The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-06-12
JUDGE HUGHES ON SILVER.

A few days back the Dispatch Published q
letter from Judge Robert W. Hughess.ro
| advocating the free and unlimited coinage OF
| the 4l2% grain legal tender silver dollar.
| Tho letter makes an opportune occasion Tor
some general remarks, not only in reply to
| Judge Hughes. and on the whole subject.
Judge Hughes main contention is that tho
demonstration BY the United States OF silver
| in 1873 has caused money TO become more
valuable and the prices OF commodities meas-
ured in money to have therefore become loss.
| In proof of this be cites the prices of corn.
wheat. oats and cotton for each year since
1878, from which it appears that each one OF
| these commodities has steadily declined In
value per bushel or pound since 1873. Now.
if commodity like one of these goes down
in its money price that decline must be due
70 one OF three causes. 1t must be;
lst. That the world uses and consumes less
of it, or
I'd. That the money withlwhich It is pur-
chased has become less abundant. or
Cd. That the quantity produced has become
larger.
We INTERESTINGLY affirm that decline in
the money value Of q commodity must pro-
coed from one or more of these three causes
and no doubt Judge Huges would readily
admit this to be true
All hands would admit that tho first
cause is not worth discussing. 80 that the
question is confined 10 the other two. and
Judge Hughes claims that the decline which
has taken place in the four articles mentioned
proceeds from the second cause and that this
was produced by the demonstration Of
silver.
IL cannot be denied that IT, in 1873, our cur
rency had consisted exclusively Of gold and
silver coin. amounting in all to one thousand
millions Of dollars Of gold coin, and one thou
sand millions Of dollars Of silver.coin and the
act Of 1873 had destroyed the money power of
the one thousand millions of dollars Of silver
coins, prices If corn, wheat oats and cotton
would have fallen very greatly if no substitute
for the silver currency had been produced.
This is freely conceded to Judge Hughes.
But it is fact which Judge Hughes and
everybody else knows 10 be n fact. that all
the silver coined by the United States Gov
eminent from its beginning down to 1873
amounted 10 only IS 900. 900. The ratio es-
between silver and gold up to that
time had been as l6 10 ]. and this undervalued
silver. Consequently men found it more 10
their advantage 10 sell silver 10 France as
bullion than 70 coin IT, These are very familiar
facts of which any one can fully inform him !
self.
At the time Of the passage Of the Demon
stization act of 1873 there were in the United |
States only l,149, 800 silver dollars. including |
bullion and all that was in the Treasury of |
the Government.
And as matter of fact no silver except
oxen currency for change had been used az
in the United States for many years,
not only before 1873 but before 1851, and we
cannot understand how demonetizng silver
n 1873 could have, in any way whatever, az
ected the quantity of money used in com
nercial transactions.
That view being disposed Of, we are pre-
Jared to insist that the decline in the prices
Il the articles named has come from increased
production Of those articles. Space will not
,ermit US to treat each one in detail, so we
onfne ourselves 10 cotton.
Judge Huges to sustain his proposition that
otton has declined as silver declined, gives
he following table:
)Dcial table Of the price or stire7 IN London and
n fls p~lT + gCffg Ia