The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-22

mands, public and private, unless in
liquidation of a contract which calls
for something else. When it is tender
ed and taken, is there anything wrong
in the transaction? Is the money un-
sound?
The Post says the issue before the
country is, shall the United States
have the single gold standard or the
single silver standard" That is to say,
the single gold standard is sound
money and the single silver standard
would be unsound money. And it
quotes approvingly the following from
Governor Patterson's speech, which it
declares puts the silver men in a di
lemma:
''The bimetallic standard means the
free coinage of gold and silver at
ratio which results in maintaining
gold and silver in current circulation.
No one will deny the correctness OF
this definition. The question, therefore,
which 1 ask is this: Is there a man in
this audience who can name country
in all the world which has the bimetal
lie standard? Let your minds run over
the hemispheres and continents, and
L defy you to find one. Then the truth
is that all the countries are today
either at the gold or the silver stand
ard, and there is not one where free
coinage of silver obtains that is not
silver standard country"
Where the dilemma is, the Post has
not pointed out. and we confess our
inability to perceive it. We do not find
any fault with the Governors defini-
ton of the bimetallic standard. 1t is
good enough for present purposes. But
what has his assertion about standards
IN vogue in different countries to do
with the definition of sound money!"
Is it not fact that in all the coun-
tries where the gold standard prevails
there is vigorous agitation in favor of
bimetallism and a change of the single
gold standard? Is not that the great
question of the hour? Is it not very
much like begging of the question to
make the statement he has set forth?
Why, the fact that these countries
demonetized silver is the reason that
they have not now the bimetallic
standard and hence the agitation to
restore it. VIII it be contended that
the United States was not under a
bimetallic standard from 1892 up to
1873? Were not silver and gold equal
before the law as to coinage, the ratio
being determined by law. And will the
restoration of that bimetalIic standard
establish the single silver standard?
1t seems to us that instead Of making
a dilemma for the silver men. the
gentleman refutes his own proposition.
Thu Ci1V1r
value under the law previous to 1873.
But the gold dollar was equal with
the silver dollar as the standard.
Both were lawful money, a full legal
tender and that made the standard
oimetallic, did it not?
Well. that is just what the silver
men want now. And they want it in
hurry. 1t is net single silver stand.
ard they seek to establish, unless the
bimetallic standard of four score years
in this country was the single silver
standard. If the money of the United
States during all that time was sound
money, then gold and silver at
ratio which results in manufacturing
gold and silver in concurrent circula-
ton Will also be sound money, and
this will not be a single silver stand
ard country, but a bimetallic standard
country, as of old.
Sound money is money of ultimate
redemption, whether it be gold or sill
yer or both. That quality is given to
it by law. If silver is coined as gold
is, without discrimination or limita-
ton or charge for mintage, and de-
clared full legal tender, one will be
as sound as the other as money of the
United States, and it will not be long
before other single standard nations
will return to the bimetallic standard,
and American silver and gold coin will
be sound money equally so, not only
in the United States, but in every part
of the civilized world