The herald., 1896-11-01
: silver As token MONEY ;
On the desk before me lie three dol


lars.
The first Is . gold dollar weighing
25.S grains. 1t bears the stamp Of the
United States. 1t was issued by the
government as dollar. and it contains,
quite independent of its stamp, dol
lars worth of gold. So when the gov
ernment issues this dollar and asks us
to take it, the government furnishes a
dollars worth of collateral We are
not asked to take anything on credit.
The second is silver dollar weighing
| 4121A grains. This also has the stamp
| of the government. 1t was issued as a
| dollar, and it passes for dollar, and
it is in fact every whit as good as the
| gold dollar But the government gives
US with this dollar only about fifty
cents worth of collateral Fifty cents
| is all the bullion in this silver dollar
| would bring in the open market. Hence
the silver dollar represents fifty cents
worth of collateral security and fifty
| cents in promise to pay
| The third is a paper dollar Weighing
half grain. 1t was issued by the gov
| ernment as the representative of dol
lar, and it passes for dollar. 1t is just
| as valuable to you and me as either the
| gold or the silver dollar. The govern
| ment gives us with this paper dollar
no collateral security whatever The
half-grain Of paper may be considered
dS vanishing quantity. Here is no
collateral at all; it is simply q promise
to pay. That promise may be redeemed
by either silver or gold dollar. and
the government gives me. the holder
the option ~ saying which kind of
metal-gold or silver-I will take for it.
Now of the three kinds of money
which I have before me, the first only
is primary or redemption money. be-
cause 1t contains, in itself, the full value
of metal which the stamp on it's face
calls for. If the government should
not choose to redeem 1t, ! could melt
1t down and sell it to a jeweler for q
dollar. The second (silver) and the
third lpapeD dollar are token money.
They both call for more on their face
than the materials in them are worth
in the open market. The silver dollar
draws on the credit of the government
for fifty cents; the paper dollar draws
on the credit of the government for
al that's in it-a full dollar
If we are to have these three kinds
Oh money as permanent currency, l
want to ask why it is necessary for the
government to put up half security for
any OF its money? If the silver dollar
is good with only fifty cents worth OF
silver in it, why not issue a tin dollar
or copper dollar, or a platinum dollar
or another paper dollar. to serve ex-
actly the same purpose? If fifty cents
of the silver dollar must be credit. whv
not the 100 cents and be done with IT?
Half security would discredit any sort
of promise to pay
The only advantage of retaining sill
yer in circulation at all is to furnish a
market for the product of the silver
mines. This is purely selfish, indiyid-
udi interest, and the government ought
not to regard it as of any validity what
ever.
There Is no more reason why the gov
ernment should provide a market for
the products of the silver mines than
Cor that of the coal miners or the iron
miners.
Allowing that the government has
$500, 900, 900 of silver coin in circulation
today. why should the government have
to pay $300,000,000 for the material to
make this money when it could buy ma
terial to serve the purpose equally we'll
for less than tenth of that expenditure :?
Why not, then. strike silver off the list
of money metals? 1t is too high priced
for mere token money; 1t is not dear
enough for a primary or redemption
money. In calculating upon a contin-
uance of our present monetary system
the logical, the common sense, the bus
mess like thing to do would be to drop
silver entirely out as a coin metal. We
can make token money far cheaper of
other materials. There is absolutely
no excuse for making a money that is
half token and half primary. If the
government Is good enough to guarantee
one-half the value of it's coin it is good
enough to guarantee the whole value.
We might as well go the whole logical
length of this proposition.
Now, do you see what we are COM
ing to? Silver, which has been a coin
metal of the world for 5000 years-.-s sill
yer that circulated in Egypt when the
pyramids were building-silver that in
the archaic period was worth as much as
gold-silver, one of the precious metals
from time immemorial, Is, in our own
age and generation stricken from the
list of precious metals and becomes de-
based. 1t is thrown down from it's high
place as primary redemption money,
and is obliged to take chances along
with tin and zinc and copper and plat
mum. Is this not radical-a revolu-
tionary-step to take? What right
have we of the last decade Of the nine
teenth century to utterly repudiate 1t
and cast out one of the precious metals
Of the ages? And, allowing that we
have the right, what good can we ac-
complish by it? And how was this
change accomplished? This govern
ment of the United States is largely re-
sponsible for it, In 1873 our congress
lnaugurated the movement which re-
suited in the downfall Of silver. 1t is
true that Great Britain anticipated us
nfty-SeVen years IN demOnetlZinE sill
yer; but the position of Great Britain
alone was not enough to break down the
commercial value of silver, and so up to
1873 it held it's own in the markets of the
world But in 1873. when the bullion
silver in dollar was worth cents more
than dollar, the congress of the United
States struck down the silver dollar by
withdrawing it's free coinage proper
ties. Therein we fell into trap that
Great Britain had kept set for US for
fifty-seven years.
And how was his action of the Amer
lean congress taken? Was 1t as the re-
suit of some great agitation which
swept over the country and set every
body to thinking about the matter as
the people are now thinking about the
gold and silver question? Was it the re-
suit of a campaign of education like the
present? Did the political parties form
ulate planks about it and did the Amer
lean people deposit any ballot that said
in effect that silver should be demone-
tiZed and cast out as money metal?
Not at all. Here was one of the most
important financial departures since
the world has had financial status,
and yet nobody-not even the members
of congress who voted on the PROPOSE
tion-not even the president who signed
the bill-knew that this step was being
taken. Set aside all the talk about "the
crime of 1873" as Improbable invective,
and the fact remains that the people of
the United States did not realize much
less sanction, the act of their govern
ruent in striking down one of the pre-