Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-09-03
The value Of the Dollar.

"but that is all because of the crime OF
\ 1S13.ys If the Government should re.
monetize silver and Scoinft on equal
terms with gols, then .4121s grains of it
would be worth one hundred cents"
Is that so, friend Populistp Then if
the Government should monetize iron,
and coin it on the same terms, would
4121l grains of iron be worth one humid
red cents? If SO, the Government
ought to be able to pay off the whole
debt tomorrow; and every man who
owns an old stove or some worn out
hoes or shovels may set up as million
aire. If not, why not? If free coinage
would double the value of one metal,
why not of another?
Because" replies the follower of
Mr.. Bryan, Iron is not a precious
metal, and silver is. Silver has from
time immemorial been recognized as
money metal. The rule applies only to
the precious metals, silver and gold.
No others are used as money"
There you run counter to the facts of
history. Many other metals, and other
materials than metal, have been and
still are used as money and as cur
rcncy. Sparta used iron, Syracuse and
Britain used tin, Russia platinum, Bur-
nah lead, Carthage leather, China silk,
Abyssinia salt, Tartary tea, Campeachy
logwood, Mexico salt, the African
coast cowrie shells; and many nations
of high civilization have thus used cat
tie, as the words ''pecuniary," fee"
rupee" and ''sheker testify. Why
demand the reconciliation of silver
any more than of iron, or sheep, or
oxen? And if monetization has such
an effect upon one thing, why not up
on others?
WELL" he persists, "the actual value
of the metal in the coin doesn't matter,
anyway. There isn't cents worth of
copper in cenl, and there isn't a
cents worth of paper in a hundred
dollar bill Yet they pass as full legal
tender. So would the silver dollar,
even if it did contain only about fifty
three cents worth of metal"
On the contrary, 1t does matter, if
the coin be standard money, and not
redeemabls in anything else. The
copper cent is mere token money"
1t is not full legal tender and does not
enjoy free coinage. You cannot make
a man accept one hundred copper cents
as payment of one dollar. You cannot
take 4s grains of copper-the amount
in cent-to the mint and get a cent
for it. The paper in bill is worth
nothing. The bill derives it's value
solely from the fact that the Govern
ment is willing and able and, indeed,
bound to redeem it in gold on demand.
You cannot take a bit of white paper
seven inches long and three wide, to
the Treasury and get dollar for it, or
have it stamped 'one dollar" by the
Government. When the Government
wants to make copper coins it buys
copper at the market price. When it
wants to make paper money it buys
paper at the market price. So, when
it wants to make silver coins it buys
silver at the market price. And you
have no more business to demand that
your bit of silver, of 412N grains,
worth fifty-three cents, be stamped
''one dollar" than that your slip of
white paper be thus stamped.
Now do you intend that your 16 to l
silver dollar shall be redeemable in
gold, as paper money is, or irredeem-
able, standard money? If the former,
you are asking that the Government
shall pay one hundred cents in gold
for every ffty-three cents worth of
silver offered to it. Such an undertake
ing would drive the richest nation in
the world to bankruptcy. If you don't
believe it, try the experiment yourself,
by paying one hundred cents for every
fifty-three cents worth of produce
of any kind your neighbors may offer
you. But if the latter, if the silver dol
lar is to be irredeemable, standard
money, then you are demanding that
there shall be two kinds of money ia
circulation-gold, of which a dollar is
worth one hundred cents and silver of
which dollar is worth about fifty
three cents today, and may be worth
more or less tomorrow. That is the
way it is in Russia, where the gold
ruble is worth about seventy.seyen
cents and the silver rnble thirty-eight
cents07 That is the way IL is in Japan,
where the gold yen is worth ninety
nine cents, and silver yen fifty cents.
The result in those countries is that
nothing circulates but the deprecated
silver, according to Gresham's law, and
the people are scarcely removed from
pauperism. Do you think Russia and
Japan and China and India are good
examples for the United States to imi-
tate, either in finance or in the gem
eral condition of the peoplep-New
York Tribune.