Arizona republican., 1891-09-10
A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

The New York Republicans have come squarely to the front and demand that ''gold and silver shall be maintained on an equality" Coming as this does from the great Empire State, it will have an immense influence on the future actions of all Republican Conventions. It is the true ring and one that strikes home to the hearts and interests of the great West. The honest dollar of our history is where gold and silver have always been maintained on an equality.
 Any inequality that has arisen be- tween them, is due to the legislation that is either directly unfriendly to one or directly friendly to the other.
 Legislation that makes either one legal tender of a necessity impairs the value of the other.
 There is not one man in thous- and who knows oI cares whether the currency he may have in his pocket is a gold, silver or greenbsck bill.
 The mere fiat of law, making green back legal tender, as against gold or sil- yer, would at once raise it from an in- trinsicly wor rthless condition, to pre- mium over either gold or silver. The national faith should be pledged if nec- essary by constitutional amendment, to maintaining gold and silver on an equality. There would then be no danger that the poor mans money would be cheapened in his pockets by any possible bull or bear combination.
 We believe it should be made crim- inal offense to speculate in the necessi- ties of life, and that it should include the money of the country as being part and parcel of the necessities. Consider the necessities of thousands and tens of thousands, of the famine districts of Russia, and then imagine the human fiend, who thinks of their suferings only in the light of the dollars and cents he can make out of it. Yet every man who speculates in the necessities of life as pure matter of speculation, and with view to force higher valua- ton on such necessities, is only step removed from the one who would now withhold it from the dying thousands in Russia, for the sake of obtaining a higher price later on. Just as the English holders of gold, are striving to reduce the volume of money and thereby raise its value.
 The increase value following as an absolute necessity with the scarcity, for it matters not Low many United States bonds, city property, farms or anything else you have, and if they are not legal tender, you cannot pay your debts, and you are at the mercy ot the man who has the legal money which you must have to pay your debt. And for just this reason, an absolutely worthless piece of paper stamped by the govern ment as legal tender, at once leaps and remains at premium over all other currency be it gold or silver. A consti- tutional amendment that will place gold and silver coinage on an equality and make them legal tender. will at once take that issue out of national politics, and there will be no more talk or trouble about honest dollars, any more than there will Do about honest wheat or bread each will have the honest life that permanent law and the law of creation have given them. Unfriendly legislation has never yet been able to drive silver out of use as currency and never will be able to, and until it is absolutely settled, it is the poor man who must suffer.
 Legislationi alone does not meet the issue, for with each Congress, the st- tempt, if only by one man, to change previous legislation will continue to be injurious. The only true way to meet it is by constitutional amendment. We hope every State and Territory of