The herald., 1893-08-31
THE CONVERTIBLE DOLLAR
Injustice of Making the Inflated Dollar
the standard OF Measure.


President Harrison who originated tn
phrase: ave want the best dollar Their
is. and we want every dollar to be squa
in value to every other dollar" or word
to that effect. This phrase. though YER,
plausible and widely adopted, being il
substance reproduced in the Wilson bill
which hae just passed the house and II
the Voorhees, bill now before the senate
contains moet dangerous and vicious
cede, "the best dollar" Is Q highly ap
preciated or dear dollar, worth so to u
per cent more than it ought to be, OF
with the worlds staple commodities.
To make clearer my meaning, I will
here quote, with your permission, words
of mine which appeared in the HERALD
of July "a, 1891, and which are just as
applicable to the situation today as they
were two years ago. then said: PreBi-
dent Harrison, in his ssouthern and weBt-
ern tour, declared to the people that we
want the best (which in this case means
the deareet) dollar there is, and not q
debased dollar meaning thereby the
silver dollar which our forefathers estab-
AAcAC0 0iuOce y OQapoty 0A0s
"That the president OF the United
States did not fully understand the
portent of his words can be made plain
BY q very simple illustration: The law
long sgo established the yard measure at
SO inc6ep. II, eince the discovery of In
dia rubber, tape measures OF that mate
rial in q modified form should have
come into use, and IL they should have
H. <~oxx, tr An E0
inches, would the president in his trav-
els about the country have announced
his belief that we must have the best
(ant ngest) yard measure there is; and
that we do not want any of those old
fashioned wooden yard measures OF short
length which our grandfathers OF . halt
century or century ago used; for the
first things those latter would do would
be to cheat some workman, who, when
buying cloth according to their measure
nent, instead of getting 30 inches, would
only get Sc inches?
1.-THE standard silver dollar, having
only the value OF the silver which is in
it, and no other, (and which, it may
here be added in parentheeis, is the
same value that every other 371A grain
OF pure silver has throughout the world
as bullion is q perfectly honest dollar,
and it does not become the president OF
the United States, nor any of the people
thereof. who have ordinary intelligence,
to publicly insinuate that it 10 anything
else than what the constitution and laws
have made 1t ~
Now, the course Of events during these
two years since wrote those words only
gives to them additional force, for in the
intervening time gold has gone up from
level OF 45 or so per cent premium, at
which it then stood, to a premium OF
more than 75 per cent above the level Of
silver Cat 16 to y, and Of commodities In
general, as compared with the level
which existed in 1873 and for long Pc
riod prior to that fateful epoch.
II your readers will consult the finan-
cial columns OF the HERALD today they
will find under the heading OF Converti-
BILE Value of Silver and Gold, that when
the gold price of fine silver is 73 cents
per ounce of 4S0 Troy grains. the silver
value of 25.8 grains OF standard gold
(nine.tenths fine) is SLIT.
Now, 1t is to this kind OF "best" and
appallingly appreciated ''dollsrs" tha1
the blind partisans of the phrase coined
by x-President Harrison want to tie al
our silver dollars to. snd all the paper
dollars based on them. And the wors
OF it is, they are seeking, in the Wilson
and Voorhees, bills, by affirmative legis
lation, to "pledge the faith and credit o
the United States'' to this vicious, ruin
ous policy, thus making permanent tn,
grievous burdens which an appreciated
standard ever imposes on the people.
| Besides, it is an excessively dsngerou
thing for even 30 rich and powerful
nation as the United States to artificial,
maintain. az permanent policy, abou
$500, 900, 900 Of standard and token silver
| 75 per cent or more, above its normal o
intrinsic value; together with all ou
paper currency and national bonds, al
OF which are legally and Constitutional,
payable in standard silver dollars.
Suppose president OF sterner stuf
than Grover Cleveland. like Andres
Jackson, for instance. who, 'by tn
eternal" would execute the laws with
out any lie or ands, now occupied tn
presidential chair; and that he ehoult
| force to the wall the banks OF New York
Boston and Philadelphia because OF the
| illegal practices in issuing $50, coo, ,00
clearing house certificates and refusin,
to pay checks OF depositors in legal cur.
rency, etc., the resulting cataclysm
would be vastly aggravated by the fac
that nearly one-half OF our specie, ani
all our paper (less gold certificates) hav,
An artificial or purely fictitious or non
legal value, from so to rs per cent abov,
what it would be If our standard wer,
where it legally might be and ought tt
be, namely, on our lower constitutions
specie.
II may seem desirable to have all oul
dollars kept artifcially on level witt
our highest dollars. butin times OF pani'
like the present, it is aw
fully dangerous for they ar,
| liable at such times, and indeed at al
times, to come down on the run, to theil
normal or natural level. Whereas, i
our standard is always kept on the lowel
specie, with the higher specie at pre-
MUM, and unused, which tends to make
| 1t decline to par with the other specie,
there is no risk of its going any
| lower when panics come. Neither IL
there any danger. as in the other case,
| that the paper currency or bonds coulC
ever by any possibility 60 any lower
than the lower specie, SO long as the
nation is solvent.
1t is sheer hnmbuggery for the Voor
hees bill to declare that 1t is the policy
of the United States ''to coin both golc
and silver into money of equal intrinsic
and exchangeable value, 80 long as the
silver value OF the gold dollar is any
thing like $1.75, and the gold value o
the standard silver dollar is considera
| bly, less than 60 cents, or but little more