Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-03
The Silver Question.

After the tariff the most important
question, doubtless, that will come before
next Congress is that relating to silver
The refusal Of the Atlanta convention
TO favor the continued coinage of silver at
the rate at which it ia now being coined
was somewhat of a surprise, because ii in
dicated pretty clearly that the South Is
not friendly to the silver coinage law.
Since the convention there has been a
great deal of discussion Of the silver
question in the South.
In yesterdays Ne,oS and Courier, Col.
| W. l.. Trenholm, of Charleston, discusses
it in very interesting paper. He points
out the dangers to be apprehended from
the enforcement of the silver coinage law,
and shows that those who think that a
silver standard will be advantageous to
the country are deceived.
In agricultural communities particu-
larly, the impression appears to prevail
that the greater the volume Of silver in
circulation the better prices for agric Ill
tural products will be. When the present
silver coinage law was passed silver was
worth ninety-seyen cents on the dollar as
compared with gold. II is now worth
about eighty-three cents. While, there
fore, the work of making 10000, 600
silver dollars was going on, the
actual value of the dollar declined ii
cents. But did the prices of agricultural
products increase? They did not. They
are much lower to-day than they were
when the silver coinage bill became law.
The country is much less prosperous now
than it was then, the wages of work
men is lower, and manufacturing indus
tries of all kinds are much more depressed.
Clearly the predictions of those who urged
the passage OF the silver coinage bill have
not come to pass. The period of unex-
ampled prosperity that was promised as
the result of the passage of the bill has
not come. 1t appears to be receding.
But has the law benefited the silver
producers? They have seen a steady de-
cline in the price of silver ever since the
enactment of the silver law. The tend
ency of the price is still downward. Mr..
Trenholm, in his paper, takes the position
that it would have been much better for
the silver producers if, instead of pro-
viding for the compulsory coinage of sill
yer, the United States had aimed to pre-
vent the silver money countries Of Eu-
rope from substituting gold for their sill
yer coins. He says that one way to have
done that was to have drawn away
as much gold as possible from
Europe, so as to have left European
countries no alternative but to come to
some agreement among themselves to
take care of silver. AS soon as the COM
pulsory silver law was passed these cOun-
tries advanced bravely towards the gold
standard. The European market, there
fore, for our silver, for coinage purposes,
was closed.
According to Col. Trenholm's argument
the compulsory coinage law has bene-
fitted neither the silver producers, the
agriculturists, nor the business men of
any class, and there is no prospect that
the country will be rendered more pros
porous if the present rate OF coinage of the
silver dollar is continued. Indeed, there
is good reason TO fear that, as the differ
ence in the bullion value of gold and
silver becomes more marked, faith will be
lost in silver, and gold, and paper cur
rency based on gold, will disappear. The
withdrawal of so large amount of cur
rency from circulation could not fail to
produce grave financial disturbances.