Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1896-10-22
SILVER AS GOOD AS COLD
Open Mints and Legal Tender
Laws Will Make 1t
Such.
No 5O.Cent Dollars Possible
Not a Question of
Bullion.
But One of Debt Paying Coined
Money-Gold Bug De-
CeptiOn.


advocates of the single gold standard
is the false representation that II the
policy of the free and unlimited COIN
age of silver should be adopted 1t would
cut in two the wages of laborers and
compel them to take 50-cent dollars with
out an increase of the rate of their
wages; that those receiving salaries
would get but one-half the pay they
now receive: that those having money
on deposit in savings banks would only
receive from the banks in return for
their deposits, 50-cent dollars, which
would be but the one-half of what
would be due them; that the endow-
ment funds of colleges and universities
would be reduced one-half In value;
as would all trust funds.
This frightful statement is repeated
day by day by the newspapers and
other advocates Of the single gold
standard, as controlling argument. to
prevent the people from voting for the
candidates who represent the policy of
the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
The newspapers and men who are urg-
ing this statement know it to be a
stupendous falsehood. They make 1t
look as plausible as they can, and ring
the changes on it in every possible
form. And by this means have de-
ceived and are deceiving and mislead-
ing thousands of honest people, who
may not be able to detect the fraud
which is being practiced on them.
What are the real facts as to this?
The gold standard advocates. as the
basis Of their false statements, COM
pare silver bullion divested of the quail
ty of money, uncoined and not legal
tender, with gold, which is by law
coined into money and made legal
tender in payment of public dues and
all debts, to the amount stamped on
each coin. Is this an honest COM
parison? Does it speak the truth? ?
Does it not, in effect, assert a thinly
disguised, but gross and monstrous,
falsehood? Let us see. If congress and
the nations should prevent the coin
age of gold bullion, as has been done
as to silver bullion, depriving it by
law of the qualities of money, taking
from it its debt-paying quality, then
the gold bullion would not be money,
no more than silver bullion is now.
And the gold bullion would become q
commodity as silver bullion is now, and
would simply bring what it would be
worth for use in the arts. The same
Is true as to silver.
To make an honest comparison of
gold and silver. and to tell the honest
truth, we must compare gold coin, in
vested with the legal tender quality,
with silver coin invested with the same
quality Doing that, we find the silver
coins in the United States, not silver
bullion, worth as much in the purchase
Of property and in the payment OF
debts as the coins Of gold. And we find
that more than one billion of dollars Of
silver coins in circulation in Europe are
at par with gold. Why is this? Sim
ply because both are coined with the
value of the coins fixed by law.
Has any one ever seen a 50-cent dol
lar in this country? OF course not And
why not? Because our more than $780,
900 silver dollars, or their represen-
tatives, are the coined money of the
United States, their valued fixed by
law and they are made a legal tender
for all debts Hence, those now coined
are as good as gold.
No laborer, no person drawing sal
ary, no depositor in bank will be
paid, nor will any offer be made to pay
them, with silver bullion. They may be
paid in coined silver.a as they may now be
lawfully paid in coined silver; but the
dollars in which they could be 30 paid
would be 1O0-cent dollars. and equal to
gold, because they would buy ~ much
property ana pay as much OF debt as
the same number Of gold dollars.