The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-01
THE SILVER DOLLAR.

LII OOfOCdlllS Tue Necessity OF GoSIOT-
ing silver to it's money status before
the act of 1873 there is no need to re-
sort to sophistry, falsehood or exag-
geration. Indeed they do more damage
than good to the silver cause. A con-
temporary in this city has valiantly
championed the claims of silver as
primary money or money of ulti-
mate redemption" and in doing so has
obtained reputation among the min
ing fraternity which has been very
beneficial to 1t in a financial way.
But it has done harm to the cause
by many gross exaggerations and some
positively untrue statements, made
either through ignorance or foolish
desire to bolster up the truth by the
use of falsehood. We have taken the
most charitable view of its dilemma
and have been encouraged in doing so
by its evident gross ignorance on sew
eral very simple facts connected with
the silver question. But its present
persistence in palpable error leads
one to a different conclusion.
! Its assertions in regard to the silver
dollar WILL no doubt, be fresh in the
eplemory of its readers. It contended
! that the silver dollar was no more
than token money. That it was just
the same as a greenback. That it's
| par value was maintained simply be-
cause the government stood pledged to
redeem it with gold dollar whenever
called upon.
The Herald showed many times con-
clusively to the contrary. That the
! inscription on the silver dollar
proved it was not a promise to pay a
dollar, but a dollar itself in its own
right That it was standard coin
Of the United States That there was
no law or regulation by which the gov
eminent was pledged to redeem" the
silver dollar in gold or anything else
The Herald showed by the law of 1873
that the silver dollar was standard
! money. Also that the law of 1890 did
not change Its status. And that the
repeal act which abrogated the pur-
chase of silver bullion by the govern
ment did not alter the money quality
Of the silver dollar.
used similar arguments. if such they
may be called, as those of our perverse
ueighbor, and the question was sub
mitted to the Secretary of the Treas
ury with the following reply as the
results:
Treasury Department, Office of the
Secretary, Washington, D. c., Aug
ust %, 1895:
A. W. c. Weeks, Winterset, Ia:
Sir-In reply to your letter of the 18th
instant, you are informed that there is
no law or regulation of this depart
ment which provides for the redemp-
ton of silver dollars or silver certif1-
Gates in gold. Silver certificates are,
according to their terms. redeemable
by. the government in silver dollars
only, while THE LATTER, BEING
STANDARD COINS OF THE UNITED
STATES, ARE NOT REDEENTA BILE
IN ANY OTHER FORM OF MONEY.
1t has never been the practice of the
government to redeem dollars or silver
certificates in gold.
United States notes (greenbacks) and
treasury notes of 1890 are redeemable
in coin and are redeemed in gold when
it is demanded. in accordance with the
/ terms of the enclosed circular of No
vember l. 1894
Both silver dollars and silver certifi-
Gates are received by the government
the same as gold, in payment of all
debts due the United States. Yours
respectfully, w E. CURTIS,
Acting Secretary.
This was copied into the Ogden Press
in refutation of a goldbug argument,
and that argument was the Identical
assertion of the professed great and
only silver sage of the mountains. 1t
completely knocks out his untruthful
contention and shows he was talking
of something he knew nothing about,
just as he was when declaring that
silver dollars were not receivable for
customs dues, and when he declared
that the national banks made as much
money by the destruction of their notes
as by their regular banking business
Such remarkably idiotic utterances
caused even the swallowers of his
other puerilities to cape with wonder.
We would not have referred to this
matter again, but for the impudent
manner in which that pretended sage
assails The Herald for showing up the
truth This is what he says, quoting
from Solomon:
Though thou shouldst bray fool in
a mortar among wheat, with a pestle.
yet will not his foolishness depart from
him.
1t is not the first time that Diabolus
quoted scripture. But there could not
have been found a more pertinent pas
sage to portray his own condition. The
Secretary's letter is the mortar, the
Ogden Press is the pestle, and though
literally brayed to a jelly, his foolish
ness Is still uppermost
The silver dollar is standard money,
It is not redeemable in gold at the
Treasury, it is essentially different
from a greenback. These are the only
points in the controversy on the status
Of the silver dollar.
It does not matter what Senator
Jones or ether great silver orators
from whom our contemporary has Dor
rowed most of its ideas on silver may
have said. Facts are above theories
and they are even more stubborn
things than our thoroughly 'brayed''
COMPLEMENTARY.