Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-09-18
NATIONAL POLITICS.
THE so. CENT DOLLAR.


Denver.-The Republican says: Hav-
ing exhausted all the new lies which their
Imagination could invent, the goldites
have now gone back to the "50.cent dol
lar" falsehood as last resort.
They say that If our mints should be re-
opened to the free coinage OF both metals
at the ratio of 16 to l, all our existing
stock of silver dollars, and all new silver
dollars to be coined under free coinage
law, would instantly fall to the so cent
level, and all wage-earners would only re.
ceive half as much for their labor under
that system as they do at present, while
all holders of insurance policies and shares
in building and loan associations, men,
bers of mutual benefit societies and de-
positors in banks of all kinds would suf.
fer an instantaneous loss of so per cent
on all that might be coming to them.
They admit thatfarmers might get more
dollars for their products than they do
now, but add that, inasmuch as the dol
lars would be worth less than at present,
they would really receive smaller returns
for their crops under the new system
than they do under the single gold stand
ard.
The goldites have not a single peg OF
fact on which to hang this fabric of false
hood. 1t is all pure assumption, and all
the teachings Of experience prove that the
assumption is utterly groundless.
What would really happen If we should
reopen our mints to the free and unre-
stricted coinage Of both silver and gold at
the ratio of 16 to is that the price of sill
yer bullion in all the markets of the world
would instantly rise to our mint price of
$1.29 an ounce, less, of course, the cost of
transpo ortation Of the bullion to our mints,
which would be merely fractional.
Nobody would sell silver bullion, either
in New York, or Denver, or London, or
Paris, or Berlin, or Bombay, or anywhere
else for less than the mint price in the
United States, and therefore the bullion
value of silver would necessarily become
EQUAL to our coinage valuation of that
metal everywhere the moment free
coinage act should 60 into operation in
this country.
The new silver dollar to be coined I'M.
der free coinage law would he exactly
similar in weight and fineness and other
wise TO the silver dollars now in circula-
ton in this country, amounting at the
present time to about $40,000,000.
Each Of our present silver dollars ia
Just a. good as gold dollar for all mon
etary uses, both at homo and abroad, and
each of the new silver dollars that would
be coined under free coinage act would
be lust az good as each of those We al
ready have and necessarily just as good
as q gold dollar.
Everybody is now forced to admit, be-
cause daily experience absolutely proves
IL, that United States silver dollar 10
Just a. good as gold dollar, and the rea-
son for this equality is that they both
possess exactly similar monetary func.
lions. Both are foil legal tender at their
face value and no disparity has ever yet
arisen between the two coins.
rHn LEGAL rxNDsR FUNCTION
Il what makes either silver or gold dol
lara good money, and no other act Of con.
Qress, save that which vests these coins
alike with the legal tender function, haa