The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-07-30
A MYTHICAL DANGER.

North american HeCle1C, entitled silver
Legislation and Its Results Mr.. E. 0.
Leech, recently director OF the United |
States mint, and now vice president and !
cashier of national bank in New York,
insists that unless the purchasing clause !
of the Sherman law is repealed our cur |
reucy must reach silver basis, and adds:
"What does silver basis mean! 1t
means, in the first instance, vIolent'and
enormous contraction of our currency
| by the withdrawal of gold coins and gold
certificates from circulation. After the
first shock, when values have adjusted
themselves to existing conditions. 1t /
means that the paying power OF our cur
rency in foreign exchanges will be depre-
ciated to the commercial value of our sill
yer dollar, whatever that may be-
| Suppose that all these things should
happen, what harm would 1t do US?
III the establishment OF silver basis
would drive all our present stock of gold
out OF circulation, the establishment OF
gold basis by the total characterization OF
silver would drive all our silver and It's
paper proxies out OF circulation.
According to the latest treasury state
ment on July we had 524 POS, 796 silver
dollars and paper based on silver in clrcu-
lation in this country against S403, 633, 700
in gold. 1t must be remem bered, IN con-
sidering these figures, that all the silver
enumerated Is known to be in circulation,
while nobody can locate half of the gold
estimated by the treasury department to
be in circulation.
Ii we must give up either gold or silver,
as the advocates of the single gold stand
ard insist, why not surrender the coin
which would leave the smallest vacuum
in our already too limited circulation?
But no advocate for the free and unllm-
tied coinage OF silver asks for the demon
etization of gold, and if that metal should
be banished from our currency 1t would
be on account of some other cause than
hostile legislation, whereas silver can
only be eliminated from our circulation
by an act Of Congress depriving it of its
present legal tender quality.
1t is easy to say that the continuation OF
7 our present silver law, or the enactment
of g measure for the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the ratio OF Is to L,
would force gold to premium and out OF
, circul alton, but no conclusive proofs have
ever vet been offered by Mr. Leech or
anybody else to establish the correctness
of that proposition.
{ For our own part we do not think 1t q
f matter of much consequence. Ii gold
went to a premium equal to the present
difference between the coin and bullion
values OF our silver dollar, whoever took
' our stock of gold coin would have to pay
: US that difference either IN silver or in
something else, and we would be just as
t rich after the operation as before.
f If Europe paid US in silver for our stock
Y of gold we could utilize the silver thus
obtained as fast as the exchange could
r be made, and hence there would be no
marked contraction of our circulation
while the transaction was going on.
i If our circulation on a silver basis
should be quoted at discount as COM
It pared with Europe's gold, all our COM
s modities would be at a premium as COM
pared with the same standard, and we
|. would gain as much in one way as we
! would lose the other way.
: From 1861 until 1879 the only currency
we had in the United States was at a dis
: count when compared with either gold or
n silver both at home and abroad, but it is
historical fact that the people of this
It country enjoyed as high degree of pros
)r perity, both relatively and absolutely
during the eighteen years OF deprecated
J. paper money as since 1879 with gol6
|, standard.
Mr.. Leech seems to think that the vel
# fare OF this country depends wholly
i upon its comparatively insignificant
trade with Europe. but he ough
l. to know that our domestic ex
J. changes are fully twenty times a
great as our foreign trade every year, ant
d that it is far more important for us t
DR. maintain sufficient amount of circula
ton for home use than to ruin ourselve
z in a vain and foolish attempt to restric
n our money supply TO constantly narrow
ing gold basis. !,
m Ours is the richest and most progressiv
b. nation in the world, and it is high tim
for us to cutloose from the leading stirring
D. in which the gold autocrats of Europ
re have held US too long already. Let U
or solve the money problem for humanity b
restoring silver to its old place and valu
ct as a money metal on our own account, an
r the force of our example will soon compe
all Europe to do likewise.
The Laugh Cure.
lie Laughter has often dissipated disea,
n and preserved life by a sudden effort
II. nature. We are told that the great Era
&c mus laughed so heartily at a satyrical r,
mark that he broke tumor and recoy
81 cred his health. In singular treatise @
4 Laughter Joubert gives two simil;
ne instances. A patient being very low IL
physician, who had ordered dose
Us rhubarb, countermanded the medicine
which was left on the table. A monke
n in the room. jumping up, discovered tt
ae. goblet, and having tasted made terrib
so grimace. Again putting only his tongl
~ to it, he perceived some sweetness of II
az dissolved mama, while the rhubarb hs
sunk to the bottom. Thus emboldene
he swallowed the whole, but found
such a nauseous potion that, after ma:
'nt strange and fantastic grimaces, he groul
ase his teeth in agony, and in q violent fu
t. threw the goblet on the floor. The who
affair was so ludicrous that the sick nj
N burst into repeated peals of laughter, al
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