The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1895-03-14
SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT THIS.

SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT THIS.
Congress passed bill for the coinage
Of the silver seigniorage, about fifty-five
millions of dollars. The president vetoed
it. The seigniorage is idle, like hundreds
Of thousands of the people. There is
work for the silver to do. II it were
issued in the form of silver certificates it
would be used in developments which
would give work to the people. During
the panic OF '92 silver was repeatedly
applied for at the United States treasury,
and gold was offered in exchange, but
none could be had, Secretary Carlisle
saying that all the silver on hand was re-
quired for the redemption of silver certiti-
Gates in circulation. Then the president
vetoed the seigniorage bill, and sells
bonds at a ruinous figure to get gold and
yet the secretary could not take the gold
that was offered at the treasury for silver
because he had no silver to give. And we
are told that the great danger We must
guard against, even though We sisrve for
it, is too much silver.
We have laws which say that our
national obligations are payable in silver
at the option of the government. The
government was pledged by the people at
the election to bimetallism. The govern
ment pays all obligations in gold because
it says the gold dollar is the best dollar,
and it must pay in the best dollar. This
is telling everyone that the silver dollar
is not as good as the gold dollar. The
government, and all the world, know
that We have not enough gold with which
to pay our Indebtedness. Why does it
not say ''Silver and gold money are
equally good. We take either. Our OBJ
legations are payable in either, at our
option. II we were to try to pay all OBJ
legations in one kind OF money there
would not be enough OF it to pay these OBJ
legations, so We pay in both kinds OF
money, and we are the judges of which
We shall pay in" There is not gold
enough in the world to pay the foreign
Indebtedness of America We are en-
gagged in the labor OF fools.
About nine men out of ten in this
country are debtors. They may own
some form of wealth ia excess of their
debts, but they owe money. The Ieglsla-
ton which has made gold specially priv
LEGGED money. the only mo3ey OF free
coinage and full power, has increased the
purchasing power OF gold money. All
other money must, in the last analysis,
rest on gold money. This has not only
lowered the standing of all other money,
but has diminished the supply by the
amount OF the depreciation. 1t has still
further diminished the supply by lessen
ing the production of silver and stopping
it's coinage. The direct destruction and
contraction of the primary money has
resulted in further contraction of credit
of money, much of the business of the
country was carried on. Credit money
is built up on primary money always to
the point of danger, and il we reduce the
foundation some of the superstructure
must come down.
1t is evident, then, that this legislation
favoring gold. discriminating against sill
yer, and causing decrease in its produc-
ton, has corespondingly reduced the
volume OF money, and increased the bur
den OF the debtor. This action. as all
the world knows, has been inspired and
forced by the great gold and creditor
nation, England. England tried to do
exactly the same thing once before
When it comes to making money England
does not stick at trifles, and she will win
every time if her bluff is not called. But
the worthy progenitors of degenerated
children called the bluff and took the pot
-on this wise:
In Virginia, in the colonial days, the
colonists got pretty nearly everything
they bought from England, and debts
were payable in tobacco. England en-
acted law restricting the cultivation of
tobacco, thus contracting the supply of
money. The legislature of Virginia
promptly came back with an enactment
that as long as the stint lasted creditors
must accept payment from debtors at the
rate of forty pounds for one hundred
pounds. To plain man it would seem
that there was more sense in Virginia in
the old times than there is in the whole
country today.