Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-11
The siIver.COfnage Question

1t seems likely that by the time Con-
gress meets a substantial agreement
will have been reached upon policy in
respect to the silver question that will
be supported unitedly by the Democrats
and approved by the Administration.
This is one of the troublesome ques-
tons which the Republicans were never
able to settle satisfactorily, and has
been left over for the Democrats to deal
with. There is every reason to believe
that they will deal with it wisely. and
that solution of the difficulty has been
hit upon which, if carried out, will have
a great effect in placing the prosperity
Of the country upon lasting basis.
The difficulty of maintaining double
standard of coinage is one that has
always been recognized in all countries,
from the fact that it is practically inn
possible to maintain fixed ratio be-
tween any two metals. The relative
market value Of gold and silver bullion
varies according to the same laws that
cause fluctuations in the market values
of any other commodities; and hence
dollars coined out of these metals upon
any assumed ratio will change their
relative values toward each other as the
relative market value of the two metals
deyiates from the standard agreed upon.
The result is a dollar of one metal
worth less intrinsically than a dollar of
another, as is now the case in this coun-
try, where the silver dollar has an in.
trinisic value fifteen cents less than that
of the gold dollar.
How to get over this difficulty is the
problem. The monometallists, assuming
that the double standard is an
impossibility, and that there can
be but one standard of monetary
value, have demanded that the
coinage of silver dollars cease and
that the gold dollar be alone considered
the standard. But the supply Of gold
is lessening every year. 1t is becoming
a scarcer and therefore more valuable
metal. To cease to coin silver would
necessarily lead to scarcity of money
and contraction Of currency that
would be disastrous.
On the other hand, the extreme sill
ver-men have held that the difference
in intrinsic value between gold and sill
yer dollars is a matter Of no particular
consequence that the silver dollar, no
matter what its relation to the gold
dollar may be, intrinsically, is
de .facto dollar, and will 20
as far in the uses to which a
dollar is put as gold dollar will 60
and this being the case, the more Of
such dollars there are in the country
the better. The weak place in this
theory, however, is the assumption
that, because the lightweight silver
dollar circulates as dollar now, and
and will buy all gold dollar will buy.
1t will always do SO, no matter how
much the ratio differs. and no matter
how many Of such dollars are coined.
IL also oyerlooks the fact that a point
must be eventually reached in the
course of this policy where gold will
disappear from circulation entirely.
No standing ground between these
two policies has up to this time been
found. Under Republican administra-
ton the matter has been allowed to
drift along until serious financial evils
threatened. The only compromise sug-
eested has been that advanced by John
Sherman, In which he advocated the
recoinsge OF the short-weight dollars
into new dollars Of sufficient fineness
to bring them up to the present gold
standard. This, however, would be
only q temporary expedient. The
same causes that brought about the
present variation from the ratio origi-
nslly fixed would bring about another
variation. and the impracticabiliiy Of
continually recoiniDg dollars to CO.