The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-12-25
THE SILL YER DOLLARS,

THEY STAND ON THE LEGAL-TENDER
BASIS.-THEIR VALUE is IN THE
FIAT, NOT IN THE METAL
We take it back. In The Voice,
Nov. Z, we stated, on what we thought
good authority, that silver-certificateS
may be taken any day to the Subtreas-
ury here in New York and exchanged
for legal-tenders (greenbacks), Geo.
the following letter he has received
on this point:
''Sir:-In reply to your letter of the
18th inst, you are informed that sill
ver-certificates are exchangeable only
the terms printed on the face of the
certificate. G. n. JORDAN,
Asst. Treasurer u. S."
Since the above, more careful in
Qulry cOnvinceS us that our informant
was mistaken, and probably confound-
ed the silver-certificat ties with the
treasury nOteS issued under the Sher-
man law Of 1890, which are payable lin
CON- and for which, under the pres
ent construction OF the law, the bear
his option. Mr.. Gowdy asks us how
silver dollar is as good as a gold dollar.
Our. answer is. because it is made a
legal tender for the payment of all
debts, and because the coinage of
these silver dollars is, and has been
ever since 1873, limited in amount
N. Y. Voice.
Precisely. This answers all the lies
of the gold-bug papers that silver is
kept at 100 cents on the dollar be-
cause you could exchange the
silver dollar for the silver
certificate and demand a gold
dollar for the certificate. There is
nothing of the kind
See here, friend-If the legal-ten-
der power, stamped on so cent lump
Of silver, makes it worth 81, would it
not be worth 81 if the silver in that
lump fell to 10 cents on the dollar? If
not, why not?
And if this is SO why would not the
same be true if the legal-tender func-
tion was stamped upon piece of pa
per, or piece Of leather? Why go to
the pains of digging, blasting, mining
and refining to get netting to put
the sovereign stamp upon, when it is
the stamp that makes the value and
not the stuff which is dug out of the
ground? Is it anything more than a
matter Of inherited superstition,-
like the Jew who makes circumcision
an essential religious rite, and then
performs the ceremony with a stone
knife, because his ancestors used that
kind of implement in the 'stone age, "
hundreds of centuries before iron or
steel we're discovered?
Are not we human "critters" the
greatest pack of asses that ever were
invented? How the angels must al
ternately grin with delight and weep
with pity to witness our antics.
Think of the millions of men,
women and children reduced to
wretchedness, and this earth made a
scene of bowling misery, hunger,
starvation and crime, because of
superStitions which date back beyond
the beginning Of history;-which are
indeed derived from the antediluvi-
ans. We have repeatedly shown that
gold and silver became the precious
metals because they were first the
sacred etals:-sacred to the wors hip
of the sun and moon;-aons before
Christ or Mohammed, or Zeus or
Jupiter were dreamed, of. The gold.
bug papers are simply perpetua ting
sun and moon worship, in the midst of
the developments Of modern times;
and the Rothschilds, Grover Cleve-
land John Sherman and the rest
are high priests of the prehistoric
religion.