The Portland daily press., 1896-08-22

An honest dollar is one that abides with
you in times of distress and trouble.
An honest dollar is one that does not hide
itself away in hard times behind bank
| ing houses or trusts. 1t Is dollar which
is always with the people.
y Ii Mr.. Frank had said an honest dol
lar Is an honest dollar" he would have
illuminated the public mind just as
much rs ha did when he said it was a
dollar for which ono had to given honest
labor or fair portion of your produce.
How much honest labor and what con-
stitutes fair portion of your producef''
But, says Mr.. Frank, "Rn honest dol
lar is one that abides with you in times
of distress and trouble. - 1t is all old and
true adage that . bad penny always re-
turns. If, there has been anything settled
| by experience 1t is that the cheaper dol
lar, the dishonest" dollar is the ons
that abldes. If Mr.. Frank doesn't be-
lieve this he can put two dollars in his
POCKET, one full weight gold dollar of
standard fneness, and the other de-
based gold or silver dollar, and If he
doesn't find that the latter abides with
him longer, unless he throws it away,
we will agree to support him for govern
CT. Gresham S law is as memorable as
the law of gravitation. When there are
dollars of different values in circulation
tbs dollar that abides the longest is the
| cheaper one, the debased ono and the dis
honest enc. Mr.. Franks statement is
exactly contrary to this fact
Next Mr. Frank proceeded to describe
the silver dollar first coined in this
country, and this was his description of
1t, according to the Argus:
| If you take the trouble to look 1t up
| you will hud it the dollar with 27M
grains of silver or 4121S grains of stand
ard silver. That was declared to be the
| unit OF value. Put in the place of the
| mum Der one. it is the unit of currency,
and from that everything else was re-
| corded.
: If Mr.. Frank himself will take the
trouble to look at the first coinage act he
will find that his description of it COR
responds in no particular whatever to
the fact. We may presume, perhaps, that
the E2714 grains of silver which be speaks
OF is reporters blunder, but the ''4121a
grains of standard silver is no doubt
Mr.. Franks statement. AS matter of
fact, the first silver dollar contained
416 grains of standard silver. and it was
| not until 1887 that the dollar of 1929
grains was decreed. 1t is nowhere de-
clared in this act that the silver dollar
| shall be the unit of value, and the infer
ence to that effect is a forced one.
Mr.. Frank goes on to exploit the vir-
tues and achieve nents of that silver dol
lar of the fathers in this fashion:
With that as the standard ..of currency
we took up war with Great Britain; we
purchased liberty and sailors rights
With that dollar we purchased that gvast
territory west of the Mississippi river
with the supplies of gold from California
and silver from the mountains.
Mr.. Frank has overlooked an import
ant fact; he has overlooked the fact that
President Jefferson. who effected she
Louisiana purchase in 1903, three years
after, while the bonds that were given
for that purchase were still unpaid. de-
monetized the American silver dollar by
stopping It's coinage. Here is the text of
,
Department. of State,
May ], 1906.
Sir: In consequence of a representa-
tlon from the director of the Bank of
the United States that considerable pur-
chases have been made of dollars coined
at the mint for the purpose of exporting
them, and as 1T is probable further pur-
chases and expectations will be made, the
President directs that all silver e to be
at hQ inf oh lo Of
nomination SO that the value of the 1arg-
est pieces shall not exceed half a dollar,
am. etc.
JAMES MADISON,
This order remained in force many
years and the minis were
closed to silver dollars. So that MIR.
Franks claim that with that dollar we
purchased that vast territory west of the
Mississippi" has no foundation in fact
whatever. All the silver dollars we
coined from 1899 until 1873 would not
have paid the principal of the Louisiana
purchase, to say nothing of the interest.
Next Mr.. Frank attempts to tell what
the silver men propose to do, and this is
what he says:
What do we seek to do? We seek to
place 1t 1.-THE silver sdollar) back where
our forefathers had It. Great Britain is
placing her dagger through our silver
dollar and while the gore is running
from it announces, "Now see your fifty
| cent dollars, and throw it away as Junk,
as 1t is not redeemable.' ~
Our forefauhers had silver coined as close
as they could get to its commercial ratio
with gold. Alexander Hamilton and
Thomas Jefferson dilia emily sought that
ratio, and asoertained it as near as they
could. Our silver men of today PROPOSE to
coin the silver dollar without any regard
| to the commercial ratio at all-in co1uplete
defiance of 1t. That is not placing it
| back where our forsfathers had it.
Great Britain has not placed her dagger
| through our silver dollar. There is no
evidence that Great Britain cares IA straw
| whether we open our mints to FREQ ooin-
age or not. Great Britain demonetized
silver way back in 1916, when oil the
world was coming it on an equality with
gold. The allusion to Great Britain is
al nathan fan hla o+fa,o.t 70 c,o,...