The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1895-07-04
THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER.

The Louisville Courier-Jeurnal has
begun to see that, 80 far, at least, as
the Populists are concerned, free
silver is wanted merely an an enter
ing wedge. 1t says:
The mass Of those who rally to the
silver banner care nothing for silver
nor yet for gold. What they wish is
cheap currency. They
look upon free silver only as a way
station to irredeemable paper. 1t has
leaked out that the POpulists on the
committee on resolutions at Memphis
compelled the others to strike out the
words, redemption money" from the
platform, they being "again redemp-
ton" They argued that there could
be no such thing as redemption money,
as, indeed, there cannot be, when the
country is flooded with irredeemable
paper, in quantities so great as to ex-
coed the resources of the strongest
government to redeem. There was no
redemption for the French assignats
or the Confederate currency. These
are the models which the Populists
propose for our imitation in estab-
fishing currency.
For the dozenth time we call at
tention to the fact that the late l..
l.. Polk, who had been clamorous
for free silver, declared, at a time
when it looked as if free coinage
bill were about to become law, that
free coinage would add but trihe
to the circulation and that what
was really needed was not free COIN
age of silver but an issue of fiat
money. And that is what his dis
ciples mean-one of them in an adj
joining county said so only few
weeks ago. The Courier-J ournal
has it right.
Upon the foregoing clipping the
Richmond Times submits some per-
tinent and interesting observations.
Hear it.
We have always claimed that there
was no sort of difference in principle
between the man who demanded that
the government should put its stamp
on 80 cents worth of silver and give it
power to pay debt of real dollar.
and the man who claimed that the
government could put its stamp on a
piece of paper and convert it thereby
into dollar. The latter Is the fat
money man, known also as the Popu-
list. But the former is just as much a
flat-money man as the POpulist is. If
the government can communicate to
the silver half-dollar another half-dol-
LAR of value by its stamp it can Just as
we'll communicate to piece of paper
whole dollar of value by its stamp.
Certainly. Why not? If the stamp
Of the government can create value
there is no need to put it on so ex-
pensive an article as sllver-why not
use nickel, copper, iron or paper in
stead? There is no difference in this
free silver movement and the green
back agitation of 1873 except that
one proposes to make a dollar out of
half dollar, while the other pro-
posed to make dollar out of moth
ing; and so from the free-coiner's
standpoint the fiatist cannot be far
wrong after all. F..
There are strange ideas abroad
about the power of government and
the qualities of money, and it is not
to be wondered at that those who
want q dollar made out of fifty
cents worth of silver bullion are al
80 those who want the government
to issue $50 per capita, "direct to
the people" But as in the other
case so in this-if the government
can convert fifty cents into dollar
why can it not as we'll convert moth
ing into a dollar? and if $50 per
capita why not 800, 81, 900, S., 900,
$25, 500. In word why not abol
ish poverty and have done with the
whole business?
The above combination of inter.
rogations and general nonsense il
Just about on parity with Bob.
Hkersolls arguments (?) concerning
Theism. If the editor of the Char.
lotte Observer does not know that il
is al balderdash, then we have been
misied as to his mental catibre. II
is in perfect order to protest against
the appearance of such stuff in 80
prominent paper as the Observer
not because it can mislead or con-
fuse any one who ever gave the SUBJ
ject any attention-but because the
utterances of such paper should
be such as to command confidence
in and respect for journalism. The
remark that "Do confidence can be
put in the newspapers these days" is
already too common among the read