The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-13

Answer to a GOIdbuS.
A rather interesting set-to on the
money question took place az long
range ONE day last week between
couple Of Salt Lakes young business
men and a friend in the east. w. r.
Blair, resident manage of the Union
Casualty and Surety company at ST
Louis, wrote to Frank Hardness, the
mining broker, taking him to task for
his having undertaken in previous cor
reSpondence 10 convert MIN 10 a silver
man. Accompanying tine letter re-
ferred to, Mn. Hardness friend en-
closed a couple OF verses ON the sub
ject, which, tor the purpose OF FUR
nishing occasion for the reply which
went back by return mail, are given
herewith:
If a dollar be a dollar, honest coin
Without deceit,
One may melt 1t, one may sqnelt 1T, but
Its value won t retreat;
Melt ten dollars, silver dollars, in I'M
biased melting pot
And the silver s1u2s resulting only sell
Ior live the lott"
Melt gold dollars, melt an eagle, in
aforesaid melting pot,
And the golden slug resulting quickly
sells for ten the lot.
VIII you tell me, kindly tell me, how
these dollars equal are,
If a little glowing furnace puts on only
one the scar?
And I'm thinking, Quietly thinking,
that a. poor man has poor sense
If he votes to have a. dollar that will
melt for only fifty cents
THE REPLY.
Mr.. Hardness called in Attorney N.
A. Robertson, who occupied adjoining
apartments, and who is also a friend
of the author of the verses, and re-
ferred them to him. Mr.. Robertson
dictated the answer. Here it is:
MIR w. r. Blair, Cincinnati Ohio.
Dear Will:-Received your letter of
July %, with verse enclosed. Was very
much surprised at your sending me such
rot" Sc take it as a joke. In 1913, prior
to the legislation which demoneuzed Sill
yer, the amount of silver in one dollar
was worth $1.03 in gold If at that time
you had melted the silver dollars, the
slug resulting would have been worth
SlU.o0. The act OF 1873 took away from
silver its principal demand and market;
l0dL Is It's uSlildIlu lOT USE DIS IlO1lty. COu-
sequently its value has deprecated. in
the same way the demand for god was
increased ana thereby The burden form
erly carried by silver was placed wholly
upon gold, so gold appreciated in value
correspondingly with the depreciation in
value of silver.
All this is proven by a gradual decline
in all kinds OF property since 1873, cor
responding to this forced depreciation of
silver All that we ask is a. restoration
of conditions existing prior to 1873, and
when that is done you will find that by
melung ten silver dollars into bullion, the
tulhon Will be worth so in gold, and $40
in gold, whether in coin or bullion will
buy no more OF the products of the earth,
or Of any other kind of property, than
SO ought justly to buy, and then you will
find that the little furnace Will place
on neither any scar
If a recoinage Jaw is passed an ounce of
silver will be worth 1929 cents in gold the
world over. The consequence of it will be
that nobody will be such a fool as to sell
it for less than he can get for it at the
United States m.nts. Ever since the de-
of silver the price of silver
bullion has been made in London and
London buys all the silver product in the
word that is not used in coinage in the
western hemisphere. England France,
Germany and Italy all coin silver at the
ratio OF 1512 to l, or at a value of 1894 in
gold for an ounce of silver and these
countries make the difference between
the London price and the 134.94. Eng
land with these silver coins buys her
cereals in India. thus reducing the agri-
cultural products of the world to- a silver
basis value; in other words England buys
an ounce of silver from the United States
at GO cents, she coins that ounce of silver
into 134.94 cents, with it she then pur-
chases 1884 cents worth of wheat, but
the cost of the wheat to her is 6S cents:
thus she establishes the market value of
wheat on silver basis. The American
farmer cannot sell his wheat in Liverpool
unless he meets the price of the Indian
farmer. Consequently all of the products
Of the American farmer must rise and
fall with the rise and fall of silver bus
ion. There is much to be said upon the
question that is probably not worth while
10 write to you. You have men in your
own state of great ability who are daily
making better arguments in favor of
The free coinage of silver than 1 possibly
ean and you evidently pay no attention
TO them or you would know more about /
lie subject than your last letter would !
seem to indicate. / refer you in par
ocular to the Cincinnati Enquirer. If you !
are at all able to grasp an idea you will I
ind several of them in that paper every
lay.
trust that the above will induce you
o look into the question before you vote I
or the maintenance of the single gold
standard. Yours very truly
N. A. ROBERTSON.