The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-05-15

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WORDS OF. CHE
ment's fiat which fixes the value of the
dollar, then they should frankly con-
fess that any other material would an
swer the purpose as we'll as silver.
To assert that any nation can give
to silver a coinage value different
from it's commercial value is manifest
ly absurd-unless you admit that the
legal tender quality which the gov
eminent imparts to it by law is diff
ferent from the commercial value
which the markets of the world give to
it by tho rule of supply and demand.
And the moment you admit that this
legal tender quality does fix the value
of the coin, regardless of the worlds
markets then you are talking Popu-
lism.
We know that you claim that is not
so. You claim that you believe silver
would go back to it's 1873 value if the
1873 conditions were restored. True.
remember that there are two awk-
ward facts to confront you as long as
you stop short of the Populist position:
LIST. The trade dollar is there to prove
that it was not the value of the sill
yer which made the standard dollar
circulate at par. 1t was the power of
the legal tender law!
I'd. There are the market quotations
of 1873 to prove that the amount of
silver in the standard silver dollar was
worth three cents more, on the mar
kets. of the world. than the amount of
gold in the standard gold dollar. This
proves too much for you; not too much
for us Pops!
Neither of these awkward facts inter-
fere with the "fat money" principle,
but they play the mischief with any
free silver argument which stops short
of the Populist position.
Each Of the two facts alluded to
c%onclusively prove that the commercial
ratio is M thing and the legal coinage
ratio quite another; the market value
Of APO grains of %non-legal tender silver
Grade dollar) may be only IS cents,
while the legal value Of 416k grains of
legal tender silver standard dollar)
may be one dollar.
On the contrary, the market value
of 416k grains of silver might rise
above a dollar, whereas it could only,
as a coined dollar be worth a dollar
in the payment of debts.
No mere "free silver Democrat" can
get over these two facts.
Mr.. Smith is correct when he says
that the nations of the world have
changed the coinage ratio time and
again to make it conform to the COM
mercial ratio. AS he says, it has been
done also in this country. We think
that the gold bugs are right when they
claim that a debased dollar, under mere
bimetallism, would drive the good dol
lar out of circulation. The reason is
obvious: the good dollar would seek it's
true level, and would part company
with it's inferior.
To witness the lodgings and the
s4uirmings Of the free silver men when
impaled on this point is funny. They
cannot answer it, and they rarely try.
But to the Pops this alleged gold
bug argument, this so-called "Greslam
law" has no terror at all.
We admit that any commodity, obey
ing the laws Of a mere commodity, will
go where the best price invites it. Of
two commodity dollars, the less val
liable will continue to toddle around,
as a dollar, while the more valuable
will go into a better business. For in
stance, if the law stamps the words
zone dollar on ten cents worth of iron
on n hundred cents worth of gold,
the gold will not associate on such
terms with the iron. 1t will leave the
dimes worth of iron to keep up the
pretense of being zone dollar" while
the one hundred cents worth of gold
will be called to those uses which
make it worth one hundred cents.
This is the Gresham law-destruc-
tive to your weakened silverite who
wants more money, but who does not
want it based on the fat of the govern
ment.
To us Pops this Gresham law goes
for nothing.
We say we don't care a dime where
gold goes; nor what the gold in the
gold dollar is worth. We don't care
whether silver stays at home, or visits
around.
What we want is money. And to
us, money means that thing which
the government declares to be a dollar,
and declares to be good in payment