New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-12-29
WILL THE SILVER BILL HELP SILVER
MINERS

The attention of Mr.. Sharon, of Nevada
and other Senators who are specially inter
ested in the production of the precious metals,
is invited to a consideration of the Bland Sill
yer Bill, as it affects those whom they repre-
sent. II is said to them that the bill will
bring silver to par with gold. If so, there
will be no advance Of prices the debtor Will
gam nothing; the entire appeal to the selfish
ness of those who are greatly indebted, or who
produce other goods, is false and fraudulent.
The Silver Bill cannot possibly make the
MINER rich, by lifting the value of his pro
duet, and at the same time help the debtor
by enabling him to pay in deprecated
silver Either the West is to be cheated
or the producers of silver; one or the other
But the abest owners of valuable mining
properties believe that the bill will not make
silver more valuable. They hold, on the con-
trary, that it will make silver less valuable,
by insurng its demOnetization by other nations
which still Use it. This is q question upon
which the judgment of experts and students is
of value The mine-Owner who should refuse
TO ask the opinion of expert assayists as to
the quality of ore discovered would be deemed
an idiot by his associates, and the question of
relative value of the precious metals is not
less one to be decided by scientific inquiry.
Every person of scientific knowledge, in this
country OF in Europe, whether in favor of a
single or a double standard, declares that re-
monetizatiOn by the United States at the ratio
of 6 to /, and with an enormous paper cur
rency in USE would surely depress the value of
silver. 1t would create a vast legal-tender
market into which silver from all countries
could be poured for coinage, if prices should
favor and for purchase of products ut their
legal-tender value. Germany, having still over
800, 100000 in silver to sell, according to
the latest opinion of Professor SOetbeer, would
empty that silver upon us whenever
the purchasing power as to products of
silver legal-tender should be in
the least degree greater than that of bullion if
sold in London. American mines produce
more every year than our minis can coin. The
German surplus would, therefore, remain a
vast and resistless incubus upon the market,
utterly preventing any advance in the price of
silver, either with respect to gold abroad or
with respect to eXpOrtable products here. 1t
would so remain until the drain from India
and the East had removed it, and that would
require at least two years, according to recent
experience, and probably more. Within that
time, then, the silver producers cannot hope
to gain anything, but they may lose, because
mistaken notions as to the effect of the bill
may stimulate large increase i'll the produc-
ton of silver
After two years, what Germany may then
have nearly disposed of its surplus, but IN
1879 the Latin Union must then decide
whether its coinage treaties, expiring then,
shall be renewed or changed. In the Nations
of that Union opinion is now greatly divided
as to the wisdom OF continuing silver coinage.
Two years more of continual depreciation of
silver will very surely turn the scale. The
verdict will then be for abandonment of silver
coinage, and every competent expert
on either side Of the ocean, whether favor
ing a single or double standard, sees that
this result is inevitable. The waiting policy.
held so long by those nations, will not answer
always. They cannot, without utter ruin, per-
NIT free coinage at the ratio OF 15lo to /.
when the United States is pouring out unlim-
tied silver at the ratio OF 16 to /. To change