The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-09-30

,aid the debt In 1865, but now the
.educed debt could rot be paid with less
han $4,000. 900. In 1865 the av-
.rage price of cotton in gold was thirty
four cents. the price now is ten and =
half cents; the price of iron IN 1909
was $50 per ton in gold; now IT IS S4o-
While our debt in 1865 was 100 cents,
It is reduced now to 50 cepts, IT luoI
cents would buy. in 1865, no more OF
commodity than "a cents will buy now,
the debt measured by that commodity
is not reduced. Hence labor is more
correct measure of intrinsic value
than GOLD or silver, and this is the view
of distinguished political economists
Mr.. Earnest Seyd, an eminent British
financier. whose efforts TO restore the
double standard to Great Britain have
attracted much attention, said in 1867,
that the effect of making gold alone |
legal tender would be "a fall in prices |
throughout the world, injurious alike to |
the owners of solid property and TO the
laboring classes, and advantageous only
and uniustifably so, to the holders OF
State debts and other contracts OF that
kind
Such an argument addressed to the
mouometalist English and Germans,
wonld have little weight, for according
to Mr.. Seyd's estimate in 1876, foreigners
owed to England about $4,000 100000
and to Germany about 81, 750, 600. 900.
Germany never became mono
metalist nation until after the French
war of 1870, and the exaction of war
indemnity from Trance of 81 200, oo0, 900.
From 1857 until 1872 silver was the sole
1oxo1 s4a,JarJ ~, the latter
part of 1871 Germany passed law
establishing gold as its only legal
standard that law was not put into full
operation until 1873 In the same year
the United States stopped the coinage
them as a legal tender for debts exceed
ing five dollars. The result of this
simultaneous legislation was decline
in the bullion value of silver, which
before that exceeded the bullion value
of gold.
The word cent means hundredth, and
there are one hundred cents of silver in
our silver dollar and one hundred cents
of gold in our gold dollar. In 1873 we
adopted
THE FRENCH DECIMAL SYSTEM
for both gold and silver coins; and
therefore we use in our coins 900 parts
of pure gold or silver to 100 parts OF
alloy. Although the silver hundreth is
not worth as much as the gold hundreth,
it is because the government cannot
regulate prices, and does not attempt to
to do so. The market value is neces-
sarily variable, and it may be that the
difference which exists to-day between
silver and gold may be attributed to the
fact that the gold and silver has become
dearer, and not to the fact that the
silver dollar has become cheaper. The
average fall in prices within the last
three years has been 20 per cent, which
will more than cover the difference be-
tween the price of gold and the price of
silver bullion in the respective dollars.
The production of gold in the world is
diminishing, while that of silver is but
slightly increasing. California's pro
duction of gold reached its height in
1858, and that of Australia in 1856.
1t has been estimated by able financiers
that all the gold in use in the world
when Columbus discovered America
Q492), together with all the gold pro-
duced since then until the year 1850,
only equals the amount produced from
| 1850 to the present time. But the
amount of silver produced since 1850
will not equal one-third of the amount
estimated to have been in use from 1892
to 1850. 1t is therefore apparent that
| the production of silver during the past
thirty-five years has not been extra
ordinary compared with that of gold
One of the principal reasons why gold
is rated as sixteen times more valuable
than silver is the superiority in handling
it to make payments; but silver dollar
in the vaults of the government, repre-
scented by silver certificates circulating
among the people, is doing its fall duty
and the objection to its weight and bull
is removed.
The expense of storing silver is
trifie, compared with the loss which it
withdrawal from circulation woult
entail, or even compared with the debt
it assists us to pay.
1t must be remembered that tn
government is compelled to buy all o
the silver used in coinage; the silver
producer cannot, like the gold producer
demand the conversion of his production
into coin; he must sell his silver a
market rates; whereas, the price of gol
|
ment offers to buy all ihe gold tenders
at that price, which is $20.6771 per tro
) ounce.
THE AvER..GE PRICE OF PURE sILvEF
for the year ending June 80, 1884, az
cording to the report of the Director O
, the Mint, was 81 ,1l56 per ounce; thi
! makes the silver dollar worth SCI cents
in July, 1876, it was worth only 70
! cents; al that time its coinage had bee
suspended for three years. Before tn
suspension, in 1873, silver was wort
more than gold; after that its valu
declined until the introduction of siive
dollar coinage, in 1878. Neither tn
predictions of ruin, nor the vaticins
tions of those who foretold the expu
, sion of gold from the country, hav
! been verified. On the contrary. til
! amount of gold in the United States ha
more than doubled since 1873, and n
one attributes the present world wild
commercial and industrial depression t
; the currency.
The government of the United State
does not, and never did, own so large
proportion of our silver dollar coinag
as is supposed by many. At no tim
since the coinage was resumed in 1877
did silver dollars constitute large pei
centage of the net cash in the treasur
belonging to the United States; the per
centage never exceeded 13I. In 1881 i
was SCI, in 1882 800, in 1884 s. 9S: tn
highest percentage was 1919 in 1880
11.43 in 1893; and 1921 in 1885. Tn
cost of pure silver per ounce at th
beginning of each year, and the amour
of standard silver dollars actually owned
by the government on January l of eacl
year were as follows:
Cost per ounce
1S79-S16, 291 ,469 81 OqIl
1880 90, $40, S12 TAI:
1881 12,002. 1907 .......................l LIS:
1882 1874, 6l7 lips.
1888 25.573, 1872 .09I:
1854 %, 73l 1854 iii.
1885 81, $3.50, 954 .086.
The above figures are taken from tn,
official statement of the Secretary of ths
Treasury furnished to the House o.
Representatives February 10, 1885. ane
published in the Congressional Record
February II, 1885.
our POPULATION
exceeds that of France by Is. 600. 600 II
20,O00,0 900, yet she employs specie cur
rency to the extent of 81 AS, 0OO. 600 q,
which $685., 900, 900 are legal tender sill
yer. Whereas our uroo;a -