Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-05-15

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: streets of this city to hear some of on
silver friends, who permit their en-
thusiasm to walk off with their goo
judgment in attempting to dis
cuss our finances and the cause
which have led to the present cond
ton of our affairs, ascribe all of tn
acknowledged evils of our presen
monetary system to no other sourc
than the infexible policy maintaine'
by our honorable Secretary of tn
Treasury and the individual opinion
which he holds upon these tinancla
questions. his view of the matte
may be expressed by those who art
willing to concede to Mr.. Carlisle al
honesty of purpose, but ascribe all o.
the financial ills to which we are al
present subject, to some kind OF mis-
guided judgment which they imagine
to have existed upon his part. but
there are those, / regret to say, who
in their denunciatory eloquence upon
this subject, seem to gloat in kind
of pleasure which they experience IN
coupling his name with all kinds OF
opprobrious epithets, of which Arch
Traitor seems to be the favorite. l
have made it point upon my part,
to find out the cause of all this un-.
seemly wrath against the man and
the real nature of this great otfense
which, in their Imagination, he has
committed. One of the principle
reasons invariably given to my en-
quiries has always been the same one
which you yourself ascribe as the di-
rect cause of all of our financial
troubles set forth in an editorial
in Jour paper of recent date, in
which you close with the remarkable
statement that it is because bull
headedSecretary refuses to pay in law
full silver money, preferring to borrow
gold in coruered market"
Now if this reason had come from
some one who was profoundly igno.
raut upon the subject of our silver
coinage,it might have been excusable,
but l am satisfied that if you really
believe this, you need some one to
take issue with you and as there
seems to be no other paper published
III this neck of the woods that has
seen fit to DO so, l am going to ask
you in the spirit of fairness to lend
me some space in your columns and
| think | can show your readers, if
there be any who do not already
know it, that Mr.. Carlisle did not act
bull headed" in this matter, but on
the other hand would have acted very
"pig-headed" if he had done other
wise than he did.
Why then do / contend that Mr.. |
Carlisle in redeeming greenbacks and
other forms of our national currency,
did the right and proper thing, in
paying in gold and not in silver7
Of course we all understand that
those who prefer silver to gold, can
always get it. No one has ever
been denied, and l will say just here
in parenthesis that the government
will even pay the express charges on
all the silver you want but not on
gold, in order to encourage the circu-
lation of silver among the people;
but the history OF greenback redemp-
ton seems to show that there exists
upon the part of the commerce of the
world, peculiar preference for gold
and not for silver. At any rates there
have been many millions of dollars
of our paper money presented for re.
demption of late by persons who
preferred and demanded the gold and
we come now to your proposition
that "Our bull-headed Secretary"
should have compelled them to &C
cept silver, it being legal tender for
any amount.
Your readers all know that under
our present system silver dollar is
convertible upon demand into a gold
dollar. This has been the policy of
our government and it must have
been an easy proposition to any school
boy who read your editorial to have
conceived the idea that the party pre-
senting greenbacks for redemption,
could take the silver thus forced upon
him and with the aid of a few feed
baskets and several wheelbarrows,
could have carried his load over to
another window in the Treasury and
demanded the gold upon the surren-
der of his standard silver dollars.
But "Ah!" you will say "there is the
rub. Our bull-headed Secretary
should quit this nefarious business.
Let him listen to us. Quit paying
out gold for silver and this will solve
the problem. Well let us see. In
the first place let US understand
something of the coinage of the pres
ent silver dollar which he is redeem.
ing. 1t is probably not known by
all but it is true that every silver dol
lar now in circulation was coined
since the passage of the Bland Bill
in 1878.
Not one of the few silver dollars
coined prior to 1878 and which are
said to have been demonetized in 1878,
is now in circulation nor did they ever
circulate. l have been connected with
the banking business for about 10
years and have watched very closely
attamDtincy tO find ono upd T ~