Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-09-22

THE @CHEAPu ANDTH DEAR DOLLAR.
The Intelligencer's ridiculous effort
to show that the silver dollar under
free coinage would not be worth 100
cents because free coinage, in its opin-
ion, would not raise the price Of silver
bullion to s1.29 per ounce although
acknowledging at the same time that
the silver dollar so coined would be
as good as gold in the payment OF all
debts, is entirely too puerile and ut
terly silly to deserve further comment.
Our neighbor has flown onto another
tack, however, and jumps onto the sill
yer men with this equally silly argu-
ment:
The advance of silver to s1.29 per ounce
would place it on. q, parity with gold.
dred cents and we submit to our neigh,
bors would it not be then just as hard
for the man who owes a debt to pay 1t IN
silver as to pay 1T in gold!
When our neighbor understands
this coinage question better it will see
how mistaken it is in its premise. The
silver men do not want to pull the
gold dollar below par, which would be
manifest absurdity; they simply
want to raise the silver dollar to par
by coming it freely with gold and TO
BRING THE GOLD DOLLAR DOWN
TO PAR, once more, by the same pro-
cess; gold now has the field to itself,
it is our only money of final redemp-
ton, and Europe has practically all of
it and controls absolutely the price of
it: consequently, on account of its
scarcity, the gold dollar and all money
based on it is in the neighborhood of
200 per cent. above par, or, in other
words, will buy about twice as much of
labor and products as it should, CIV
ing the capitalist and gold owner a
double advantage over the laborer and
the producer. But bring gold down to
par by giving silver its equal rights
at United States minis and make sill
yer equally with gold money of final
redemption, as was the policy of this
government for eighty years prior to
silver's secret and criminal demoneti-
cation, and the capitalist and the gold
gambler would be shorn of this unfair
Queer would have an equal chance once
more with plenty of good money of
final redemption-money as good as
gold-in the channels of trade, which
would mean a natural and healthy
rise in prices and wages and true pros
perity.
Our neighbor should know that the
silver men do not want to cheaper any
dollar but the gold dollar by bring
ing it down to par in its purchasing
power, as we have shown by raising
silver to par by placing it on parity
with gold at the minis of the United
States, giving us a plenteous supply of
the best money of final redemption in
the world, which no gold syndicate
could control or manipulate as hand
full of men in London and Wall street
now control and manipulate our gold
money.
Again we must remind the Intelli-
gencer that there is no dispute, what
ever on these points between the par
ties, and that in arguing for the con-
tinuation of the single gold standard
it is going directly against the ma
tional platform of its own party which
declares unqualifiedly for bimetallism,
the only difference between the st.
Louis convention and the Chicago con-
vention on this point being that the
Democrats declared that the United
States was fully able to adopt and
maintain her own monetary standard,
while the Republicans thought we
would better wait and see if England
would ALLOW this great country to
run its finances to suit itself.