People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1895 — CAUGHT H[?] A [?]E [ARTICLE]

CAUGHT H[?] A [?]E

THE GOLD-BUG PRESS LIES ABOUT SILVER. Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, Which Shown That SUver la Standard Coin of the United States, and Not Redeemable in Gold. That letter from the secretary of the treasury which was printed in this paper last week has already attracted wide attention and well it may as it was the most important contribution to the current financial discussion that has been published in any paper for a long time. This letter is well worth reprinting and every reader of the Nonconformist should cut it out and file it away for reference. It was written to the secretary of the Indiana Populist state committee in reply to a letter of inquiry from him as to the legal status of the silver dollar. The secretary replied as follows: "Treasury Department, Office of the Secretary, Washington, D. C., Aug. 22, 1895. Mr. E. B. Cummings, Hotel English, Indianapolis, Ind. Dear Sir: —In reply to your letter of the 20th instant, you are informed that there is no law, or regulation of this department, which provides for the redemption of silver dollars or silver certificates in gold. Silver certificates are, according to their terms, redeemed by the government in silver dollars only, while the latter, being standard coin of the United States, are not redeemable in any other form of money. United States notes (greenbacks) and treasury notes of 1890 are redeemable in coin, and are redeemed in gold, when that is demanded, in accordance with the term® of the enclosed circular of November I, 1894. Both silver dollars and silver certificates are received by the government, the same as gold, in payment of all debts due to the United States. Respectfully yours, W. E. Curtis, Acting Secretary. The above Is an official denial of the stereotyped lie that appears In the goldbug press every day—to-wit, that the silver dollar is mere token money which is only kept "at par” by being redeemable in gold. Mark the secretary’s words: “The silver dollars, being standard coin of the United States, are not redeemable in any other form of money ” In other words it is as good as gold and this goodness Is not due to its redeemability in any other kind of money but because it is itself "standard coin” and doesn’t need any redeeming. A Populist friend, who is candidate for one of the principal state offices in Kentucky, as soon as he saw this letter in the Nonconformist, recognized Its importance and value and wrote us as follows:

In your issue of August 29th in an article, "A Sample Goldbug," at the close of acting secretary of the treasury’s letter, I find these words: "Redeemed in gold when demanded in accordance with terms of enclosed circular of November 1, 1894.” Will you be so kind if you cannot furnish me with said circular to write me in full what were the terms and by what legal authority. I am making the race for lieutenant-governor on the People’s party ticket, and can use this letter with telling effect. The gold advocates of both parties are making statements in direct opposition to the statements in the letter, and I want to use it on them and to do so effectually I must know the terms of that circular. In reply will say that the section of the circular referred to by the secretary of the treasury in his letter reads as follows: 10. United States notes, fractional currency notes, gold certificates, silver certificates, and treasury notes of 1890, are redeemable by the treasurer, and when not mutilated so that less than three-fifths of the original proportions remains, by the several assistant treasurers, at face value. United States notes are redeemable in coin, in sums not less than SSO, by the assistant treasurers in New York and San Francisco. Treasury notes of 1890 are redeemable in coin, in sums not less than SSO, by the treasurer and all the assistant treasurers. Silver certificates are redeemable in standard silver dollars only or, exchangeable for other silver certificates. National bank notes are redeemable in lawful money of the United States by the treasurer, but not by the assistant treasurers. We will add that if our Kentucky friend, or any other, desires a copy of this circular in full, they can get it by writing to the secretary of the treasury.