New-York tribune., 1877-08-03
THE SILVER QUESTION.

DTnr INCREASED BY THE DEMONETIzATIoN ACT.
[FRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF ThE rRIBuNL'l
WASHINGTON, July 30.-ln recent letter on the
Silver Question alluded 10 the fact that very many
sensible and honest people who never owned
q silver dollar in their lives have been lea
to suppose from the repeated assertions OF 'he ad
vocates of double standard. that some grleFous
wrong has been done TO them and to the Government
nv tbe establishment of. "A single, gold standard III
/ tho metallic currency of the United States. ms
idea * an erroneous one. and the injustice about
which SO much has been said ana written Whohy
imaginary To prove this desire TO direct atten-
tion 70 a few facts which cannot be disputed ana 10
fhe conclusions that must inevitably be drawn from
them.
m No new standard for the measure OF values
was established in this country in consequence oi
the legislation of 1873, by which the coinage ol
dollars containing 371li grains of pure silver was
discontinued The DOLLAR OF our Fathers" had
been dead for forty years. and was almost as IN
known TO the present generation IA the coins of
ancient Greece and Rome. The NNlNth Con
gress killed it in 1887, and gold had been the sole
surviving partner in the metallic currency business
of the United States ever since. The ALlld
Congress- IN 1873, did not dissolve the partnership
between gold and silyer-it simply recognized the
fact that il was only thing of the past and painted
out the name of the latter on the DID, weather-beat-
en- sgn-board Of the statute-book.
i2D The actual money unit in this country was
dollar containing 25slO grains of standard gold,
Just as much before as after 1873. People he had
occasion To coin currency received ana pald ont
the same gold eagles and halfeages before rs after
the last coinage act was passed and not one III "
hundred of them knew that there had been any
change in the law until years after it had been
made.
C}l The law of 1873 did not demonetlze silver;
it ONLY recognized the fact that had been demone
tized wears before and provided against any change
in the monetary system Of the United States in the
future That act therefore, did no injustice to any
class of people. No contracts had been made III sli-
yer and consequently, no one who had borrowed sill
yer was forced 10 pay in gold. 1t Is true that for
eighty-one years silver dollars had been
legal tender in the United States for
all debts. public and private, and that
it had been lawful for the Government or any ciii-
zen to discharge pecuniary obligations by counting
out to creditors the broad Dollars of our Fathers
But it is also true that for forty years this right had
been wholly without value, and had never, since
1897. been asserted or exercised by any class OF
debtors. 1t was worthless in February 1873, for
even then it was cheaper to pay coin debts in gold
than in silver. The law which conferred this right
Of paving debts in silver doi'ars-for the right was
hot a National one and dd not exist except by 'ir-
tue of the law-was inopcra'iye and void. just rs
any other law would be giving men permission to
cheat themselves in trade or TO adopt business
uohcy which they knew would inevitably lead to
bankruptcy and ruin.
4l If there had been no change in the relative
market values Of gold and silyr since 1873, nobody
would now care TO have the latter remonetzed, ana
nobody would be willing to pay his coin debts III
silver, even il the la permitted it.
l5) No iniustce can have been done to any debtor
in the United States by shc 1t of i -, unless be
had made a contract before its passage which re-
quired him to pay coin afterwards. and il can be
shown in addition that the gold in which he Is now
Obliged to pay is more valuable thar 1t was i'll 1873.
I'm other words. the debtor who had to pay coin in
1873 would from choice, have paii gold because IL
was cheaper than silver; now the law requires hm
TO pay in gold bat this restriction upon ms choice
works no hardship to him, unless the gold costs hn
more in the commodities which nc has 70 give III eX-
change for il than it would have cost N
1873. Money being the standard by which We
measure the value of other things, its own value Is
apparently constant and changes III ITS purchasing
power can only be discovered by noting the ructua-
tons in Ghe prices OF the staple articles of commerce
Nor does a rise or fall in prices always generally
indicate a change in the actual value of money.
Prices are constantly affected by other causes, such
mode and expense OF transportation, and by
hundred other influences which it is not necessary
TO enmnerate. But while general rise or fall III
prices does not prove that a change has actually
taken place III the value OF the money in which
those prices are expressed, when such change ~
the value of money actually does occur, it necessarily
shows itself in higher OF lowerprces unless its effect
has been neutralized OF overcome by other indepcn
dent influences.
Again the fluctuations of prices in the United
States furnish very imperfect data from which to
Judge whether gold is worth more OF less than
in 1873 Prices in this country expressed not in
coin bat in lcgal-tonder notes, and the purchasing
power of tlpse has been increased during the last
four years about ten per cent To ascertain whether
prices are actually higher or lower now than IL
1873, it is necessary to compare the golI prices OF
commodities in that year with the gold prices Of the
same articles now. Fortunately, Mr. Newmarch,
the most distinguished statiSician Of England, has
publishod in The London Ec0n0miS. annually for
many years a list of the wholesale prices Of twent-
two representative articles in the London Market
and by reference to his tables We are enabled, not
only TO compare the price of any of these art-
ces on the first of January. 1877, with the price O
the same article at any time during the last thirty
years, but also to note the annual fluctuations in
the price OF all the articles considered rs one unit
That is. Mr. Newmarch furnishes us the data for
cutaining whether prices generally have risen or
fallen during any given period.
In comparing the wholesale prices of standard
commodities in London the first Of January, 1873,
with the prices of the articles on the first of
January, 1877, omit indigo copper, tin and Per-
rambuco cotton, because, while the fluctuations in
the prices Of these four an tices have been abnormal
and due 10 special causes, they are not articles OF