, 1891-05-19
Cheyenne Daily Leader.
AN DOLLAR.

AuEo"6 ICeptCAs II II uol very uATu 70
satisfy the Sun. When it suits ITS pur-
poses almost any sort Of fiapdoodle will
satisfy 1t, judging from the following
which was contained in its last issue.
"On reaching Omaha President Harrison
touched briefly upon the silver question.
He insisted that every dollar we do issue
should be as good as any other dollar. for
when We have any mOneT, . or coin,
the first Grand it does is to pay some
~workinGman for his days toll None so
much as the laboring man and the farmer
require a full value dollar. Of permanent
value the year around How does our
morning contemporary like this doctrine
In the few remarks which he made
there was no direct reference to silver.
He simply made a very few general re-
marks on the subject Of an honest dol
lar" 1t seems rather remarkable when
a man Of the presidents prominence talk
ing Of a dollar OF permanent value.
There is no such thing IN existence. The
nearest approach to it in a financial way
in the history ofthe world is found in the
combined currency of gold aud silver.
Even those are not absolutely fixed in
value but from the universally Of their
use and the oonstancy Of their production
they most nearly approach an absolute
~permanencv in value Of anything which
the worlds experience has ever produced.
The inference which the president in
tended to have drawn FROM his reference
to a dollar of permanent value vas, I'M
doubtediy, that it was a gold dollar. If
this be true nothing could very well be
more misleading or even ridiculous. In
the history OF our own government the
amount OF pure gold in a gold dollar has
been twice changed while the amount OF
pure silver in a silver dollar has never
been changed since il was first fixed by
Alexander Hamilton on the basis OF the
old Spanish milled dollar. Thus, so far as
our own history goes, the silver dollar has
alone been Americas dollar Of permanent
value.
II is the separation which has taken
place between gold and silver since the de
monetization Of the latter that is now
pointed to as an indication that silver is
unstable in value while gold Is a perma-
nent fixture, Measure any article by its
own standard and it cannot possibly fuc-
tuate. Measure gold by gold and its value
remains fixed as the eternal heavens. But
measure (which is the true way-by
the general range Of products and you ar
rive at an honest solution of the problem.
Up to 1873 silver and gold were coined
Unfortunately at the United States
mints, the ratio being one gtaiu OF gold to
sixteen of silver. At hat time silver
commanded a slight premium over gold.
Since her the separation between the two
metals has gone on, gold going up. Now
note whether prices followed the upward
tendency OF gold. which as the single
standard became the measure of values.
or fell with silver. In 1873 corn was
worth 40 cents a bushel and yielded to
the farmer an average of $ll.4T to the
yielded a return of s7.63 an acre. The
home value OF wheat in 1878 was $l.l5 or
an average OF $l4.5g to the acre. In 1889
it was worth n little less than 70 cents,
with about the same yield per capita and
averaged $685. per acre. In 1873 oats
were worth 81 cents a bushcl and in 1889
% cents, an average difference per acre of
SAIL, Barley was worth 9l4 cents or
sDI * nor a,ra ia 1879 aud 40 ,.ptg a