The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1896-08-15
COMMUNICATED.
BI-NETdLLISM.

Gold il employed in the alts and ia
manufactured into various objects
that are useful or ornamental. Watch
es, inger-riDgs, bracelets and ear.
rings are among the most important
nses of that precious metal. There IA
certainly a demand for gold to be en-.
ployed tor those purposes. but the
demand for the metal for those objects
is extremely limited. 1t is considered
and computed, that the present stock
Of gold in the world would suffice for
the uses Of the arts for a period OF
twenty years. Consequently, if the
only use OF gold was its consumption
in the arts, its price would fall from
its present inflated value to about ten
cents per ounce Who would hoard
gold as il now done, if the demand
for it we're to be reduced to the small
est possible dimensionsf Who would
60 into the bowels of the earth to
mine gold if there were no buyers for
it except for manufacturing purposes I
1t 10 within bounds to say that III there
were 10 other demand for gold than
for its employment in the arts. it
would become simply \ commodity
and fall under the operation Of the
great law Of supply and demand.
VIVA. gives to gold its present val
ne is M something inherent in itself.
hnt its use as money. By an arbitra-
~ hat Of the government, to which is
committed the whole power to coin
money and determine what shall con-
stitue money, gold has attained to its
present position Of money Of ultimate
redemption. 1t is by a Of the
fact that the Government has said 10
its formal statutes that 80 many oun-
e Of gold shall constitute q dollar.
when stamped at the mint, that that
quantity of gold is worth 4 dollar.
Let the Government withdraw that
recognition 10 gold, anc refuse it free
coinage, as was done with silver ia
1873, and at once, the present value Of
gold will disappear. This shows that
the great value Of gold at present is
due TO the fact Of its being legal ten
der for the amounts borne upon the
coins OF that metal. In other words.
gold has a fictitious value, created bv
the mint value. And vet, we are told
by our Republican friends who are
supporting ! candidate pledged to up
hold the existing gold standard, that
they are the advocates of sound mon
ey. How can money be sound whose
value is wholly tictitiouss
It it be urged that gold derives its
value as money and its present posi-
ton IN the monetary system Of the
country from legislation. we would
ask by what process of reasoning
should not silver have the same rights
as the gold at the minis, and why
could not legislation extend its favors
to silver in the same way as it does to
goldg II legislation can determine
that SO many parts of gold be a dol
lar, why can not the same power and
authority decree that so many am
Of silver shall be worth q dollar i Ii il
conceded that the present silver dol
lar Is a legal tender for all debts, for
the reason that it bears the stamp Of
the Government. but this silver cur
rency which, up to 1873 passed every
where as sound money has suddenly
become Very %unsound money, ~forsooth
because the metal in il is worth only
about fftv-two cents on the dollar.
Silver not now be coined at the
minis, and therefore, it has becom. .
commodity and worth only what men
will give for it. Let the mints be re-.
opened to it, as they we're prior to the