The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-18
lac word "valueo means.

D
II is always worth 100 cents in gold.
The illogical character of this ar
gument will appear at a glance when
we consider that if all the gold in the
world were to be destroyed, excepting
one dollar, that one lonesome dollar
would still be worth just 100 cents IN
gold, but its value to it's fortunate pos
SCISSOR would be inestimable.
While stoutly insisting that the low
prices of which we complain are owing
to increased production of cOmmodi-
ties, they not only fail to account Tor
this increase beginning just as silver
was demonetized, but they fail to show
an increase at all greater than that
in former years.
Let Gold Bugs Answer This.
We declare that. the ratio of increase
was as great from 1850 to 1878 as it
has been since that time, and we chai-
lenge proof to the contrary And
yet, during the former period. prices
constantly rose, while during the
latter they have gone down twice as
rapidly as they formerly went up.
Instead of over-production, it is a
clear ease of undercOnsumption. The
money supply has not kept pace with
other things; the people have been too
poor to buy, and as a result a surplus
stronger proof could be required of
the correctness of this view than is
found in the tremendous falling off in
the consumption of wheat by the peO-
pie of the United States during re-
cent years. People do not, as a rule,
stop eating bread unless compelled to
by the direst necessity.
They argue that low prices are 4
benefit to the poor man because lie
can buy so much more with a dollar.
But when, as result of falling prices,
half the mills, factories and mines of
the country are closed, and millions
of worktnen have no employment, and
consequently no dollars, how much
consolation is it to the honest toiler
to tell him that things are very cheap
and he can buy so much with a dollar
when he gets it?
They tell us that free coinage will
bring Us to a silver basis, and place
Us on a level with the half-civilized
nations of the world. In this they
assume one of the main points of dis
pute, while the conclusion is utterly
preposterous.
They have never attempted to dem
onstrate that the free coinage of sill
yer will bring us to a silver standard,
or to show how it would injure us, If,
by accident, we should happen to get
a little more than our proportion of
the worlds silver.
Not an Honest Contention.
They contend that demonstration in
the United States did no harm, be-
cause we had only coined about
100000 standard dollars. We answer
that this is not an honest contention.
While we had only coined about S,000,-
900 standard dollars we had also
coined about $40, 900 in smaller de-
nominations and up to the year 1858
all that had been minted was full
legal tender. Besides, we had actually
used a very large amount of Spanish
milled dollars, Mexican dollars and
other foreign silver coins made legal
tender by law. The amount of our
actual coinage is immaterial. There
were many years during which we
coined but little goiu-in 3olols loHe
at ALL From 1860 to 1879 we were
doing our business almost exclusively
with paper, and there was no more
reason for the decentralization of sill
yer than for that of gold. But all
this time we had the right to coin
and use both. We did not do it be-
cause we had to send the most of our
precious metals abroad to pay our
debts.
civil war. The whole nation was
loaded down with debt. We were
struggling towards a resumption of
specie payments.
1t made an enormous difference to
us whether we resumed on the basis
of both metals or only one.
international Agreement.
The opponents of the silver move
ment, after exhausting every argu-
ment against it and in favor of the
gold standard, almost invariably de-
clare that they desire an international
agreement to restore it. Here they abb
solutely surrender their case upon
every question of principle. If we are
all wrong upon this question, why
should they want to restore silver by
international agreement or in any
other way?
But, they say, we cannot do It alone.
How do they know? Wherever it has
been tried it has proved a magnificent
success.
When driven from their ground upon
every other point they have the ef-
frontery to insist that we must be in
accord with the monetary policy of
England. What an argument is that
for patriotic American citizens to
makeI And it is as weak in it's logic
as it is in its patriotism. To argue
that because the gold standard is good
for creditor England it must be good
for debtor America is to confound all
distinctions.
Our interests are directly the reverse.
1t is high time for us to establish an
American financial policy. We are in
favor of a new declaration of indepen-
dence. The soil of the American colo
MES was drenched in the lifeblood of
our sires in the great struggle for
personal freedom. We appeal to the
people of this country to emulate the
spirit of their revolutionary ancestors,
and resolve that as no nation can SUBJ
jugate US by military power. no nation
shall subjugate us by the insidious
power of wealth.
For America Against the World.
We wish to remind our fellow coun-
trymen that we also are citizens Of
the republic. proud of its past and soli-
citous for it's future. We have no de-
sire to force a policy upon 1t that will
threaten its stability, injure its pros
perity, or tarnish its fair name. If an
attack of that kind is ever made it will
come from the money kings of the
east, aping the ways and counting the
favor of European mobiles, princes and
kings+never from US. We are for
America against the world, and for
the interests of the common people
above every other consideration.
We believe that the complete restor-
alton of silver will place US in
close commercial touch with the silver
using nations of the earth, without in
any way injuring our relations with
those countries that adhere to the gold
standard. That it will enormously in
crease orr foreign EXPORTS arrest the