The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1893-06-14
"Idiotic."

ton are the Courier-Journal's the RS
belongs to our esteemed Atlanta contem
porary, the Constitution. The Courier
Journal can discuss the financial situation
without dealing in vituperation. Whel
we find that we can not we hope we shal
be able to recognize the fact that tn
financial situation is not subject whicl
comes within our province.
'Idiotic" is the title of the following
delectable editorial remarks by our At
lanta contemporary:
"The Courier Journal, commenting SOM
remarks of far Western paper, has this to say
at has never dawned upon this uminary tba
for the Government to redeem its coin notes II
silver when gold is demanded would be to do tn,
very thing for which ii is now abusing Secretaf,
Carlisle--to discriminate against and debase tn,
standard silver dollar
sin order to understand and appreciate to tn,
full extent this idotic utterance- there is othe
| phrase that will describe it-let the reader x,
over II again and take it in. Here is declara.
ton that to the silver dollar money will b,
to discriminate against it--that to pay It out a,
| money will be to debase III"
We protest again that we do not char.
acterize this unique article Of our Atlanta
contemporary as IAN idiotic utterance. u
According to our understanding of the
word, an idiot is natural. born fool,
whose defective intellectual powers pre-
clude the possibility OF his ever being any
thing else. The writer of the foregoing
editorial is not, therefore, necessarily an
idiot; he may be simply ignorant; and
ignorance, where not based upon idiocy,
can ultimately be cured.
But it is incomprehensibly strange how
such absolutely primitive ignorance could
gain access TO the editorial page Of jour
nal of the Constitutions character, and
especially in the discussion of monetary
questions. Dear old Uncle Remus at his
best was never so amusing as this fnan-
cial exposition which appears in the col
umns that he made famous.
The point ON which our Atlanta con-
temporary is so ludicrously befuddled can
be made very clear, even to those who
know as little about it as the writer OF
our contemporary "Idiotic" editorial. If
Uncle Remus had two one-dollar bills and
a one-dollar debt to pay, and if one OF
those bills were badly mutilated, Uncle
Remus would certainly pay that debt with
the mutilated bill. He would "use" that
bill, "pay it out as money" and to the
extent he did so in preference to using
the other bill he would discriminate"
against the mutilated bill. Having less
confidence in one bill than the other, he
would use first the one IN which he had
least confidence.
Again, if the writerof the Constitutions
"Idiotic" editorial should incur debt of
$4,000 in the purchase of library con-
tanning few of the things he doesn't
know about the first principles Of money;
il he had $4,000 in gold and $4,000 in
silver, and for some reasen, whether JUS
tifiable or not, he should fear that the
public might have less confidence in sill
yer than gold, would he not pay for his
library in silver, and would he not there
by, "using" the silver in preference to
gold, discriminate" against the silver in
favor of the gold, the effect of his discrim-
ination being to "debase" the less valu-
able metal? AI
Now take the case of the Secretary of
the Treasury, stronger even than these
illustrations.
The Government issues coin notes, pay
able in either gold or silver, at the option
of the Secretary of the Treasury, under
injunction OF maintaining bi-metallic par.
ity. The holder OF these notes presents
them for redemption, and demands gold.
If the Secretary refuses to pay gold, but
pays silver instead, against which metal
is he discriminating, the silver, which he
"uses," or the gold, which he keeps2 And
when it becomes known that the Secre-
tary thus discriminates between the two
metals how long would it be before con-
fidence in the Governments ability to
maintain gold payments when demanded
would disappear and silver would be ode
based" in value relatively to gold, thus
destroying the parity which it is the OBJ
ject OF the Government to preserve, and
which is Indispensable to a sound cur
These are such simple and self-evident
that it seemsa waste OF words
to repeat them. Yet-still promising the
Constitutions remarks upon ignorance
rather than idiocy-the deliverances of
that paper coupled with thoseof its Den
yer yoke-mate which the other day ex-
coriated Secretary Carlisle for refusing to
redeem the silver certificates in silver)
prove that there is still material for pri-
mary class, to which the b c's not only
Of finance but of common sense, are UNI
known and unsupported. To this class
this little first lesson is commended
Courier-Journal. tf
5. ON. Rogers,
OF Adams, N. Y, ate nothing but dry
bread for three years on account Of that
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