Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-03-15
GOLD VS.. SILVER.
Enquirer" Replies Argumenta-
lively and Stat'stically.
One View of q Many-Sided Question
Well Maintained by Enquirer"
young as He Is :"
no the Tobaceo Leaf-chroniele.l

To the Tobacco Leaf Chronicle.l
When wrote my last letter / did
not intend to pursue the matter fur.
Their, but will ask space in your COL
umns to say few words in reply to
an article from democrat" that APP
peared in your issue OF the 9Th inst.
1t seems useless, however, to prolong
the discussion, especially rs the sub
ject is too large TO be discussed in
daily newspaper except in a very frag-
mentary way.
democrat" assumes, as do all free
coinage advocates, that law can re-
store and maintain the parity of the
two metals, and denies, as in conflict
with this assumption, plain fact of
hstory-that silver was at enough
premium during the twenty years
preceding 1873 to expell it from the
country, leaving gold in undisputed
possession of the field as the sole
standard Of value and basis of con-
tracts, Notwithstanding law, then
in full force, authorizing the free
coinage of both metals. This fact,
besides being of record in financial
reports now existing, is, as stated in
my former communication, fresh in
the memory of people now living.
1t can not be gainsaid. Young as l
am, lived in that day ard know
whereof l speak. What else but the
shipment of silver could have
pro rIpted the law of 1858? Will
"Democrat" answer? If curing
this period. at the beginning of which
the two metals were at pr, law was
impotent to maintain their parity,
what else but reckless ipse diTetiSn
is the assertion, in the face this
fact, that law can now cancel their
divergence when they stand apart as
seventy to a hundred?
This was claimed for tie law of
1878, compelling the purchase by the
government of two million dollars
worth of silver a month, and again
for the law authorizing the monthly
purchase of 4,500,000 ounces. Has
this claim beel verified? Let the
price of silver to- day answer. Ii
the fiat of government can make
37l4 grains of silver, now worth sew
enty cents, equal in value to dollar
in gold, why can it not make hall
the number equal to the same? Or
is there some peculiar charm
ABOUT the number 374l? He
says: 1--WE have gone recklessly
on, however, until we have gotten, as
said, nearly five hundred millions in
circulation" He means stored away
safely in the vaults at Washington.
| If he were to take a check for one
| hundred dollars to the bank, and the
teller were to offer him the amount
in silver dollars he would indignant
ly refuse them.
Has it ever occurred to Democrat
what task an act of Congress would
have to perform in bringing silver tc
a parity with gold ?--the more than
millions of dollars stored in Europe
it would have to lit from seventy
cents to one hundred F? This it will
have to do if the parity is maintain
ed here, or this silver will flow in
upon us ia full and rapid stream a:
long as we have anything to give in
exchange. Values like water VIII seek
their level. The idea that statutory
law can set aside well established
law of trade, fixed in the very ma
ture of things, is an anachronism il
this enlightened age. 1t belongs &c
the time when it is related of al
English king that he sat upon the
shore in the vain conceit that he
could control by his fiat the waters O
the ocean in their ebb and flow. The
history of coinage is full of the effort:
of governments to maintain the
parity of the two metals as coin they
have only succeeded by changing the
conventional value to correspond
with the commercial. This our gov
eminent will have to do now, and
from time to time hereafter, if il
ever reaches and maintains the enc
it aims at. If man cannot see the
truth here stated, enforced as il is by
the facts of history, it is impossible
to prove it to him. There are some
truths that cannot be proven, for the
reason that they lie back of all proof
Such is the truth that governments
cannot overturn law that the
Creator established when He made
man and put him in the garden It
till it, and which has been in force
through all the centuries from thai
day to this. He cannot do it Him
self-with reverence ] say it-unless
He first alters the nature of things
Referring to the prediction of the
opponents of free coinage, that il
will expel the gold from the country
Democrat likens il to the cry Of vol
T in the fable. If he had read little
further in that fable he would have
found that tho wolf did eomn nt last