The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-03-21
An "Old Man Of the SEE"

uS NEW DIX xIAOu1C, uu0OAO
| to sustain its opposition to free
coinage, is always casting about it
for some means Of deceiving its
readers. To accomplish this end it
will resort to any disreputable trick
cry, or bestow it's libelous praises on
any man, no matter how cordially
it may hate him or contemn his
opinions. It has no scruples, or
seems to have none, and would de-
fame virtue or panegyrize infamy
to make point against silver. But
| perhaps the most despicable and at
the same time grotesque position in
which this madness has yet placed
the New York paper, was in max
ing it appear as the eulogist of old
Joe Mcdonald, of Indiana. Nc
Donald is a good lawyer, too good
a lawyer to be very good author
ity upon any other subject, for every
man who understands what is
meant by special education every
man who knows that such an edu-
cation can be acquired only by a
life of unfaltering devotion to one
branch of studies-to one pursuit
will see at a glance that it is just
as absurd to quote Mr.. Mcdonald
as an authority on finances as it
would be to quote him on biology,
anthropopathy, or any other sub
ject of which he probably never
thought or heard. That Joe Nc
Donald never once thought of silver
until he was recalled from the OBJ
livion of his great legal business to
be quizzed by the Tribune is per-
fectly apparent, both from the gen.
eral tenor of his speech, from par
ticular sentences found therein and
from the errors he committed. But
as ignorance was just what the
Tribune wanted, Mr.. Mcdonald was
to it a prize, and his utterances were
eagerly seized upon and brazenly
| paraded before the country, prece-
ded by half column eulogy, in
tended to impress the uniformed
reader with the astounding financial
erudition and unassailable charac-
ter of its witness, To a ''lost cause"
this manner of procedure may seem
necessary, but upon no principle OF
fairness or of honest dealing can it
be justified. 1t is the quintesoence
of fraud, and the product of dis
ingenious brair.
Mr.. Mcdonald is political relic,
an antediluvean recollection, and
in the Tribune's service an over
burdened "Old Man of the Sea. "
He will not be able to carry the load
of that papers false pretenses into
popularity with any except such as
are willing to be deceived. A few
of Mr.. McDonald's sentences will
serve to define his position and to
establish his ignorance. He de-
clares the demand for free coinage
"craze;;' says it "may pass away,
and it may become intensified )"
avows the issue should be Sharply
Defined" rs there yet remain Is
months before an election, in which
to educate public opinion on the
subject; and having ''run down"
and not having time to wind himself
up, he founders on to supply and
demand, the dernier resort of all
anti-silver schemers. 1.-THE value
of silver" he echoes, "to-day is de-
termined by supply and demand.
No possible act Of legislation can
advance its value" And again !:
mo nation has ever been able to
make a cheap currency circulate
along side of dearer one"
The absurdity of Mr.. McDonald's
position is so glaringly apparent
one is 10th to believe it could have
escaped his own observation. Not
only is it not true that the value OF
these metals is determined by sup
ply and demand ;" but it is not true
that they are competitors in the
market. Gold is a money metal
and not a commodity of merchan-
disc, made so by legislative enact,
ment. Silver is a commodity OF
merchandise, not money metal.
Modern legislation made this dis
! tinction, The value of gold is,
therefore, determined by law. By
legal enactment, not by commodity
valuation, 1922 grains of fine gold
are worth, by law, one dollar. BY
legal Fundamentally grains of silver
were worth dollar at the time our
great public debt was contracted
Seeing a chance to multiply their
demand by two, the creditor class
sent their agents to Washington
and rs most people believe, by
bribery, induced Congress to pass
the act demonetizing silver. This
act gave to gold a money value o.
which it deprived silver, and there
by removed gold entirely from the
operation of the law of supply ano
demand, but made silver peculiarly
subject to it; forit must be remem
bered that the intrinsic value O
both metals is small. Both art
used in the arts and manufactures
to some extent; but of the two, w
believe silver is the more essentia