The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1893-08-31
HARLAN ON MONEY MATTERS.
He Explains the Uses and
Values of Gold and Silver
He Wants II RatftfO of
II I-2 to 1.

ED. SIGNAL:-In recent issue OF
populist paper, there appeared an
editorial, in which the statement was
made that gold and silver had no
value as money, unless the official
stamp was on them; or to make them
valuable the official stamp must be
on them. The same editorial accuses
those who hold to different opinion
of being ignorant of the worlds his
tory. Is it necessary that gold and
silver must actually have an official
stamp engraved on them to make
them valuable as money? The man
who has studied the worlds history
intelligently is surely ignorant if he
pretends to say any stamp makes
these metals valuable as money. The
V on an American gold piece is the
official insignia of its purchasing val
ue, but it is the number of grains OF
pure gold it contains that determin
its purchasing value. If pure mug
get of gold weighs as many grains as
there are pure grains in the five piece,
it will purchase just as much goods
as the stamped one. The stamp is
put there solely for convenience; to
save weighing each piece Of metal as
we trade. Why will these men always
gabble about a shadow? The sub.
stance is in the metal and why we
put a purchasing value o.. these
metals no man can tell, for they have
thus been used time out of the mind
of man. The "World's s History
: don't tell us that there ever was Il
worlds congress in session to adopt
stamp for gold and silver, but il
does teach that both metals were usec
as a medium of exchange, or money
without that immaculate stamp. II
3 is he who would food our natioI
again with worthless paper-ras
money, who is trying to teach us tina
a stamp of a government on any rot
ten fabric will pass current as money
In another article | have shown tina
/, silver and gold were used as none
five thousands of years ago, or neu
: that time. Abraham took much gol
and silver with him when he move
to Cannans land, or over in the va
ley where Hams son, Cannan, settlet
All the legislatures and congresses
:, TIE world could not destroy gold an
silver as a purchasing medium
= Twenty years trial in American col
gress has failed to destroy silv'
g alone. In 1873 the act that declare
that silver should not be legal tel
der, for more than $500, was SUI
posed, by all good republicans, to ha'
D literally and financially killed silve
but still silver dollar is thing
worth, on object of beauty. In Is!
the hiding act was supposed by tho
good people to bury the metal fro
:, the profane democrats, by hiding t
cd silver in vaults and placing before t
rd American eyes stamped rags. b
the silver ghost would not down
their bidding, and soon it will rea
pear in its new goddess form. A ho
is going up all over the country fro
d Maine to Oregon about the hard TIM
and failures, and by whom? By
very party who brought this calam
on us. The acts of those who ha
~ held high carnival at Washington
over thirty years are like the bloc
~, ghost of Banquo, they will not do
,le. at their bidding, but are stalk
ea- @ across the country like an invadi
army. No wonder Jefferson s.
no. that national bank is as destruct
- to country as an invading arm
The American tariff and banking s
ri tenn are laying waste our beauti
cry and fertile fields and pleasant hom
on as did the Turks those of Spain,
INV the Huns, those of Scotland and E
7ou land. What congress will do
IRE know moi, but what they should
is certainly plain-Repeal those
noxious silver acts, pass a bill
l.. have all the gold and silver of Am
can product coined, place a nom
clature III ounces of pure silver
rite ,J one ounce Of pure gold. If necess
for issue sufficient treasury notes, paya