The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-02-07
THE WHITE DOLLAR.

who do not thoroughly investigate
them become, SO to speak. mixed up
in their remarks on the subject In
undertaking to enlighten others, how
ever, they should first become clear in
their own minds lest they should do
more harm than good by their en-
deavors.
1t is desirable that the people of the
east, and some who are in the same
condition ''out west" should be con-
verified from their goIdite notions and
learn the truth concerning the neces-
sity for free silver coinage. But they
Will not be turned into the right path
by the delusive finger post of error
There are some mistakes which q
few advocates Of the silver doctrine
have imbibed and to which they cling
as essential to their own theory. Our
morning contemporary, which poses as
the only exponent of genuine bimetal-
ism on the Pacific slope, and which
regards with irritation any disposition
to dissent from its ipse dixit, falls into
as many Of these errors as any less
presumptuous wou1d-be authority. and
resents contradiction with greater
| rudeness and Impotence.
One Of its blunders is thus ex-
pressed in its editorial columns:
''The silver dollars in use are but as
subsidiary coin"
by the law they are made to lean
upon gold, even as the greenback is
Silver dollars are not held by the
Treasury department as within them
selves perfect money, but as an evil
dence of the Government Indebtedness,
which upon presentation must be re-
deemed in gold
1.-THE silver dollar is a mere auXil-
| larry. or. more properly speaking, token
coin"
THAT is why we say silver is de-
monetized, for in point Of fact under
| present laws, greenbacks, Treasury
notes and silver dollars are but as is
the solvent mans check. 1t is not
money, but Will draw money so long
| as the man has money in the bank"
We might go on and quote similar
Sentences Of the same tenor, but they
will suffice. a request being made for
the law which our neighbor says has
fixed this silver status, instead of ref
erence to the law we are treated to a
repetition Of similar remarks, with a
few lofty intimations that nobody
knows anything about the matter who
dissents from them.
The Herald has quoted the law
which establishes the silver dollar as
lawful money of the United States,
and has also shown that While silver
as a metal has been demonetized, in
that its free and unlimited coinage into
money was stopped by the law of 1873,
yet that the silver dollar has not been
demonetized, but that all the stand
ard silver dollars in circulation are
money in their own right, requiring
no redemption.
But our neighbor does make an at
tempt to fortify one of its fallacies
with one quotation. 1t is from the law
of 1873, and reads as follows:
1.-THE gold coins of the United States
! shall be one dollar piece, which. at
the standard weight of 25S grains,
shall be the unit of value"
But how about the law of 1878? That
restored the silver dollar to it's status
of 1887 and was entitled,
can act to authorize the coinage of
the standard silver dollar and to re-
store its legal tender character
The contention of our neighbor Is
that as the law of 1873 made the gold
dollar the unit of value, the silver dol
lar was made subsidiary" "auxil-
larry and simply a 'token COIN" Well,
! let us carry out its own reasoning a
little further. Previous to the law of
1873 what was the unit of valued"
| Was it not the silver dollar? When the
government was established was not
one Of the first things done the recog-
milton of the dollar of 371A grains of
| pure silver as the unit of values? Was
not gold counted from that unit and
its ratio fixed from it? When the ratio
was changed did not the silver dollar
as the unit Of values remain at its
| original weight, while the weight of
/ the gold dollar was changed-made
| less so as to fix the ratio at 10 to L?
| We do not think our irrascible con-
| temporary will dispute these facts.
| That being the status of the case,
was the gold dollar a subsidiary
CON-" an auxiliary made to lean
on silver the same as "a solvent
mans check" and d mere token
coin?" If our contemporary logic u
is of any use in this argument, that
must have been the status of the gold
dollar when the silver dollar was the
unit of value. Or does not the rule
work both ways?
Now, observe, we do not attempt to
put gold down to subordinate place
| to silver because of that fact we are
only carrying out our opponents So
called reasoning. AS a matter of fact,
it does not affect the question at all.
The act of 1878 restored to the silver
dollar its money functions, and though
! it did not provide for the unlimited
coinage of silver, it did make abso-
lutte money of the dollars then in cir
culation, and of those to be coined I'M
| der that act.
| The law of 1890 did not alter the
money status Of the silver dollar And
the repeal act OF 1888 merely stopped
the purchase of silver as bullion. The
silver dollar. then, stands where it
was restored to in 1878, which placed
| it back to its position as money as in
1887, for SO it is stated in the law.
| The subsidiary silver coins of the
United States are half-dollars, quarter
dollars and dimes The dollar Sc NOT