Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1893-03-22

IL the London Financial News we
find 3 communication upon The
Crime of Decentralization. The
writer starts out by saying that
gold and silver are generally found
together 1t is a rule that one metal
cannot be produced without the
other; that therefore it is utterly
impossible to determine the relative
value between the metals. and that
such values until lately have been
fixed by coinage laws, or else have
resulted from the conflict Of such
laws. That previous to 1873 such
values had varied in historical times
from one silver equal TO ten gold or
one gold equal to sixteen silver; that
from the era Of Darius down to that
of Mohammed, the value of gold in
the Occident had always been double
its yaluein the Orient. For example,
when the ratio in Greece was thirteen,
it was six and one-half in India, and
while for thirteen centuries Qrom
B. c. II to A. D. 120D it was fixed
in the coinage of Rome that twelve
silver equaled one gold, it was still
six and one-half silver equal TO one
gold in India Then the article
proceeds TO state that when the Civil
War ended in the United States the
Federal debt was $40, 800, 900, 900
The debts of the various States
townships and municipalities was
about 81 400, 000,00 of the railways
about 81, 500,0 900, and of other
corporations about $4,000, eco, 000
altogether about $1,000, 600, 900
Between one-third and one-fourth of
this sum was owing to investors in
Europe who had loaned or advanced
it in paper dollars, which cost them
on an average of about one-half dol
lar each in gold or silver coins, and
a portion had been advanced by
American capitalists on similar terms
The whole of this was payable under
the Act February &c, 1862, including
the interest of a portion of it, in
greenbacks The first move of the
lenders was to open newspaper
war upon the paper money they had
loaned. ~ The first fruit Of
this transaction was the passage of
the Credit Strengthening Act, dated
March IS, 1869, by which the United
States pledged itself to pay the prin-
cipal, as well as the interest of its
paper debt, in gold or silver coins.
In other words, without any consid-
Grafton at all, it undertook to pay
for every paper dollar which it had
borrowed, a gold or silver dollar of
the long-established weight and fine
ness, and by this and subsequent
Acts, compelled all indebted persons
or corporations to do the same.
Having secured the payment of a
whole metal dollar for each half of a
metal dollar, The conspirators next
attempted to double the value or
purchasing power of such metal
dollars by means of destroying the
silver money Then the article goes
on to show how silver was demonet-
lied by our Government, and the
article closes by denouncing the
legislation of ls69-74 "a sordid
crime, compared with whose colossal
magnitude the more recent Panama
scandal is dwarfed to a peecadillo
Every one of those engaged in it,
who were not already rich, suddenly
acquired fortunes, Some of them
have since delivered to admiring
audiences long dissertations ON
economic finance, We review the
article, not for the information it
contains, because that is old news.
but to show our people here how,
just now, the English papers are
being forced by their people to pub
lish both sides of the silver question,
and in point of fact, that question is
just nov agitating Great Britain
more than any other question has
for many and many year
We presume the nomination of