The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-14
The Dishonest Dollar.

editorial which we shall quote. presents
not only IN npportunc thought but also
Il timely illustration Of the style Of ar
gument which is best fitted to the re-
quirements Of the present political
campaign. Ii does not call names. 1t
aN oids Offensive personalities. Ii simp-
" laws before It's readers in clear lam
guage the plain. impersonal common
sense Of the silver controversy, and
leaves the rest to their own intelligence.
This. as we have repeatedly tried to
impress upon the debatcrs of the day
is what decent people want. what they
win listen to and what they will be in
flucnced by when it comes to marking
their ballots next November. Without
more ado we give way to our western
contemporary:
''The free silver advocates" it says
grow indignant when told that they
are seeking to substitute a dishonest
dollar for an honest one: but the fact
remains. nevertheless. that such is the
purpose. whether they all realize it or
not. IN honest dollar, Of course is a
dollar that comes up to- the inscription
on its face and is worth 100 cents. We
have dollars of that kind now, includ-
ing those made Of silver which is to
say that the promise of the government
to maintain the gold standard makes
all forms Of currency rs good as gold.
"Eut under the free coinage policy
this promise could not be kept. The
silver miners could take their bullion
to the mints and receive stamped dol
lars in return, They would not be honr
est dollars. however, in the sense of
being worth 100 cents each. The gov
crnment would not undertake the i'm
possible task of holding them at par. 1t
could not agree to redeem them in gold,
and in the absence of such guarantee,
they would pass only at their intrinsic
value, which would be about fifty cents
apiece The government would merely
act as n coinage agent, assuming no
responsibility beyond that of returning
n given number of silver dollars for n
given amount of silver bullion. as the
miller takes wheat and converts it into
flour for his customers.
"At tire present time all silver dollars
are coined on account of the govern
ment. and issued by the government in
payment of its expenditures and obliga-
tions; but in the event of the adoption
of free coinage. the situation would he
very different. THE dollars would be
coined as Secretary Carlisle says in
II recent letter, on private account. and
delivered to private individuals and
corporations as their own property the
government 'lving no interest what
ever in them. and being, therefore. un-
der no obligation to sustain them by
guaranteeing their value Thus. the
prop of government credit being re-
moved, the silver dollar would drop TO
the level of its bullion value 1t would
bear the stamp Of Il dollar. bus it would
not be q dollar in fact. The quality of
dishonesty would attacl! to it by reason
of it's not being what it pretended to be.
"This aspect of the matter is n most
important one. involving not only
question of business prudence and
safety, but also a consideration of NOR
ality. Under the existing system our
dollars are all honest dollars, and the
Republican party proposes to keep
them so, instead of trying the expert
ment of free coinage. which means de-
probation. discredt and general mis-
fortune. Intelligent citizens should
have no difficulty in seeing that il is
their duty to vote against change
that would flood the country with
dishonest dollars and drive the better
ones out"