The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-14

tnefeDy 90 cents worth of such money
as is acceptable all over the world for
that amount, he gets honest money,
which is neither cheap nor dear. If,
however, he gets only SIS cents, while
an absurd law ofnhis own government
will enable him TO purchase in the
market where heumust buy the things
that he needs, OILY Is cents worth
of commodities with that so-called Sc
cents, then he gets cheap" money and
is defrauded. If he gets 56 cents in
gold, with which he can get SLIP worth
of deprecated silver money, and then
has to pay SLIP for every Sc cents
worth of commodities, he IS neither
better nor worse off than Ee-
fore. These cover all the conditions,
we believe, thatsit isapossible to af-
feet by legislation.
We will once more answer the ques-
ton why, if the government can keep
400, 100000 silver dollars of equal pur-
chasing power with gold, 1t cannot
make S800,0 600 of equal power. If
our correspondent can borrow at the
bank $4,000 because his credit is good
to that extent, why can he not borrow
$4,000 or $5,000,00O, or any other sum !?
The difference between the bullion
value of the silver dollars in circula-
ton and their face value is fiat, and
is simply a forced loan by the gov
eminent, which the people know that
it is able to pay. They doubt its abil
ity to borrow indefinitely and make
this promise good. Furthermore, free
coinage does not propose that the gov
eminent make good $S00,000,000 in sill
yer money. 1t proposes that the own
ers of silver bullion should be allowed
to coin it to an indefinite amount, in
Guiding all the silver in the world, if
it could be got here, and force it into
circulation at double it's present bull
lion value without any government
guarantee behind it.
Our correspondent must understand
that it will not be the money actually
coined that does the mischief, because
the whole country would go to a silver
basis long before any such act could
be passed, if president and congress
in favor of such policy should be elect
ed 1t is not cover production of sill
yer currency that enters into the ques-
ton, but such an generalization of
that metal by the coinage ratio as
would drive gold out of circulation,
place high premium upon it and rev.
olutionize both our standard and our
basis for business transactions.
The quotation made by our CORE
spondent from an aarticle in the
G o e explains itself. He has only
to read the last clause to understand
it. "Or, what is the same thing, pur-
chase commodities with it at gold
prices on the gold basis We have
stated repeatedly that the act of 1890
and that of 1893 both pledged the faith
and credit of this country solemnly to
the maintenance Of all our different
forms of currency at par. This means
that it will take any. measures neces-
sary to keep the silver dollar equal in
purchasing power to the gold dollar.
They are equal at the present time,
and, therefore, the Mexican merchant
who accepts an American silver
dollar knows that any bank in this
country will give him in exchange for
it any other form of currency that he
desires, or that he can buy merchan-
disc in the United States with it at the
same rate as with the gold dollar and
ship that merchandise to Mexico and
sell it there. Thus the maintenance of
all our currency at par, which has re-
quired constant struggle for the last
three years by reason of this silver
agitation, and which has compelled the
issue of $685., 200, 900 of bonds, measures
the tremendous effort to keep the
silver dollar from falling to it's bull
lion value; toward which end the mis-
taken efforts of the silver leaders con
stantly tend.