Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-06-21

| favor of it ] stand now where my la
mented predecessor Mr.. Beck, and
stood together in 1873. 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 s., 200. 900 nor
more than S4,O00,000 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 il 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
| $4,000. 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 be 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. l believe that gold and silver
bullion should be treated exactls alike
in the mints of the United States; and
that is a dollars worth of gold should
be coined into gold dollar and dol
lars worth of silver should be coined
into 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.. Carlisle's
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 second reading of the foregoing
language, the fact is revealed that the
sense in which it is intended to be un-
derstood depends upon the construction
placed by MIR. Carlisle upon the phrase
"a dollars worth" And vet there are
| bcnIcACcS III MI AdIllSle statement
which seem to warrant the conclusion
that he favors the demonetization 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" It 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" n dollar while
there is no law which determines the
| quantities of other products which shall
be worth" dollar, there is an unfair
discrimination made In favor of the
holders of gold and silver bullion and
against the holders of all other products
of labor
Again: When Mr. Carlisle saws 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
"a dollars worth of gold should be
coined into gold dollar and dollars
worth of silver should be coined into a
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 25.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 parody upon
justice and common sense
There is gross discrimination made
in favor of gold and against silver SO
long as the total product of gold, not 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 it's value upon the
demand for it for use as 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 moment the abb
surdity of this thing called metallism
The several nations of the earth take
the ideal and imaginary unit of com
parison and account, the figure l. and
calling it a unit of value, they give it
a denominational name, such as pound,
franc, dollar, etc, and also give to its
fractions distinctive names. Then they
proclaim by law that some certain and
fixed quantity of some metal shall con-
stitute unit of value such as a
pound. dollar, and then, with owlish
! gravity, they assert that such certain
and fixed quantity Of METALS "a dol
| lars worth, because it is worth dol
lar Just as if any commodity, a GER
tain fixed quantity of which the law
says may freely be coined into dollar.
could at any time. by any possibility,
be worth any less than dollar for
every such certain and fixed quantity,
The economic law governing the case
is this: When any metal is accorded
the privilege of unlimited and unre-
stricted coinage, the total product of
such metal will take to itself its coin
age value and none of it can be obtained
for use in the arts for less than the
monetary value given to it by coinage
laws, the commercial value being
merged INTO the monetary value.
That is exactly the position occupied
by gold to-day, and it is just the posi-
ton occupied by silver up to the time
the crime of 1873. was perpetrated.
And with this value, thus artifcially
cad arbitrarily impaired by fat of law,
they proceed TO Ieaspre the value oi
all other commodities