Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-06-27
AN HONEST DOLLARS WORTH.

Ideal, Imaginary Unit of Account, or
Dollar.
The Chicago Inter Ocean reports an
interview with Secretary Carlisle on
the silver question, in which he is re-
ported as rendering the following
statement:
THE answer TO your question de-
pends largely on what you mean by
the free coinage of silver. IL you mean
the policy urged by many. under which
the government Of the United States
would be compelled by law To receive
6s cents worth of silver bullion
when presented by the owner, and
coin it at the expense of all the people
Of the country, and compel the people
by law to receive the coin as the equiv
alent to 100 cents, my answer is that |
am not now and never have been in
favor of it. / stand now where my la
mented predecessor, Mr.. Beck, and |
stood together in 1878, when the So
lalled BLAND Allison bill' was passed
by congress, under which the
secretary of the treasury was
required to purchase and coin
monthly not less than $4,000, 900 nor
more than $4,000, 900 worth of silver
bullion. When that. bill passed the
house of representatives it provided for
the free and unlimited coinage of the
, silver dollar, but after it went TO the
senate Mr.. Beck offered an amendment
which provided that the secretary of
the treasury should purchase at the
market price each month not less than
81, 600, 900 worth of silver bullion, or as
much more as could be coined at the
mint, the seigniorage to be passed into
! the treasury and whenever the bullion
could not he purchased at less than par
with legal tender notes any owner of
silver bullion might deposit it for coin
age on the same terms as gold was de-
posted My position upon this
subject is BRIEFLY this: | am
opposed TO free coinage of gold
or silver, but in favor of unlimited coin
age of both metals upon terms of exact
equality. No discrimination should be
made in favor of one against the other,
nor should any discrimination be made
/ in favor of the holders of either gold or
silver bullion. as against the great body
! of people who own other kinds of prop
erty. | believe that gold and silver
bullion should be treated exactls alike
! in the mints of the United States: and
that is dollars worth of gold should
be coined into gold dollar and a dol
! lars worth of silver should be coined
/ into a silver dollar, and if no charge is
made for the coinage of one, then no
charge should be made for the coinage
of the other"
Upon a first peruSal of Mr.. Carlisles
reported utterances, one is impressed
with the idea that he is in favor of un-
restricted coinage, of the old-fashioned
sort, of both metals, upon the ratio in
use for about eighty years, 16 to l. But
upon a second reading of the foregoing
language, the fact is revealed that the
sense in which it is intended to be un-
dcrstood depends upon the construction
placed by Mr.. Carlisle upon the phrase
"a dollars worth" And yet there are
sentences in Mr.. Carlisle's statement
which seem to warrant the conclusion
! that he favors the decentralization of
both gold and silver, as, for instance:
"Nor should any discrimination be
made in favor of the holders of either
gold or silver bullion, as against the
great body of people who own other
kinds of property" 1t is patent to
every thinking mind that so long as
any given quantity of gold or silver, or
both metals, is declared by law to con-
stitute or be worth" dollar, while
| there is no law which determines the
! quantities of other products which shall
be worth" dollar, there is an unfair
in favor nf tha
/ holders of gold and silver bullion and
against the holders of all other products
! of labor.
Again: When Mr.. Carlisle says that
he is ''in favor of unlimited coinage of
both metals upon terms of exact equal
ity" and that mo discrimination should
be made in favor of one against the
! other" it would appear that he is all
| that the most ardent and Jealous silver
man could wish. And no other con-
struction could be given to his Ian
| guage, but-from the fact that he says
"a dollars worth of gold should be
coined into gold dollar and dollars
worth of silver should be coined into
silver dollar"
And now the burning question is
this: How does Mr.. Carlisle propose to
ascertain how much gold or silver con-
stitute "a dollars worth?''
If he proposes, as his language seems
to indicate in the first paragraph of his
statement, that 35.S grains of standard
gold shall continue to be made worth a
dollar by law and that silver, as a COM
modify without any legal value, shall
be measured by gold possessing an
arbitrary and artificial value, impaired
by law, then his plan proposes no re-
lief to the people and is a parody upon
justice and common sense.
There is a gross discrimination made
In favor of gold and against silver, so
long as the total product of gold, :sot re-
quired for use in the arts, is given a GER
tain fixed monetary or coinage value
by law, while silver is demonetized and
made to depend for its value upon the
demand for it for use as a commodity
in the arts.
Either the law must say that some
certain quantity of both gold and silver
shall be dollars worth" or else the
law must let both metals alone and let
them stand upon their own merits. In
no other way can gold and silver be
treated exactly alike in the mints of
the United States"
But consider for "a moment the alb
surdity of this thing called metallism-
The several nations of the earth take
xha i1aal and iuaOinary unit of aOul-