The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1893-04-07
A sIxTY-EIoHT CENT DOLLAR.

~ SIN SCtNI OS1@e<ns
There il. No SUc!, hing . Natural Cent
or Dollar By Which to Measure the Value
of .i"y Other Dollar.
In the course of a letter upon the sill
uer question. addressed to L. A. No.
! 1925 X. of L.. Keolluk. Ia, State Mas
ter Workman J. r Sovereign says:
'The effort to suspend the coinage OF
silver is prompted by n desire to limit
the debt-paying money of the world to
the metal that is most cas- ly controlled
by the money lenders. 1t is a scheme
to increase and perpetuate incomes
founded on debt 1t is scheme de-
signed to force more bonds and mort
cages upon the people. 1t is more. 1t
i a conspiracy designed to appreciate
debt and depreeiate labor and commodi-
ties by forcing the payment of existing
debts in dearcr money than existed
at the time the debt was contracted;
and to conceal the real intentions of
the conspira tors and give their cum
ningly devised scheme the outward ap-
pearance of exalted honesty, the claim
is made that the silver dollar of I12H
grains is dishonest dollar; that It is
only sixty-eight cent dollar; that it
has been padded out with thirty-two
cents worth of fiat, and that the poor
man is entitled to just as good dollar
as the rich mans dollar.
Let no workingman be deceived by
such absurd propositions. 1t is not the
silver dollar that has been padded with
thirty two cents worth of fiat; it is the
gold dollar that has been over-padded
with thir:y-two cents worth of dis
eliminating legislation in the form of
free and unlimited coinage and a one
sided public policy that has discrimi-
mated against silver in the payment of
government obligations, Cor the pay
ment of which silver has always been
legal tender. The padding has all been
on the gold side in the interest of
coupon-clippers. The silver dollar
pays just as much rent and taxes, and
buys Just as much food and clothing
for the poor man as the best gold dol
lar that was ever coined. 1t is full
hundred cent dollar in all the multi
furious exchanges that administer to the
wants and comforts of human life; and
all this cry of dishonesty comes from
the club rooms of associated Shylocks
who have conspired to make it a sixty
eight cent dollar at the counter of the
interest -takcr. The whole scheme is
villainous plot intended to change the
standard of values in the interest of the
creditor classes and force from the in
dustrial masses 32 per cent. more labor
in the liquidation of debts
Every dollar issued by the United
States is hundred-cent dollar. 1t
would be as sensible to talk about a
three-quart gallon as to speak of dol
lar containing less than one hundred
cents A dollar is unit used in COM
putting actual value and is established
by law, and not by the quantity or
quality of its material composition. If
it is necessary to put a dollars worth
of intrinsic value into the material out
of which the dollar is made, it then
holds true that every gold dollar now
in use is less than thirty -five-cent dol
lar, for the reason that reliable statis-
tics prove that the average cost of pro-
ducing dollars worth of gold in this
country is less than thirty five
cents; and therefore the argu-
ment SO often made that twenty
five and eight-tenths grains of
gold is dollar because it cost dol
lars worth of labor to produce it. falls
to the grolnaz In fict the whole theory
that every coined dollar shou d contain
a dollars worth of metal is absurd. for
the reason that there Is no way of
determining whether dollar contains
dollars worth OF metal except to
measure its actual value by the legal
| value of itself, or by some other kind
fAf dollar xyhnSn aI,,o &c cfoI h ish I'd
and regulated by a law of congress,
and not by its real worth as a COM
modify. IL God in creating the first
man, Adam. had said, Let us put a
mans worth Of clay into a1nan." Adam
would never have been created for the
want of measure with which to de-
termine a mans worth of clay. Yet a
proposition of that kind would have
been no more unreasonable or ridicu-
lous than is the proposition to put a
dollars worth of silver or other metal
in dollar. Weights and measures
cannot weigh and measure themselves,
because they are the product of law.
Their accuracy can be deter
mined only by the law creating
them. Eleven inches cannot constitute
a foot: not because any material thing
forbids it, bat because the law forbids
it The inch had its origin far back in
the age of ignorance AMI superstition.
and was determined by the length of
twelve grains of barley placed end to
end lengthwise. But who in this age
Of enlightment would b, willing to
make himself so ridiculous as to assume
that the ever fiuctuating length of
twelve grains of barley should deter
mine the length of our unit of distance? ?
Yet such an assumption could be no
more irrational than the claim that we
should ignore law and return to the
basbarous customs of the feudal ages in
fixing the quantity of silver that should
constitute dollar, or declare a lawful
dollar dishonest because its value was
notdetermined by an exploded theory
of an idolatrous people.
THE relative value OF money made
from different kinds of ma teri1 can
only be influenced by the legal advan-
tages one kind may have over another
If the law of the nation authorizes the
free and unlimited coinage OF one kind
| of metal into money and restricts the
coinage of another and demonetizes the
restricted coin in the payment of GER
tain obligations, its value will dcpre-
late and the value of the metal admit
ted to unlimited coinage and made,
when SO coined, a full legal tender for
all debts, if produced in unlimited
quantities, will appreciate in value be-
cause of its legal powers and privileges
over the other. Herein lies the fncou-
| sistency of the advocates of a single
gold standard. They are unwilling TO
restore silver to its equal legal powers
and privileges with gold and adjust the
ratio at which the two metals shall be-
coined afterwards" O
a CORRUPT JUDICIARY.
1 Democra ic Paper Mapfuiiy Espou %.
the Cause of Organ liz ed a b jr As gaInxt