The herald., 1896-08-05
II. q. Otis and His Buzzlns Wheels

Editor Herald: Neither Shakespeare
nor anybody else ever uttered more
truthful aphorsm than that which says
that "he who is dizzy thinks the world
turns round" And there is not probably
a victim of lunacy within the walls Of
any asylum provided for that class of un-
fortunates who. when viewing matters
through the medium of his own diseased
mind, is not thoroughly convinced that
the most of men are either fools or
cranks, and that he alone stands without
a rival as the most perfect model of hu-
man intelligence that ever dawned upon
this benighted world. And it may be on
this same principle that the distinguished
editor of the Los Angeles Times, like
some other gold standard advocates. is
so bedazzled by the real or imaginary
brilliancy of his own distorted intelli-
gence as to fancy that all men are crazy
who refuse to see the money question
just exactly as he sees it through his
financial spectacles, with their golden
frame and distorted glasses,
We are forced TO adopt either the con-
olusion that the doughty colonel-editor
of the Times-is himself the unconscious
victim Of those bussing wheels, which q
diseased imagination fails to locate
al y VI, VI tISc DC QTlN ell ~ tiic icsc WAL
liable theory that he Is again trying 10
palm of on his readers as fact that
which is only half true, and consequent
~ equivalent to.a whole lie. For cx-
ample, in his efforts to prove that, In Il
recent article In The Herald, the under
signed was all wrong in claiming that
the crime OF 1873 destroyed the de-
mand for silver for minting purposes,
and SO forced down the price" the edi-
tor says:
This modern Don Quixote is evidently
not aware that the act of February l.,
1898, established the trade dollar, con-
tanning 420 grains. and that between 1873
and 1873 nearly 81, 900, 900 of these dollars
were coined" etc.
In this connection. we beg leave to in
quire OF the colonel if. when making this
statement. he was aware OF the fact
that the same congress that passed this
law for the coinage of trade dollars in
corporated into the very same act an
other section, which, while authorizing
any owner of silver bullion" to 'depos-
It the same at any mint to be formed
into bars or into trade dollars positive
~ prohibited the receiving of deposits
of silver for any other coinage whatever?
And is he aware of the further fact that
the same American congress enacted
section 1856 Of the revised statutes, pro-
Viding that 'the silver coins OF the Unit
ed states shall be legal tender 1T their
nominal value for any amount not ex-
ceedins 81 in any one payment? Per-
haps ii may be said that this latter law
was afterward modified in 1873 by an act
making silver money generally a legal
tender in payment of debts All this IS
very true. but with this suicidal qualif-
cation, namely, that this law should
only apply in cases where it was not
"otherwise stipulated in the contract"
which was just the same as to say that
silver should be legal tender in all
caes where the money lender did not
prefer to be paid in gold coin.
The editor grows eXultant over what
he claims to be the immense coinage of
standard silver dollars since 1873. But
he utterly fails to state what Mr.. Jacob
L. Green. one Of his co-workers in the
interest of the gold standard. candidly
admits. namely, that out of S423 2S9, 300
America| silver dollars, only $5S 1854 092
are in circulation, while 1854 ,935. 217 lie
stored away in the treasury vaults. This.
of course, is owing to the fact of their
legal tender character quality having
been directly or indirectly destroyed by
the legislation already quoted So that,
for all practical purposes, all these hun
dreds of millions of silver dollars now
stored away in the treasury might just
as we'll never have been coined. and bet
ter. too. for, In that event, the govern
ment would al least have been saved the
useless expense of coming them
Whenever H. G. Otis learns to tell the
whole truth, instead of distorted frac-
ton of 1t, in his discussions of the money
question, the buzzing wheels. that now
befog and befuddle his own brain. will
cease their buzzing, and he will be less
disposed to attribute to others the measly
mental malady from which he is himself
suffering.
ZACH MONTGOMERY.
Los Angeles, August 8, 1896.