The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1896-10-31
SILVER TO BE
GOOD AS GOLD.
Open MINIS and Legal Tender
Laws viii Make White Metal
Good as the Yellow.
NO 50-CENT DOLLARS.
This Is Not Question of Bullion, But
of Remonetized, Debt-Paying
Coined Money.
Reply Co a False Charge Against the
Silver Dollar by Ex-senator John IT.
Reagan, of Tcxas--la Rank Deeep-
tIon of the Goidbugs Made
Perfectly Plain.

AleliD. OGt- D, 1870
One of ihe scarc-crows used by the
advocates of the single gold standard
Is the iaiae representation that If the
policy of the free and unlimited coin
age of silver should be adopted it would
cut in two the wages Of the laborers and
compel them to take 50cent dollars
without an increase of the rate of their
wages; that those receiving salaries
would get but one-half the pay they
now receive; tbat~those having none !
on deposit in savings banks would only
receive from the bank in return FOR
their deposits 50-cent dollars, which
would be but one-half of what would
be due them; that the endowment.
funds Of colleges and universities would
be reduced one-half in value, as would
all trust funds.
This frightful statement is repeated
day by day by the newspapers, ard
ether advocates of the single gold stand
ard, as a controlling argument to pre-
vent the people from voting for the can
didates who represent the policy of the
free and ualimited coinage of silver
The newspapers and men who are urg-
ing this statement know it to be n
stupendous falsehood. They make It
look as plausible as they can. and ring
the changes on it in every possible
form. And by this means have de-
ceiyed and are misleading thousands of
honest people who may not be able to
detect the fraud which Is being prac
tieed on them.
What are the real facts as to this?
The gold standard advocates, as the
basis of their false statements, com
pare silver bullion Invested of the quail
ity of money, uueoiued and not a legal
tender, with gold, which is by law
coined into money and made legal
tender in payment of public dues and
all debts, to the amount stamped on
each coin. Is this an honest COM
parison? Does it speak the truth?
Docs IL not, in effect, assert n thinly
disguised, but gross and monstrous,
falsehood? Let us see. If congress and
the nations should prevent the coin
nge of gold bullion, as has been done
as to silver bullion, depriving it by
law of the quality of money, then
the gold bullion would not be money.
no more than silver bullion is now
And the gold bullion would become u
commodity rs silver bullion is now, and
would simply bring what it would be
worth for use in the arts. The same Is
true of silver.
To make an honest comparison of
gold and silver, and to tell the honest
truth, we must compare gold coin, in
vested with the legal tender quality,
with silver coin invested with the same
quality. Doing that, we find the silver
coins in the United States, not silver
bullion, worth as much in the purchase
of property and in the payment of
debts as the coins of gold. And we find
that more than 100000, 900 of silver
coins in circulation In Europe are at
par with gold. Why this2 Simply be-
cause both are coined with the value of
the coins fixed by law.
Has anyone ever seen a 50-eent dol
lar In this country? OF course not.
And why not? Because our more than
400, 100000 silver dollars, or their rep.
resentatives, are the coined money of
the United States, their value fixed
by law, and they are made legal ten.
der for all debts. Hence, those now
coined are as good as gold.
No laborer, no person drawing sal
airy, no depositor in bank will be
paid, nor will any offer be mad to pay
them, with silver bullion. They may
be paid in coined silver, as they may
now be lawfully paid in coined silver;
but the dollars in which they could be
so paid would be 100-cent dollars. and
equal to gold, because they would buy
as much property and pay as much of
debt as the same number of gold dollars.
If it be said that the stamp of the
government and the mandate of the
law make the coin of greater value than
the bullion, the answer may be made
that the present value Sf gold is fixed
by law.
An act of the British parliament
passed in the year 1914, So years ago
requires the Bank of England to pur-
chase all the gold presented TO it at
three pounds, seventeen shillings and
nine pence per ounce. That fixes the
price all over the world, less the cost of
transportation to London. So that its
price is not governed by its intrinsic
value, hut by an act of parliament; and
this makes it in that sense fiat money.
Money is the creature of law. The
material of which it is made is not
money until made so by law, whether
it be gold or silver or paper. The gov
to circulate as money. These notes
have no intrinsic value. Their being
money arises from the fact that their
issue is authorized by law, the promise
to redeem them in coin, and, in some
cases, the making of them a legal ten.
der. So that it is the operation of the
law which makes money, and not the
material of which it is composed;
though gold and silver are recognized
as more suitable material out of which
to make money than anything else.