The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-10-03
~ SILVER DOLLARS ARE AS GOOD
AS col n ONES

a silver dollar as / can with Il gold dollar?
Why won't silver dollars be just as good nm
Ger free coinage as they are now?
These are samples of the inquiries
that men are asking all over the coun-
try, and these and similar queries have
poured in upon Secretary Carlisle in
such quantities that he has deemed it
advisable to answer them by means Of
an open letter, which contains a clear
frank and convincing explanation of
this matter.
Summed up in single word, it may
be said that FAITH is at the basis of the
governments ability to maintain each
OF the silver dollars on par with gold
The people have faith that each silver
dollar issued by the government will
purchase exactly as much as gold dol
lar will. Remove that faith, destroy
that confidence, upset that belief, and
the government, strong and powerful as
it is will find itself unable to maintain
the parity between the silver and the
gold dollar, with the inevitable result
that the silver dollar will sink to its
commercial value Of about 90 cents,
while, on the principle that poor dollar
drives out good one, the gold dollar
will disappear entirely from circulation.
The people of this country have freely
received silver dollars because the faith,
the honor and the integrity of the ma
ton arc pledged to keep the silver dollar
on an equality with the gold dollar.
For this reason the silver dollar, in
spite of its commercial shrinkage, has
been readily accepted at its face value
by the people. But if any doubt arises
i'll the public mind as to the govern
mant's ability TO keep its pledge, there
is 1t once Il sudden withdrawal of gold
from circulation either by foreign cred
itors or by domestic hoarders. Such u
condition was created III 1893 and was
re-. cIsible for the panic of that year,
which was further due to the additional
too many silver dollars under the Bland
law, and too may paper dollars in pay
mtnt for silver bars under the Sherman
law. Congress was obliged, therefore,
to stop tie issue of this money. But al
ready nearly 5000, 600, 600 in silver dol
lars and silvCrLotcs had been created, ana
cradle troul,o i'll keeping this mass Of
silver, together with $3lG, 600, 600 i'll
grccnbAc..s, ON II parity with gold. AS
Il result ii vas obliged at times to pur-
chase gold to keep up the equality 10y tic
is.;o of bends.
Now, if the government has had so
much difficulty in keeping its silver and
sold dollars cXchangcablc, with u com
p.gatiycly limited issue of silver dollars
GHd notes, how can it possibly hope to
maintain this parity when our minis are
open to all the silver of all the world,
when the citizen Of any nation on the
globe can come TO our minis and have
50 cents worth Of silver metal coined
into Il silver dollar? The government
would no longer be able to redeem its
obligations i'll gold, because point
would soon be reached where it would
be impossible to exchange gold for silver
dollars and their paper representatives,
the parity between the gold and silver
dollars would soon be removed, tho
equality III the exchangeable value of the
coins would be destroyed, and the coun-
try would descend to asilver basis, with
the result that Il silver dollar would be
worth its commercial value and nothing
more.
This commercial value now amounts
to about 90 cents, and, reckoning on that
basis, the enactment of a law for the
free and unlimited coinage of silver at
the ratio of 16 to l would be Il violation
Of the explicit obligations of the nation,
which by an act of congress has de-
clGred it to be "the established policy
Of the United States to maintain the
two metalsOn parity with each other.
1t would be IA confession that the people
had lost faith III the ability and integ-
rity of the government to redeem its
promises. 1t would be "a violation OF
the implied and expressed pledges on
the faith Of which the people have &C
ccpted hundreds Of millions of these sill
yer dollars i'll payment for goods and
services at their full gold value. 1t
would be wholesale reputation on the
part Of the government against it's own
citizens, and the dollars, being full legal
tender, would compel all debtors to re-
pudiate half their obligations, cut down
pensions, wages, salaries, savings bank
deposits and insurance policies one half,
and whelm the whole country in disas-
ter.
These are, in brief, some of the rea-
SONS why the silver dollar today passes
equal and current with it's gold COM
panion, and why the silver dollar will
sink to its own intrinsic value if our
mints are opened to the free and unlim-
tied coinage of silver
A tricky dollar never yet made any
nation prosperous nor added anything
to the real wealth of it's people. can
honest man is the noblest work of God,