The advocate., 1896-08-12


good money as gold for our people.
Mr.. Wilder has q large audience when
he speaks through the press, and he
ought to be careful that he does not
fall into error when he treats a subject
that Is quite as important to the men
that man the road he represents as to
the men that own 1t.
1t would seem, from several other
expressions in the letter, that Mr..
Wilder hes not got the silver question
clearly in his mind. Here, for exam
pie, are four extracts:
Against q total coinage Of silver dollars,
about ASO millions, about $50 millions are lying
dead and useless in Washington as founda-
tion for silver certificates. which paper notes
are no better than, and really not as good as,
national bank notes based on government
bonds.
Prior to 1873 about million silver dollars
had been coined, and since then 419 million,
and this enormous mass Of silver, together
with our 856 millions OF government notes,
has been kept at par, Notwithstanding the
continued depreciation Of our Mexican neigh
boris dollars to about So cents, by the conf
denCe of the people in the governments
ability to stand by its implied promise to eX-
change gold for silver or government notes
at any time This promise rests on gold re-
serve Of 100 millioni just Ss q solvent and
prosperous bank rests onhts promise to paylts
deposltors in full with only an available cash
reserve of 25 per cent In the East, or 40 per
cent. 1 q the West.
1t would not take long under such loss Of
confidence for silver certificates to be ex-
changed for silver dollars in order to ex-
change them at once for gold under the
necessary practice of the government In main
tanning the parity OF the two metals
With only 100 millions reserve, suspension
Of the exchange would quickly be inevitable
and parity OF value would cease, and as In
the case OF Mexico our silver dollars would be
worth only their bullion market value.
AS to the first paragraph, silver GER
tifiCates are not notes at all, as any
person can see by reading what is
printed on one Of them. They show
that silver dollars have been depos-
tied in the United States treasury to
be paid to the holder Of the certificate
whenever he surrenders it. The govern.
ment does not own one Of those dollars.
1t only holds them safely for the hold
ers Of the certificates, just as q livery
barn keeps q customers horse-tO be
delivered when called for. These dol
lars on deposit every one of them
belong to the people who hold the cer.
tifCRtes.
AS to the second paragraph, 1t con-
tsins three errors. The Mexican dol
lar has not deprecated. 1t buys as
much now as it did twenty years ago,
and property values have not depre.
CiSted In Mexico, as they have done In
this country and In all gold standard
countries.
Our government never, at any time
or under sny'circumStances, promised
any person or persons to exchange
gold for silver or notes. There has
never been any law, and there is none
now, nor is there any rule or reguls-
tion Of the treasury department, which
promises or proposes to exchange gold
for silver, though sometimes silver has
been exchanged for gold. The ADVO.
CATE has heretofore published official
information on this subject and will
again, next week, publish letter from
the Secretary of Treasury showing
that the government does not ex.
change gold for silver dollars, or re.
deem silver dollars with gold coin.
AS to greenbscks, they are payable In
dollars, but Congress, in 1875, prom.
ised to redeem them In coin. The
treasury notes are redeemable In silver
or gold at the discretion of the Secre-
tary Of the Treasury.
Nor was the gold reserve of 100 mil
lion dollars In gold coin provided for
any such purpose. In fact there never
was any such fund provided for any
purpose. This fact will be proven by
the Secretsry's statement, also to be
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