St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-25
FREE COINAGE.
Moreton Frewen Writes on the
Absorbing Topic.


Absorbing Topic.
To the Editor of the Globe.
Free silver coinage is such burning
question in this country that visitor
may we'll be daunted at the reception
the press is likely to accord to the un-
ppular view.
But the tone and temper. at least OF
the Eastern press, in discussing the
Bland bill is SO identical with its treat
ment of the other Bland bill in 1878
that venture to ask is it not possible
that their leader writers are mistaken
NOW as they were at that time? In 1878
legal tender silver, ''a dishonest dol
lar" pOt-lid dollar" was to 'sdrive out
gold" Congress was trying to ''make
water run up HILL" and what has
ensued? This country has since alb
sorbed Is per cent of the gold currency
of the world, and has during the four
teen years which have elapsed ex-
banded her currency by twice as much
gold and silver. sa,e
Ii you go to free coinage; if, to put it
shortly. syour government offers an
ounce of gold for sixteen ounces of sill
yer, why should not the price of silver
all the world over conform to that ratio?
That is to say. the price of silver rise to
and remain at 100 cents per standard
ounce. Who in Europe is going to sell
silver for less. if by sending it to Amer
lea he can sell il for that price? Nay,
more; will any European holder of sill
yer sell his coined silver land bullion
silver we have practically none) for 1879
cents per ounce when those coins are
worth 1872 cents today to pay all debts
and taxes? Remember that the En-
rOpean coinage ratio is as l to 151s.
Now, suppose that France tomorrow
were to open her minis to free coinage
at to II, would your citizens here melt
up their silver dollars and exchange
them for French gold at loss of per
cent? Nor would your government do this
empty her vaults of silver. to be eX-
changed for gold at the French minis,
because congress would not allow it,
and similarly the political forces behind
silver i'll Europe are such that no law to
sell coined or American gold could pos
sibly pass those legislatures today.
And if no silver will reach you from
Europe, certainly none will reach you
from Asia. In Asia you can only buy
silver with silver. Asia's silver cannot
be collected for export. even by high
bank rate, because, with the exception
of half dozen seahoard towns, banks
Asia always imports silver and never ex-
ports the metal. The great ''sink of
silver" is the Orient.
The gold press of this country is try
ing to prove too much. ''Silver kings
wish to secure Imitation" when it will
require 1.-TWO silver dollars to buy what
today can be bought for one gold dol
lar" In short. silver kings want to in
crease the value of their silver mines by
reducing the value. the purchasing
power. of the product of those mines.
1t seems to me that the free coinage
Of every sixteen ounces of silver Will
enable this country to draw an ounce of
gold from London; the coined silver
will purchase an American railway
bond, which bond can be Immediately
sold in London by cable, and sold for
gold. which the Bank of England has to
pay.
What was it that maintained the ratio
of gold and silver at l to 15115 for the
first seventy years of this century?
What but the free coinage system of
France! In the early years of the cen
fury three times as much silver as
gold was being produced. In 1876
the production of the two met
ais was equal; between 1850 and
1860 tue production of gold was three
and half times that of silver, and yet,
notwithstanding these phenomenal
fluctuations, everywhere the price of
silver conformed to the French law of
to 1873; during all those years the
price of silver was steady at 131 cents
per standard ounce. This steadiness of
value was the result of free coinage in
6 France. Today free coinage in the
! United States, a country vastly more
..imnOrtant and with an almost infinite
export capacity, will be followed by the
same steadineSs.
1t is almost incredible that thus late
I'm the day the real interest in this coun-
try has in the silver question; its
farmers interest is being denied
or ignored by large section
of the Eastern press. The writer
spent two winters in India, closely
studying the cost of producing wheat i'm
that country. In India the coinage of
silver is free and it is country of 270,-
coo, 900 of people. and no banks. The
value of silver tits purchasing power is
quite unaffected by its depreciation in
Europe; indeed, the rupee is worth
rather more today than it was fourteen
years since to buy land, labor or any
local commodities. Now the Indian can
afford. one year with another, to sell his
wheat In London for 5000 grains of sill
yer, say % rupees, per quarter of 4SO
pounds; and this being the case, your
farmers must sell their export wheat in
London for the gold equivalent of %
rupees: in other words, for S11, il the
price of silver is what it would be under
free coinage. but for So il the price of
silver is what it has fallen to by
reason of the dishonest monetary
Legislation of the past eighteen wears.