The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-27
THE USUAL INCOHERENCY.

An advocate OF the free coinage of sill
yer, whose views the Journal printed a
few months ago, is outraged because the
suggestion has been made that 1t would
save the gold reserve IL the treasury
officials would send silver certificates
and bank notes to accredited banks to
pay pensioners. In his distress and ex-
citement the writer becomes incoherent.
He is indignant because pensioners are
not paid In the best money. gold and
greenbacks, and assumes that silver GER
tificates are not as good money as gold
and greenbacks. The five-dollar silver
certificate will purchase just as much
food and clothing rs five-dollar gold
piece. The excited person who has writ
ten the Journal must know that. If he
does not, he is not as intelligent as was
the laboring woman at the gas Office a
few days ago who. when rendered five
dollar gold piece as change, pushed it
back and asked for a bill If he does
know that silver certificates and bank
notes will purchase as much of the neces.
saries of life in this country as their
equivalents in gold, and raises the point
that they are not as good money for
everyday use at home, he Is not candid.
Nor is his statement that the govern
ment discriminates against silver legal
tender dollars and certificates true. The
government accepts both in payment of
customs dues and other taxes, and the
larger part of it's collections are in such
money. Nor does he tell the truth when
he says the Journal has called the
standard silver dollars of the United
States, coined under past laws and linn
tied to the amount which can be kept
with the same purchase power in this
country as gold, ''fifty-cent dollars" 1t
has stated, and it believes, that the free
and unlimited coinage of silver would
put this country on a silver basis, and
that while silver dollars would be legal
tender and pay debts, they would have
just the purchase power of the market
price of the bullion which they contain,
the same as is now the case in Mexico
and other countries on a silver basis.
The effect would be the same as it was
when the United States was on the green
back basis. The price of every staple
here was the coin price of the world plus
the difference between the coin dollar
and the greenback. For instance, when
the coin dollar would purchase a dollar
and a half in greenbacks, a barrel of
-four which was worth So in London in
coin would, making allowance for freight,
be worth S12 in greenbacks in New York.
In Mexico and japan, which are on a
silver basis, the prices Of all staples are
nearly twice as much in silver as in
gold, because prices in the commercial
world are made in gold. and the coun-
try which uses silver must pay for such
merchandise the market price, in gold,
of the bullion which the coins contain.
In the event of a silver basis in this
country the silver dollar would have in
the markets OF the world the purchase
power of the silver bullion it contains.
The value of such a dollar to purchase
the necessaries of life may be 60, so or
so cents. but it will not have the pur-
chase power of the gold dollar until the
silver bullion in that dollar can be ex-
changed for the gold one. On a silver
basis if the silver in a dollar should
have the purchase power of rs cents 1t
would be equivalent to scaling the pen
sion one-fourth.