The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-12
COIN IN A BAD SNARL.
his FINANCIAL LOGIC LEADS HIM
INTO A HOPELESS MIDDLE.

He Drops I'm TO Get Himself ..Right-
ed" and Is. Convinced Before tie
Leaves He Is Wrong In Most of His
Conclusions some Conspicuous
FnIIacieS He + Forced 10 Admit In
His Little BOok-ue Runs when
Cornered at Last.
From the Chicago Tribune.
Yesterday less than the usual number Of
people visited the editorial rooms OF The
Tribune. Most of them had views on
different questions which they wanted to
have advocated, or at least published. one
OF these callers came on different GRAND
He was a neatly-clad chunk of a boy
wearing knickerbOckers and rather
pert and hippant air. with a know-it-all
leer in his eye. Judging from his general
appearance that he wanted a baseball
score card or information about bicycling
one Of the editors started TO refer him TO
the sporting reporter The lad got a lit
tie indignant. said that is not my errand.
sir" and laid down a card on which was
the name Coin"
Then he went on to state that what ne
was after was a correction-he had been
misquoted, and believing The Tribune to
be fair. paper he had called around TO
seen n it would set him right. Being told
that that was the case he stated his bust
ness and was soon shown that he had not
been misrepresented. Then the editor.
having a little spare time, awaited him
self of the opportunities to put a few ques-
tions to his visitor, which he answered
promptly at first. but got tangled up to-
wards the close.
you say on the eigth page OF a book
which was written for or by you, that
much depended on this decision'--as to
which metal should be chosen as the unit
In 1892. For the one selected to represent
the unit would thereafter be Unchanged
bic in value. DO you mean to be- under
stood as saying that after a metal has
been chosen 10 represent the unit il be-
comes Interchangeable in value2"
Yes, said CON. For it,would be the
unit of value And a unit, as have OK
planned elsewhere, cannot become either
more or less than unity without ceasing
TO be a unit"
You say gold was made the unit of
value by the law of 1873 Then gold was
thereafter Interchangeable in value, and for
| twenty-five years there has been no
change in the value Of that metalg'
That Seems to be legitimate conclu-
sion from what l wrote said the boy
When you speak of value what do
you mean? What is the value of an
OUNCE of gold or of twenty-three grains
Of that mctal2"
Il take it, said Coin. that its value
Is whatever VIII be given in exchange for
1t in goods or lserviees. It's value" said
he hesitatingly, lis its purchasing power"
You concede thatY
YES"
But has the purchasing power OF gold
| been the same since 1872"
No" delightedly, IAN ounce Of gold
will buy twice as much wheat as It did
then l have explained that in my hook"
But why does IL not also buy twice as
| much corn, or oats or fax seed, or hog,
| or mutton or beef cattle? You know that
! IT practically buys no more Of them now
than it did in 1873 before the alleged de-
| none tization crime was committed, maxi
| ing due allowance for the depreciation of
! the greenback currency of that tfme?''
Wei, thoseS eNaFleuss articles must be
| considered in the light of exceptions to
| my rule in regard to wheat"
But may not wheat be an exception
on account of its overproduction for the
| demand?"
Il am not prepared to grant that"
Have you explained there that an
ounce OF gold, or a dollars worth OF
twenty-three and one-ffths grains OF
gold, will buy less labor than in 1892"
No" said Coin, Il have not To tell
you. the truth 1t did not fit in with my ar
gument. / mentioned only those articles
of which 4 person can buy more at pres
ent with the same quantity Of gold"
Was that honest?'
Perhaps not, but it was necessary to
make out my calamity contention-see?
| Had given all the facts my argument
| would have been worthless. But wait
| bit. do say in my book that the metal
| chosen to represent the unit will be I'M
! changeable in value but i mean the metal
when coined and not when uncoined. |
mean that a. coined dollar is the unit of
value and that the metal in It never can
| be worth less than a dollar"
so what you mean to say is that the
! goid dollar, o has been been unchangeable in
Yes"
And its purchasing power, then, has
| been the same during that period? But
! YOU cannot mean that, because you say
| in your book that the purchasing power
of the gold dollar has doubled"
Il have explained that" said Coin. 1T
say in my book that the demand for sill
yer might make the quantity of silver in
/ a silver dollar sell for more than a dollar
| but it could never be worth less than a
| dollar Gold is so scarce that the de-
| mand for it may have made the quantity
| of gold in a gold dollar sell for more
than a dollar l mean that It is harder
! to get gold to make gold dollars Of"
Let us test that Here is most attrac-
| tive looking yellow coin called an eagle
| Hamilton gave it its name when he drew
| up the gold-unit basis law of 1872 which
| congress enacted and Washington signed
/ 1t is fresh from the mint. Let us 20 10
| a goldsmith and see how many grains of
| gold he Will give us for it,"
| The goldsmith put the coin--the gen.
/ uine not the bogus one-on his scales
/ say it was full, weight. and said: Il will
Z
| 1t contains 232 is grains, but l want 20
1 make small commission on the trans
/ action"
| 80 it appears Mr.. Coin, that at this
! time, an eagle viii bring the Quantity or
! gold that an eagle contains. Hence ac-
| cOrding to your reasoning, there Is no
! scarcity Of uncoined gold So ask again,
| why are you demanding silver and silver
! dollars as units, when we have as units
| gold and gold dollars which we have
| agreed have the same value now that
| they had in 1873? Why do you want 20
! change this steadfast bold unit seventy
millions of people have now?'
II want to change II Z" said the lad "in
order to redress a wrong and to undo a
| great crime. l mean that in 1873 the Amer
! ican unit of value was changed from sill
yer to gold after it had been silver for
| eighty years.
"What was there wrong about drop
/ ping the one of the two units that had
| fallen into disuse from 1905 to 1879? You
know that silver dollars had not circulat-
| ed from the time in 1905 when Jefferson
| ordered the discontinuance of the coin
/ age"
'',The crime" said Coin, Consisted
| partly in wounding Jefferson's ghosts
/ feelings by abandoning the metal he had
no