The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-03-25


to satisfy our needs.
But this was not enough. He not only
quotes this fundamental postulate of the
greenbacker and fiat money crank, which
has been repudiated by every standard
economic writer, but he still further
shows his confused ideas on money by
saying. before that, on page 20: ut
should be understood that it is not the
virtue of silver that makes 70 cents pass
for dollar, but it is the Government
stamp, behind which is the credit of the
people, the pledge of the wealth and
honor of the Republic"
There is not a fiat money advocate, a
Greenbacker, or Democratic advocate OF
the free coinage of silver, who does not
make these statements as fundamental
in his arguments. My friend from Mis-
souri, (Mr. Bland), my friend from Ne
vada (Mr Bartine), General Warner. lg-
natius Donnelly, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Mills), and every other advo-
cate of free coinage makes those two
statements the corner stone of their the
DRY, and every opponent of fiat money
and the free coinage of silver, not mixed
in his ideas, repudiates them. In fact,
the very opposite of the statements of
the gentleman from Massachusetts, is
true.
After all the struggle of every govern
ment of the world to give power to coin
age of either gold or silver, above its
commercial price as measure of value,
~ there is not spot on the face of the
earth where silver is the primary and
final measure of value. (2) Goldss is the
primary and ultimate measure of value
in everything exchanged in every place
in the world, and the sole measure of
value in the most enlightened fifth of it,
and silver is only token money in the
most enlightened fifth, and a secondary
measure of value in the other fOur-fifths,
which latter comprises the heather and
least civilized portion of it,
Third. Not since the world began did
the coinage of gold, silver, nickel, cop
per or the stamp of a Government of any
country on any metal used as the meas
ure of value, in the country stamping it,
ever increase by the smallest fraction the
purchasing power of the coined or
stamped metal over its commercial pur-
chasing power before it was coined or
stamped.
Fourth. The coinage or stamping by
any government of any metal, paper, or
or any other substance that is
not ''the measure of value, -"
can in no way change the commercial
price of the original substance, or in
crease it's utility as money, to the holder
of it, except by giving the right to ex
change it for given quantity of that
coin of the country to which is 1.-THE
measure of value in this country.
Fifth. The gentleman from Massa-
chusetts ought to know that there is not
the slightest advantage in issuing copper
nickle or silver as money, over the use OF
paper as money, in this country or any
other gold-coining country, excepting as
the commercial value of any one of these
substances is more or less in the mar
ket on the day of its final redemption in
gold. Each one is "token money and
only circulates at par because each is an
order to its holder for that value of gold
which is expressed in the stamp upon it,
Sixth. The gentleman from Massa-
chusetts ought to know that the words
sit is the Government stamp, behind
which is the credit of the people-the
pledge of the wealth and honor of the
Republic" sounds better in the mouth
of an advocate of fat money than in the
mouth of an advocate of sound money,
for the reason that "the credi of the PEG.
ple-the pledge of the wealth and honor
of the Government is no more "behind
or pledged to-" the redemption Of" or
has any more efficacy in the keeping of
any coin or paper money at the par Of
the STANDARD value" either silver or
gold, than it was to the old shin-plaster
of the Continental Congress, or to the
assignats of France, or the greenback of
this Government in the ''late unpleasant
ness" which went down to $50 to gold,
or any other deprecated money.
Again, the gentleman from Massachu-
sets ought to know, and he does know,
if he will consult his own mind instead
of books, that wedge of gold formed by
the weakest man in the world, and of the
most ugly shape, ifitis of the same weight
and fineness as a twenty-dOllar gold
eagle, has precisely the same purchasing
power in every hamlet in the world as
the gold eagle; and that the coinage OF
it is, and can be, only guarantee of its
weight and fineness, and that it has not,
and no laws can make it have, any ad
vantage over it when in its uncouth
shape.
Furthermore, the same is true of sill
yer where it is the measure of value, not
"token money" or ian order for gold.
The toughest wedge of silver ever made
if of the same weight and fineness as tina
of one hundred silver Mexican dollars
has the same purchasing power in Mexi
CO, India, China, Japan, and in every
village in the world as one hundred Mex
lean dollars.
The two paragraphs quoted by thu
gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr.. Will
liams) which 1 have criticised, contain
the initial point of the whole contro
versy, and, notwithstanding every fact O
experience disputes them and show
them to be untrue, and every fact of expe
rience shows that the statements l haV,
set up over against them are true, yet they
are still asserted by fat money advO
Gates with all the confidence of new dis
coveries. The gentleman from Massa
chusetts (Mr. Williams) would not hav
been any further from accuracy of state
ment had he copied some one of the oil
statements proving the world fiat ant
that the sun actually rose and set.
1t is to be regretted that the report /
marred, in fact, is robbed of all It's powe
to influence those whom it was writte
to influence, and becomes weapon il
their hands, by admissions of so-calle
facts that are no facts, which are fatal t
its argument.