The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-14


vertible into coin by weight serving its
true purpose.
The whole international commerce of
the globe is conducted in that way by
the weight measure of pound ster-
ling. There is no lawful coin known
as a pound sterling We bartered
American cotton, wheat and other
products of our farms last year for
$500, 100000 worth of gold coin. measured
by weight in pounds sterling. If any
farmers are fools enough to want silver
money, or cattle money, or skin money
they can get it; silver in Asia, cattle
money in Africa, fur or skin money in
Nova Zembla. The free coinage of sill
yer of full legal tender is almost gro
tesque in it's folly and audacity, ask
ing farmers in the great Mississippi
valley, so per cent of whom are free
of any mortgage whatever. and are
thus the creditors of the world. to give
their principal customers in Great
Britain the power to force British sill
yer costing 25 cents an ounce, or less,
upon them under an act of legal tender
at s1.2915 cents an ounce, or 16 to L.
/ The force of folly could go no fur
/ ther.
Mr. Atkinson then dealt with the his
tory of coinage. He pointed out that
the great bimetallist. President Francis
A. Walker, defined money as that
which passes freely from hand TO
hand" Therefore, his theory of BIZ
metallism was wholly opposed TO his
own principle; the only kind of money
that passes freely throughout the world
being money made of gold.
Cernuschi defined money as the coin
! of which the bullion is worth as much
after it is melted as it purported to be
worth in the coin; all else bad money -
The only kind of coin in the worlds
. IL irl, &c of
it is melted is gold coin.
The advocates of free silver. bimetal-
lism and greenbacks are alike misled
by the fallacy that all money is the
creation of law, and that it is law that
gives it monetary force. They have
never studied economic history. They
| appear to be incapable of dealing with
the great facts of commerce. They
substitute theories and fallacies which
have been exposed over and over
again in the history of the world, and
which have brought disaster whenever
and wherever adopted.
Ending with the quotation from the
words of Pelatiah Webster, the patriot
merchant of. Philadelphia, who resisted
the issue of the continental legal tender
paper money, traced all the disasters
which it caused and which were nearly
fatal to the patriot cause. and who,
/ after 1t died, wrote of its evil effects
and the benefit derived from its final
| death. Yet, as Mr.. Atkinson said,
there are men apparently of sincerity
and ability, that propose to renew all
] these evils by forcing fiat money on an
unwilling community, winding up as
! follows:
The vice of legal tender is that it de-
! priyes men of their right to free con-
| tract; that it enforces fraud upon an
unwilling or ignorant community,
whether its members desire to cheat
/ each other or not. 1t is a bar to the
integrity of nation and to the people
alike. The sincerity of its promoters
can only be justified at the expense of
their repute for common sense.
HORACE WHITES PAPER.
There was no debate of Atkinson's s
! paper, and Editor Horace White of the
1 New York Evening Post opened the
conference proper with paper on THE
! History of the Gold Standard
Mr.. White said that ne had treated
/ the history of the gold standard at the
worlds congress of bankers and finan-
ciers at Chicago in 1S93 bringing it
/ down to that date. He should not re-
( peat what he said then. The world
| had advanced in knowledge since that
/ time, and the subject was not so inter-
esting as it was then. The history of
!
| attempts on the part Of governments
and peoples to make two metals, var
liable in their nature, stable in refer
ence to each other. These attempts
/ were honest, but futile. The pursuit
| of bimetallism was like the pursuit of
| an ignis fatuus. The nations, one af-
ter another, had abandoned it, so that
in 1898 all countries of any commercial
/ Importance except four had adopted
! hn cin no1a CT or1
were India, Chile. Japan and Russia.
! All four were then silver standard
| countries. All have since adopted the
! gold standard, or have taken steps to
/ that end. The only nation that has
gone back from gold TO silver is Spain.
| and this has been in consequence of her
recent misfortunes. Mexico and China
are the only countries of any magnitude
| that voluntarily preserve the silver
standard. There were no bimetallic
countries now. AS to international BIZ
metallism. Mr.. White thought that
! Senator Wolcott had preached its fun
/ eral sermon after he came back from
his fruitless mission some six months
ago.
Mr.. White next considered the COM
mon saying that there is not gold
! enough in the world to do the busi-
1 ness of the world. He could prove
that there was enough gold to do our
I business. At the present time the banks
of New York and Boston had So of gold
to 81 of paper in their vaults. The rea-
son for this was that the west and
south had drawn nearly all their paper
currency away from them. Gold had
flowed in from abroad to take its place
! Our holdings of gold were now fully
$3.50. 600 600, being larger than those of
any other country in the world, and it
was perfectly absurd to say that there
was not enough gold to do our business
| with But the evidence was overwhelm-
ing that there was enough for other
nations also. The amount added to
the worlds stock during the last eight
years was 1,377, 600, 600. and it was in
creasing by leaps and bounds.
Mr.. White thought that more inter-
esting subject for discussion would be
found in the present phase of the cur
rency question. That question was
greenbacks VS.. banknotes. What was
a greenback? It says the United
States will pay the bearer one dollar
The supreme court has decided that a
] dollar is a piece of metal of a certain
weight and fineness. Accordingly, the
value of the greenback rests upon the
fulfllment of the governments promise
to pay this thing on demand. If the
! government lacks either the means OF
/ the inclination to fulfill this promise
its credit is impaired. all business
which depends upon its credit is dis
turbed. and the greenback fails of its
first and chief attribute. that of ar
4 honest and safe medium of exchange.
Mr. White favors the bill recently
reported by the house banking com
mittee, which. while not retiring the
greenbacks, puts upon the nationa
banks the onus of current redemption
of them, and gives the banks the privi-
leee of issuing an equal amount o.