The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-09-04
leuorautium Tribunium.

the Oduy papers were ACTUALLY 1gnOr-
ant of the great issues involved in the
public questions OF the day. The
managing editor is not a reader, but
q schemer-and it is rarely that he
actually reads long or substantial
presentation of any issue. He is
really a business man. The depart
ment editors" are usually boys, or
young men of slight calibre and alb
solutely no weight OF Judgment. We
know OF very few, if any, daily paper
attaches who are well-read, or well
posted upon the greater issues of
modern statecraft.
This condition continually presents
itself in the most astonishing editor
ials. We often misjudge the daily
paper. We accuse it of maliciously
misreprescnting or falsifying living
issues, when the fact is, that some of
it's unread editors have merely writ
ten without knowledge.
For instance, in the Daily Minneap-
oils Tribune, last week, we read an
anti-silver editorial, which launched
out as follows: Under the silver act
Of the recent congress the United
States is now purchasing at market
rates more than the entire silver pro-
duct of the United States. There is
now in the government treasury
surplus OF 347,976, 227 of these sill
yer dollars, over and above what it
is possible to force into circulation.
The above silver law was voted for
by the congressional members of
every silver-producing state. Still
the silver miners are not satisfied.
They now demand free coinage be-
cause free coinage will give them 81
for the 81 grains in the silver dol
lars"
Now this is scorcher. In the first
place the U. s. government is not
purchasing more than the entire sill
yer product of the United Statcs-as
we are exporting heavily every week.
In the second place, the govern
ment does not enter into competition
for it's purchases-never Offering a
price, but merely gathering in at a
price set by the normal traffic in sill
yer for use in the arts.
In the third place, every dollar
purchased by the U. S. depresses the
market, as there is being stored at
Washington a vast surplus OF silver
not silver coin, but bullion silver
liable to be thrown upon the market
at any time, with tremendous bear
pressure on the market.
In the fourth place, the purchase OF
this silver is not coming, nor is it
putting it in circulation. The coin
ing of silver by the government
should be prohibited rather than au-
thorized to any vast extent. The
free coinage demand is one that puts
a stop to this warehousing OF, bullion
at Washington. Free-coinage means
that every man who has silver can
take it to the mint, the same as he
can take gold, and have it coined, by
paying the expense. The moment it
is coined for the owner it is in circu-
lation. By the governments pur-
chase of bullion it is practically kept
out of circulation. That is the devil
ish scheme of the gold-bugs. They
know that a surplus of metal at
Washington will bear down the price
of silver. They also know that at
the moment the owner OF silver can
have it coined the price would at
once be the coinage value. And they
further know that the same relation
pertains to gold-that if it could not
be coined by the owners it's value
would drop instanter!
But the awful ignorance of the Tri-
bune shines out balefully in the fol-
lowing: "Under the present law the
government pays rs cents for the 76
cents worth OF silver: under free coin
age the government would pay the
market rate of 76 cents plus "a cents
bonus. It is not a question of the
coinage of silver, but simply a ques-
ton of whether the people OF the
United States shall pay 81, or simply
the market price, for 81 grains of
silver which at present market rates
is worth rs cents"
There ought to be a law preventing
ignorant men from becoming public
teachers. The above statement is
sheer ignorance. ''Under free coinage
the government would pay the mark
ct rate of 76 cents plus "a cents bon
us!" Under free coinage the govern
ment would not buy a shilling's
worth of silver-and if it did it would
pay the same ratio as it does now
for gold. But the man who mined
silver would get the full dollar value
for it, less commission and coming.
The gold miner is doing the same
thinC RomOvo froo coinono from