Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-01-15
"FATHeRs, AND slMETALLlsM.
Jefferson, Hamilton and Jackson opposaa
 the Cheap Dollar.

AAN NhSAp AVOAlsAEs
 In a note on the establishment of a mint Thomas Jefferson in 1791 wrote as follows:
 The proportion between the value of gold and silver Is mercantile problem altogether. = = Just principles will lead us to disregard legal proportions altogether, to inquire into the market price of gold in the several coun- tries with which we shall principally be con nected in commerce and to take an average from them.
 In letter to Mir Hamilton in Febrn- ary, 1792, Mir. Jefferson expressed his opposition to cheapening the dollar or reducing the monetary unit. He said of the dollar:
 very much doubt a right now to change the value and especially to lessen it. It would lead to so easy mode of paying off their debts. | %# Should 1t be thought, however, that con gress may reduce the value of the dollar ] should be for adopting for our unit instead of the dollar, either one ounce of pure silver or one ounce of standard silver, so as to keep the unit of money part of the system of meas ures. weights and coins.
 Andrew Jackson in his message of Dec. 3, 1884, said of the result of chang ing the ratio between gold and silver and the consequent return of gold to this country:
 The progress of our gold coinage is credit able to the officers of the mint and promises in short period to furnish the country with sound and portable currency.
 In his message of Dec 2, 1885, he said:
 It Is pleasing to witness the advantages which have already been derived from the re- cent laws regulating the value of the gold coinage.
 In his last message, Dec. 6, 1886, Andrew Jackson described the effects of an imitation of the currency, and though he was speaking of bank notes, not al- ways redeemable ill coin, his remarks are equally applicable to any currency that is not worth intrinsically what it purports to be worth and to any redue- tion of the money unit, whether pa per dollar worth less than coin dollar or silver dollar worth less than the gold dollar. He said:
 The progress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation, of the currency, by excessive bank issues, is always attended by loss to the laboring classes. This portion of the commu- nifty have neither time nor opportunity to watch the ebbs and flows of the money market
 Engaged from day to day ill their useful toils they do not perceive that although their wages are neminally the same, or even some what higher, they are greatly reduced, in fact by the rapid increase of spurious currency which. us 1t appears to make money abound they are at first inclined to consider a blessing It is not so with the speculator, by whom this operation Is better understood and is made to contribute to his advantage It is not until the prices of the neeessaries of life become so dear that the laboring classes cannot supply their wants out of their wages that the wages rise and gradually reach justly proportioned rate to that of the products of their labor.
 Mir. Ingham was secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of Andrew Jack SOIL In 1880 the absence of gold from the circulation because the mint ratio was not the ratio of commerce led the senate to call on Secretary Ingham for a report regarding the relative value of gold and silver. In his reply, dated May 4, 1880, MT. Ingham showed that he preferred silver to gold, but he did not pretend that country could have both in concurrent circulation and under 8 system of free coinage. This, he argued, was impossible. Each country had got to choose which metal it would take. In this reply to the senate Jackson s finance minister said:
 However exactly the proper equilibrium of values of gold and silver may be adjusted at the mint, the balance is liable to be disturbed by causes which can neither be anticipated nor controlled by political power. If the regula- tion be founded on the most 5xact calculation of relative values for the time being, the yi brations of the values of gold and silver must alternately cause the expulsion of each, and where metal is more essential to public convenience than the other the adjustment which exposes that under any circumstances to general eXportation or melting may be- come q greater evil than a regulation which constantly excludes from circulation the less desirable coin. The proposition that there can be but one standard in fact Is self evident +%* The history of coinage abounds with mint regulations to keep gold and silver together and statu 5es prohibiting under severe penalties the exportation of either, all of which have disappointed every expectation of their pro jectors. The adoption of one metal as stand ard measure of property is recommended by it's simplicity. No change in the mint regula tions can ever be required, and it removes ev- cry pretext for dishonest or unwise govern ments to debase their coins.
 The congressional committee report made by Campbell P White in 1881 agreed with Secretary Ingham in favor ing silver as the standard and in regard ing two standards, or bimetallism, as impossible. The report said:
 The committee think that the desideratum in the monetary system is the standard of uni form value. They cannot ascertain that both metals have ever circulated simultaneously, concurrently and indiscriminately in any country where there are banks or money deal CTS and they entertain the conviction that the nearest approach to an invariab1o standard is its establishment in one metal, which metal shall compose exclusively the currency for large payments.
 Latest Freak In Clubdom.
 The latest development of that fancy which makes men turn to oddities ill club life is an association of mon about town to be known as the Society of Pointed Boards. !"
 understand tbof +l,iS oroapi1o@;n,,