People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — GOOD SILVER MONEY. [ARTICLE]

GOOD SILVER MONEY.

The Difference Between a Good and Bad Circulating Medium. There is good silver money and bad silver money. Silver money is good under two conditions. The first is when the basis is gold and the government maintains the parity by being always ready to redeem silver with gold. That is the present condition, and the silver dollar, like the paper dollar, is up to the present perfectly good. The other condition is when silver is part of the standard and is redeemable in itself. Silver is a bad money when it rests upon a gold basis and the government is unable to maintain the parity. Any money is good which is what it pretends, to be. Any is bad which is not. Money may be good when the basis upon which it is issued is thoroughly vicious. If diamonds were the basis and the government kept plenty of diamonds to redeem all its dollars, the dollars would be good, though the standard of prices might be ruinous. The viciousness of any system is in fear that the government will not maintain the gold value of its silver. Nobody can tell at what point the drop to a single silver standard will occur. Therefore, nobody likes to make contracts ahead. An uncertain currency is the worst currency. Good silver money must either be on a gold basis, strictly maintained, or must be itself money of final redemption. —St Louis Republic.