the silver school. I am a graduate of the Bimetallic
Institute. This pill which I give you is out of the silver
pharmacopoeia. It will heal all your diseases perfectly." But when you
examine the pill which he exhibits, you will find it to be a solid bolus
of gold, filmed over with tin foil.

Mr. Lepper enters upon the discussion of the subject with the following
statement: "The vast stores of silver purchased by the United States
under the laws of 1878 and 1890 are a dead asset of the Treasury, and
cannot be utilized for purposes of redemption until sixteen ounces of
silver shall again be equivalent to one of gold." Observe what becomes
of these propositions under a truthful analysis. In the first place, our
"vast stores of silver" are _not_ vast stores. They are not nearly as
vast as they ought to be. There are no bursting vaults of silver in the
Treasury of the United States and never were. In the next place the
stores of silver are _not_ a dead asset of the Treasury. They are just
as much a living asset of the Treasury as is the accumulation of gold
therein--and in the same sense. These stores cannot be used for purposes
of redemption because _they do not exist for that purpose_. A
bimetallist who is not a bimetallist is always strong on redemption; and
he knows only one redeemer--gold. The redeeming business in our
financial plan of salvation has been altogether overdone. In the name of
wonder, what is it we want to redeem? Is it the greenbacks? Is it _any_
of our legal tender? The greenback is already constitutional money. Does
Mr. Lepper know that the greenback has been declared constitutional
money by the Supreme Court of the United States--this with only a single
dissenting vote? Does he know that every national bank bill in the
United States is finally redeemable in greenbacks? Does he know that in
our scheme of redemption, the people have only a _paper_ redeemer, while
the banks, with the connivance of the government, have a redeemer of
_gold_? Our "vast stores of silver" have only to be coined into silver
dollars; to be used as primary money, just as gold is used; to be paid
out just as gold is paid out in the transaction of national business,
and in particular in the payment of the national indebtedness. If this
is freely done, the exaggerated purchasing power of the latter metal
would at once be reduced to the normal standard. This reduction would
immediately express itself, or begin to express itself, in a