The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-22

u
as well as gold and silver, has given US.
Very truly yours.
FRED PERRY POWERS.
Sal; Lake City, L. T., juno u, 1895.
Fred Perry Powers, Esq, member ex-
ecutiVe committee on sound % currency
My Gear sir-I have the honor ID ac-
kic Wedge the receipt OF your tive. page
communication, under date of June 2lst.
am not little surprised that member
OF committee engaged in the her-ulean
task of proving that gold dollar alone is
better than a gold and silver dollar to-
gether, that to have d sound % car
renCy We must virtually destroy a large
part Of the worlds money; that ID Diake
money abundant we must limit the guam
tity; that to honestly pay our debts we
must pay them in 200-cent dollars; that
to lrake the country prosperous we must
10 Yer prices. diminish the profits of legl-
innate industry borrow $3.50, 1900 in gold,
When there Is vast amount OF gold
AMI silver lying idle in the treasury, re-
peat the operation whenever the Roths-
childs, the MorganS and the Belmonts de-
mand II, allowing the money Spectator
who never did an honest days work in
! hia life to realize millions in profits at
every turn am surprised, l say, that
one engaged III a work so fraught with
momentous consequences to humanity,
and which can only be brought to glor-
GUS success by completely reVOlutlonlz-
ing the principles of monetary science
should waste SO much valuable time upon
an lnccnSequential individual like me. As
my own time is of some little value
SuOulQ not attempt any reply were IL
not that the egousm, born OF superficial
Ity, which perVades your latter from be-
ginning to end, would doubtless lead you
10 think that L had been completely
crushed.
I have often noticed that when a third
rate pettifogger has an unmitigated
scoundrel for a client and a case devoid
OF merit, he always endeavors to direct
the attention of the jury away from the
main issue, splitting hairs over impair
tial points and not infrequently pervert-
ing both the facts and the law. While
reading your letter / was quite forcibly
impressed that the legal profession is not
the only one that has its pettifOggers, al
though IN your case l am charitable
enough 70 ascribe TO ignorance, what in
d lawyer | would characterize as lack
OF mental integrity. AS you are prob
ABLY honest in your convictions, nothing
but ignorance would have led you to
deny that for 1000 years, silver and gold
nave been the two great money metals
of the world. You seem to be under the
lmpressin that because from time TO
time there were slight fluctuations in re-
lative value; they were not money. Your
reasoning would exclude both-gold as
well as silver. How is it then that within
the last twenty-five years gold has sud
denly become the only honest % and
sound 81 money? When two things
change in their relative value, by what
mental process do you arrive at the con-
clusion that one OF them has done all
the changing while the other has stood
still?
Gut uef6 III the WIG ana Woody west
the people may not have read history, or
even the newspapers, very extensively,
but street urchin cannot be fooled by
that sort of logic. The trouble with you
seems to be that you have read some of
the newspapers too much You appear
tG have drawn your inspiration chiefly
from those great public educators in New
York and other eastern cities, that prove
the gold dollar to be Interchangeable and
honest by pointing to the incOntrOveruble
fact that gold dollar is always worth
a@fl of
the silver craze by asserting in one
breath that free coinage will enrich the
silver miner by making his silver worth
S.29 an ounce and in the next by assert
ing that ii will iTnpoverish everybody
else by flooding the country with ST.
cent" silver dollars. If you really do
not know that gold and silver have for
s,O0O years eve will not haggle over IL
few years more or less) been the two
great mOny metals of the world, and
either have no books at your command,
or cannot snatch time from your exalted
work TO study them, possibly you can
borrow President CleVelandS Encyclo-
pedia Britannica and cast hasty glance
over that. The work named ought TO be
good authority in the more Anglicized
portions of the American republic.
As you also seem to be somewhat ex-
ercised over the conflicting ratios, ana
can see no merit in 16 to l, our people
Will not insist upon that ratio very
strenuousy. We will compromise with
you on 15E-just half way between the
two American ratios referred to in your
lette.. But we cannot. in good con-
science, accept change the other way.
To first close the minis to silver, shut
off the demand for il, destroy half its
value and then propose to remonetize it
at the reduced valuation, is about as
honest according TO my rough western
idea OF such things, as it would be TO
close the gTiSt mills of the country to
spring wheat, shut off the demand for ii,
destroy half its value and then propose
tc reopen the mills, provided the farmer
would continue TO sell it for half price.
But perhaps | am depressing. With your
excessive devotion to sound CD money,
YOU probably want no silver coinage at
any ratio | have some knowledge of the
changes of ratios in Europe during the
last 500 years. am aware that it came
from the fact that different countries
adopted different ratios, which led to the
ebb and flow of the metals back and
forth from one country to another. |
also know that this did no substantial
harm. know that IL is an elementary
law of political economy that no coun-
try can get either more or less than its
dlStributlVe share Of the worlds money,
and that under the conditions then eX-
isting it made no essential difference
which metal predominated in the cur
rency Of a particular country. ] know
that these slight fluctuations afforded no
more justification for the decentralization
of silver in Europe and America than the
varying par of exchange between Eng
land and the United States would justify
the fraudulent change of a figure / TO a
figure in a certificate of Indebtedness.
you ash why acCCr1 Tree COlIdSS 10
either gold or silver? If neither were
coined and neither were legal tender your
question would have some point. AS it
is, IS is insane. When two metals are
being coined for money and the coinage
of one of them is suddenly stopped it
makes some little difference.
You seem to take umbrage at the sug
gestion that the decentralization of sill
yer was at the instance OF the money
lenders. Perhaps then you will kindly
explain how 1t is that upon the question
of bi-metalliSm in England the line is 50
distinctly drawn between the money lend
ing and the producing classes, and when
you have done that, perhaps you can fol-
low it up by explaining why Wall street
IS the massive strength in OPPOSE
ton tc the reconciliation of silver in
this country, and after having done both
of these things, possibly you could be in /
duced TO add a foot note showing how
many sound money" clubs have been
formed of farmers and laboring men
throughout the country. l know that
gold was demonetized in India in 1885,
question. Silver was at all times the |
money chiefly in use, and the employ
ment of much gold there was and has
been considered impra cticable.
/ am glad to learn that the farmers of !
Minnesota are doing so well, but at the I
same time 1 must be permitted to say /
that your proof is not quite conclusive. |
been sold under foreclosure it is entirely |
possible that there may be small amounts |
sold in subsequent years without proving |
that business has greatly revived. If you |
have any system of arithmetic by which |
II can be shown that e farmer can pay |
cents bushel that at 81 it will doubt /
less he a Va Ina HE text hook in V0llr sound /