Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-05
SENTIMENT OF THE PEOPLE.
The Gospel OF Bimetallism.


The currency of q nation is matter
of supreme Importance; a sound cur
rency is essential to national we'll being.
Commerce and trade cannot prosper I'M
der an unsound, false or vicious system
or finance. 1t is now generally admitted
that gold or silver, or both, must be the
foundation of a sound currency. While
paper money may be preferred as an ac-
tual circulating medium, yet that cur
rency must have metallic basis of either
coin or bullion. The attempt to main
tain an irredeemable paper currency has
SO often and uniformly failed that no
modern economic writer of good standing
defends it.
The contest is no longer between pa
per currency and a metallic one. The is
sue as now made up is one between gold
and silver, or monometallic against BIZ
metallism. What is bimetallsm? 1t Is a
preference for gold and silver, each hav-
ing a standard of value, and each pos
sessing a full legal tender capacity. Be
fore me is a silver dollar legal tender of
the United States. 1t contains 371A
grains of pure silver, or 4121a grains of
standard silver; on one side is the head
of the goddess OF liberty, the national
motto, e pluribus unum," and the
thirteen stars; on the other side is the
spread eagle of America, with the legend
at its head, In God we trust" and at it's
feet the words "one dollar
This coin bears the image and super
scription of the United States, and 1t is
by law a legal tender for taxes and all
public and private debts. To the eye it
has an honest face, and upon that face
is engraven the national faith and honor
in pledge of the fact that 1t is just what
1t claims to be, "one dollar"
This silver dollar is one of the bimetal-
lie coins of a bimetallc constitution,
which provides that congress shall have
power to coin money, regulate the value
% aifrfn ..f.if nd ftaf
no state shall make anything but gold
and silver coin a tender in payment of
debts" 1t is the Oldest of all our dollar
pieces. emanating from the mint in 1894,
under the act of 1892, whereas the gold
dollar was never coined or authorized to
pieces were provided for in 1892 at rates
of value to the silver pieces of one pound
of gold to fifteen of silver
This silver dollar as originally created
contained, SIN grains of pure metal. 1t
contains exactly that amount OF pure sill
yer now, but the gold dollar has changed.
In 1894, when Europe had drained our
gold and silver had become nearly, IL not
quite Our sole metallic circulation, con-
gress fixed new ratio between the two
metallic moneys of one pound of gold to
sixteen Of silver, by reducing the gold
dollar from 24% to 20 Ia grains of pure
gold. This silver dollar Is count with
the gold dollar as denomination or stand
ard of value. All estimates and appro-
priations, assessments and appraise-
ments, whether of the federal congress.
the state legislatures or Of business men,
are madef with reference to the whole
volume Of money to be dealt with (saye
In rare cases., not with refereice to any
particular kind of money. In this man
ner 1.-The dollar" simply, regardless of it's
material, was used throughout America
as unit of value.
The silver dollar is one of the pillars
of our monetary system. That system
is like an arch, of whichthe national debt
is the keystone--one side is our green
back currency, the other side is our ma
tional bank currency, and the two pillars
upholding the arch are gold and silver
dollars.
Money is value created by law to be.
a scale Of valuation and g. valid tender
for debts" said a clear-headed man 1t.
as l conceive, is a perfect definition. IT
fences in everything that Is money and
excludes everything that is not money.
The silver dollar the n.srorfetaiiists say.
is fiat money. If the legal tender and
bullion value of this silver dollar was
parted. whose fault was 1t and at whose