Press enter after choosing selection

The Times Reasons Wrong

The Times Reasons Wrong image
Parent Issue
Day
8
Month
July
Year
1896
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The editor of tl-. ■ Daily Times, usually colrirect in hi ■■■ ■;■ -An-x, has surely gdne wroa ; 011 the i lver questiom. In a re -alcl : 'Prim-to 1873, jic:i . ■ : nr wás i!emonetizcd, ono grain oi' gold was worth no more than 1G grains of silver; today it will take about 30 grains of silver to buy as much as can be líounirt with ome grain of gold." Simce aiiout 1S73 tuneare has Jjeen a wotiderful increase in the amount o,f silver mined, Just bdw mucli we are niofc ablo at thiis time to statfcl accurately, but the increase oí Bilver produced has been lar in excess oi gold produced, which accounts for the difïerence in the price oi vüiver exlsting mv. from the price in 1873. Ou tita isame principie wheat is cheaper, pötatoes are cheaper, oats are cheaper, labor is cheaper, when there is au abundant supply than when scarce. Science with iis new methods af separating tho ores co'ntained ia quartz, is to blame foir tbe lower priee of sil ver, no'tliing else. Fuxtiher o(n is f otad tuis : ''Advocate? of a single geld etanfiard, of wbom tbe Courier is oue, maintaiu tbat to coin silver uow at the ratio of 1G to 1 would be to pay the owner of the silver nearly twice what it is worth. Tbe 16 to 1 advocates answer by saying: You debased silver. Would it not be fair and rigbt in you to restore to us our property? You bave made and pocketed the difference. Xow restorg silver to the place it beid in 1S84 and give to silver lts place, thjat is all we ask." In tne firet place the Courier is not a motooniebalist in any sense of the word, but Is a firm and consistent bimetalist, believlag that both silver, gold, oopper, and even papier should be used as a circulating medium. YThen was silver debased by tlio act of any political party ? ?Cever, my friend. If by debased you mean lonvered in value. the answer to tbat is, the ofivners of the mines debased silver themselves by their greed in over producing the white metal. Xo power on earth ca.n restore zilver toi the ratio of 16 to 1, except a scarcity af the metal, or "y the governmemt standing back. oí the silver dollar tflie same as it does now back af botti tlie silver and .lie paper dollar. The passing oc a free coimage law, -n-hrch womld substitute tho bulliolii owner for t"ne government in uphaldimg the value of the eilver dollar, would only add misery to misery. Whet do you mean by demonetizing silver ? There was more silver oojned durüig tSie four years of Benj. HaiTteom's administration than for the enture period from the "beginning óf the government up to 1856 J Wfus rh-at demonetizing silver ? And every cïöllar of it has been. kept worth ome dollar, too, is that deba.sing silver ? It is useless to go t!hjroughl the) histary oí tlLe lmitrlneic value of the gold and the silver dollar, for it hasl no bearing upon the question wihatever. And Btfll further on t,he Times adds: "Silver lias suiffered eince 1873 nndi tnie momied class haá proflted ; now reverse th order oí tbings, restore eilver ta the poeitJion it lieldl prior to 1873, -winein it was debased. Iet jusbice be done to silver." ThO Oohirier beileves tbat it is more Iimpotrtanit tliat justice should be done toi the mHlions -vho earn or want tp eann isilver. Süver noit alone has mTfièrëc} Wneat kas suffered, wool has suffered, trom hos suffered, copper has sufferOd. You might ais well hiaxge the moniwl classes with debasing those producís alhd metala. There te just as good ground for It. The asserttom that passing an act of free coinage of Bilver will advance t)he value af that metal to an equality witih. goad, is purely fallacious, and as visioinary and unreal as t(he stories oí Greci'am mythology with which our friemd o{ the Times, as a student) oï Uistory is familiar. Cowgress might as well pass a law decreeimg that all dogs should hereafter be born cats. If a free ootaage act will raise thie ralue 0f Bilver tx thfat of gold,, whjf ils it thea thiat the ü. S, silverdollar is woirth one-lialf more in Mexico tottay than is the Mexican 6llver dollar which contatns the most silver ? They have free co4naOe tihiere- wltli the ■mobt miserable worMng class ojj eartto. rWhlo miade :the money out of the eo-called "demonietizing" of Bilver? And ■who will make the -momey1 out of remioinetizLng Bilver ? Tlie Oolurier has no ax to grind in tliis matter, but in advocatiug what it luomestly believes to be for the best interest? of the people. Personally, "the prioprietor of tihis papier wouW 1e benefited by the cheapening oï möney and the rlaising of interest and pfoperty values. But tlie masses, whö are wage earners, would not dnly be dtetressed by making this change, Ibut in thousands of cases vröuld bo utterly ruined and lose alí thO property they had saved lor yearr salaries will nevar go ip in propoirtion is money g i ■ down. l" "W'r.cn iho in'iaicipal commercial natons of t'i'o Avoild imita n ir je), collage tlitai it can Imí acco'nipldsliecl porhi'ps without injury tó any class of poople, but for tho üsaited States io act alolne in thte matter and take sucbi a step niofw, womld be noi only llladTilsed, but poisitively a cruel injustice to1 tiuus:iiKls upon thousands of people. Tlvo dislui'bing and clxanglng of blio lxnsiw oí om" financcs at thls time Nvoiüd hare as dái'e aa effect upon ■UilO coamfi'y as did the free trade vicWry of 1S92.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier