Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-08-18
PRESS COMMENTS.
The Value OF the Dollar.
tNew York Tribune.)

'.NtN i 9TH tlbune.l
/ The metal in g gold dollar is worth
8 hundred cents. Hammer it out OF
shape, or melt it ana run it into
amy other form. and you can
sun get hundred cents for
L just as easily as before. But
tEe metal IN a Is to / silver dollar is
worth only hfty-three cents Hammer
az melt il into any other shape and
YOU WILDE able TO get tlfty-three cents
far it, and no more. Why? Because
the coin contains only 4l21. grains of
standard silver. and 4121a grains Of
standard silver are worth at current
market rates, only about fifty-thrce
cents
Yes" says the free silver man
but that IS all because of the crime
"of 1879 Ii the government should
'remonotizc silver ana coin it on
equal terms with gold, then 4l21s
grains Of it would be worth one hun
'dred cents"
Is that So. friend Populist2 Then if
the government should monctize iron
and coin it on the same terms, would
12i2 grains Of iron be worth one hun
dred cents2 If 50. the government
ought to be able to pay off the whole
public debt tomorrow; and every man
A. ho owns an old stove or some worn
out hoes and Shovels may set up as
millionaire. If not. why not? If free
coinage would double the value of one
metal. why not Of another?
because" replies the follower ot
Mr. Bryan. iron is not a precious
metal and silver is. Silver has from
time immemQrial been recognized as
"a money metal. The rule applies
only to the precious metals silver
"and gold. No others are used a.
money"
There you run counter to the facts
Of history. Many other metals, and
other materials than metal. have beer
ana still are used as money and as
currency Sparta used iron, Syracuse
and Britain used tin. Russia platinum.
Eurmah lead. Carthage leather. China
silk. Abyssinia salt. Tartary tea.
Campcachy logwood. Mexico soap.
the African coast cowrie shells: and
many nations of high civilization have
thus used cattle. as the words "pecun-
larry fee" rupee ana "shekel''
testify Why demand the rcmonetiza-
tion Of slver any more than of iron. or
sheep. or oxen? Aud if monetization
has suchan effect upon one thing, why
not upon others"
We'll he persists, the actual value
of the metal i'll the coin doesn't mat
ter. anyway. There isn't Il cents
worth Of copper in a cent, and there
isn't cents worth of paper in a hun
''drcd-dollar bill. Yet they pass as
"full legal tender. Sowould the silver
dollar. even if it did contain only
about ilfty-thrce cents worth OF
metal"
ON the contrary. it does matter. if
the coin be standard money, and not
rcdeemable in anything else. The cop
rcr cent is mere token money" Ii
is not full legal tender, and does not
crjoy free coinage. You cannot make
4 manaccept one hundred copper cents
as payment of one dollar. You cannot
take - grains ofcopper-the amount in
q cent-to the mint and get a cent for
it, The paper in "A bill is worth moth
ing. The bill derives it value solely
from the fact that the government is
willing and able and, indeed, bound to
redeem it on demand in gold You
cannot take a bit of white paper
seven inches long and three wide, to
the treasury and get a dollar for it,
o" have it stamped zone dollar" by the
government. When the government
wants to make copper coins it buys
copper at the market price. When il
wants to make paper money it buys
paper at the market price. So when
il 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 Ape grains.
worth hfty-three cents, be stamped
lone dollar" than that your slip of
white paper be thus stamped
Now do you intend that your 16 to
/ 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 tevery fiftythree cents worth of