The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-28
when Was silver DemOnetized

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
IT is really amusing to see how easily
the mine owners can shift their position;
amend their complaint, as it were, TO SUIT
the progress of information. They began
about twenty years ago to howl, III the in
terest of the dear people, as they CLAIMED,
because by ''the crime of 1879 they the
people, were to be forever deprived OF the
dollar of the daddies, since no more dollars
were to be coined at our minis. But when
the people looked into the matter they dis
covered that after all there were only about
10000 of dollars coined per annum for the
preceding eighty years, and that hardly one
of those coined in the last preceding forty
years had ever entered into circulation al
all. being superseded by the Spanish milled
dollar worth in gold from ) to cents less
than our American dollar. Not one man in
a hundred had ever SO much as seen one of
our own make of dollars, much less owned
one. and nobody had at that time seen any
kind of d silver dollar in circulation for ten
years more. 1t did not take long for the
people to see that the tears of the mine
owners were all made for effect and~in their
own interest, whereupon they (the mine
owners) and their paid attorneys amended
their complaint and they next alleged that
it was not the dollar that was demonetized
to our hurt but silver in general, being no
longer a precious metal like gold to be
coined free for the benefit of the owners
but only commodity to be bought and sold
in the markets Of the world as any other
commodity, hence subject 10 the law of sup
ply and demand other commodities are
Now. every one of them mine owners and
making this complaint that the act of 1873
only the slightest possible modifica-
ton of the act of 1858. differing from that
only in providing that the mint should no
longer { public
pairing for expectation all the old spoons
and foreign coins that could be gatnered
up by SPECTATORS; for our mine owners
had never furnished ounce of their goods
Cor coinage purposes, because they could
London unless it was now and then few
scraps that were not in any convenient
shape for market. The government had got
tired of this kind of business, but the act
that great crime, provided for d continual
ton of the purchase of silver at the mar
<et price and the coming of it into halves
quarters dimes and half dimes at the ratio
of Is TO /, which afforded handsome profit
even with silver at S1.29 per ounce, which
had been the average price for a generation
or more. but that profit went into our treas
ury, not into the Golfers of the mine own
ers. who We're content to get the market
price for their silver; and such mine own
ers as Senator Stewart and others voted for
it. Now, if silver ever was demonetiZed it
was demonetized by the act OF 1858 and the
mine owners themselves had acquiesced in
it twenty years without ever discovering
any crime" in it. That plea having been
answered by the IaclS OF history, lneY are
just pleading that need more
money. anyhow; and the mine owners need
a. better market for the $4,000, 600 already
in stock and the annual output of $3.50, 000.
600. with all that is to follow. They adj
nit that the dollars thus made will be no
better than bullion in our dealings with
other peoples, and very little, if any, better
a purchasing agent at home. but they
will do to pay debts with, from the debt
the employer owes his men at the end of
the week to the debt owing to the depositor
in the savings bank, all without benefting
anybody but the mine owners. What will
be their next plea no one can imagine. but
the American people will never coin all
these billions into dollars at public expense
just to furnish a market for billions of sill
yer and to pay laborcrs and other creditors
with. L. l.. SEE.
Indianapolis, Sept. 20.