Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-09-28
PARITY EASILY ESTABLISHED.

The. goyernmentsof the United States
has pledged itself to maintain the par
ity of the metals. The position OF the
gold men on the coinage questlon
would indicate that they consider that
this pledge is pledge to maintain the
disparity of the metals. There Is
difference between maintaining the
parity of the metals and maintaining
the parity of the money made from
the metals-all the difference in the
world.
You cannot maintain a thing Inat
has no existence. The money metals
are not at parity at the legal ratlo.
They must first be put at parity III
order to be maintained in that posi-
ton. What has caused the disturbance
in the equilibrium-the parity between
% Is grains of gold and 37l14 grams
of silver? The acknowledgements OF
the latter from free coinage. What
plan to restore that parity does the
gold advocate propose? None at all.
He proposes to attach credit string
to the coined silver that shall hold 1t
up to gold, make it measurable III
gold. Does this produce parity of the
metals or tend to produce parity! NOT
at all. 1t throws SO much more re-
sponsibility on gold, raises its value,
makes the disparity Of the metals all
the greater.
There has been much said about the
present position of silver as money
49, iy11Yliin6 q
ment to make the silver dollar as good
as the gold dollar. There is no such
thing as a United States silver dollar.
Our law of '73, section IA, says that
the gold dollar shall be the unit OF
value. What is this thing then, that is
like cart wheel, is made of silver, has
the government stamp on it, says: I'm
God we trust" on it's face, and says:
Zone dollar?" 1t is a gold dollar, not
literally but representatively. 1t mat
tiers little to me whether there is %
cents worth of silver in it or only
cents worth of silver. | don't care
whether the government prints treas
ury note on paper worth So ream or
$40 ream. 1t gets the material back
w llCA IL IOCcifS l1C PA1SC LA LIS NONo
and can do what it pleases with it. So
it can with this silver piece. But as it
has set it in circulation as dollar
not any ambiguous thing, but dollar
measured by it's unit of value, the gold
dollar-it cannot repudiate 1T, but must
take it back as such dollar.
The same argument applies to s.
cent picket piece. 1t is 120 Of dol
lar, and a dollar is % Is grains of
gold, for that is the unit OF value. At
least the government says that it is,
and it is absolutely the unit of &C
count, or the unit upon which all debt
paying must be based. We have no
money but gold. A nickel, a cent or a
silver dollar ESQ called is gold money
and nothing else
The parity of the metals can be
brought about only by restoring free
coinage to silver. Then that cart wheel
becomes a real dollar. It isn't the pic
ture Of a dollar, but body and soul,
actual, sure enough silver dollar. Ii
gold goes to premium under this en-
actment the burden of money work
will be thrown upon silver or it's repre-
sentative, treasury notes, and be taken
off Of gold. That becomes at once
force operating to draw the values of
the money metals together, to bring
them to a parity. We shall be proceed
ing in the right direction to bring the
metals to parity, not in direction to
drive them further apart. to increase
the present disparity between them.
Let the gold men be honest. They
don't want the metals to be at parity.
They want that credit string on all
money, except gold, to grow longer, and
the Government backing to increase,
for that is the string on which they do
their high wire financial juggling. They
have already juggled the people out Of
enough wealth to be equal to all the
gold and silver, diamonds and pre-
cious stones in the world and it is time
their career is cut short.
GEORGE A. ROGERS.
Free Silver and Prosperity.