New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-02-09

VIEWS ON GOVERNOR NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF
WESTERN MERCHANTS.
Thurlov Weed. in q long letter given below, re-
rests his assertion that silver was stealthiiy "
Semonetized, although he admits thai the change
vas not secretly" accomplished. He comments
on recent statements from Secretary sherman, and
tonehcs on other topics of The silver dis
eusson Mr.. Belmont has written reply to
Governor Hendrcks's letter. and presents sone OF
the arguments against silver. Representatives IN
this city of Western business houses, say that mer-
chants In the West do not favor the silver move
Insnt.
ANOTHER LETTER FROM THURLOW WEED.
PEIER MARiE's vfRws--siLvxR sTTALTHILY DE-
MoNEIIzED = UTTRRAsCRs or NEWSPAPERS
SECRETARY sHERMAN'S DEcLARArIoNs-MoS-
EYED INSTITUTIONS.
TO the Editor or The Tribune.
SIR: The silver discussion is attracting the atten-
ton of many of our ablest and best thinkers.
have letters from many prominent and patriotic
citizens of this and other States warmly
approving the efforts | have made in IA
vor Of the remonetzmg of silver. aud offering
new and strong arguments. ALL nearly all, of the
writers of these letters are men of mature age OF
large business experience and proverbal integrity
/ receive, also, equally able and inter
esting silver articles IN Journal and pamphlet
form Unfortunately these articles have bat Inn
tied circulation. pamphlet written hy Peter
Marie and addressed to the convention of banke 8
which met in this city in January. ought to lave
guided that body to much wiser results. 1t would
now could 1t appear in the columns OF either OF our
metropolitan journals. not only disabuse the pubic
mind of iaany errors, but convert falr-mlnded OPP
ponents of silver standard into warm advocates for
reconciliation In support of this view OF the int
y Tt r,f4., finn fn
some of his facts and conclusions.
PETER MARIE's VIEWS.
Prices of property and commodities throughout the
world governed BY the volume Of the precious me
used money. Even where Il deprecated paper car
rency exists prices based the value OF the metals
pus the discount the paper. 70 MAINTAIN staDiiY
basis shoud be preserved. Hot only unnpaircd, but
should increase SO as 10 Keep pee win 'le ~
world The annual sanpty; IN o'ner WORDS Sno"'d oe
Mr. McCalioeh the au nor Of standard works
political economy and WAC wds seeec 10 write the
articles the Precious Metals III tle EncFcioPoili
Britannica IN Inc edition Of 1869 OF the Colrrcfi
Dictionary, places the annual CONSUMPTION al appnt
cisey accurate rcSrd it ~ t0eraby SAFE St-
mate OF the required annual supply ohodid ne Eiea
exceed this sum, then the petals will become redundant
AID lose Il part Their purchasing p0wer; IA O,hei
words. prices commodities aud properly will rise Bat
If the supply falls below This figure tnen the metals gain
10 purchasing power, and prices fall ,....,.
Prices u.s.. and TAIL the supply of money increases
or decreases, and the fluctuations are much wider man
most people among the best educated III ,he lna-
Mr.. ". stanley Jevons, prominent advocate OF
gold standard Of whom The Worth Ameyern Pcr'eD of
for lis ste,ce tna any other since Adam smith,
in Money aad the Mechanism OF Exchange - But
OF god has undergone extensive changes be
tween 1888 and 1909 IL EEL IN tnc -rano t "i
il again in the extraordinary ratio OF 100 To -iJ or
by 145 per cent, rendering liked payments extending
over tins period almost two and a half tunes vlln-
able they were IN 1909 Since 1SlY the flue O sni
has again fallen u tue extent OF least 20 per cent
double standard system OF money spreads the Idcl-
tons of supply and demand OF gold and silver over
larger area aud maintains both metals unchanged
in value tBan they wouo otherwisebe
of supposed invariabiliy has varied as TIE ABOVE
passages SHOW, thin this century all tie way ro1 100
to 2i5 per cent uouaiiOn nearly wide although ~
tire opposite direction our much naliTned sryeDdck
currency experienced during the DARKEST days Of tue
war TINS price o 2i5 fan IN prices of nearly
60 per cent. and this fall OF prices or increase III me
purchasing Ower OF money. always ~ nuch more lll
rious to the many tIn II Is beneficial u me rev, ns
community is now inviting 10 return 1y gettlu@ up
blmdshori-s GIFTED unconditional crusade against silver
For constitutes 10 PEI cent of the annual pro
duct OF the precious metals il every country dcm9he-
then you calling upon 500 of gold 20 perform he
work Of 500, you are prcremg nearly 10 double us
purchasing power. L. il tneD, unjust. unwsc, nay,
cruel 10 demand from our legislative bodies Il policy
which VIII add % the ordinary rsks 81 bnsi.ess u. ms
cries of ncediessly huctuaiing Standard! This hslF
biiity IL values. d0unle standard would not wholly
avoid. bat would mitigate largely.
1852 20 Is75 inc uive tbe worlds annual supply
OF gold averaged Sll6OOOOOo ne extremes Deh% lac
600 land 900 U09C S7l and silver erlScd
S600Oo,OoO ana ranged between 42sjOOO0O oo3l ana
$7sO00OOO Qs75.l The two metals together AVERAGED
per annb 900 $50 Gold by itself varied % pcr cent
above and % per cent below is own average ana silver
fuctuaie III Ike manner 10 per cent up anu 90 per cent
down. the two metals lOSeIuef were cohneu t ~ a
range - per cent up and 10 per cent down; mus
SHOWING that the two metals maintained more siaDhity
should the des.rc OF silver as a lega-ienGer become
general toe lnaleqacg OF gold to replace 1t must ser-
ousiy disturb The money markets of the Wprid.
Decentralization means that - per cent or the inure
especially objected to- because OF its recent fluctuations
tits true they have been great since Germany threw
Is, fu4f. IN a.
pectant attitude" Bnt for hty six wears before thai,
he average annual raj TO- according TO Dr. Lndermau,
never fell below 1919, above 1j9s; thar is.
II per cent above. uor tel per cent below
the French ratio of 15ls established IN 1893 THIS
RADIO If adopted here, would only allow 100 grains Of
silver 10 the dollar SO that never once III these iY-
six years the "dollar of our fathers" containing
4I2ls grains worth httle loo cents III gold and
went al owe 100 cents.
SILVER sTEALTnILY DEMoNETIZED.
am in receipt Of many letters some inquiring
why retracte1 the charge in one Of my letters that
silver was "steathily," secretly" and "fraudu-
lently" demonetized, and Others saying that the
gold advocates i'll distant cities claim that have
abandoned the silver RECOMMENDATION question. TO
the latter accusation this letter will furnish my
reply. To the former inqurers / answer. that
having been led by transformation to char
acterize the legislation by which silver was
demonetized IN terms stronger than
justified by careful reading of the Report
of the Controller of the Currency with the de-
bates in Congress, I promptly withdrew the
offensive terms referred TO. But am bound, after
mature reflection TO say that in my desire to be ex-
actly Just, my apology was too broad. The term
stealthy, as / will proceed to show, was properly
used. In bill prepared under the auspices of the
Controller Of the Currency ostensby " tor the bet
ter regulation of the Government MINIS" etc, etc,
n clause was inserted disseminating the coinage Of
the silver dollar That, however, seems not to
have fully accomplished the object in view, fer
at the next session of Congress section demonetz-
ing the silver dollar inserted in a