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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 1902)
10 THE- NEBRASKA-INDEPENDENT DECEMBER II. 1001 A 37 CENT DOLLAR The old and always senseless cry about a "fifty-cent" dollar is being re vived now, except that for the present week it i3 a "ttirty-seven-cent" dol j lar. Tossibly it may become a "ten 1 cent" dollar in no great length of time, but unless some additional legisla I tion is enacted this winter by con , gress there need be no alarm about I Uncle Sam's silver dollars they will I continue, as now, to be one hundred i cent dollars. What nonsense, all this talk! Every dollar that the law creates contains one hundred cents. A dollar means ' one hundred cents. A cent means , one-hundredth part of a dollar. A dol lar means ten dimes. A dime means - ten cents. Why not talk about a four cent or a three-cent dime? If by this reasoning in a circle it is meant to convey the idea that a dollar today will buy a smaller amount of average commodities, why 'of course the gold dollar, the silver dollar, greenback dollar, national bank dol lars and all are worth considerably less than they were In 1896. We have sixteen-dollar double eagles, and eight-dollar eagles, and four-dollar V's, as well as "eighty-cent" gold dol- ' lars that don't exist. As a specimen of mounmental as sininity, The Independent commends to its readers the following "editorial" from the Lincoln State Journal. The Independent doesn't care to "butt" in on one of the World-Herald's "scraps," ' knowing that Metcalfe is well able to ' take keer" of himself. But, need ing occasionally a "horriblo example" to present its class in political econ omy, The Independent takes some ' pleasure in quoting the "editorial" (God save the mark!) in full: AN EASY ONE. The Omaha World-Herald asks with a great flourish and apparent under flow of righteous indignation, why it happens, if the Journal is right in saying that had Mr. Bryan been elected president in '9C with a Chicago platform congress, the merchants and other people of this country would haye on hand a big tonnage of pig silver that they would have been un able to work off at any greater price than 37 cents for an alleged dollar, how can it explain to an anxious pub lic why the silver dollar of our coin age is today worth 100 cents? Noth- - ing is easier. The greenback of today is worth 100 cents a dollar. Old set tlers remember when during the war times, it took $2.70 in greenbacks to be worth a dollar in the world's cur rency. The greenback dollar is worth a dollar in the currency of the world today because there is a gold dollar in the treasury that you can get for it, on demand. During the last period of the civil war there weren't any gold dollars in the treasurj only th.? promise of one, to redeem the green backs. That made the difference. Had the free and unlimited coinage of sil ver at sixteen-to-one been decreed in 1897 there would not have been a gold dollar in the treasury or any where else in this country except in the hands of the brokers where it would be held for sale at a big pre mium and the silver "dollar" would have been worth just as much as and no more than the traders of Europe would allow us for it as pig silver, for use in the arts. But the silver dol lar we have with us is good for a dol lar because the government not only promises to maintain its parity, but does maintain it by exchanging anv other sort of a dollar for it and keeps a gold reserve of $150,000,000 especial ly to maintain the pjrity of all -he monetary issues of the government. Deplete the treasury ot that gold re serve, abolish the law for maintain ing paritv. and the silver dollar would drop to 37 cents in about a calendar hour. The theory of the spell-binders in the campaign of '90 that the legal tender quality of the proposed free coinage silver dollar would maintain ito parity had already been smashed to smithereens by the failure of the greenback to maintain its parity, though it was legal tender throughout the civil war. However they simply shouted the assertion all over the country and didn't waste any time ir. explanation of the failure of the lega! tender greenback to hold its own. though the "full faith and credit of the United States" was pledged to re deem it. In the case of free coinage of -silver there was neither present re demption in gold nor any promise to redeem it, world without end. So it would have passed today a'; par with the Mexican dollar and the Chinese equivalent These are worth about "J7 cents in the world's markets. It Is not always advisable to "an swer a fool according to his folly," and The Independent will not attempt it In the present instance. "Old settlers" (like the Journal edi tor) doubtless also remember when the greenback would not be accepted at Uncle Sam's customs houses. It is today. It is not true that "there is a gold dollar in the treasury that you can get" for a greenback dollar on de mand; there is only one double eagle in gold for every $46 in greenbacks. Let the Journal editor try. to have the government redeem for him a $5 greenback he cannot get a $5 gold piece for it. That, of course, doesn't worry the fellow with a five-dollar note in his pocket and half a dozen hungry stomachs at home; he is more interested in having his note redeemed in meat-trust meat, and flour-trust flour, and coal-trust coal. Nobody but some gold gamblers want gold coin for greenbacks other people are in terested in redeeming them in some thing to eat and wear. The "old settler" is correct about its taking $27 in greenbacks to buy a ten dollar gold piece at times in war times. But people bought these gold pieces for a particular