The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-09

Denver, May 6.-Mr. James A. Cherry
we'll known lawyer. today mailed the
following reply to the letter addressed
to him which J. Sterling Morton, Sec
rotary of agriculture, gave to the pub
lie yesterday.
Denver, Col, May S.-My Dear Sir
You have my sincere thanks for your
candid. lucid and courteous letter of
the first instant.
My reason for writing you was to
get the honest conviction of an honest
monometalliSt.
You have not helped me, Mr.. Morton,
as hoped. You don't make it clear that
values cannot be affected by leg1sla-
ton. You put silver with salt, sugar
and soap, and said the axiom applied
to ali alike: that not one Of them
could be affected by legislation" 1t has
seemed to me that legislation could
affect values locally and generally.
Did the fall of silver from 1878 TO 1893
cause the legislation of 1878? You ask,
what sent silver down in 1898 to 81
cents an ounce? Surely that fall in its
value was not the cause of legislation
that proceeded it. 1t was the effect of
it. Take the case of India again. Leg
islation stopped the further coinage of
silver, taking thereby a part of the old
demand and use of silver away, and its
fall was flashed over the wires to the
wounded producers and debtors of the
world as instantly as thunder follows
lightning. In that case get the cause
and effect turned around. The fall was
the effect-the logical and historical
effect. You suggest that it may have
been the legal recognition of existing
facts" That is exactly what it was.
Just as legal recognition of existing
facts Gf 1 clearly understand your
meaning) caused the fall of silver TO
81 cents. Again, the Senate of the
United States passed a bill in 1891
which provided for the free coinage Of
silver in this country. 1t was believed
that that bill would pass the House,
and probably be signed by President
Harrison and become a law. Silver
jumped within "a week from 81 cents an
ounce to III cents an ounce. That RISE
remember, was not confined to this
country; it made corresponding jump
in Europe. We cannot get confused
over the proper place to put cause and
effect" in this instance.
Make silver into money, give it all
its old uses and there will be a de-
mand for it. And what a demand
How men would work and sweat and
risk for it, and what JOY and good 1t
would bring to the world. You coin
it. Mr.. Morton, and give it these uses
and 1 will furnish the demand To
carry cut my part of the contract, [
can get good bondsmen. The princes
of maskels, Reed and Mckinley, and
the great uDmasked president of the
New York Bankers Associa ton, will
go bail for me, and if fail in my
part of the contract, they will carry
it out to your entire satisfaction.
Everything now is measured In gold
and that famous yard stick of yours
and Mr.. Carlisle's is getting too in
formally long. The producer don't get
good measure, and the laborer can not
live when his labor is measured by
it. The stick is growing and the DESC
lation is only keeping pace with it.
The silver countries, on account of
gold appreciation are commencing to
do all of their own manufacturing.
With the loss of our manufacturing
supremacy. our commercial suprem-
acy is in danger.
The facts, when they are understood
in this country, are likely to create a
financial revolution unless it is made
clear that it is not due TO a mistake
in our financial legislation. Send more
sincerely yours,
JAMES a. CHERRY.