The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-08-20
THE HONEST DOLLAR.
HOW THE BONDHOLDERS DE-
FINE 1T.
BY Unjust Legislation the Purchasing
Power Of the Dollar Has Been In
creased and the Awful Debt Burden
Doubled.

Doubled.
is the silver dollar IN honest dollar?
There "a be no question that the sill
United States are honest dollars, be-
cause all the obligations of the United
States are, by express law, payable in
silver dollars; and, besides, silver dol
,ars will buy the same amount of prop
erty and pay the same amount of debts
as gold dollars.
But the goldites say that silver doll
ars would become dishonest dollars if
the minis were opened to free coinage,
says the Silver Knight-Watchman.
The Republican party in its platform
declared that it was in favor Of open
ing the minis of the United States to
free coinage whenever an international
agreement could be obtained for that
purpose. They will hardly contend that
the silver dollars coined after such
agreement would be dishonest dollars.
T. dollars coined without the agree
ment would be dishonest dollars, how
would the agreement make them hon
est dollars? They would in either
event be a full legal tender and would
pay debts and taxes the same as
gold dollars.
But they say that gold might go to a
premium if the United States opened
her minis without the consent of other
nations. How would the vast increase
in the use of silver, which would be
produced by free coinage in the United
States, increase the premium On gold?
The premium is now about SO per cent.
Do the oddities think that the demand
created by the United States for silver
through free coinage would make sill
yer cheaper than it now is? 1t could
not increase the premium on gold over
silver unless it did.
We have always been opposed to
the premium on gold which was pro-
duced by doubling the demand for
that metal by demonetizing silver, and
we are now told that If we make any
additional use of silver for coinage pur-
poses it will make silver cheaper and
increase the premium on gold. If the
goldites mean that a dollar must have
the, purchasing power of commod-
tiles in general at the time of payment
that it did at the time the loan was
made, they will prove that the gold
dollar is a great thief, because it takes
twice as much property to pay a debt in
gold now as it lid twenty years ago. If
the goldites contend that it is honest to
have a dollar with a constantly in
creasSng purchasing power because
such a dollar enriches the creditor and
impoverishes the debtor, upon what
do they base such a contention? Do
they really think that no person in the
civilized world has any rights except
the bondholder and money lender?
But they say contracts have been
made since the gold standard was
adopted and that they ought to be paid
in gold. Why is that? The contracts
were made payable in money. Do they
think that the people have no right to
any other kind of money than gold?
The established law of the United
States and Great Britain is that the
current money at the date of payment
Is the money of the contract, for every
government has the right to regulate
the quantity Of the circulation which
affects the purchasing power of legal
tender money. All men who make con-
tracts make them with a view of this
sovereign power, and it is not dishon-
est to pay b current money in cir
culation at the date of payment. When
a government fails to perform it's duty
in not keeping a volume of money in
circulation sufficient to maintain sta
bility of prices (Which means stability
in the purchasing power of money!, the
people must suffer.
The reason we complain of the gold
ties is that after both metals had been
used for thousands Of years and the
business of the world adjusted to the
volume of money furnished by both
metals, they demonetized silver. It is
true they got the governments to do
it, thereby making the governments do
a great wrong. By this scheme of legis-
lation, which adopted the gold stand
ard, the creditor class added to the
burdens of the people more than a
hundred thousand millions, because
it is estimated that there was at least
that amount of Indebtedness at the
time silver was demonetized. BY this
unjust legislation they made the bur-
dens of this hundred thousand mill