Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-04-14
The Silver Question.

The Silver Question.
The Farm mud Fireside OF March
Ist, in commenting on the silver leg
islation, now pending before the Uni
ted States congress-, says: THE bill
(Bland's) is accompanied by able ma
iority and minority reports from the
committee on coinage, weights and
measures = = The minority report
says:
Substantially all obligations now
existing IN this country are expressly
payable in gold, or have been incur
red since this nation resumed specie
payments. and has continued on a
gold basis. The gold dollar is. there
fore, not only the best, but the only
honest dollar in which obligations can
now be discharged. But, under plaus-
ible theory or confident prophecy, the
citizens of this country may be mis-
led into Reputation, which they would
not consciously approve. 70 make
this bill understood as a measure OF
Reputation is to secure its defeat
The bill provides that the mints of
this country shall receive all the sill
YER which may be sent from any quar-
ter for coinage into dollars, sixteen of
which shall be convertible into one
gold dollar. 1t is perfectly clear that
at the very moment the treasury of
the United States shall refuse to pay
gold coin upon demand, no one else
will receive sixteen silver dollars in
lieu of one gold dollar, because the
single customer of the world for sill
yer at that price has refused to Pur-
chase. Surely there can be no doubt
that the effort to raise the market
price of silver from ninety cents an
ounce to 81 294 is dependent entirely
upon the combined willingness and
ability of the United States govern
ment to stand alone as a buyer of sill
yer at all times and in any quantity,
at the price fixed by this law in gold.
The minority of this committee
submit that the only possible result
of the Legislation proposed on this bill
is the prompt suspension of gold pay
ments by this government and the
immediate adoption of the cheaper
monetary standard of silver"
The language sixteen of which
shall be convertible into one gold
dollar" is good. 1t Is certainly an
evidence(?) of the cable" in the mi
norlty report The Farm and Fire
side and every other paper, speaker
or committee, who uses the above Ian
guage knows that there never was
greater sophistry attempted to be
palmed of on a civilized people.
They seem to forget that the Ameri-
can people have become a nation of
students and that when they come be-
fore the reading public with the state
ment that the Bland bill proposes to
''coin dollars, sixteen of which shall
be convertible into one gold dollar"
they will be unable to substantiate the
statement. The facts are that the
weight of the gold dollar (25.8 grains)
and that of the silver dollar, (4l2 5
graIns) both of the same fineness 900
are in the ratio of about to 16, and
that Is all there is to the matter. The
Bland bill does not presume to say
that silver has the same commercial
value as gold. the difference in the
weight of the two dollars shows that,
aud 1t certainly Is not SO framed that
it could by any sane man be constru-
ed to mean what this very ''asle" MI
norIty hoped to palm off on the pub
lie and thus create a sentiment against
free coinage.
The Encyclopedia Britannica gives a
table showing the ratio of gold to sill
yer during a period extending from
1893 to 1879, 1887 years.. In this ia
BILE il is shown that the ratio varies
from II2 to 1889. We find that dur
ing the period while the ratio was the
lowest, /. G.. when the value of the two
! metals was nearest together, the pro-
duct of gold was 592 millions of francs
and the product of silver was 4Sl mil
lion of francs, IN other words the pro-
duction of silver was about 81 pei
cent. of that of gold. The ratio dur
ing this "a years was as to liz
We take another period of ten years
when the product of the two metals
came within I52 millions of francs oil
being equal, the product of silver be-
ing over go per cent, of gold. and We
find the ratio of gold TO silver to be
as to 1873. We find that during al
this period of 387 years the ratio has
averaged as 1 to 1892. not very fal
you will observe, from the ratio as in
dicatAd by the relative weight of the
two coins. The Britannica" says tina
in 1884 the ratio of gold TO silver wai
fixed 1 to Is. This valuation under
rated gold, consequently silver be-
came the standard" Showing that
the legal tender qualities of money
are the creatures of law. Again, III
1884 the ratio was altered to to 16
and It was again changed IN 1887. Ii
these changes gold was over--rated
and silver was driven out of circula
tion's 1.-The ratio between the two met
aIs for the period from 1881 to 184(
was / to 150. These instances seem
to establish the fact that the relative
value of the two metals IS very Gloss
around the poiut now indicated b.