The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-12-05
nor ..rrRsr CLASS AUTHORITY.


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Sor ssFIRST CLASS AUTHORITY"
The Herald has repeatedly shown
the folly and the falsity of the charge,
made by Republican papers for par
tisan purposes. that by repeating the
purchase clause of the Sherman act
the Democratic Congress, killed and
'demoneuzed" silver. There is not a
word of truth i'll the accuse ton, and
if those who make it do not know any
better they are not. in the language of
the pretended silver oracle of the west,
''first-class authority on the silver
question in any FORM
The decentralization of silver, if such
term is proper in the face of the fact
that silver is still used as money, was
effected III 1873. That is what the ex-
IRENE silverites have claimed right
along from that time to the present.
They have also repeatedly alleged that
silver was killed at that time. But
now they allege it has been demone-
TIED and killed all over again. That
is 10 say. that Congress took away the
money power of that which was al
ready demonetized. and thereby muir
dered L corpse
But call the effect of the act of 1873
what you will, The HeraId's conten-
ton is and has been that the recent
action of Congress has not altered the
money status of silver one solitary
cent a silver dollar passes for no less
since the Sherman makeshift was re-
pealed. Not a dollar of silver money
has been retired. 1t is just as much a
legal tender now as it was before Con
gress convened in special session.
But the self-constituted silver au-
thority of the Rocky Mountains saws
in reply: Silver was killed by the re-
cent action 80 far as it could be-"
Very cunning that, but not very in
genious. Anybody with eyes can see
how far anything can be killed
when it has been dead for twenty
years.
But the Tribune repeats, what every
body knows, that under the sherman
act 100000 ounces of silver were pur-
chased monthly fer (which treasury
notes were issued. That is true. but
the silver bullion was piled up like pig
iron. and the treasury notes were re-
deemed in gold And the provision
that so much of the silver bullion
should be coined as might be neces-
sary to redeem those notes, was nearly
dead letter, because the very men
who sold the bullion to the govern
ment, when they wanted coin for the
notes they received in payment, de-
manded gold coin. Thus there was
little necessity under the Sherman sci
for the coinage of silver dollars after
1891.
If the Sherman law had provided
for the coinage of all the silver pur-
ichased under it and this repeal act
had stopped that coinage, there might
be some ground for complaint, but
! that would not be killing the silver OF
demonetizing it, and the statement OF
the Tribune that the repeal act pro.
vided that mo more silver should
ever be used as money" stated di.
rect faisehood as it provides nothing
of the kind, and such remarks show
still further that our contemporary is
mot first class authority on the silver
question in any form
The per capita circulation of money
in the United States, as stated in the
Presidents message, was on Noven-
Der LIST. s25.49 Not dollar of that
amount. making s1,7ls. 544, 6s2. was
taken out of circulation by the repeal
act, whether it is in the shape OF silver
coin or gold coin. None of it has been
killed. Whether that is sufficient for
the needs of the country is another
question. But the repeal act did not
decrease it nor did it say or intimate
that no more silver money should ever
be used as money. On the contrary it
proclaimed the use of both metals as
the currency of the country, and held
out the hope and the promise of fur
Their legislation as to silver.
There are many points on which
just criticism may be taken as to the
policy of both parties on the silver
question. Certainly the Democratic
party is not open to such fault-finding
as is the Republican party which is
responsible for the so-called de
monetizing' act of 1873. But that
gives no reason or excuse for
the nonsense uttered by many
papers on the subject. prominent
among which are the alleged silver
arguments of the Salt Lake Tribune.
THE PLOT IN THE FIRST PRECINCT.
Notwithstanding all the slurs and in
situations about the Herald's position