Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-09-03
THE SILVER QUESTION.
Judge Vests Mastery Argument
Against Free Coinage.

Against Free Coinage.
/ Free Coinage the Worst Form of Glass
Legislation-How Restricted Coinage
Differs From it-A Mystery.
Cleveland Leader.
The quantity of fine silver in a stand
ard dollar is 371.25 grains. Assuming
this to be worth one hundred cents,
which it must be when at par with gold.
the par value of one ounce of fine silver
is S1.29. But the director of the mint
furnishes the statement that the market
value of an ounce of fine silver was in
4 1871, s1.325; in 1872, S1.322; in 1873,
S1.298. Thus at the time the coinage of
the standard dollar was suspended the
silver bullion it contained was worth
an average in the market of S1.03 or 3
per cent. more than its value as money.
The result was that so soon as coined
into standard dollars it was more profit
able for the jeweler and silversmith to
purchase it in exchange for a like num-
Der of gold dollars than it was to pur-
chase silver bullion at its market value.
The consequence was that the coined
dollars were so bought up and reconvert-
ed into bullion or melted down in the
arts almost as rapidly as they were
coined. So that when their coinage was
suspended in 1873 not one thousand
standard silver dollars were in existence.
The fact is affirmed by the majority of
the committee on coinage in their report
to the House of Representatives favoring
free coinage in February, 1891. If, there
fore, it be true, as asserted in said
minority report, that the act of suspen-
sion discredited and deprecated the
value of silver, the actual loss to the
then holders of silver dollars could not
have exceeded one or two hundred dol
lars, assuming the depreciation to have
been immediate But the bullion value
of the silver in the dollar was then
greater than its money value, so that
the suspension neither could nor did
entail any loss.
FREE COINAGE.
Previous to 1873 the coinage of the
standard dollar was free. Yet none was
offered to the mints for coinage, and
none coined except at an expense of
nearly 8 per cent. premium, paid for
silver by the government, in its vain
effort to keep the silver dollar afloat.
The tax on the Treasury and the loss to
the people was too great to Justify the
continuance of an effort which was
without other result than the disappear
ance of the coin as rapidly as issued.
For this reason its coinage was dropped.
When the great silver deposits were
discovered and the market value of
bullion deprecated, so that the quantity
of fine silver in the dollar fell below 100
cents in market value, the producers of
silver bullion became interested in free
coinage, not on their own account, of
course, but for the welfare of the farmer
and other classes of the dear people.
In the open market they could procure
only 80 cents for the quantity of silver
in a standard dollar. 1t would greatly
enhance his profit if they could be per-
mitted to take their bullion to the mint
and for 80 cents worth received in re-
turn coined dollar clothed with legal
tender power to pay 100 cents of debt
Hence their tears.
THE FARMER.
But how can this benefit the farmer
or other person not engaged in mining
or dealing in silver bullion? Under free
coinage every ounce brought to the mint
must be returned to its previous owner,
coined into standard legal tender dollars.
1t is not handed out to the farmer by
the government; nor does or can the
government put it in circulation. 1t is
the money of, and belongs to, the miner
or silver dealer, to be by him boarded or
put in circulation in his discretion. The
farmer can not obtain one dollar of it |
any more than he can obtain gold
dollar, unless he give in exchange there
for other property worth hundred cents
in value; or borrow it at the current |
rate of interest, giving his note and
mortgage or other security for repay
ment.
CLASS LEGISLATION.
Free coinage of silver is nothing more,
nothing less, than class legislation for
the benefit of particular industry.
Silver mining is an industry, the product
of which is silver bullion, the same as
farming is an industry, the product of
which is wheat, corn, beef, etc. Does
any reason exist why the government
shall convert all the products of the
silver miner into coined dollars, clothed
with the power of paying twenty per
cent. or twenty five per cent. more debts
than its market value, that does not
exist for the converting by the govern
ment of all the products of the farmer,
into coined dollars or their equivalent,
each having the power to pay like ex-
cess of his Indebtedness? In the one
case the government enables the silver
producer to realize for the products of
his industry from twenty to twenty-fiv
per cent more than their market value
If the government may rightly do this,
can any reason be urged why it should
not enable the farmer to realize for the
products of his industry from twenty to