The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-08
THE FATE OF HARD MONEY.

The FATE OF HARD MONEY.
People the Nature, Attributes and Func-
lions Of Money.
A calm, philosophical survey of the
financial question appears to point to
the total abandonment of precious
metal' money in the not very remote
future. The war which the unsatisfied
greed Of the debtor class is making on
silver will, without dou bt, be taken up
by the advocates of silver if they are
defeated, and waged against gold
That silver will ever again be remone-
tized in that sense which the popular
mind understands reconciliation, is
hardly within therange of probability.
The warehousing silver and warehous-
ing gold, issuing paper currency for
use in place of the metal dollars, and
calling this warehoused metal
sbasis." strikes the common sense of
the public as SO supremely ridiculous,
as soon as they ''catch on" fairly, that
the fraud will meet with such public
condemnation that the whole humbug
will be exploded.
The debates in congress are drawing
public attention to the money question
as it has never before been directed,
and while not all will investigate the
subject, a sufficient number to leaven
the whole will doubtless make it
study.
The object lesson afforded by the
&346, 900, 600 greenbacks which have
been in circulation for thirty years,
and which are preferred by every body
to either gold or silver, is having a
powerful effect upon the public mind
in favor of government paper cur
rency. And when public attention Is
directed to the fact that 500, 600, 900 of
gold coin and bullion have been lying
in the iron vaults of the treasury for
number of years for the ostensible pur-
pose of ''redeeming' these green backs
when presented, and they have not
been presented or their redemption"
demanded, the fallacy of the s.metal
basis and redemption fraud is made
so apparent that the public cannot
much longer be deceived.
The redemption" of money when
understood is so supremely ridiculous
that it will not find single advocate
outside of the banking and exploiting
class-the people who gamble in money
When a greenback is ''redeemed' it is
Immediately put again in circulation,
which is not redeeming, but swapping
or exchanging dollars
The public has huge object lesson
in the thousands of tons of silver stored
in government warehouses since 1878,
in place of which paper currency (sil-
yer certifcates) has been issued by the
government ''redeemable'' in silver
dollars at the option of the holder Not
q dollar has ever been demanded, that
we have ever heard of, for the notes,
over $500, 100000 of which silver notes
are in circulation. The spectacle we
have as object lessons of this bankers
and gold ring, gold and silver fraud is
2, 600 car loads of silver and 500, 600, 600
of gold stored in government ware
houses ostensibly for the purpose of
redeeming paper money which no one
wants redeemed" The laws of con-
gress make the silver and gold coin
legal tender for all debts and dues,
public and private, within the United
States, and the same law-making
power makes the paper currency legal
tender, and trial of thirty years
and more proves that the people
prefer the paper dollars for
their use. to either the gold
or silver dollars, and they are
beginning to ask that hard question
which the gold gamblers and bank
usury collectors cannot answer truth
fully without upsetting their whole
false financial theory and transparent
sham, and they evade an honest an
swer by a reply in wild gibberish about
the necessity of a gold reserve to sus-
tain the national credit This is so
contemptibly silly as to be unworthy
of serious reply.
The only demands made on the $780,
O00.0 gold reserve" in sixteen years
was demand by little gang of Jew
gold gamblers of New York and Lon
don when they were working up the
present panic for the purpose of fore
ing congress to repeal the silver pur-
chase clause of the Sherman law.
That was the only purpose the gold
reserve" was ever called upon to pro-
mote, and a most infamous gambling
scheme it was, whose intent was to
give them more power over money and
all that money buys
These men who have been battling so
strenuously in congress for the free
coinage of silver" have not had free
coinage in all their thoughts in the
popular sense of the term. Free coin
age means the actual coinage of all the
silver taken to the minis, coined for
the use of the owner of the bullion,
who shall take the coined dollars away
with him and use them in his business
transactions. This would spread sill
yer money all over the country. and
bring it into general use among the
people. The people to whomthe coin was
paid would retain large quantities to
their possession in place of depositing
it in the banks as they do paper money.
It would make cash payments more
common and small credits would de-
crease when a large amount of silver
money was ''hoarded" by the working
and wage-paying class. The free coin
age of silver would also steadily add to
tho vo1nn,o ~ ron~ov, Aoc<