The Portland daily press., 1896-07-29

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who claim that that thing was accom-
plisbed by the "crime Of 1873"
s. This answer is pure assumption
without particle of evidence to support
it. The great majority of fnaneie rs and
business mon hold that this remedy
would have intensified the disease.
s. There is nothing better established
than that the cheap money drives out
the dearer. In the early days of the Re-
pubic silver banished gold, and later
gold banished silver, simply because of
differences in the commercial value OF
the coins Of the two metals. We DON'T
believe there is sane man in the coun-
try that believes that gold would re.
main in circulation If silver should be
coined in unlimited quantities at 16 to i.
1t may be said in general that all the
foregoing questions shave no particular
relevancy to any matter now pending.
Congress has practically ratified all the
Presidents bond issues by refusing to
repeal the law under which he made
them and by refusing also to forbid him
to issue more under the same law. The
attitude of the House of Representatives
does not indicate great resentment on the
part of the people.
7. There are no So cent dollars to be
had in this country now, but there will
be a lot of them under free coinage The
silver dollar is equal to the gold dollar
now simply because the people have faith
in the ability and purpose of the govern
ment to maintain its parity with gold.
Half Of the silver dollar is now cred 1t.
and while that credit is deemed good it
will circulate on par with gold. If the
author of this cateohism really believes
what he says, that money is p mere tok-
en-, a mere chip, why not be consistent
and advocate paper dollars as the old
Green baoker did? Why put the govern
ment to the expense of buying silver and
coming it, when it can set up printing
press and turn out dollars by the mil
lions for little or nothing. But the sill
yer men themselves recognize differ
enoe in value between dollars. They
are constantly talking of the appreoia-
ton of the gold dollar, and are recon-
mending the silver dollar to the debtor
class as means of ameliorating their
debts. If there is no difference in the
value of dollars, how Is the debtor to be
helped by being given him the chance to
dollarsp Different dollars frequently
have different values, that is, different
purch asing power. During one period
of the war man could purchase
twice rs much of the necessaries
of life with gold dollar as
with greenbaok dollar. A gold dol
lar will purchase today almost double the
amount of Mexican silver dollar. The
whole contention of the silver men that
prices will go up under free coinage
rests upon the assumption that people
are going to regard the silver dollar as
less valuable than the gold dollar, and to
give less to get it, Commodities meas
ure the value of the dollar just as the
dollar measures the value of commodi-
ties. If men will give two bushels of
silver dollar. it follows that the gold
dollar is considered twice as valuable
as the silver dollar. Call the dollar a
token II you will, If one Of these tokens
Is regarded as exchangeable for twice as
much wheat as another one of them,
then its value, or its purchasing power.
is twice as great. II when the silver dol
lar is coined in unlimited quantities, its
purchasing power is only half as 1nueh
as the gold dollar, and it is made legal
tender for all debts, then the man who
borrowed 500 last year will be able to
pay the debt in dollars of half the pur.
chasing power of those he borrowed-of
half their exchange value. That is an
essen TALLY dishonest transaction, and its
legalization does not improve its moral
character particle. 1t is not abstract
value, but roal value, that is involved.
For dollars that would purchase a csr-
tain amount of the necessaries Of life the
creditor receives dollars that will purchase
but half as much-not because the price
of these articles has gone up by an en-
HANGED demand or n diminished supply
but because the government has changed
the standard of measurement, has de-
olared that piece of metal with half
the exchange value of the piece of metal
that was parted with shall be equal in
debt paying power to that of the latter; in
short that dollar of 90 cents shall be
equal in debt paying power to dollar
of 100 cents. A government that docs
this is deliberately enabling one
part of it's subjects to cheat the other
The debased dollnr is dishonest dollar
1t cheats creditors out of n part of their
debt, and the really silly people are they
who think by sophistry they can palm off
this transaction az anything but the
dishonest and disgraceful thing it is.
The .ssilliness'' of talking about So cent
dollars! Why, TO very large part of its
devotees the silver dollar would lose all
it's attractions, if they thought they
would have to give as much in oommod-
| tiles to get it as they do to get the gold
dollar. What advantage would accrue
| to the farmer with a mortgaQed farm If he