Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-12-08

such coinage, fixed by states powerful
enough TO make and keep It prevalent.
These conditions, Il Is obvious, operate
everywhere the inclusion OF the uucoinea
metals as potential money, with the coined
metals as actual money-enleralpe tho
great measure They render morn than
trivial, they nulliy any variations IN tho
petty Increment from the mines. or in
the pettier decrCment from abrasion loss.
or non-monetary uses. They enable us
90 map past errors with precision, aud To
test the policy OF steps by any nation
toward a restoration OF the monetary
order.
These joint conditions were the secur-
ity that changes In prices should be due
for every commodity to special and nat
ural causes, and not monetary cause,
and should be due to no change In The,
whole moneta,y measure, or unit of
measure, but IN every case the varying
cost OF production as mans Inventions
and Industries more easily spbdued the
matter and forces OF nature. or TO other
such secular and inirlnslo circumstance OF
fluciuation.
Obviously these conditions would have
been violated by the adoption Of the pro.
posal OF CheNalier and Golden. Had the
right OF tree mOnetizAtion been with
drawn from the owners and miners OF
gold as II has been recently withd avn
from the owners and miners of silver by
nations previously giving the right 20
both, II must be believed that the pur
chasing pc Ner OF gold compared TO that
OF silver would have been similarly al.
minished, aud that, instead of silver
question, gold question would now be
perpleXing legislatures aud statesmen. In
either event, there could but be a world.
wide monetary disloeaiion, causing ever
falling prices and long depression OF
trade.
The joint conditions Of the existence as
OF the restoration OF the monetary order
exhibit In a betting light the main iea-
lures OF our own monetary history, aud
the debates which have ragged around
Communication" and the acts OF 1878 and
1878.
uNIrRp STATES MONETARY HIsroRY-.
AcIs or 1878 AND 1873 ALIKK AND IR-
RELEVANT.
The act Of 1873, we are told, "demon.
etized' the standard silver dollar, the
act Of 1878, we are told, remonotlzed It;
and that, we are told, is the whole OF the
matter.
Identical that common authorship
might be suspected. The fate is odd
which apportions blessing and cursing
inversely to both.
The act Of 1873 has been denounced
and praised for demonetizing silver, which
" did not do. II retired no silver coin
from circulation. ltcaused no coin TO be
sold as bullion. i, withdrew the full
legal-tender quality from no silver coined.
" dill limit mouetizaton to treasury pur.
chases for fractional coin.
The act Of 1878 has been praised and
denounced for rtmouetizlug silver. which
1t did not do. II did limit monetization
10 treasury purchases for non-fracuonal
coin.
The act of 1875 took sure way TO keep
all our fractional oliver coin at home.
The act Of 1878 to sure way to
keep all our nou-iractional silver coin at
home,
The two acts are also alike IN missing
the point Of the monetary difficulty and
escaping detection OF their own true char
acter. The act OF 1878 Is only singular
In both mistakug the true object and
also missing what 1t aimed at.
The method Of the two acts Is identical
Expectation would only be possih at a
loss on the silver coined under eithe7 act.
In both acts monetlzation is denied ex-
| cept to treasury purchases.
The door OF the mint Is shut TO the
public by both acts.
Both acts are innocent Of share in
causing the monetary dislocaticn, al
though the act Of 1878 helps TO prolong
It.,
In 1873 we had not escaped the paper
money plague, ana our resumption Of the
use of the two metals and current re-.
demption OF paper did not begin TIL the
monetary dislocation was far advanced.
BY the act Of 1913 the monetary dlsloca.
ton could be neither caused nor cured.
It's limited moDetizltiOn since 1873 has
absorbed more silver than total amount
demonetlzed by Germany since 1873.
II docs not counteract tue monetary dis
location. The monetary stock Of the four
leading powers, who all in 1878 bad
neither too much nor less than enough, is
now greater than then by tho aid OF the
United States-thus coufuting the money
famine theories. sun u does not re.
dress the monetary dislocatlou.
The action of the United Statesin 1884,
changing the ratio from 10 to lG, had
forrstalled TIE act OF 1873 To open our
mints for the coinage OF silver at 10 to ]
Of gold, while France was coming silver
at l51 10 | Of gold, was, 80 10 say, equiv
alenl to closing our minis to the coinage
Of silver a. all Two ratios cannotiliye
together face to face, as Sir Isaac New
ton, master Of the mint, explained neatly
two centuries ago. In the money world
from that year the U0ted Ststes became
q gold monOmetallic power, and such
they have ever since remained, both when
they did intend TO and when they did not
Albert Gallatin was, perhaps, thg only
man In the United States AT that time
competent 90 give advice upon a ratio or
coinage difficulty, and congress rejected
his advice. But the error OF tho United
States was the outcome Of ignorance, not,
like Great Britaia's error, the outcome OF
an Illusion also; and In 1884 was the date,
not at which cls-Atlantic decentralization
of silver began, but the date ~ which It's
monetizltion WAS nullined by an III
Judged ratio. The arguments that any
thing newly injurious TO silver was done
by the act Of 1873, are arguments offered
only by those VINO are not familiar With
their subject. The act of 1873 is public
confession that by the closure Of the
French mint 10 the free coinage Of silver,
our act Of 1878, not then necessity, was
become necessity Ia that particular, and
80 was never repealed, but merely en-
larged and confirmed. IL WAS enlarged !
by adding 70 disuretional treasury pur
chases Of silver for the mlntage OF irac-
tional coin, compulsory treasury pur.
TaGls f... 10. 4.t..f. a.