Conservative *
WHAT OF TIIK SIIA'KK DOI AK ?
Under the above caption the Donglns
County World-Herald prints the follow
ing as to currency :
"TUB CONSBKVATIVB proclaims , with
out four of successful controvorsion by
Allen , Bryan , or any other populist or
fusionist , that Any quantity of johl in
bullion or any quantity of silver in bul
lion should lit ! ofr.roc.Uif Ike same value as
the name quantity ofold ( or the same
( /nanlily of silver in coin. 'The melting
pot is tiio test of coined money. That
which loses value in molting is bad
money. And that which does not lose
is good money. ' "
The advocates of bimetallism also
say that 'any quantity of gold in bullion
or any quantity of silver in bullion
should bo of exactly the same value as
the same quantity of gold or the same
quantity of silver in coin. ' When silver
was admitted to the mints for free and
unlimited coinage this was as trap of
silver as it was of gold. When silver
was barred from the mints the price of
silver bullion began to decline. Let us
restore silver to its mint privileges and
thus accomplish what Mr. Morton pre
tends to desiro.
When , however , wo agree with Mr.
Morton's first statement , it docs not
necessarily follow that we indorse his
second statement that "tho melting pot
is the test of coined money. That
which loses value in melting is bad
money. And that which does not lose
is good money. " Will Mr. Morton en
large on this point ? When a silver dollar
lar is placed in the molting pot it is
"good money. " It loses its value in
molting and becomes not "bad money , "
but no money at all. Does the fact that
the molted dollar has lost its identity a.
money , or , if you please , its "value , "
make "bad money" of the silver dollars
that have not been melted ?
Anticipating that Mr. Morton will
answer the last question in the ailirma
tivo and will declare the silver dollar is
not good money in any condition , The
World-Herald would ask how it happens
that this government has outstanding
something moro than $400,000,000 o"
"bad money" and its representative ?
If "tho melting pot is the test o
coined money , " what of the silver
dollar ?
TUB CONSKHVATIVB , answering says
In 1803 India closed her mints to fre
coinage because silver had with th
India mints wide open to free coinage
dropped sixteen cents an ounce in the
bullion markets of the world. The clos
ing of the mints to free coinage was
caused by the discount on silver and not
the discount on silver by the closing of
the mints. If keeping the mints open
to the unlimited free coinage of silver
could have brought silver back to par
wquld the mints have been closed ? The
World-Herald may see hero the error of
its assertion that "when silver was
barred from the mints the price of sil
ver bullion began to decline ! "
The historical , recorded fact as to
barring silver from the mints is , that it
was barred because it had declined as
bullion until it was relatively to gold bul
lion below par. The makeshift authors
of the Bland-Allison aot which became
a law February 28 , 1878 , held the same
illogical and pernicious views which
The World-Herald now advocates.
Allison of Iowa and Bland of Missouri
declared that opening the mints of the
United States to the coinage of silver
bullion into four hundred and twelve and
half grain dollars at a rate consum-
ng from two to four millions of ounces
month , besides making those dollars
a legal-tender at their nominal value
'or all debts and dues public Land pri-
ato" would keep silver up to a par
, vith gold 1 But the experiment failed
utterly. Up to that time from its
ncoption this government had coined
nly eight millions of silver dollars.
A.nd under the Bland-Allison act
before 1890 three hundred and eighty
nillions of new silver dollars
, vere put into circulation and by
H there were four hundred and uiiie-
ieen millions of Bland-Allison silver
dollars omitted by the United States
niuts. But the Bland-Allison act , in
stead of enhancing silver saw that metal
decline fifty per cent as to the value of
rhe bullion in a 412 } grain dollar. The
Douglas County World-Herald can ob
serve the fallacy of its reasoning by a
perusal of the Bland-Allison act , the
message vetoing it by President Hayes
and the bullion market reports showing
a steady decline. So decidedly a fail
ure , so diametrically different in results
from predictions , was this Bland-Allison
botch of a law that even its originators
and advocates favored its repeal July 14 ,
1890.
The act of July 14 , 1890 , took the
place of the Bland-Allison failure to
maintain the price of silver ; it "directed
the purchase of silver bullion and the
issue of treasury notes thereon. " It
compels "the secretary of the treasury
to purchase from time to time silver bul
lion to the aggregate amount of 4,500 ,
000 ounces each mouth , or so much thereof
as may be offered. " It was thought by
McKiuley and other advocates of free
coinage then prominent that this would
help keep up the bullion price of silver
But silver continued to decline. And in
1893 this later makeshift in fiuanc' '
known as the Sherman act was con
demned as disastrous to the country and
repealed.
Good Money and Bad Honey.
The Douglas County World-Heral
objects to a quotation from that lead
ing bimetallist of Europe , Henri Cer
nuschi. He said "the melting pot
the test of coined money. That whicl
loses value in melting is bad money
And that which does not lose is gooi
money. "
Before a silver dollar is placed in th
melting pot it is good money becaus
the government of the United State
has pledged itself to maintain it at a
parity with the gold dollar. When it is
molted down it becomes bad because the
government has not pledged itself to
maintain at a market parity the bullion
in a silver dollar with the bullion in a
gold dollar. When a gold dollar has
been melted down it has , in bullion , the
same purchasing power it had as coin.
Vnd it needs no governmental aid to
mke it current in all the ninrkots of
mankind. The United States is liable
'or moro than four hundred millions of
ilvor dollars which it has uttered to
irculate on and bo held at a parity with
gold. They , as bullion values , are bad
tlollars. They are good as currency
dollars only because of a pledge which
nakps them , through treasury notes ,
3onvortiblo into gold.
Melt all the gold coin the United
itates has ever minted into bullion ;
melt all the silver coin the same waj * .
A.ud there being no less of purchasing
power in the former and a loss of moro
ban fifty per cent purchasing power in
.he . latter , THE CONSERVATIVE concludes
; hat the former is good money and the
atter bad money.
In their amusing
"UKNEVOM3NT
ASSIMILATION. ' and brain-splitting
prestidigitations
the administration organs and presi
dential apologists are having a vast
amount of fun with themselves and
offering no small amount to critical
students of our "foreign ( foreign in
moro than one sense ) policy. " In a
recent issue such " "
an "organ" propounds
the following questions : "When the
Philippines have been conquered by the
military arm , what then ? " "We cannot
undertake to say how this status har
monizes with the president's scheme of
benevolent assimilation. " "Benevolent
assimilation means something else in the
common acceptation of language. "
It certainly does 1 But since the ad
vent of McKiuleyism , language has been
so twisted that even a Philadelphia
lawyer could not tell what humaui-
tariauism or constitutionalism means.
Freedom seems to mean to buy men
first and then assimilate them with
benevolent bombs and fixed bayonets.
Herrmann is nowhere with McKinley as
a prestidigitator. McKinleyism seeks
to assimilate men with a club and then
give them government milk from the
cow of benevolence. This is no new
Americanism. It is the same benevo
lent assimilation we have offered the
Indians and the black men. It is the
same benevolent assimilation our English
connection offered the Hindoos , and the
nations of Europe are now offering the
Chinese and many African people. It is
the kind of benevolent assimilation wo
offer the thief and murderer. It is the
same benevolent assimilation the negro
is now receiving in the South. If that
kind of assimilation ever succeeds in
engendering benevolent feelings in those
thus assimilated they possess some kind
of an unmanly virtue hitherto unknown
among the races of men.
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
