The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-10-26
This Means Business.

To the Editor of the Inteliigencer.
A friend has just brought me q copy
Of the News and asks my explanation
Of its comments, on Vests late speech.
Abiding to the fact that the senator
says that he exchanged in Germany
silver certificates at par for gold, the
News adds:
1.-THE News is sorry Senator Vest
stopped so short when on this point.
Why didn't he 60 on and tell his
hearers the true reason why the
Austrian banker took the silver certifi-
catcp Not one word did he say about
the silver certificates being payable
in coin, and that too, at the option Of
the holder, who, in the future as In
the past, will continue to take the
gold. 1t a man starts to tell q thing
he should, It strikes us, tell everything
connected with it. Especially should
this be the case where q campaign Of
education is said to be the sole object.
The people want light, but they don't
want half of it covered up or left out"
The reason Vest did not explain the
cause as the News does, namely that
silver certificates are payable sin coin"
and the holder elects to stake gold"
is that they are not payable in 'scoin,"
and they have been paid In gold.
Had the editor or writer read carefully
thu speech, he would have seen that
Vest explained that silver certificates
are redeemable in nothing but silver
dollars. How a it be expected that
the mass of the people q understand
the fundamental principles involved IN
this question when some newspaper,
expected 10 teach them, seem 70 know
so little about about 1t as the News
article would indicate. Silver certif-
Gates being the bills issued under the
Bland-Allison act, are not promises to
pay by the government, but are mere
certificates that five, ten or twenty
silver dollars have been deposited and
are payable on demand to the bearer.
These certificates are redeemable in
nothing but silver dollars and these
latter are not redeemable in gold or
anything else; they stand on their own
merit alone, j. e. that the government
stamp some dollar" and that they
are declared to be q legal tender for
certain debts.
The fact that these silver certificates
are redeemablc in nothing but silver
dollars, that they are as good as gold
the world over, Is a conclusive and
unanswernble statement OF o fact dis.
proving the claim that the United
States alone without an international
agreement cannot coin silver at q ratio
Of l6 to l, for she has coined $780,
100000 of just such silver, good as
gold the world over. l have repeatedly
called attention to this simple fact, and
as no living a can answer the
argument arising from the fact, !
offered a donation of ten dollars
through the Post Dispatch to the sound
money club Of st. Louis, il any of the
lawyers belonging to that body would
cite any law authorizing the redemp.
Lion OF silver certificates In gold. Mr..
Leverette Bell came out and said there
was no such law, but they we're as
good as gold, because he said they
oould be exchanged for treasury notes,
issued under the Sherman act, and
then the policy of the administration
was to redeem these latter in gold.
[ then asked what kept silver certi6-
Gates on a parity with gold from 1878
to 1880, or twelve years, before there
were any treasury notes under the
Sherman law, and the inquiry has not
been answered. Now il the News will
find any law authorizing silver certi.
.icates to be redeemed in gold, or even
get a statement from Mr.. Carlisle that
they have been SO redeemed, 1 will
double the offer and pay him $50. 90
to be used for any cause, political OF
otherwise he may select.
j. ID. SHEwALTER.