The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-11-07

gresham johnson, of North Dakota
ask, when will Standish answer
Johnson?" The people desire to know
when Johnson, or anyone else will an
swer Standish.
Eighteen months ago the Hessian
party in Congress made report that
| free coinage would enable Europe to
dump $4OO, 600, 900 of limited legal ten
der money on us at the profit existing
between silver bullion and coined
money.
Last July Standish published letter
from the Secretary of the Mint, that
the legal tender silver money Of Europe
cannot be purchased below it's face
value, and that it's limited legal tender
silver money meets the place Of gold at
it's face value in paying debts of five
and ten dollars. To this statement
Standish added that all cur silver
money from 1874 to 1878, outside of the
trade dollar, was legal tender for only
| always at par; and inquiry of
| Europeans recently over would show
the limited legal tender silver money
of Europe as at par there now, and if
any further claim should be made that
it is not, Standish asked that the
friends of silver in Congress have a
committee appointed to take proof on
this point.
Oh oil %O
silver money of the world c1ntains ten
per cent. alloy to harden it, and that
if we framed the bill so as to require
pure silver to be offered to our mint,
the metal obtained from melting down
the money Of other countries would
not be receivable at our mint until the
ten per cent. alloy had been extracted;
which extraction would be expensive,
per cent. alloy to be added for recon
age, the loss in weight, by reason of
our dollars being heavier than Euro
pean money, containing three per cent.
more silver, the cost of expressage
would cause the foreign investor, who
attempted this procedure, to lose about
thirty per cent, and therefore it would
not be undertaken.
Forty thousand copies of this letter
were printed in North Dakota, $50, 900
in Chicago, $4,000 in Cincinnati. 1t
was published in almost every State
South and West even on the remote
Pacific coast, while the Arena of Bos-
ton sent it to almost every part of the
globe where the English language is
read. Editor Bierly personally took
printed copies of it to Washington at
the opening of Congress, and delivered
them to the Hessians of that body.
Mr.. johnson shows that he went to
the Secretary of the Mint for points
and aids to answer Standish, butFhe
fails to say a word in favor of the old
dump argument" Not a man in
either House of Congress during the
ten weeks debate, so far as we have
been able to discover, has dared to
reiterate or raise the old dump argu-
ment;" nor has single Hessian paper
done so since S5andish published that
letter.
The question is not whether Standish
made any immaterial mistake about
the process of minting; it is whether
under free coinage foreign silver could
be dumped on us for re coinage; and
until the Hessians answer Standish's
argument which shows that it could
not, the case is with him.
Second. The next point made by
Standish was, that this is struggle to
destroy silver as money, and if not
overcome it would reduce us, and the
whole world, to a gold basis, and that
the counties and cities of North Dakota,
west of the Red River valley, are badly
IN debt, and it would practically double
their debts, without bringing them any
benefit, and eventually bankrupt them.
All of this so far has been conceded,
except that LaMoure county is, not so
badly in debt as Standish claimed, be-
cause 1t has provided sinking fund
that Standish was ignorant of; but that
this policy will double what debt La
Moure county, and all these other
counties have, has not been questioned,
and it could not be in the face of the
statements Standish has quoted from
Rothschlld and numerous European
writer's and statesmen: the correctness
of which quotations remain unchal-
lenged. The principle which controls
city and county debts of North Dakota,
by which they would be doubled in
effect, by going to gold basis, con-