Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1893-07-28
YhE N QUESTION.

iNE MONEY QUESTION.
The financial depression pervading the
country has called forth an endless
amount OF discussion. This discussion
has too often been ot u partisan nature.
Editorial writer's. we fear. often iorset
the best interests of the nation il, Il;
Wild scramble to advance the interests
"f their political parties. In such IL
crisis as the II upon us. men should
rise above petty cliYues. The dema.
gogne now should give place To the
statesman.
AS congress will soou he convened
IN extra session, and us the advocates
OF free silver have lately had their views
presented To the people of this city. the
STAR purposes 10 devote some space TO
Il consideration of this most important
and all absorbing subject.
In the first place we might do we'll TO
examine the position of the three great
parties upon the monty question. us ex-
pressed i'll their national platforms last
year. The independents are i'm favor
Il free coinage and of paper money:
the democrats and republicans are in
favor of bimrtallism. but the leaders
ut both the latter parties disagree CON
siderably rs TO what they mean Ivy the
term ";imetal'ism'" Some favor tie
fl, e coinage of both metals at the rate
of ld to d; others oppose this measure.
by the free coinage of silver, as ut pres
rnt that term is used. is meant the UNI
limited coinage of gold and SILVER at the
ratio of one to sixteen, which was the
ratio fixed by law from 1854 To 1871. Il
period of 80 years. During the past
three Thousand years man has maGeuse
of different commodities as IL circulating
Mledium, OF as money. Gold and silver
possess qualities that peculiarly lit them
To do service as money. They have
come In be recognized as the true money
a!etals. The reasons for this are obvi-
Gus. Both are comparatively indeslruct-
IDLE: they may he divided into small
parts: coll,terfeits of either are easily
detected: Il small quantity of either rep
reseints considerable value: and finally
and most important OF all. the people
OF every civillz'd nation regard both
metals as possessing a high intrinsic
value and readily accept either without
regard to who may present it. That
either metal should be Disseminated
a aillsl. then, is manifesto, unfair: but
that this country has always discYimi-
mated, unintentiona!ly. against one of
them admits of not The least bit of
!onbt. The first coinage act passed i'm
1893 authorized the unlimited coinage
of gold and silver at the ratio OF 1 to Is.
But by this standard gold WAS under
valued and consequently did not circu-
Late because the gold in Il dollar was
worth pore as bullion than as Il minted
dollar. TO remedy this the standard
was changed III 1884 to l to l5.9ss. prtc-
tlcally | Ia lG: hut by the new standard
silver was u~ndervalued and hence dis
appeared us a circulating medium in
this country. From 1893 to 1884 silver
constituted our only metallic currency,
except subsidiary coin, and from 1884 to
1873 gold vas likewise the only metallic
currency of the United States. Now
come the silver-tonguel advocates and
demand the unlimited coinage of gold
and silver at the ratio of ] to 1G. Free
silver men loudly assert that there is Il
widespread conspiracy to enhance the
value of gold by destroying the legal
tender qualities of one half the money
metal of the world and that the action
of the United States in demonetiZing
silver in 1873 has caused the decline i'm
the price of the white metal. The cnn-
spiracy against silver has never been
proven by amy testimony. and usually
it is not customary to introduce evi.
dence 10 show innocence until some
proof of guilt has been established. But
is it not strange if there was conspir.
acy that the so.called decentralization
act of 1873 passed both houses without
IL single dissenting vote? And III that
congress were men representing silver
states. Why did not the senators anG
representatives from California protest
against the conspiracy ? Why were the
two senators from Nevada. a state own
ed entirely by silver kings; why were