purpose, the same as a man will buy a particular kind of drug if his doctor tells him nothing else will do the work. Importers of for eign goods were compelled to present gold coins at the customs houses in order to release their imports. If im port duties could have been paid only in Texas cattle, the price of "long- horns" would have gone up sky-high. There were a few millions of the first greenbacks that had no exception clause regarding import duties and public interest. They were backed by the same "gold dollars in the treas ury only the promise of one" that backed the later cripples. Why didn't they "depreciate?" The "old settler's" vision as to what would have happened under 16 to 1 is simply a "pipe-dream." If the silver dollars (or silver certificates representing them) were receivable for all customs duties and other dues to the government, a legal tender for all debts, what difference would it make if every gold dollar had gone out of the treasury and into the hand of brokers of "pig gold?" Why would anyone pay a fancy price for a ten dollar gold piece when the ten-dollar silver certificate in his pocket would do the same work? Our gold eagles and silver dollars today are worth only the price of "pig" in the hands of any foreigner who is not in position to get them back readily into this country where they will pay debts and taxes and buy things; but owing to some peculiar legislation in regard to coinage, the market price of "pig" gold and of coined gold coincides more nearly than does the market price of "pig" silver and coined silver. Parity-insanity has " reached a chronic stage with the "old settler ' who edits the Journal. Take away every dollar of that $150,000,000 gold reserve, and a silver dollar would still continue to pay a hundred cents in taxes and debts, "except where oth erwise stipulated in the contract." Gold coin might for a time go to a premium, it is true (it could be put there any time now if the gold gam blers cared to do ;o), but nobody would buy except those who had made some foolish "stipulations." But de prive the silver dollar of its power to pay debts and taxes, and that $150,000,000 of gold in the treasury wouldn't keep $GOO,000,000 of silver dollars circulating very long above the price of "pig" silver. HEADACHE i r 1 ss jjjz. a v-v S A all drug stores. 25 Dcw 25c. ! Plninr uif Miviinri A man by the na.ne of J. P. Phelp3 Stokes, of whom no one ever heard before, removed his residence from 29 Madison avenue to 184 Eldridge street, New York, the other day and all the great dailies of Gotham printed first page articles, columns in length, describing that act The reason of this was that the man was a mil lionaire and 184 Eldridge street is a college settlement. Some hundreds of men of the most advanced culture have, after securing their degrees, gone to live and work among the poor, and no first page articles in the dailies were ever given over to a de tailed account of these men or of their ancestors, their cousins or their aunts. Gotham is astonished. Why? Be cause a millionaire has determined to try and do something useful to aid in helping upward a few of the toiling masses. All that goes to show that the great dailies are so astonished that a millionaire should be anything but a selfish brute, that they make a sensation out of it That is being harder on the millionaires than The Independent has ever been. One of the Rockefellers teaches a Bible class and tells his pupils how blessed ars those who live in poverty, so it will be seen that millionaires sometimes take up strange fads, but there is nothing sensational in it. 18 IT RIGHT OB WRONG? God made the sea and its waters are salty. It covers two-thirds of the surface of the earth. He scattered sal; all over the other third of the earth's surface, for man cannot live without salt. An item in a foreign paper gives an account of the prosecution and im prisonment of some peasants in Italy and the crime that they committed was boiling down sea water to get salt. The whole neighborhood is impover ished and the neoole dip for want nf salt The Italian government has put a heavy tax upon salt and made it a crime ror any one to manufacture it or dig it out of the earth without pay ing that tax. So these peasants? God'3 creatures, live on the shore of the sea and die for want of salt. You say that is inhuman devilish. But why should it be a crime to nut a t.a rm salt not a crime to put a tax on coal, cloth or meat? Is not exactly the same principle involved? If it is a crime to put a tax on one necessity of life, why is it not a crimp m necessity? The poor all over this land oi ours are taxed upon everything that they consume and the wealth of the millionaires, the trusts and the corporations escanes. Tho tovnf; oi tnis country is based emptiv same principle as that of Italy. When ou cuuit was made to change it in a slight degree, the Riinwmo ,i cided that it was unconstitutional. The oupyuiter or tne theory that in comes should not be taxed was David .S,111; Aud the Ptocratic dailies vvujhi nave us believe that David B Hill is a great states, .-m !lP.0IltnA f democracy-that denies mat jenereon gave to the world Gorman insisted that these taxes on he necessities of liffi should be con tinued, and the dailies tell us that Gorman is also a great statesman it it is wrong to tax salt in Italv why is it right to tax it in this country? m U11S A TYI'ICAL CASE Few persons have not seen the drunken man who believed everything and everybody about him intoxicated" while he himself was "sober as a judge." The editor of the Lincoln Daily Star is a typical case. In a para graph of his drivel department he said the other day: "The editor who looks to the lower class of society for support and caters to the anarchistic ele ment, never fails to pride himself upon the 'fearlessness' of his edi torial policy. There is nothing i'eai!ess about saying some crazy things to please some crazy peo ple; the really fearless policy is to advocate good goyr rnment and support good men in defiance of the ravings of irresponsible radi cals with revolutionary tendencies.'