The Ottawa free trader., 1878-02-23
FALSE ALARM.

4
inr sense and country editor vastly above the
Illinois average But he is badly bcfogged
on the silver question. He has been reading
the speeph of Senator Christiancy and got
swamped by the argument Senator G.. it ap.
Ipcars, enumerates the following as the causes
of the present decline in the value of silver:
lst The dcmonetization and calling in OF
Isilvcr coinage in Germany; 2d, the like de
monetizaton in the Scandinavian States in
1874; Sd the stopping Of the coinage Of silver
by the countries called the Latin Union, France
j Italy, Switzerland and Belgium; 4th. the ini-
Itatory steps taken in Holland for adopting the
single gold standard; 9Th, the Spanish royal
decree OF 1876 closing the mints of that king
dom against private depostOrs, and declaring
the purpose of that government 10 dcmonctZc
4 it for all sums over S2S; 9th, the increased
i production of silver since the passage Of the
/, act of 1873; and It'll, its dcmOnctization by
the United States.
, The depreciation of silver below gold is
now 8 per cent and the Chr0niclc is of opinion
that the removal of this last of the seven po-
tent causes of that depreciation will not restore
70 silver to IT'S par value with gold We have in
: another article in to days FREE TRADER sug-
gestcd some considerations drawn from the
present value of our subsidiary coinage TO show
that it will, But suppose it does not what
will be the harm? The Chroaicie thinks it
will be very serious. "Silvcr will settle down
far enough below gold to drive gold out Of the
country as fast us silver comes into circulation,
and in that case where is the gain?' This bug
bear of driving gold ont of the country" is
one that only scarcs people with very weak
nerves. How much gold, pray, is there IN the
country now: So far as its use as currency is
concer2cd not n d0ltor, nor has there been for
seventeen years. Its sole use here during those
years has been to pay duties on imports inter
est on the public debt and settle balances with
Europe, and for that purpose 1t has been pur
chased in the market when needed exactly as
caicocs, brOadcloths fuel orpotatoes have been
purchased When man needed 500 OF gold
to pay duties with, or TO pay European bal
ancc, he went to broker and bought it, pay
ing $l05, $40 or $l20 in grccnbacks for it,
according to its market price Should the sill
yer dollar after its reconciliation remain at ,
) or even s per cent below gold, and we want
gold to settle European balances with, can we
not take our silver instead Of greenbacks and
do the same thing? We will, then have for
the coming years, exactly rs we have had in
the last II years, just as much gold in the
country as We have now-that is, Just as much
as we need TO settle gold debts with, and that
we must hereafter as we did heretofore buy in
the open market and pay its price for.
At present we need about $l3O00O,0O0 of
gold year to pay duties with and interest on
the public debt. Ayear or two ago we needed
about S50,0O0,0O0 more year to settle foreign
balances with. Now the balance of trade is |
in our favor and gold for settling balasccs is
coming this way. The effect is curious Gold
IN the New York money market is worth less
than per cent. premium in grcenbacks, but
is worth 8 per cent premium in silver. Why
more IN silver than greenbacks? Is any man
fool enough to belive that grccnbacks are worth |
more than silver because there is IL remote
probability that they will some day be redeem
ed in gold? We hardly there is such fool liv-
ing They are worth within2 per cent. of gold
because they are legal tender. That is ALL
And will silver, when it Is made legal tender,
he worth any less? VIII the solid metal that
has Il high intrinsic value all the world over,
be worth less than paper rags, that have no in
trinsic value?
While, then, we beg Judge Wallace to cease
borrowing trouble on account Of this imagi.
nary ''loss" of our gold in consequence of sIl-
yer reconciliation, permit us to call his atten-
ton to n few things we shall gain by the meas
urc. The coinage Of S50,000,000 of silver dol |
lars year will be positive addition of that |
much to our circulation. The silver will STAY
with us, because IL will be worth more here
than in Europe. Our mines are also produc.
ing some S60000,000 OF silver year; that will |
remain here and-will be that much annually !
added to the national wealth, and will not, as
in the case of silver dcmonetization, sink SO
greatly in value that the production must die |
out. And then the production of about $50 |
100000 of gold year, that is profitable only |
because mined with silver, Will continue and
we shall have that annual addition to the M.
tional wealth. Are not these advantages, which |
silver reconciliation only can bring us, worth |
striving for?
SILVER AS MONEY.
Now that the reconciliation of the silver
dollar of 4l2ie grains may be regarded as a