The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-25
IGNORANCE MOST AsroUNDINe.


In the splendid speech made by Del
egate Rawlins on silver in the House
of Representatives,. which has appeared
in full in The Herald. he showed that
silver dollars are money; that they
are not redeemable in gold;" they are
not redeemable in any other kind of
money" We pronounced this sound
and sensible. The Herald had previous
" used similar arguments in reply to
the sophisms of our morning contem-
porary, which insists that silver dol
lars are not money but that they are
Just the same as a greenback or a
check"
We were little curious to see what
the pretended oracle on financial ques-
tons would have to say as to Mr.. Raw
Inns remarks We had not long to
wait. 1t returns to the attack and in
its 'T-know-it-alr' and "you-know-
nothing" style, repeats its manifest
absurdity and backs it with state
ment which exposes its own utter ig-
nor&nce of the subject. That is to gay,
it supposes a case as follows:
We will suppose that our neighbor
had imported something from Europe
on which the customs were 500; that
the package lay in the custom house
ana our contemporary wanted to pay
the charges and get it out, and that he
mad nothing to pay with except one
hundred silver dollars. How would he
manage? He would have to go to a
bank or a sub-treasury, get his $500 re-
deemed in gold and take his gold to the
custom house. He would have to do
the same with greenbacks, or, if he had
some gentleman's check, some gentle
man whose credit was undoubted in
New York, he could pay with a check.
The last would not prove that the
check was money. The other transac-
ton would not esta blish that silver
dollars were any different from green
backs. The mistake our contemporary
makes is this: 1t confuses what passes
as money among men with money of
ultimate redemption. The Govern
ment has stamped its disapproval of
silver as money on it's very face. 1t
has held out to the world that, while
1t might pass as token coin between
people in their business, it is not money
" dlNliAlrtlC 1tGtiupllOil III lHlS country.
we have no idea that our contempor-
airy can see the difference, and expect
that it will go on in the future as it
has done in the past, and say that sill
yer dollars are money and stick to it,
and say that every one who is sane
and candid must admit that that is
true, Notwithstanding that it is all
baby talk.
We might have told all that in a
third of the space, but we wished to
give our arrogant neighbor the benefit
of its own language that there might
be no further lodging of the issue.
The foregoing quotation shows that
our contemporary has fallen into as
bad a hole as it did on the national
bank currency question, when it
showed how rich the national banks
grew on the burning up of their cur
rency or feeding it to the rats. The
ignorance now displayed is simply as
founding in one that stands on a self
erected pedestal and proclaims: 81 am
the silver oracle of the west! He who
disputes with me utters only baby
talk"
The truth is that those silver dollars
which Sir Oracle says are not money,
would be taken at the custom house
for their face, and that there would
be no need either to go to a bank and
get them redeemed in gold" or to OBJ
tain a 'gentleman's check" for the
As our contemporary does not
seem to understand this matter and
thinks we will not understand it until,
probably $50 years from now" we viii
cite the laws of 1878 and 1899 in reIa-
ton to it, repeating what we have
proved for it several times--that the
repeal act of 1895 has not changed the |
money status Of the silver dollar in
The least degree. First, the law of
1878:
There shall be coined, at the sew
eral minis of the United States, silver !
dollars of the weight of four hundred |
and twelve and a half grains troy |
standard silver, as provided in the act |
II January 18th, 1887, on which shall |
De the devices and superscriptions pro- |
5ided by said act; which coins with all |
silver dollars heretofore coined by the |
United States of like weight and inc |
less shall be a legal tender. at their |
lominal value, for all debts and dues. |
public and private except where other
wise expressly stipulated in the con-
.ract."
Now for the law of 1890, commonly
Known as the Sherman Act. That
makes no change as to the full legal
ender quality of the silver dollars,
nut merely reduces the number that
hall be coined and provides for the
ssue of Treasury notes redeemabIe in
DIN, in purchase of silver bullion, and
hat
Such Treasury notes shall be a le-
sal tender in payment of all debts, pub
ic and private, except where otherwise
stipulated in the contract, and shall |,
'e receivable for customs, taxes and
III public dues; and when so received |.
nay be reissued.''
Now what is there left of the case
by our arrogant contempor-
ny? Its lack of common understand
ng of the question is only comparable
With it's assumption and positive false
Iood when it says:
The government has stamped its
isapproval of silver as money upon
IS very face"
The exact opposite is stamped on the
ace of the silver dollar: "UNITED |.
iTATEs OF AMERICA. ONE DOL
AR And the assertion that it is