The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-24
THEIR STYLE OF LOGIC.
Cold Bugs Again Betray Their Igno-
rance of Elementary PrincinIes.


rance of Elementary Principles.
Washington Post: We are having,
just now, another taste of the mono
metallist style of logic. We have it i'll
various publications setting forth the
fact and the details of the great fall
in the price of silver bullion. Accord
ing to all this, silver is on the down
grade and will soon cease to rank
among the precious metals, and so we
are told, with a gravity too beautiful
to be described in words, that silver
has seen its best days and that the
advocates of free coinage may as well
abandon their fond dreams forever
1t reminds US of the lively campaign
of 1896. 1t recalls all the ignorance
and stupidity of that never to be for
gotten episode. We hear once more the
strident bray of Bynum and Cochran
and the fanatic imprecations of the
New York Sun. Silver is even more
worthless than it was ten months ago,
worth but so cents now it is worth
only 43 cents" And all the wiseacres
and the parrots and the owls are part
ing, echoing and looking wise, until one
begins to question the wisdom of a
providence that let's such things con-
tinue. Silver is depreciating every
dayi" screams one miracle of human
intelligence. THE silver dollar is los
ing its purchasing power?' yells an
other. The whole collection of the
monometallist chorus proceeds to bay
at the moon until the welkin fairly
rings.
One hesitates to interject into this
insane hullabaloo even so much as
suggestion of common sense and rea-
son. 1t seems a wicked waste of time
to ask these red faced yelpers why sill
yer has deprecated in the market and
whether, if gold were subjected to the
same process, il would not lose its
commercial value in like ratio. In
trinsically. the proposition is simple
enough. The minis of the civilized ma
tions are closed to silver; the same
minis are open to gold. In this way
the only thing that makes money of
any metal Is bestowed upon gold and
withheld from silver. In this way gold
ACQUIRES a fictitious and artificial
worth and silver is reduced to the
standard of its essential usefulness. In
the same way, were the process re-
Yersed-Were the minis closed to gold
and opened to silVer-would gold de-
preciate and silver become more yalu-
able. Let the monometallist orators
and editors. The photographers and the
nedQllne Enthusiasts 80 dHCdu upOh
their insensate and Vociferous way as
though reason had vanished from the
earth and the people had nothing left
save slobber, gush and poppycock.
1t seems to US the most logical re-
suit imaginable that silver, bereft of
it's money attribute, should depreciate
in the market. Like gold it has but a
limited adaptability to the uses of
mankind. It cannot be applied to any
practicable purpose. 1t is not suscept-
ible of conversion into implements of
husbandry, into machinery, into tools,
etc 1t is fit only for ornament or for
coinage into money. Robbed by legis-
lation of its latter quality, its range Of
usefulness is sadly narrowed. We do
not ask the monometallist shriekers
what would become of gold under like
circumstances. 1t would be cruel They
do not know.