The morning call., 1890-06-11
THE CAUCUS SILVER BILL.

The public mind is confused by the con-
Trajectory arguments on the Silver Bill
The House caucus bill authorizes the pur-
chase of S4, 500, 600 per month of silver by
the Treasury Department payment for the
same being made in new legal tenders. The
underlying idea of the trainers of the bill
was that this measure would please, first,
the silver men, whose product would be en-
HANGED in value by demand for some ten
millions more silver per year than the
country produces; and secondly, the green
hackers, who would see prospect of an ad-
ditional issue of new legal tenders. BY
further providing that, whenever silver rose
to its old parity with gold, there should be
no limit to the coinage of silver, but that
silver miners should be enabled to take
their bullion to bank and get silver coin
for it, dollar for dollar, it was hoped by the
caucus that all interests would be satisfied.
This calculation appears to have been
erroneous. The SILVER men" proper are
opposed to the caucus bill, for it seems that
Jones Of Nevada predicts its defeat in the
Senate. What Jones wants is that silver
should be placed on the same footing as
gold, and that 412l2 grains of silver coined
into piece of money, should be legal dol
lar without regard 10 the current gold value
of silver. He objects to placing silver on
the footing of a commodity whose value is
measured by the standard of gold. He holds
that when the stamp of the United States
is placed on a silver coin, it becomes itself
standard, and is worth what its face indi-
Gates, without reference to the bullion
quotation Of silver in the markets of the
world. He has evidently little or no faith
in the theory that continuous purchases of
silver to the extent Of four and a half mill
ions a month will raise the gold value OF
silver until the ratio of the two metals is as
16 to l.
At this stage of the question it is well to
keep in view not only the arguments on one
side of the question, but also those on the
other; for, after all, if we are to get any
relief from Congress we must command =
majority of votes in both houses. The pO-
sition of Sherman of Ohio, and those who
| are with him-among whom the President
has been classed by newspapers-is that the
measure which Senator Jones wants would
| demonetize gold and convert it into a COM
modify. They hold that free silver coinage
would be practically monometallic silver
coinage-such as France had in the time of
Louis Phillppe-and that while the i'm
porter would have to pay for his importa-
tons in one currency the merchant would
sell in another, and that the difference be-
tween the two would have to be paid by
the American consumer for the benefit of
the silver miner In France. forty-fiye
years ago, the premium on gold was added
to the price Of all foreign products which
were consumed by the French.
1t is evident that silver producers do not
believe in the permanency of the arrange
ment proposed by the caucus BILL for if they
did they could not rejoice at the creation Of
peremptory market for their wares to an
amount beyond their capacity TO supply.
They cannot produce much over SIS 900, 900
of silver per year; the caucus bill requires
the Government to buy S54, 100000, without
regard TO the price. The miners, it would
seem, should not ask for anything better
than that. Their opposition, however
springs from a conviction that such bill
as the caucus agreed upon would not
speedily raise silver to its former relations
with the value of gold.
a national currency is delicate thing to
tamper with, for mistakes may be fraught
with consequences which their authors did
not foresee. In legislating on topics which
affect such vast variety of interests it is
well to move cautiously.