The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-09

establishment. OF Such use Is OF Sucf
transcendent Importance that no ordinary
difficulty SHOULD be permitted to stand
IN the way of its achievement.
This is generally acknowledged. With
out both gold and silver the people must
sink in the scale of happiness and OF
civilization; they must ianguish in PROV
erty: they must continue to struggle IN
vain to better their condition; they must
toll on without even the hope of ade-
quate reward.
Yetiit is said that while there is great
an all pervading. all destroying wrong
there is and can be no remedy-or at best
10 remedy except with the aid of those
who are and will remain deaf to all ap-
pealS for relief,
The, maxims of our race have proven
false, the times, indeed. are out of joint,
if at this day-this forlorn and unhappy
day. this precise point of time out of all
eternity, there is a right which cannot be
made 70 preYail-a wrong for which there
is no remedy.
A PLAIN REMEDY.
But in spite of all dismal predictions to
the contrary it is not so. There is a
remedy, plain, natural and effectual.
That remedy is the enactment of law
by the congress of these United States
of America providing for the free and
unlimited coinage of both gold ana sill
Ver-such coin to be a lawful tender in
payment of debts at the ratio of 10 to l
without waiting for the aid of any other
nation.
What would happen upon the passage
1t is predicted that many evils would
come to affiict the people. 1t is said that
gold would be driven from cifcuiat ton,
that we would at once pass to silver
basis, that thus a great and sudden con-
traction of the volume OF, money would
take place, and that money, even SILVER,
would be scarcef, would be more dlfhcult
TO obtain than now.
At the same time it is said that by
some illogical and deyilish device. while
dollars would be much Scarcer and more
difficult to obtain than now, Wnen Cd
tanned, their purchasing power would be
actually much less than at present; the
dollars at the same instant would cheat
both him who parted with them and him
who received them.
1t IS further said that such money
would be an instrument of fraud ana as
honesty-that though cold and spirltless
and endowed with no moral attribute-it
would be dishonest money. That Such
dollars would not be equal to the sum of
all their parts, that they would not be
double their halves or four times their
quarters, that 100 cents would be, IN
reality, but 90.
1t is claimed that the aggregate of in
debtednesS of all kinds in this country
is as much as $50, 600 100000, and that, the
persons owing these debts would, at once
pay them off in the % cent silver dollars,
thus dispoiling and robbing the creditors
of some $50 600 600, 900. To the debtor II is
also pointed out that his creditor will no
of the latter will be suddenly and in
exorably enforced, as in panic, ana tnat
the former will be turned out without
without hope.
Such are some of the diverse and dire
full evils which it is predicted will fol-
low in the train of the free coinage OF
silver.
1t is furthermore contended that this
alone. and without the aid
of other governments, cannot maintain
the parity between the metals with the
free coinage of silver at the ratio OF 10 to
Now it may be true that this govern
ment as an artificial entity separate and
apart from the people and their COM
not maintain the parity. L
do not believe that this government CO.
operating all other governments, acting
merely as artificial entities and dis
tinct from the people who carry on the
commerce of the world, could maintain
the parity. 1t may be conceded that
governments as such cannot at their mere
behest create values or maintain parity
Such is not the function, the province, or
the power of government, speaking with
accurate and critical precision
1t is true that congress alone has
power to coin money. But when so coin
ed congress is absolved from all response
bilit:' as TO the value or parity of the
money.
DEMAND GIVES VALUE.
An act of congress authorizing the free
coinage of gold and silver and making
them a lawful tender for debts at Is to
| will not, strictly speaking, give value to
either.
1t is the demand for money which gives
value to money.
Congress, alone, can, by coinage, make
silver available to meet an already ex-
sting and unsatiStied demand for money:
When so made available it is this demand
for money which viii give value to the
silver coin and not the act of legislation.
The present silver dollar does not de-
- ri.
from any acts of Legislation or any gov
pledge.
Without the demand for money, omni-
present and insatiate which preceded as
nent of the law which authorized their
then such law would have been
Utterly impOtent to add penny TO the
Jalue of the silver out of which the dol
arS were coined.
A bimetallic law passed by congress VIII
lot suffice. but such a law with the con-
,urring condltion or demand VIII achieve
he desired result We have now in this
ountry one-half billion silver dollars, law
ul tenders for debt at the ratio OF 10 TO
With gold: as against these dollars we
lave sixty billion dollars of debts EX-
,luding other kinds of money, for debt
paying purposes alone, there are 40 units
# demand fur every dollar in silver
here are 100 competitors. There is four bill
ion dollars worth of silver in the world. |
f. under free coinage. it were all brought
lere and coined. there would still be SO
# indebtedness for every dollar in silver
such is all the silver which has accumu-
ated as the result of all the mining whlcn |
las been carried on since the world be- |
.ar How long must the world endure |
,efore it shall accumulate sufficient sill
Ter to equal the amount of our debts?
EUROPE NEEDS IT.
And the demand in Europe will hold
Ill their coined silver there at the ratio |
# 151a to /. We can't get it. Asia. true
o the practice of all her past. will retain
Ter present supply and compete Tor the
uture product. No flood of silver will |
yer be seen. Under free coinage so long |
IS silver is in the slightest degree below |
emand for money for payment of debts !
will fall upon silver When at par the |
emand will rest indifferently upon both. |
thus, not our government, but our peo- |
lie in their demand for money VIII main
ain the parity, and in this they will have |
he cooperation and assistance-not of |
oreign goVernmentS-but of the people or |
oreign governments with whom they do |
BUSINESS and carry on trade. If this ma
ion saws that if there is a disparity be- |
ween gold and silver, its people shall |
ave the privilege Of paying in the cheap |
90 great to be coerced, and potent enough |
o fulfill its promises Foreign creditors |
nd nations, at once, become interested in |
reYenting disparity and thereby avoid |
ny the loss which they would otherwise |
uffer
Bimetallism is an automatic means of |
by which increasing demand |
ais upon diminishing value. and dimin- |
;hing demand falls upon increasing |
alue, thus restoring equilibrium and /
maintaining equality.
supply and demand. the great centripet- |
/ and centrifugal forces of commerce. |
nder bimetallism, will give value. main |
ain parity prevent the diyergency of |
he commercial from the legal ratio, as |
ertainly as the great, analogous, counter |
ailing forces in nature prevent the plan /
Is from flying from their orbits.
NO ONE WRONGED.