Labor aud Greenbacker who
does not believe it wise to confine the
government to that species of money
only, in its efforts to get hold OF the
valuable things necessary in a great war
Confne yourself strictly to the subject
and thus shorten your article three fourths
and when we are through with this. l
will discuss any OF the numerous side
issues you are raising, II L disagree with
you.
On the 18th of January, 1873, Senator
Sherman said: This bill proposes a
silver coinage exactly the same as the
French; that is. the dollars (two half
dollars) provided for by this bill is the
precise equivalent of a flve-frank piece.
1t contains the same number Of grains of
silver and we have adopted the inter
national gramme instead of the grain for
. the standard of our silver coinage. The
trade dollar has been adopted mainly
for the benefit of the people of California
and others engaged in trade with China
I think John Sherman knew. l don't
think you do, though the prefix trade
should have warned you, it was for trade
: somewhere.
Section 1916 of the United States
Revised Statutes indeed classified il
with United States coins, bu,
} the next section specified that. unlike
other coins, on its reverse side should
be stamped its weight and fneness-llke
the silver and gold bars assayed anG
3 stamped for commercial purposes. Sec
ton 1920 says ANY owner of silver
bullion may deposit the same at any
mint to te formed into bars or trade
dollars. no deposit of silver for othel
coinage shall be received
Section 1926 provides for buying silvel
for other coinage. Sec. 1927 says ''silvel
CONS other than the trade dollar shall bt
b paid out at the several mints IN exchange
/ Of the bill of Feb. II, 1878, so loudly con
= demned for demonetlsing silver inasmuci
as it left 1t legal tender for amount
less than S. only.
Here comes Vallette and in opposition
,. to the silverites, claims demonetisnl
was highly beneficial to the trade dollar
that it passed for its face value or MOI,
till July 1876. Friend Vallette. I don
believe it passed. saw none of then
or other silver till resumption in 1876
The government did not pay il as mODe7
from its mints At first it was wortl
SLOT in gold, I cannot conceive of tn
owners passing it for dollar. If the.
. / sold it for the China trade for NOR
u it was for It's intrinsic value and not TO
g the dollar stamped on it. And the lega
give it value The fact is the legislation O
'r9 ap1 'rn nronara tnrv and saffi1n,
: what we were going to do when W
resumed.
When the fathers adopted the decima
system for money, it was thought desil
| able to modify the cumbEous Englis
system of weights and measures. Blu
nothing was done till 1866 when congres
I legalised the metric system for length
surface, capacity and weight.
You will find the tables printed in ever
Z school arithmetic since then. Whe
Sherman introduced the bill OF 1873 b
specified the weight Of the half dollar, etc
in both Troy weight and according
q the metric system in use among the cor
tinental nations. It Was SIMPLER to Civ
the weight in one measure, and Congres
dropped the Troy. As 1t was to be til
= exact size of French coin it was NOR
natural to choose the metric terms
legallzed here, nine wears before an
l. doubtless the coming system This
system is less known IN China and th
East then the English system. Hene
'd the retention of Troy weight for stampin
on the trade dollar. You think th
object of the different weights was to fo<
the people. as you believe the governmeI
stamped the only requisite, and lntrinsi
value of no account, the fooling mul
have been in making the people take tn
. much silver in the larger coin. Will yo
cite your authority book and page fa
. the government calling in the trade dollar
D. at 100 cents each. find your statement
SO incorrect, cannot rely on anythin
without looking it up l know
auctuated with the price of bar silve
The government taxes the people, buy
silver bullion of the lowest bidder, coiI
at least two million month, and pill
!. it up. It is done to satisfy popul.
clamor and to carry favor with the silvs
millionaires. ~
= oor,o h1o ~ tho foolish p a,