Year: 1876

Silver had ll9 votes in the House on Mon
day. TIE greenback wOrshpers of Indiana
pro3ose basely to bctray their divinity, for
they will hold another State Convention and
resolve that they decidedly prefer silver 20
paper, inasmuch as it is cheaper, and the
"relief to the debtor class" Will be greater.
On several occasions we have been moved to
term these people lunatics. But they begin to
behave in such way that lunatlc not extra
ordinarily foolish would spurn that classlca-
ton of these grccnbach people as an insult TO
himself.


What they want is "cheap money" and par
ticllarly "relicf for the debtor class" AT
present, silver happens to be cheaper than
paper; therefore, being extraordinary fools,
they insist upon law substituting silver for
paper in the payment of debts. They do not
know that the value OF silver depends upon the
demand, and that the value Of paper does not


They do not know that it would enormously
increase the demand for silver, at present, to
make it n legal tender for payment OF the
vast Indebtedness created in paper. They DO
not know that decline in the value of silver
$50 called from 90 to 46 pence per ounce has
been mainly caused by the sale Of less than
100000, 900 Of silver by Germany, and that
an Instant demand for many hundred millions,
for payment Of debts Ill the United states,
would push the price upward with startling
rapidly. In fact, the number OF things which
lhCy do not know is too great to be enumerated
Let us suppose that this bill, now pending
m Congress, should become a law, and silver
should thus DE made IA legal tender Tor the


payment of all debts. Nobody would want
greenbacks, and no bank would care to retain
its somewhat costly circulation. The retire
ment Of paper-that frightlul contraction about
which we have heard so many lamentations
would be greatly accelerated. Silver would


flow out from the mines and Germany would
improve the occasion TO send hithcr the
surplus, valiously estimated at 100000
600 to $1OO,00O,000, of which that ma
ton has vainly tried to dispose. For
a little while silver would be plenty and
cheap, though probably not as cheap as IL is
now. Paper would be retired with fnghtful
rapidity; everybody would make haste to pay
matured debts i'll silver.


Then what? Presently silver would get
scarce. The debtor, anxious for "rclei,"
would find it harder to get silver than paper.
The price would go up until, i'll all probabil-
ity, the silver would be worth more than pa
Der. Debtors would be "robbed" again by
their own dishonest act for the benefit of
those accursed sharks, the bOndhOlders and the
bullonists. All values would have been dis
turbed; great many people would have been
"relieyed" by permission to pay matrlred
debts in cheap silver; and then the cheapncss
would disappear, and with it the relief. If
these hungry worshipers OF the grecnback,
which can be trusted TO remain cheap aban-
don their faith and go whoring after false
gods made of silver, they may soon find that
they have "cornered the market" and cheated
themselves The trouble with silver is that ii
will not stay cheap, if people want to use it.
Paper promises are infinitely preferable-for
the dishonest debtor. Nobody can tell how
cheap they may become. But the production
of silver has ceased already in some mines,
Lecause it was so cheap, and the price has