The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-09-02
HOW Is THIS.
Are Pennies, Nickels and Green.
backs Dishonest Money"
ACCORDING TO. GOLDBUG LOGIC
THEY MUST BE,
Duluth Tribunal.)

market about 68 cents per ounce, into sill
yer dollars, that shall be legal tenders
and worth as money 100 cents in gold,
just ask him how much more heineous
an Offense against morality that would
paper, which, on the market Is not worth
be for the government to take piece of
Gle penny, and stamp it 500 or 81 900,
and then enact a law that that bit of
paper so stamped shall be legal tender
for all debts public and private?
The man must have a kerry shallow
pate, indeed, who really believes there
can be no honest money" unless the ma
terial of which it is coined is worth just
as much on the market as a commodity
before coinage as it is after coinage. AS
we have stated, the market value of the
paper of 81 900 greenback is not worth
one penny, and yet no goldbug takes
spasms on that account. We might fur
Their allude to the fact that the govern
ment takes an amount of copper bullion,
worth, on the market, about nine cents,
and from it coins 100 pennies, which are
worth in any store or bank in this cOun-
try and god or silver dollar that was ever
coined, and yet we never hear the wor-
thies above named croaking about ''dis-
honest pennies" And then too, when the
government takes a quantity of nickel,
worth on the market only 20 cents, and
coins from it 100 "nickels' of the nomi-
nal and par value of SIS, we have never
noticed any of these men accurately
honest CO gold bugs wringing their
hands and bewailing the fact that the
government is engaged in the coinage of
dishonest nickels."
Now, why should these amiable gen.
tlemen strain at a gnat and swallow a
camel? Why are they SO shocked and
Mortified at the idea Of coming silver bull
lion Of the present market value of SO
cents into a silver dollar, worth as cur
rency 81, when they enter no protest
whatever against the government con-
verting nine cents worth of copper into
100 pennies worth 81 in gold, and 20
cents worth of nickel into coins which
are worth IS in gold, or in it's coming less
than one penny's worth of paper into a
| $1,000 greenback, which in any bank in
the country is worth 1000 in gold?
There ought to be some sort of con-
sistency in the arguments, or rather in
the mouthings which the average gold
bug attempts to palm off as arguments.
If one kind of money would be "dishon-
est" because the material from which it
| is made or coined, was not worth as
much on the market before such coinage
as it was worth in money after such coin
age, it follows that the same must be true
as to money coined from any other metal
or material; and hence all our pennies,
! nickels, and greenbacks must, accord
ing to gold bug logic, be dishonest mon
ey;" and if, on the other hand, pennies,
nickels and greenbacks are not "dishon-
oct foil hat Gill
! coined from silver bullion which was
worth on the market less than 81 would
not on that account be "dishonest dol
lar"
Thus we see that this sort of gold bug
logic either proves too much or else
proves nothing st all, and hence contra
diets and refutes itself by bringing about
deductions that are simply absurd.
| But, as matter of fact, after we shall
have returned to free coinage there will
be no coinage of So cents worth of silver
bullion into dollars worth 81 in gold; for
| the simple reason that the very next min
ute after free coinage law shall go in
to force, silver bullion will be worth
| $1.29 per ounce, and thus it's market val
lie will again be equal to it's coined value,
and hence it would be simply idiotic to
claim that by any possibility there could
be any 5O-cent dollars, or any dollars
with only SO or So cents worth of silver
| in them, for every silver dollar would be
full legal tender, and would buy as many
commodities, or would pay just as much
debt as gold dollar.
Indeed, any man who has a thimble
full Of brains and who wishes to be
considered man of truth and veracity,
| and who possesses the aver
age share of honesty that
he prates SO much about, ought
to be ashamed to prate any longer about
''5O-cent dollars" There never was such
dollar coined, and for the reasons above
given, there cannot possibly be any So
cent dollars even after we shall have re-
stored silver to free coinage.
There are some phases of the financial
| questions which we concede are fairly
| debatable, and about which there is room
| for intelligent and we'll informed per-
| sons to have an honest difference of
| opinion, but the question of a 5O-cent
| dollar is not one of them. No thoroughly
| informed and strictly truthful man can
| say that he honestly believes that there
| is now or ever could be under the legis-
lation proposed by the Chicago conven-
| ton, dollar of that sort, and hence it is
simply idiOtic to maintain, as the gold
| bugs do, that a debtor by the use of such
dollars in the discharge of his obliga-
| tions would be repudiating one-half of
his honest debts.
| Indeed, there are just two classes of
persons who are making all this clatter
about 5O-cent dollars. The first is
composed of shrewa, but INSCRIPTIONS
gold bug Ananiases, VINO think it per-
fectly legitimate in political campaign
to dupe and deceive those voters who can
be duped and deceived.
The other class is composed of men
who mean we'll enough, but who have
| never had time to carefully study the
| financial question for themselves, and
| who have acquired their false ideas
concerning it from those who have pur-
pOsely misled them.
So that when you hear a man bewail-
ing the fact that free coinage would flood
the country with '50-cent dollars" you
can just set it down for an absolute
certainty that he has never studied this
question and does not know what he is
talking about, or that If he does know
what he is talking about he is colossal
- WEhave thoroughly completed our a
w your d. alers profit, as we are RICH
er 1t be to our large mills or elevators
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