Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-05-10

Lecture Are True ana Can Not 6e Re.
futed Some Citations For Gold
Standard Writers.
The following letter has been adj
dressed to the editor OF the Times-Her-
aid in reply to an editorial published in
that paper last Tuesday morning:
Chicago, April 24-In this morn
ing's rimes-Herald appears an editor
ial attack on the first chapter in Coins
Financial school, in which the impress
sion is intended to be conveyed that
the financial law adopted in 1892 10y
the United States congress did not iiN
the unit on silver, but did ix it on gold.
The Tmes-Herald is wrong and the
book is right. My quarrel with the
Times-H Herald is that it does not state
the proposition or the authoritie, fair
". and draws conclusions which will
not bear investigation for a moment.
The substance of the discussion that
led up to the fixing of the unit may be
found in the state papers Of that period,
the principal ones Of which may be
found in the report Of the international
monetary conference OF 1873, and con-
sists of the following documents
L. Mr.. Jetlerson's notes on the es-
Enlistment of a money unit and Of a
coinage for the United States.
- Report of a grand committee
on a money unit
IS. The coinage system proposed to
congress April 5, 1856 by Samuel Os-
good and Walter Livingston, who con-
stituted the board of treasury
-. The resolutions on coinage Of
August s, 1879"
-. Report of Alexander Hamilton
on the establishment Of a mint
.6. Miscellaneous documents"
Prom these you win sec that Mr..
jefferson on page 43S advises the fol-
lowing coins;
/. A gold piece equal in value to
SIS.
,. The unit or dollar itself Of silver.
3. The tenth Of dollar Of silver
also.
4. The hundredth Of a dollar Of
copper
The above Is his exact language.
Further on Mr.. jefferson says:
Why the dollar was chosen.
The unit or dollar is a Known coin
and the most familiar Of all to the
mind Of the people. It is already
adopted from the south 20 north, has
identified our currency, and therefore
happily offers itself as unit already
introduced. Our public debt, our req
uisitions and their apportionments,
have given it actual aud long possession
of the place of unit. The course of our
commerce, too, will bring Us more of
this thap any other foreign coin, and
therefore renders it more worthy of at
tention."
Further on he says:
If we determine that dollar shall
be our unit we must then say with pre-
cision what a dollar Is"
And then again on page 442, he says:
The quantity Of fine silver which
shall constitute the unit being settled,
and the proportion Of the value OF gold
to that of silver, table should be
formed from the assay before suggest
ed chasing the several foreign coins ac-
cording to their ineness.
And again on page 443 he recon-
mends that a committee be appointed:
ITO prepare an ordinance for estab-
fishing the unit Of money within these
states; for subdivding it and striking
coins of gold, silver and copper on the
following principles
THAT the money unit Of these states
shall be equal in value to the Spanish
milled dollar, containing SO much fine
silver as the assay before directed shall
be shown to be contained on an aver
age in dollars of the several dates cir
culating with Us.
That this unit shall be divided into
tenths and hundredths.'
CIn the report Of the grand commit
tee on the money unit that fixed the
silver dollar as the unit we lind on page
447 the following:
The quantity of pure silver being
fixed that is to be the unit or dollar
and the relation between silver and
gold being fixed, all the other weights
must follow"
On page 449 we find the following;
"On the eighth Of April, 1856, the