The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-01

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quote Indefinitely that il is always the
people whoiwork for living Ewho suffer
most from a deprecated dollar. The
people who reap the harvest in such
times according to Mr.. Webster are the
spectators Wall street people.
CATECHIST Defends HIS CATE.
CHISM.
10 the Editor Of the Press:
The only part of your answer to the
Free Silver Catechism," which the
catechist thinks it necessary to consider
Is stated in the extracts that follow. All
the rsst has been SO effectively answered
IN articles that have appeared in your
o IN paper that they may be referred to
without reorganization.
There are no 80 cent dollars to be had
IN this country now but there will be q
lot of them under free coinage. The sill.
yer dollar Is equal to the gold dollar now
simply because the people have faith in
the ABILITY and purpose of the govern
ment 10 maintain its parity with gold.
Half of the silver dollar is now credit.
and while that credit is deemed good, il
WILL c1Icuiats on par with gold. -
wei noW, simply because there has
not set bean devised at least In our own
country, any method of preventing an
oVer-lssue OF paper dollars beyond the
apiilty OF any government to maintain
6nelr legal tender power for debt their
purchase power or commodities at par.
All modern authorities assent with abso :
Lutte positiveness and assurance that paper
dollars having no apprsoiahle intrinsic
value, may perform safely and efficiently
all the functions of real coined money
without in any way impairing the credit
of the government that authorized them,
or injuring by the fraction of mill the
reciprocal rights of creditors or debtors
In any written or implied contract. Pro-
vided the issue Of suoh paper is kent with.
in safe and scientific limits as to GUAM
tity.
You may sneer at these authorities as
many ignorant and few piausibly edu-
Gated persons continue to do at the New.
tonian theory of gravity, at the Goethean.
Darwinian theory of evolution. but can
you cali them or those that accept them
fools and oranksp
But the matter has passed beyond soien-
Il fio theory and speculation and is to be
studied in the world of fact. Nine
tenths, il not ninety nine one hundredths
OF all debts and taxes are paid of all pur-
chases Of real property, lands, houses,
ships. stocks, produce, food, clothing,
etc., Is made by juss such paper dollars
having no. intrinsic value, in this CITY
of Portland, in this State of Maine, in
these United States. Thousands of good
citizens whom you both know and es-
tenn support their families and pay their
bills and never have in their possession
gold coin and rarely enough Of silve,
one that represents as much as a dollar.
Bank OF England notes, with no coin OF
any Kind behind large fraction of them.
circulate as money often at premium
not only in England but throughout the
commercial world, simply because their
over issue is effectively guarded against.
In this connection let me answer a
question you have not put but which
many do; why not have iron and copper
dollars, if 1t is the legal fat of govern
ment that makes them money? So we
might, ii government could and did reso-
lutely restrict the coinage OF iron and
copper dollars. One ancient nation.
Sparta, actually did use iron for it's coin
age currency and people Of iron integ-
rlty and courage was the product OF it.
But thsy abandoned the experiment, ais
we should have to, because copper and
iron are SO abundant and obtained with
SO little labor, that free coinage would sc
| increase money relatively to all 1.-THE uses
| of1money as to compel US either to anor.
mously increase the size ard weight oil
our CONS or to limit by law the amount
coined and issued. The latter, we should
have to do, if there were sudden and
enormous reinforcement of gold or silver
| by getting access to deeper and more
metaliferous strata of the earth's crust
| No silver man that know of believes
that either paper Or silver or even golt
| wonld be a safe monetary instrument, i
| there were no natural causes or no i'm
| peratiye law to limit its Issue and coin.
age. The reason why gold and silver
| came to be selected for monetary uses Wa!
the fact that they were supplied in sucf
| limited quantities and were obtained BY
the expenditure Of SO much labor thai
| nature itself made sufficient and effect
ual barrier toftheir indefinite production
Mining, either gold or silver, is not aor
the whole paying business The ful
| monetary value of silver coins in thi.
country. as shown by carefully prepared
statistics, will not pay for the expenditure
in producing them. What has happenef
to silver bullion is simply from purely
political and commercial causes, and not
at all from natural or economic causes
Silver bullion has fallen solely and only
as the demand for it has enormously fal
len of by its arbitrary disuse as coined
money, Just exactly as the price of colo
bullion would have declined from the
same cause. This opinion Is corroborat.
ed by the fact that silver bullion had
lp6b uOll6 VI KS VdtG0 WnoH
Germany and France afterwards abruptly
stopped coming it into money. The
reason for this action. as given at the
time, was not at all that silver bullion
had lost it's intrinsic value. AS far as the
United States is concerned. the act is no
torious that we demonetized silver when
it commanded premium of three Dol
cent above gold. highlands demonetizs.
tion of the white metal in 1916 did not
become effective till she resumed pay
ments in 1921, at which time she had ac-
tually to pass an act Of Parliament, pun
ishiug with ,mDrisonmont or Transports
ton persons who should melt down and
sell as bullion the silver coins Of the
realm.
How will the debtor class be benefited
BY being given the right to pay theiI
debt in silver unless the silver dollar il
to be cheaper than the gold dollar. Con-
vince the debtor class that tho idea Of a
90 cent dollar is silly one. and it will
quickly lose it's interest in free coinage. -
Here is "a pretty distinct insinua6ion
that the farmers interest in the free
coinage of silver is that it is going to give
him chance TO cheat his creditor by pay
ing him 50 cents Of money for over 10C
cents of debt. This is an insinuation to
be made with safey in Wall Street, New
York, perhaps in Exchange Street, Port
I