- The ffa- editor was certainly cast' gating himself. He certainly "caters to the anarchistic element" for .here are no more dangerous anarchists in all he world than those high in the councils of the republican party. Your real anarchist is the man who defies law and violates law, yet escapes pun ishment. What but an anarchist was the postmaster general when he amenacd the postal laws and ruined many newspaper publishers? What but an j-narchist was the secretary of fhe treasury when he openly violated ti e law egar.i'ng reserves? Was he "conf erva! ive" and law-abiding whe i he amended ihe Dingley law in order 1o "faeilnste" the importation of hard CO.'ll'' WV.fif lllf on n nr.T.,.1, ' i "i -i ounu nisi was the republican state treasurer who openly refused to obey the state de pository law? What but an anarchist was Secretary of State Marsh when re suggested to the county ciertt that they violate the law in preparing the official ballot3 this fall? ut why multiply instances? Every time a republican ignores oi violates a i2w in a high-handed manner, he is applauded by such "fearless" editors a? the presiding genius of the Star's drivel department, and proclaimed as one of the "conservatives" of the "up per" class. But if a populist should bo much as doubt the wisdom of any stat ute or policy, he is branded as one of the "lower class of society," or ac cused of "saying crazy things to please some crazy people." With that Star editor it is the drunken man's case all over, "on all fours" as the lawyers say. He is so sodden with republican anarchy that he really believes that everybody else, who doesn't act and talk like he does, is surely an anarchist or at least "an irresponsible radical with revolution ary tendencies." Such irresponsible radicals wrote the Declaration of Independence and fought and won the battles of the revolution; and such "conservatives" as the editor of the Star are easy to classify with the tories of 1776. THE SILVER JOKE The gold-bug economic idiots who have been havins: exeat fun f late over the fall in the price of silver bul lion an at once have discovered that it is no joke at all, but a very serious matter for them as well as the rest of the world. The English cotton trade to China and other Oriental points is suffering serious consequences from the fall in the price of silver, and our own export trade to the far east is already feeline its effects. T New York houses in fact declare that it is at a standstill. No consignments are being made to China nr the strait settlements. The Philippine trade ha-? greatly fallen off. The drop in silver has given all this trade almost, a death blow. So these economic idiots hnv all suddenly come to the conclusion that the fall in the nrice of silver i? no joke at all and something must bo done to stop it The first thine- wa? to induce the Latin union to nrnvHo for the additional coinage of $10,000- uuu or silver and other projects are in view. The fall in silver wfriens thn gulf between gold and silver-usin;' countries. It stimulates exports from silver countries. For that rmrnnsp ir beats anything ever invented. It acts as an exceedingly high tariff, making foreign goods so high in silver prices that people do without them or hasten to manufacture them themselves. All these things have been nointerl nut o thousand times bv the the Mad Mullahs would not listen. Th.? plain truth is, and these exploiters should know it, that the On ental nen- ple are so poor that they cannot pay moie snver ior goods than they now do, and any scheme to make the p-iv any more silver, whether by the fall in me goici price ot that metal, or in any other way, must of necessity fail. If the gold countries want to abso lutely ruin this trade, let them force silver down to 80 cents or lower, .hni- as the price of silver rises, in the' same proportion will the trade in- crease. When a hundred ounces of sil ver will buy twice as much goods as it win now, twice as mn?h will be shipped to China, the Straits settle ments and the Fhilinoines. When a hundred ounces will buy half as much goods, just half as much will be soM there. By no sort of legerdemain can more be got out of these people than wiiHi iney nave. Once in a while of late there enmoo a note having the true tone from the pulpit, and among such are thes words of Dr. Hirsch: "Altar and throne, so runs the impression, have always been in league with each other to hold the people in subjection. To day priest and financier continue the old tactics. The old prophetic relig ion certainly espoused the cause of the weak against the mightv. If the church desires to win back its wan ing influence it must return to th methods and reactivize the spirit of the prophets. These men of Israel had little to say regarding theology about the things of this life and the ccings of men." If the ability to accumulate monev is the highest qualification of mankind as the Chicago professor intimate 1 wheu he declared that Rockefeller was a greater man than Shakespeare, than Danny Maher, the jockey, is about three limes as big a man as Teddy Roosevelt, for he is coming across the ocean with $150,000 which he has ac cumulated in one year on the English race tracks, while Teddy only got $50 000 for his services in the White house. Patronize our advertisers.